Flipping Rooms - AGAIN!

On any given day, one can find shows on television pertaining to house flipping, furniture flipping, and, any other kind of flipping of things in order to make a profit on it. 

Since March 2019 to be exact...I have flipped rooms in my house more times than I care to think about. Most of the time, literally doing them by myself with no help from others. WHY? well, the first flip was because of other people's actions and choices which caused me to take a stance. I moved. People and life sometimes get in the way for others and this was one of those times. I had gone to Houston with my daughter and upon my return home, life for me literally turned upside down. I suppose I could have written a blog called, "My Flipped-Out Life" but I'll save that for another day.

March 2019 was the first flip. Our house was a 3 bedroom, 2 baths, 2 car garage home. It wasn't extremely huge, but it was a nice sized home with approximately 1500 sq. ft. of living space. With crafting and genealogy my two most favorite past times, I took over 2 full bedrooms in our house. This is what they looked like:

step into my craft room, 2019

Organization

Gifts from fellow crafters and a few of my own creations

Another cabinet for organization

The closet was FULL of crafting 'stuff' and Genealogy

my main crafting desk in room #1

the 2nd desk that was set up in an "L" shape

Paper straws anyone. These were on a shelf above the "L" shaped desks

this was in my main crafting room, rubber and acrylic stamps

2nd room - my sewing station (lame)! 

2nd room - Cricut station

the 2nd room 

When I moved from this house - the space I had was very small. I went from all those photos above to a 4 ft. folding table stuck away in a closet with the doors left open. I have a few of my crafting bins and my genealogy things. My view from the closet...

crafting in the closet

In October 2019 - I relocated again. This time, the house is quite small, less than 1000 sq, ft. to be exact!  We have a huge backyard and it's kind of in the country so I'm not complaining. We have a master bedroom, a smaller room and 2 bathrooms. Originally, I set my crafting and genealogy space up in the smaller of the two rooms like this.  Keep in mind, though from March 2019 to October 2019 - I have been downsizing a lot of my crafting goodies. I no longer have the IKEA organizer, the large bookcase with all the stamps on it. Nor do I have the red double hearted cabinet either. I don't have the Cricut station cabinet arrangement either and most of the shelves have been put out in the storage building.  

I thought I had photos, but I couldn't find them. I'll describe this tiny room for you. There is one small window in this little room. A very small closet - I have my clothes in there. NOT all of them but a few pairs of pants, a few shirts, and a jacket or two. I have a few things stored on the upper shelf from the hope chest that was broken during the 1st move and, on the floor, I other things stored there. I had the filing cabinet set off to the side of the small window. My desk (ONLY 1) was sitting in the middle of the room, the 2nd desk is still out under the carport broke down. The main desk has enough walking space to move freely around it. I had the paper cabinet directly across from the desk.

As for everything else, the Cricut and cartridges, the rubber/acrylic stamps, the punches, the assorted ribbon tubs, washi tapes, embellishments out the wazoo and everything else I had left were still in boxes, tubs and anything else I could find. All this stuff was still setting in the living room up against the wall. Trying to determine if I just wanted to throw in the towel and completely remove myself from crafting altogether or trying to figure out 'how' on earth was I going to organize the rest of my goodies that I use on a daily basis while crafting into this tiny, tiny space. Talk about a dilemma for a crafter. It hurt. It hurt deeply...and WHY was I even put in this position, to begin with, was beyond me. I had to have a few inner discussions with myself in order NOT to become very angry through this entire ordeal that life dealt me. The situation was painstakingly painful, to say the least. NOT only did I have my life completely turned upside down mentally, emotionally, and physically in 2019 - now I am faced with having to walk away from the one thing that brings me great peace and contentment. I guess you could say, "I was starting to flip out". 

One day while setting in this tiny room, being the Domestic Engineer that I am - I made an executive decision. I determined that I needed the larger space MORE for my peace of mind than we did for sleeping! I didn't ask for the green light. I didn't ask for an agenda item to be contemplated and I sure didn't ask for permission, I just did it. I flipped rooms. I took the things from the tiny room and moved them all into the master room. Breaking down the desk, packing up a few things. Moving this out and that out and shifting things. I can finally breathe again. I can look out the front two windows and craft or do research genealogy stuff and be content. 

What's great about flipping rooms this time is, I am NO longer setting on top of my crafting and genealogy things and scratching my head trying to figure out what I'm going to do with it all. Everything has a home once again. GREAT, I don't have to get rid of anything. PROBLEM SOLVED! 

That was until I landed in the hospital the first part of March 2020 due to an Asthma exacerbation that quickly turned into RSV and now has my immune system so compromised that the slightest sniffle or cough from someone else could prove deadly for me because of the Coronavirus - Covid 19. 

When I was discharged from the hospital, I was put on home quarantine for the next 4 weeks minimum. At the time of this post - I still have 2 more weeks to go, unless the Pulmonologist says otherwise later this week. Home Health has been coming out 3 times a week since my discharge. During their first visit, they indicated that we needed to flip rooms since I was having to use the walker to assist in my walking. They explained it would be safer for me, especially if the Paramedics or other EMTs needed to gain access to me during this time and too, if I have to be placed back on oxygen, I'd have the room for the condenser unit. (I'm still on home quarantine now - because of my extremely compromised immune system). 

Again, the conversation of flipping rooms quickly came back into play between my husband and me.  Moving from the large, cozy room BACK to the small room again? Good grief! Just when I was getting comfortable. The difference this time though, I can't do any of it! I am going to have to guide my husband as to exactly how to do this flip easily. Oh my...that is going to be a feat in itself! 

I had him move things out of the crafting room. I told him to move it all into the living room, use the kitchen counters, use the dining room table, put things on top of the hutch. Anywhere he could place things...just move it out of the way. 

Trying to minimize exactly what needed to be moved in order to do the flip somewhat easily - I had him move the paper, the embellishments, the tubs, the washi tape shelving system he created, etc. I'm NOT one to move things here and move them there ONLY to have to pick them up and move them all over again. Back in the day, I couldn't stand pushing papers from one pile to the next or having to backtrack when I'm running around town doing errands. I make a plan, I scope out my destination from point A to point B in order NOT to go back to point A sometime in the mixt of things. Flipping rooms for me is just that way too. I want to get things accomplished with the least amount of exertion and work. 

I figured once he moved several of these things out of the way, he could break the mattresses down from the small room and move them into the hall. Then he could break the two desks down in the master room and move them, the filing cabinet and the smaller bookcase directly into the smaller room freeing up enough space to slide the mattresses into the larger room. Sounds easy enough, right? Sure...it's E A S Y IF I was doing it!!!  But no... he wants to do this and that and I'm like - NO, do NOT make this harder than it must be. I was screaming inside as I couldn't talk. I literally didn't have the breath to keep explaining to him 'how' to do this in the most simplistic and logical way. Finally, he and I came to an understanding that 'these were my things and I've moved them by myself on several occasions through the last year and he needed to listen to my guidance as it would be easier if he did. At this point, he had enough of the things moved out of the way and he began flipping the furniture between the two rooms. 

The hubs managed to get the two rooms flipped all in about 4 hours. Once he got the furniture back in the smaller room, he moved things off the kitchen counters into the room. The rest of the things have sat on the living room floor, on the dining room table and on top of the hutch until I felt like I could move them and begin putting them away into their new homes. Since this last room flip, it has taken me almost two weeks to get things put up and reorganized again. 

Like many times before, I've had to sacrifice things in order to be able to move in here. I'm ok with the set up for now. It works...my possessions are materialist and I can replace them. 

I have slowly been able to begin crafting a little every day. I'm in the process of making a junk journal called, "My Asthmatic Body". I work on in at least an hour daily IF I feel like it. If not, I'm on the couch with the laptop. 

The setup of the small room isn't perfect, but at least it flows and for now, and that's okay - 

this is in the master room 

I'm only using one of my two desks for now. The set up is much different from the original set up I had in two rooms at the house last year. I've either sold, given away and donated so many of my things in the last year. Many things in life can be replaced but MY LIFE CAN'T BE and right now, that's the most important thing to me because 'this' Nonnie needs to get well so I can play with my grandson. I miss him so much. I haven't seen him (except through daily skypes now) since he was 2 weeks old and he will be 7 weeks old on Wednesday. 

Flipping rooms - I hope this is the last one for a while. 

Have a GREAT day! 

Heart to Heart Soul Creations

H2hsc2020