and our 7 year old loves to help with anything…especially when tools are involved!

anyway, we’ve been spending quite a bit of time on projects in the playroom and kids tv room.

here is the kids tv room….

this little room is at the far end of our playroom. there is so much future potential for this space….and eventually as they grow older we will get around to making it a really fun place for older kids to hang out. i envision a wii (or whatever is popular at that point), maybe a few big arcade games….and maybe a treadmill for my husband and me.

but for now we’re fine with the little amount of time our children spend in here. we would much rather have them be active then sedentary….and who am i kidding, they ARE active. no controlling that!

and, we do live in an area of the country that has 5-6 months of very cold weather. the kids need a fun place to hang out indoors. so this room has its advantages, for sure!

moving on….the tv used to sit against this wall straight ahead…

one of the projects on my list when my dad visited a few weeks ago was to move the tv to a different wall. once we moved the tv (to where you see it now) everything else fit much better;  the recliner, couch, weights.

here is the view going out of the tv room and toward the kids playroom…

while there, we also purchased cable line nails. to keep the kids interest in the cable line to a minimum, nailing the line down was a smart option…

they are super easy to nail in! and it made the room look cleaner. loose cords are one of my top 10 pet peeves. 😉 our 7 year old was a great help with handing us the nails.

moving on….the attic! our attic door is located inside the kids tv room…

this space is very useful! we store a variety of items in here that we wouldn’t want stored under the house….

as is with the rest of the playroom, this space has a very odd shape to it!…see the roof angle on one side…

what do we store in here? things like luggage, big toys we want stored away but can’t fit in the playroom closets (train sets, bounce house), extra beds for guests, bins of sentimental baby clothing i can’t part with, fragile holiday decorations, camping gear, old VHS movie tapes (ahem – that is screaming eBay!), etc.

it was getting a bit unorganized in here, top be honest. sad when i crawled in and tried to find the playroom Christmas tree….hummmmm, where is it??? maybe it’s waaaaaaay back there behind the cat tree we’ve been storing…and is taking up the entire walkway!

even our 1 year old was hesitant to explore….

i spent about 15 minutes moving everything further down the walkway. we were not utilizing any of the space at the far end of the attic because there were some pretty heavy boxes blocking that space. a few of those boxes were from when we moved in 4 years ago. i know what is inside because the boxes are labeled, but i don’t have the courage to bring the items out of those boxes. why? because i have small, active, touchy children and the contents of those boxes are from both sets of grandparents…very fragile items!

after moving the boxes down and around the corner….wow, i can see a clear walkway…

found quite a few boxes that could be removed along with some items for donating/recycling. and now it’s much easier to step inside!…

fun what happens with you sort through stored away items. i found these 2 bean bags chairs….

we bought these from Pottery Barn Kids a couple years ago, but the boys were not only treating them badly, but also using them in a way that caused harm to each other. i know, how can bean bags harm children? trust me, boys will be boys and figure out a way. haha!

so, we pulled out the bean bags, laid out the ground rules, and so far so good. maybe the boys needed a couple more years of maturity in order to have these. whatever the case, they love having them now!

this was a fun box to find…a whole box of wall frames, table frames, flags, and our college diplomas.

wow! again, amazing what you find when you open your stored items!

once the attic was finally re-organized and i was able to reach the far end….what did we find?

our Christmas tree for the playroom!…

it’s been rainy and cold here which made yesterday a great day to set up the tree. while we were at it, our 7 year old helped me add lights to the playhouses!

doesn’t it look festive in here?…

i realize this wasn’t the most exciting of projects. it wasn’t at the top of my list in terms of fun things to do either! but i find that if i accomplish even 1 item on my list that is not fun or interesting, i feel better when it’s over and done with. i’d like to challenge you to look at your to-do list and pick your least favorite item. i promise you, once you’ve done that chore you will feel better!

and most importantly, we did accomplish quite a bit…

• found the playroom Christmas tree
• found several boxes for recycling
• found several items for donating
• re-organized the attic
• created a walkway to get in and out with ease
• ….and the kids had fun helping!