Office Progress

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Wow! It has been awhile since I have posted any updates! My deepest apologies. Teaching is a marvelous profession but it is also time consuming, strenuous, and hectic. But holy crap I love my job! I feel like I have found the profession to which my heart belongs and I have extremely grateful for it.

 However I am still in the process of figuring out the balance between the demands of a personal life, and the demands of a burgeoning career. Unfortunately that means blogging and DIY has fallen down the list with sleep and work rising above the rest. Have I mentioned though that I love my job?

Anyways!

Since a couple of months ago I haven't had any roommates except for my sister, which I don't really know counts. So I've been working on turning the third bedroom into an office/guest room space. 

Here's what we've got so far:

I freshened up the stripes and repainted quite a few of them. With my Dad's assistance we were able to replace some of the damaged trim and drywall pieces, years of roommates  had caused a few to be sacrificed along the way.

Eventually I am hoping my desk will go along this side wall. I'm still stuck between moving the one from my room in there or building one.

Yeah. I know. Remarkably unimpressive. Here's another one of those doors that I want to finish off and make prettier before the holiday season. I want to paint the inside of the door white to match all the trim and make it lovely. This is one of the only doors that the previous owners did not cover with shelf-lining contact paper. So it will probably be the only one easy enough to paint.

I'm also going to upgrade all the door handles when I get to doing the doors. These rooms came with keyed entry handles. But no keys. It's been a real problem before. Plus some of them are busted, again from hard use with roommates. 

The Guest Room/Office To-Do List:

• paint the door
• replace the handle
• finish painting the trim
• get a bed frame 
• buy more pillows 
• move/build desk for computer and grading
• organize random crap
• hang some desperately needed wall art. 

Summer Series: De-Trashing the Trailerhood

****If you are seeing this content on http://manufacturedhomefacts.com/ please be advised it is there without permission! thismessybusiness.com is the OFFICIAL and only site I publish on!***

One of the hardest parts about owning the home I do is the fact that it is a trailer. I try to make it pretty by calling it a manufactured home but the truth is... it is still a trailer and I live in a trailer park community for all intents and purposes (though technically it actually is a neighborhood because you have to purchase land where I'm at.) I hate that. I feel as though people judge me before they pull up to my house.

They imagine this:

{source}

Well I can't change the fact that it's a trailer, and the way the market is right now, we're not moving. So we are going to de-trash the trailerhood for the rest of this summer!

The goal of this series is to change people's minds about trailers and change my attitude about it as well.

I've outlined five major steps to help out this process:

1. Manage It.

2. Clean it Up.

3. Wear it Well.

4. Give Me Attitude.

5. Keep it Up.

The goal? Have the nicest trailer in the hood, and maybe encourage my neighbors to do the same!

If you would help me out, please comment with a notion or thought that you have about trailers and people that live in them. It will help me a lot! (And don't worry I'm a high school teacher, tough skin yo.)

Dining Room Bones

The dining room was one of the other locations that I've been wanting to update. This would actually be one of the easiest rooms to get started. It's really just updating furniture. Here's what the joint looks like right about now:

The traditional style solid cherry table is beautiful, there is no doubt. But it is pretty big for my dining room. Also the upholstered seats just attract cat hair like crazy so no one will really even sit in the seats at this point. Basically the table is useless for anyone but the kittans.

I'm thinking that selling the table is the best way to start making some extra cash for buying my new furniture. The table does have some slight scratches on the top from a roommates puppy 5 years ago. But someone with patience could buff them out pretty easily. So we'll see.

Here's the mood board for my dining room:

Dining Room Love by megmcd on Polyvore

I want it to connect back with my living room since it's just one big gigantic space really. So I'm sticking with the white table. Which would be this one from IKEA for $279.00 {here} and the four vintage chairs I like are from Overstock for $199.99 {see em here}

And I love the idea of having two bookcases on either side of the window. Right now I have my chevron buffet under the window which works pretty well, especially if there's a smaller table involved. I like these from IKEA. They are affordable and go with the one that I already have in the living room. Plus they are versatile, if I get bored with them there I can move them somewhere else. They're $59.99 a piece.

Total I need to raise for dining room extravaganza:

Dining Table IKEA: 279.00
Set of 4 Chairs: 199.99
Two IKEA shelves: 119.98

Total: 600.00 bones.

Maybe I should have a bake sale? lol. The first thing I would probably buy is the chairs since they are on Overstock and their stuff moves out so quickly. I guess it's time to start selling that dining table. Craigslist here I come.  

Dining Room Love by megmcd on Polyvore