A room with a new view

Those of you who have read this blog in the past know that Mr. Crackers loves a good project. Most of his endeavours have happened outdoors, primarily in the backyard. In the past few years he has built a playhouse, a patio and a play set (I'm sure he's also built things that don't start with the letter p, but the alliteration thing is working for me today...).

Normally, I (kind of) head up the projects inside the house. Mostly because they tend to be smaller & involve wall paper removal or paint -- things that are well within my limited scope of home improvement expertise and don't have to be completed before the first snowfall ( I tend to have a problem letting my projects languish a bit before completion).

Recently though Mr. Crackers decided the time had come for him to put his creative stamp on something inside the house. He had won a small incentive bonus at work for a job well done (go Mr. Crackers!) and decided he knew exactly what he wanted to do with the unexpected influx of cash. He wanted to re-do C's bedroom.

He's been brainstorming ideas for the room for quite some time (I think I've mentioned before that Mr. Crackers is an idea man). I hadn't really ignored his designs but I figured they were far-off, if we win the lottery, type of ideas. (You know what I'm talking about... ideas like re-doing the kitchen, or buying a new car, or going to vacation in Hawaii... Good ideas without funding are really just dreams, and both of us do love to dream!)

But Mr. Crackers was ready to put his (newly earned) money where his mouth was.

Before I get too far ahead of myself, I thought I'd show you a picture of C's room before the re-do. There were no issues with C's room as it was. His bed & dresser were the same ones used by Mr. Crackers when he was a boy, but they were in pretty good shape. It was a comfortable room, but one that was dominated by a full size bed that took up a lot of the floor space. Despite this, we've had years of fun playing with Lego's, dress-up clothes and Hot Wheels on the floorspace that was available.




(Please note that these pictures are pretty old & that C has not slept with rails on the side of his bed for a couple of years. I should also point out that the photos were taken in December & that we don't normally keep a Christmas tree in his room year round).


In short it was a good room for a growing boy, but Mr. Crackers thought we could do better.

His vision for the room included a loft bed which would give us more floor space for a desk & room to play. So with these ends in mind, we headed to our local Ikea store.

Low & behold, they had just what we were looking for & last weekend we got the whole thing set up. I have to say, it's pretty awesome.

Once I got over my initial fear that C would fall out of bed in the middle of the night & break all of the bones in his body, I have come to love this room. C loves it too. Not only does he have a lot more room to play, but he's got a big boy desk that's entirely his own. He spends hours at that desk drawing his favorite scenes from the Star Wars movies & looking at his favorite books & magazines.

The real unexpected bonus of the room is that I have stopped nagging C to make his bed since I can't see it anymore (frankly, making the bed when it is 5 feet off the floor & fit tightly into a corner is a near impossible task that I can barely do myself. Mr. Crackers has not only given his son a cool room, he's also manage to eliminate a chore for him!).

The shelving units are so cool. I love how much space he has now to display his books, stuffed animals & of course his many, many Legos...

I really can't believe how great the room looks. I'm really impressed that Mr. Crackers was able to visualize this layout & get it all accomplished for so much less than I thought possible. Mr. Crackers & Ikea seem to be a formidable team.

I'm also really happy that C has done so well in his new higher bed. Thankfully my fears of a fall have not been realized. He's been in the new bed for a week's worth of middle of the night bathroom runs & has never even stumbled down the stairs let alone taken a fall. I think I can relax a bit now.

We'll be putting all the finishing touches on the room this weekend. I found some Star Wars vinyl decals which will go up to replace the pictures from the movie Finding Nemo that have decorated his walls since he was an infant.

Well done once again Mr. Crackers! You are a good Daddy. C will be loving this room for a lot of years to come.