Curb Appeal Meets Clean Sweep

We had a very busy holiday weekend.  Little did my teacher friend know but we'd been planning an overhaul of her "office" for months.  She left town on Friday afternoon to visit an old girlfriend in Texas and our gang of friends immediately went to work.  What was only to be a reorganization of her office spilled over into her parts of her kitchen, bedroom, garage and front lawn.  We had a crew doing some major landscaping work as well as erecting a fence for her garbage cans.  Another crew went to work on the interior.  I wish I'd taken a "before" shot but trust me when I say that you could barely open the door, let alone make your way through the room into her laundry area.

We recycled her desk, file cabinet, bookshelf, blind and a few of her containers and moved out a bench, a treadmill (which is now in her bedroom), toys, books, sleeping bags, flippers, housewares, etc all stored in a multitude of cardboard boxes and bags.  Some found homes in other places while others were reorganized into a system that will work for her.  We decided on the color scheme after finding an unopened gallon of gray paint, which we took the liberty of using.

One of the guys built her the swing up table to fold laundry.  We purchased the metal shelf unit, the vinyl saying and most of the red and black accents.  I was in charge of the sorting/organizing/decorating/labeling process and together we had it all completed by the time she returned Monday afternoon.  She knew something was up when she pulled up and saw all of our vehicles parked alongside her new landscaped lawn.   She was moved to tears and sooooo very, very happy.  I'm guessing it still hasn't really set in yet.  

My girlfriend is one of those individuals that does everything for everyone but rarely takes the time to do things for herself.  Paying it forward was such a wonderful experience for us all.  But I have to say, the best compliment I received was in a text last night.  Her youngest (12) wants me to come and do his room next.  :)

Her new window covering and shelf....

Her reorganized desk ....

And my absolute favorite part ...

This went from a room that you couldn't walk through to a place she can't wait to sit in and enjoy.  She now has some very jealous girlfriends.  LOL!!!