Early this summer my husband decided to build cabinetry to make our homeschool room more efficient.  Today the base cabinets were ready to be installed. 

That meant I had to start moving my brain...in other words, all the school books, papers, lesson plans, etc for next week, onto our bed.  I needed to know exactly where everything went and have ready access to it so that I could continue preparing next week's lessons.   I was in the middle of major thought processes and disturbing them could result in a tumultous school week! lol 

Then we had to move everything else into corners of the schoolroom and our bedroom and the kids' rooms. 

Then we started moving the old furniture down to the garage.  First was the tall cabinet on the left side of the above picture.  My husband put it on a dolly and had me go down the stairs first and support it as he came down with it, trying not to let it land on me!  He has so much faith in me, the one who has no muscles!  The things he's had me do, trying to hold 50+ pounds over my head when installing a garage door opener, the mega playset in the backyard, moving railroad timbers to border gardens...my poor back and knee!  As we started coming down the first step, and after our first gulp, I recalled that the cabinet hutch can be removed from the base.  So with great effort I tried pushing and he tried pulling while my daughter tried to pull the dolly out from under my husband and the cabinet.  We finally got the cabinet back to the second floor and he removed the hutch from the base. 

Then he had me help him carry them down the stairs, with me at the bottom, again.  This is quite the feat, not only because I have few if any muscles, but also because I am lacking a balance nerve and have to work extra hard to keep my balance.  We managed!

After we got the cabinet and the old file cabinet downstairs, it was time to bring up the base cabinets he had made, which were much lighter!

Coming up...

Watch out...

Steady there...

We brought up the second cabinet and waited for the first cabinet to inhale to make room for the other cabinet to squeeze in!  Will it fit?

Wow!  It's a perfect fit!  What great measuring my husband did!

Then I went back to lesson planning while he worked on leveling the cabinets and cutting out holes so we could access the electrical hookups. Then he was able to bring the rest of the cabinets up himself.  I think he had our son help him bring up the countertops.

Ta da!

Then he put in some time connecting the countertop to the cabinetry.  After that, he brought up the extension for my desk for a trial run.  He purchased a gorgeous French Country style leg which he needed to cut down to size.  I missed the picture of that.  That still needs to be painted and then he'll set up the extension for good.  In the meantime, I'll continue to work at my old desk.  Pictures of that will be later.

Then I had to get back to work, this time moving all of the files from the old drawers to the new drawers.

The files on the inside corner of the cabinetry hold all the school, design, and vacation planning files.  This is directly behind my desk so I can easily access them.

The more general household and personal files are on the outer edge so they will be easy for my husband to access if I am at my desk. 

I need more hanging file folders for all of these files.

When that was done, it was time to bring all of the school books and lesson planning from our bed to my old desk, which will need to sit in the middle of the room until the extension is ready.

Since this is temporary, I only have immediate books for use for the week at my desk.  That way I don't have to haul all of my other desk supplies and papers off my desk again in another week or so.

I put miscellaneous items on this countertop.  This is temporary. The paint has not completely cured yet.  The drawers were sticking and my hands were sticking when I helped to bring up the cabinets.   Once they're cured, the microscope will go into easy access into a cabinet. 

The curriculum in the pile on the left will go into the back of this cabinet, which is normally dead space.  This curriculum is waiting for my son to grow into.  So anything that I seldom need to access will go into the deep parts of the cabinet.

Then I brought in the rest of the curriculum and misc books that are currently in use or frequently accessed.

The baskets contain art projects and misc items.

These are souvenirs I got from Colonial Williamsburg.  I've been accessing them a few times during school this year and I haven't found a safe place to keep them yet.  I also thought I'd enjoy all this space and display the paintings of the presidents which we have studied so far.  Actually, we will study Madison's term this coming week!  That was fascinating to study! Okay, I'm getting carried away with history again!  lol

Over here in a dead space my husband made a bookshelf.  In the link at the beginning of this entry, you'll see the pictures of our old schoolroom and how I stored history and literature books as we completed reading them behind a partition of the old desk. Sometimes we continue to access these books for reference in the 9 weeks of our TOG unit.  Furthermore they are ready to grab to display during our unit celebrations.  Now I have double shelves and we can store even more!

So that's it for today.  Next my husband will paint the leg and then permanently affix the extension.  Then we get to try and take the old desk down to the garage.  Hmmmmm, that should be interesting. It originally came up in a box and then it was put together.  Then he'll build bookshelves to install over the countertop.  Then he'll build doors for all of the openings to the cabinets.   My husband says he plans to be done by the end of October.