Two more things I love...

...and one thing I'm not too fond of.

1.Tia gave me this great pull-down map over a year ago.  I love it, but I  was having a tough time figuring out where to hang it. As you can see, it's pretty large.  I moved the antique secretary out of my hall earlier this week, and voila! The perfect spot opened up.

2. As Keira and Tia can attest, I am the queen of scope creep...Not content with having Steve hang my fabulous map, I decided that the area below it looked a little bare. Since Nathan and Andrew are both at home this week (Spring Break), I had some handy helpers - so I designed this sweet little shelf, bought the lumber and had the boys help (by help, I mean do) the construction. The next day I purchased some paint and today Andrew hung it for me. For anyone who's interested, the shelf unit is about 52 inches long, 23 inches tall and 4 1/2 inches deep. We added a trim board to each shelf that was taller than the shelf to act as a lip to keep the books from sliding off.

3. And now for the one thing in this picture I don't love...the lack of baseboard.  I stuck a piece underneath so as to make sure I was hanging this where I wanted it...but it's not there yet.  If you hold your finger over the part of the picture that is missing the baseboard and squint, you can just about tell how great it will all look when it's finished.