The Great Room Exchange.....

This is the title I've given to my latest home project. It started out when I looked at my yarn stash and realized that I had no more space to add to my collection (it can't very well be called anything else, but a collection at this point, there is far too much to actually knit it all in any reasonable time frame.) I was also quite concerned about all of that yarn in my basement.... living in the dark closet all alone with no room to breathe and only the occasional visit from me when I either added to it, or chose something from it..... And so, an idea was born. I decided to try convince Eli to move downstairs so that my yarn could have his bedroom upstairs. My convincing argument was masterful. I sold him on the idea that we would make the basement a "Boy Zone". All of the video games would be down there and eventually we would buy either an air hockey table or some other game table to put down there. He would also have his very own bathroom and lots of privacy from his sister. He wasn't sure about the idea at first (he's rather attached to me at the moment and I think the idea of him being so far away at night was a bit scary), but slowly came around to the idea....

Here is a picture of my poor, lonely, crammed stash:





Once Eli was convinced, step 1 of the GREAT ROOM EXCHANGE could begin..... Eli told me what he wanted his room to look like (I braced for a disagreement regarding a Pokemon themed room... I think he's getting too old for themes and I didn't want to re-paint in a year or so) and was pleasantly surprised when he told me his design... wavy, horizontal stripes with dark blue on the bottom, turquoise blue in the middle and light blue on the top. I then started dismantling the room (it was my office/throw-all-the-crap-lying-around-the-house room) to prepare.... This took forever as I didn't realize I had so much crap in there and I hadn't really thought about where it was going...... I was going to post a picture, but I don't have one.... I've never taken a picture of that room....... that should tell you something... I then began to paint. The room was painted a dark brown and Eli wanted medium to light blues. This required three coats of primer and three coats each of the darker colours and 2 coats of the lightest colour to completely cover the brown. It took me 4 whole days to finish! But it turned out beautifully and he really likes his new room.




Step 2 consisted of painting his old room and turning it into my yarn's boudoir....Officially this room is the Guest Room, but let's be honest... it only has guests a couple times a year, so it really IS my yarn's boudoir.... This room took took 4 coats of primer and 2 top coats (just look at the picture below and you'll see why), but WOW... I did gooooood and my yarn is much happier.....There is yarn in the closet, yarn in the plastic organizers and roving/top in the cedar chest and the acrylic/novelty yarn is under the bed... in vacuum bags.... The best part?? There is LOTS of room for more.....

Before:



And now (and I'll say that it's about one million times prettier in real life...)




I'd still like a headboard and maybe a screen for the plastic bins and notice the glass bowl full of my favorite special yarns in tones of blue:

Step 3 and 4 consist of turning our fifth bedroom into Chey's "den" and the basement in the aforementioned "Boy Zone" Pictures of those as they are finished... no more painting though... I.can't.do.it.

PS.... please be advised that I didn't really convince Eli to move downstairs so that I could move my yarn upstairs... this was actually a wonderful side benefit to the "Great Room Exchange"... but I like the above version better... I felt I should explain... just in case someone thought I'd actually force my son to live in the basement so that my yarn could live upstairs.....

PPS.... I'm currently taking bets as to how long Eli will last in the basement... He is only 7 (turning 8 in a little over a month) and scared of the dark.... so I am fully prepared to move him back upstairs if need be...... but I won't be repainting if that happens......