"Kid Stuff" organization in progress

This project was inspired by a real problem.  Lack of organization in the "coat closet" and the kids unable to put their own winter gear away.  After being left with too many wet sopping piles of winter stuff on my kitchen floor and being annoyed that I had to do all the work putting away everything (when they are fully capable to do themselves if they could!), and the kids truly unable to put it all away themselves (hangers too high, storage baskets too high), Dave and I got creative.  

I had an idea to create a wall of hooks for the kids to put their stuff on in the garage right by the door to the house, and Dave suggested building open lockers with space for each kid, hooks their height for coats, snowpants, and backpacks...and storage compartments low down for their boots, shoes, hats and gloves.  We thought about this and drew up plans way before Dave broke his hand, and were unable to get the wood for the project until I took out all three car seats so he could make a flatbed in the back of the van to drive the wood home.  Soo...all this takes time. After Dave broke his hand this project was put on major hold...until Saturday of last weekend.  Dave was able to pick up the wood a week ago, but its been sitting in our garage for a week. 

We made Saturday, Jan 28th a work day, cutting wood and putting some of the pieces together.  He helped me cut the wood with the table saw, and was the brains for the project while I was the hands.  I used the power drill to screw every piece together.  Violet helped draw some lines with wood and helped with a small amount of cutting.  The kids were a challenge to work with while we were working.  Naptime for Vanessa was movie time for V and C, so that gave us a couple hours of uninterrupted work time.  Other than that, all 3 kids scrambled around the garage and we took lots of breaks to accomodate their needs and mealtime.

I documented the construction of this event...and its not done yet, but you can see what it will look like.  Its really nice to know we are having 4 kids, and we know this is a boy.  So we can construct the right amount of lockers and paint them colors.

The beginning of the project - 3 full sheets of cabinet-grade plywood and some backing material. 

Measuring, with our little helper:

More cutting:

Frame 1 of 4 completed.  And yes, she wore pajama pants and a shirt all day. 

Add cubbie holes:

Four frames completed, 2 have cubbies:

That's where the progress stopped.  We have plans to finish all of them, paint each one a different color, put backing on them, add hooks to each, and put them against the wall.  Can't wait to be finished with this one!  My hands were pretty beat up after that day, rough, scratchy and my skin has spot where there are cracks from holding the screws.