Not a "Honey Do" List in Sight

Each weekend, hundreds of thousands of wives around the world write out lists for their husbands. "Honey Do" lists. Lists that include everything from lightbulb changing to wall painting to lawn mowing. I am not one of those wives. In this house, the lists are made by the "Honey", himself. Shane is a project FIEND!

I made the mistake once of asking him for something...new lamps for our bedside tables. New lamps. That's it. Wanna know what I ended up with? Two recessed lights in the tray ceiling over our pillows. On individual dimmers. With switches right next to the headboard. I kid you not!

Back in the Fall, Shane gave me the choice of two projects he wanted to work on: a tree house or converting the mudroom to more useable space. The thought of keeping track of jackets, shoes, gloves, bags, hats, etc. for 5 kids seemed way more important than a tree house. I mean, we already have a swingset in the back that has a little club house, slide, monkey bars and swings. Who needs a tree house? Apparently, my (almost) 37 y.o. husband does!

However, being the great husband that he is, Shane finished the mudroom before he bought the wood for the tree house. (Although there were many nights that he'd sit up in our bed with a pad of paper and pencil drawing out various blueprints and plans for the tree house.)

I've been dying to post pictures and show off his amazing talents, but I've been waiting on the baskets. They finally came a few days ago, so now I can brag a little about my man's work. Keep in mind, he's a business man. He sits at a desk...goes on business trips...masters multiple-tabbed Excel spreadsheets...all day. He is a self-taught, wanna-be carpenter.

Here's The Before:

(This picture isn't completely fair because it doesn't show the whole closet, but trust me, you're not missing much of the closet!)

The plan was to take out the closet and add "Cubbies" for each kid. You can see in the picture, Zoe & Ty each had their own hook for a jacket. Clearly, I wasn't thinking about other kids...or backpacks. There was some organizational shuffling that had to happen when we took out the closet (where to put the vacuum, board games, craft box, etc.) but nothing too difficult to solve.

And The After:

And the view coming down our front hallway...

Closeup of the basket...

(I found these baskets at Pottery Barn Kids...total coincidence that they fit...PERFECTLY!)

Somehow, wainscotting ended up in my hallway. I don't remember that in the original plan, but since there was no added windows, lighting, various electrical bells & whistles, I let the wainscotting go. And I actually like it. A lot.

No sooner had the paint dried on the mudroom, then the platform for the tree house was being built!

I promise I'll keep y'all updated as the tree house progresses...