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Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Our Remote School Room

Happy (?) back to school 😖! This isn't where I had hoped we would be this many months into the pandemic, but alas, here we are. We opted for remote school for our boys for a whole slew of reasons, and are doing our best to make some magical lemonade out of the really shitty lemons we've been given. To be honest, this whole situation brings up a lot of emotions, and at materials pick-up for Oskar yesterday I really fought back tears seeing his in-classroom peers all in masks, holding their hands out in front of them while walking as to maintain social distancing, standing next to a taped off playground that is closed for the indefinite future. It felt so apocalyptic and surreal, and while I know that kids are SO resilient (and likely JUST fine), I couldn't help feeling overwhelmed with sadness. So anyways. I've been feeling the feels and then letting them go, and really trying to focus on the positive, especially for the boys. Oskar is my empath and picks up on and internalizes other people's feelings super easily, so I'm doing my best to be cognizant of that as we go into the school year together. One of the things we've done is put together a fun remote school room for both brothers to learn in, with a teacher that will be with them daily going over their school district curriculum and supplementing with her own. So Kindergarten and Pre-K, HERE. WE. GO.

We turned our dining room into a learning space, with a nice oversized table that gives them lots of room to spread out with Oskar's computer, their papers, arts, crafts, and projects. I decorated with neutral-ish decor in that hopes that one day soon, this can transform back into what it originally served as, and the boys are able to return to a traditional classroom setting.



The supply cart is super handy because the boys can pull out whatever drawer they need, bring it to the table, and return it when they're done. I loved the look of the open carts, but knew that ours would end up a mess and never stay organized. This one keeps everything tucked neatly inside where I can't see it. And everything has a home. 

 


I added the grid board to hang important papers or what they're working on, and will probably also add a wire line to hang art projects for display or to dry. 

The calendar was a fun DIY. August and I shopped for materials (his jam), and Oskar and I painted. Lowes or Home Depot carry sheets of acrylic on the cheap, and you can use either whiteboard markers or chalkboard markers to add your days and months. 



Finally, I got them new book bags and ironed on their first initials for a personalized touch and stuffed them to the brim with school supplies--things they'll need anyway, but still new and exciting to them. They also got new shoes and new water bottles--kind of like getting underwear on Christmas, but they loved it anyway.

Wishing EVERYONE a happy, safe, and healthy school year, no matter how that looks for you. We got this.

 

Sources:

Shelves

Letter Board

Glass Bottle

Marigolds & Vase

Home Sweet Homeschool sign and Frame

Grid Board

Feels Good to be Home sign

Pre-K, Kindergarten, and First Day of School flags

Be Kind and Brave Banner

Star Garland

Pom Garland

Bookbags (iron on letters from Michaels for ~$1)

..anything else, just ask!

 

Thursday, August 6, 2020

Our Coronavirus Bathroom DIY

Hi everyone! Here with a fun post today. I super impulsively suggested (and then made Matt dive into) a bathroom renovation DIY over the last month. What I thought would be SUPER simple, well...wasn't exactly that in the end, but we still made a pretty drastic improvement with not a huge investment. We were forced to keep the vanity because when we first moved into our house, we replaced all of the crazy, mismatched flooring with hardwoods throughout, but didn't remove the bathroom vanity to place flooring underneath it. If we were to have removed the vanity now, that would have meant having to lay hardwood underneath it this many years later, and it just so happened that the flooring that we had selected 5 years ago has since been discontinued. SO. The original vanity had to stay. What I didn't know before I signed us up for this project was that the vanity was a totally custom size, which meant we couldn't simply order a new vanity top online. The biggest chunk of money went into the granite that we picked from a scrap pile left over from someone else's kitchen reno, which we then had sized and edged to fit our bathroom. Otherwise, it was fairly smooth sailing. We did everything else ourselves (really, it was mostly Matt), and even the wallpaper wasn't that big of a deal when all was said and done, though that's the part that we were dreading most. The toilet leaked a few times and the sink gave us a week worth of trouble that required Matt's dad to come in for reinforcement, but I'm happy to report that it's all in working order now. So here it is, the final product!

First, some before pictures. This space went pretty much untouched from the time we moved in. We used to call this the men's locker room because it reminded us of exactly that.



And here, the beautiful afters! Sources are all below if you have questions on where anything is from.







Sources:

Hardware: cabinet pulls and hinges

Have you taken on any coronavirus projects while cooped inside? Would love to hear about anything you've DIY'ed in the last few months! No more reno for us until we're ready to tackle the very last project in our house: the guest bathroom upstairs. We'll save that beast for another year.
 
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