around the house: current state of things

Since we're spending all of our time at home now, a little house tour in the time of corona seemed in order. Here's how we're getting maximal use out of our house, on a room-by-room basis these days - some spaces messier than others, some in a constant cycle of being tidy/getting re-tidied to preserve my sense of control over something in life...

In the living room, though it's not like it matters with anyone coming to visit and see any messes, I've really been working on keeping it all straightened out and the throw blankets nicely placed, even if I have to re-fold them 10 times a day. As the center of our home, it just makes me feel so much better to have it looking clean and uncluttered and inviting.

Of course that all went to heck when we had a pipe break in the bathroom directly upstairs - flooding led to displaced furniture and rug for a couple of days while everything dried out. At least we're back to normal now, with the addition of a huge hole in the ceiling for the foreseeable future (plumbers for a broken pipe = allowed under shelter in place orders, drywallers to fix the hole = not as much).

Speaking of shelter in place orders and no construction work... our master bathroom has been on hold for 3+ weeks, and we're looking at about 3+ more. At least there's now sub-flooring and drywall - it looked way more chaotic before - but oof. I did finally take down the plastic sheeting that was hanging in the hallway and we had to pass through x2 every time we wanted to enter our bedroom, but the hallway and staircase are still lined with protective paper for when the workers come through so it looks a little crazy, even if we can shut the door on the unfinished bathroom itself.

Let's move on...

Down the hall, my office has been partially commandeered by Peter on the days that he's doing virtual appointments with patients, since the background and the distance from the homeschooling kid work better than if he tried to do it in his own home office. Thus the two laptops, ENT diagrams, and lamp pointed up to give Peter optimum lighting on his video calls.

Meanwhile, Hendrik's playroom has devolved a bit, but since I don't have to be in there all the time, I can be better at allowing some mess to persist. For a few days anyway. It is now doubling as a homeschool center, and to accommodate this, I did a little rearranging, moving a bookshelf down from his old bedroom, to help us clear off the Lego table in order for him to work there (after attempting to work side-by-side in at the kitchen counter and finding it untenable because he talks. so. much.). Now all of his school stuff and craft stuff live on the art cart behind the table, and he gets to arrange his Legos to his liking in the little cubbies. Plus this "store" he set up to try to sell random stuff to his parents in order to save up for his next dream Lego set more quickly. A practical lesson about supply and demand is forthcoming. Our mini trampoline gets pride of place in this room too - all of us hop on it throughout the day for work breaks!

And finally, in the kitchen I am fighting a battle to keep the counters cleared of random non-kitchen items; at the times I am winning, it is all worth it to me to have zero eye clutter. And a great view of my beloved marble. Also making a lot more at-home lattes these days, attempting no-knead bread for the first time, and doing our darndest to keep ourselves in-stock with bananas despite grocery shopping happening less than once a week. This haul was thanks to our first Shipt delivery from Target this week, yay!

So there's my corona time tour - to see the official pretty tour you can check out my home feature on The Everymom from earlier this year - and I have to acknowledge overall how grateful I am to have a home space that I just love. Keeping it looking like its old self provides me some normalcy but also just makes me appreciate all of the things I love about my home and what's inside of it (even if I do occasionally tire of the other inhabitants - ha!). Above are some links to some of the things that bring me joy in my indoors on the daily.