A Little More Life Left

I have mentioned this week that I am working hard making a big move in the basement. It is such a disaster that I have not taken pictures of progress because it doesn't seem like too much when I think of all I have left to do.  But thanks to my mom's help yesterday I was able to get the rugs and all of the shelves and tables moved over to their new place.

Now, it is determining lighting and placement of machines, cutting table, and counter top that will serve as a place to organize and work on future projects (like card making and photo books, quilts and other fun handmade gifts). I do have to say that I am a little excited. BUT, I am a lot excited about a little project that has come out of the first big move day.

You can see the particle board on the
front where the fake strip had fallen off.

I have had this little shelving piece since my mom and her siblings were cleaning out my grandpas house. I remember where it sat in their house in the hall way to the bathroom. Every so often a new or different knick knack would be sitting on one of the shelves. It has been in my basement in the last two houses I have lived in and held more practical things like pen cups or paper and other things I used in my crafting. When I did the last rearrange of the furniture in my sewing area I found that my scrapbooks fit like a glove on the shelves and so it has been down there holding on to our family memories. Seems fitting...except for one thing. They never get seen or looked at in my sewing area.

Fast forward to this afternoon. As we were emptying the contents of the shelves so we could move it, I was pretty sure I didn't want the family albums to be moved into a deeper corner of the basement more out of the way than they were before. So, I brought it upstairs, moved around some little pieces of furniture and found a place for it to sit.

It is no priceless antique but instead mostly particle board and 70's spindles but I thought that maybe I could spruce it up a bit. We are in no place of late to purchase brand new furniture and well, it is a memory that could actually be functional. The little strips of fake "wood" had fallen off of a few of the levels but because of the little door on the bottom every time one strip would fall off, I would stash it inside the cabinet part. So, I had every little strip to glue back on once I found a place for it.

Before

After

Excited when I realized it would work!

Then there was the hardware. It also dated the piece and so after remembering some things I have in our "junk" drawer I measured and figured that the pull I had left over from our whirlwind "flip the house" month we had getting our old house ready to sell would work perfectly! It was a little tricky getting the holes drilled on a door that was already mounted but I found some longer screws and think it turned out pretty great considering I haven't bought a single thing for it. All of the strips of fake wood were re-glued on and I turned the little top do hickey another half turn and hid the crack on the wall side.
After I got it all glued I was able to sort through the books and put them in order by year. Zach is having a ball going through these books that he never knew were downstairs! They had a blast looking at the books and trying to figure out where their story started as part of our family. Lots of talk about grandmas and grandpas and great this and great that. If nothing else, the time I have spent on this project has already been worth it!

Ta-da!

 As Zach opened up book after book he was so excited to see how he smiled when he was a baby, showing me his favorite pictures with his siblings and even excited about the heritage albums. Opening one of the albums he said "these are like a key to the past!"

Those who know me know that that is music to this moms ears! It was also a big of a kick in the pants to get the books I have in progress finished and on a shelf too! I really think that me spending the time to purge and organize the things I do downstairs will be the "key to our future!" Meanwhile, it looks like this memory piece has a little more life left in it after all. I giggle as I have typed "piece" throughout this blog talking about this particle board unit as if it was some priceless addition to our living room! We all have our own definition of "priceless".

Now I just have to decide what to stash in the little cabinet at the bottom! I love a good place to stash stuff!