And now for the Reading Room BIG REVEAL!

So in between all the intern happenings of this week, Bob and I have been hard at work finishing up the Reading Room redesign, and I think (with exception of future A/V additions, and a coffee table we're waiting on from Joe) we are DONE! Yeah!!! 

Much of our mornings were spent getting everything while our afternoons were spent assembling and decorating. It has been a LOT of work but the results are staggering. Take a look (via my lousy cell phone camera... Maybe I will take some better pictures tomorrow:

Tuesday's progress: We bought a rug, two lamps (& 10 CFL light bulbs), 4 leather chairs, a couch cover (bet you didn't even recognize the ol' couch), some appliances (see below), removable/restickable Angry Birds decals (as a joke, but most people don't seem to get it) and an RIT felt banner.

A new mini fridge and microwave!! But they better be kept clean, because NINJOE POW IS WATCHING...

These are the leather chairs we got. Nice, huh?

Wednesdays' progress: Got a cord so we could actually plug the lamps in....

and removed the vertical blinds (YES!!!) and replaced them with curtains...

and applied some lovely wall decorations...

and since we were so pleased with the outcome of the couch cover, we got one for the ugly (and gross) random wing back chair, too (bet you didn't recognize this guy, either!). We also got a cork board and mounted it above the printer in the front corner, but I didn't bother to take a picture.

Thursday's progress: We bought and assembled a small kitchen cart for next to the fridge/microwave to create a small prep area. We also got some fake plants for on top of the credenza, and hung up some posters, and....

VOILA!!!!!!

Looks pretty darn good, if I do say so myself! I hope the students love it when they get back in the fall (and appreciate it enough to keep it clean). It feels like a nice cozy space; I know I want to hang out in there, now! It's hard to believe that it's even the same room. The people who have seen it so far have had very nice things to say, so I think it's safe to assume that all of Bob's and my hard work has not been in haste. In the future we hope to also install a projector, speakers, and another screen, and maybe (probably?) even a huge LCD TV - But those are things I can't do myself, so they're not going to happen as quickly as all my impatience-driven updates did this past week.

Enjoy!!!!