Made It Monday: Workroom

G'morning.

Fresh off lots of chocolate bunnies and decorated eggs, here we are again on Monday. The spring cleaning bug bit hard over the weekend and I think our house was literally turned upside down with all of the reorganizing that went on. But the room that is getting the blogging love today is our new man cave. This room, the utility/workroom, oozes testosterone. For awhile it was also oozing obscenities (on the day that Jesus has risen! Poor form for us, indeed.) but more on that later. A recap of the floor plans, before and after:

Before After

Once construction on the basement ceased we were a little worn out on the home-improvement front. This is Matt's corner of the house and out of respect for that claim I originally said he could build the room out whenever he wanted to, at his own pace., and I would temper my need to see projects completed. Here's where I admit, to Matt's pleasure, that I am definitely the slave driver of the house. The workroom idled as the "piles o' junk" room for about a month.

Meanwhile, the rest of our house started looking like we were staging an estate sale with things all over the place but not in their places. I couldn't take it anymore. The "honey-do" list came back with a vengeance, the workroom was at the top, and the deadline was last night. Matt came through, big time. Here's the proof:

Before - I couldn't step back any further to capture more in the picture

After: Wide open space!

Big, deep shelves to hold all the fun new tools, lots of plastic bins, suitcases, and odds and ends.

The loveliest peg board I've ever seen, again, all thanks to Matt.

And the treasured "catering closet," which alleviated our overstuffed kitchen and finally gave us a chance to put away oodles of wedding gifts.

Back to the obscenities part. From the get-go Matt and I did not see eye-to-eye on this project. He's wanted to build shelves and a workbench from 2x4s and plywood all along. I thought some shelving units from Ikea would work just as well and would probably be installed in half the time. Costs for both options were identical. We went back and forth on this for the better part of last week and ultimately the hour long drive to the Big Blue Box proved to be too much. Home Despot lumber won out.

I'm embarrassed to say that I was a brat at times because I thought this project was unnecessarily complicated, all in the name of manliness. But Matt built an awesome work room, his own way, and most importantly he loves it. And we both learned that the only type of project that causes friction between us is the project that involves construction. Design? My territory. Cooking? His. Travel arrangements? Mine. Gardening? His. Maintaining life's calendar? Mine. Disciplining Hudge and Charlotte? His (I'm awful). 2x4s and screws? Watch out.

So with that I say thank goodness all that is left in the workroom is moving the utility tub and dryer. No studs involved, except for Matt, of course.