Thus Begins the Change-Over

We have made a couple of decisions around here.

First, we’re not going to move anytime soon.  Neither the Webmaster or I like the look of the economy, or what the value of our house currently is.  It’s a buyer’s market out there, with great bargains to be had, but we had struck a deal a while ago that we would not go looking at houses until the Webmaster had been employed steadily for at least one year.  We’re not at that point yet, and with all the jitters out there in the housing market, we’ve decided the prudent course of action is to stay put and make our little house as liveable and serviceable as possible for as long as we can.  And probably more salable at some point in the future.

And with an eye toward that, we’re making some upgrades around here, which will go hand-in-hand with decision #2 – We’re going to swap the kids’ rooms.

It makes no sense for the two boys to continue sharing the smaller bedroom, especially when Tad is still using a toddler bed.  He turns six on Friday, and I measured him as he lay completely straight and flat in his bed – he’s only got three inches of clearance on top, and another three at his feet.  Now, no child sleeps completely flat in their bed, so he’s in no immediate danger of hitting his head on the headboard… but he needs to move out of the toddler bed.  But we can’t fit a twin bed into the smaller bedroom along with the crib.  If we’re not going to be moving in the immediate future, then it only makes sense to move the kids around.

Ane was okay at first with this idea, and then was not very sanguine about it.  The boys’ room was initially designated as the nursery, so it was Ane’s first bedroom.  When she turned two, we moved her into the bigger room and into my old twin daybed in order to give then-almost-five-month-old Tad the crib.  Ane wanted to pick a fight, so she said, “Why did you even bother moving me from my first room if you were just gonna move me back to it??”

Because I had a crystal ball that told me I would eventually have two boys sharing a room, and this was a surefire way to tick you off….  No, that’s not what I said (but I was thinking it).  I told her, “Okay, you have two options.  Option one is that you switch rooms with your brothers, and you get to redecorate the room however you like.  You can even pick the paint color.  Option two is that Rerun moves in with you in the room you have right now.  Choose wisely.”

She actually sat and thought about it for a couple of minutes before announcing, “I’ll change rooms.  I want a pink room.”

“Done.” I promised her.  We then did a little internet shopping, and have decided on this pattern and motif for her room – maybe a lighter shade of pink paint, because we are talking about a smaller room, and she can’t get new furniture, but definitely the duvet cover and the cherry blossom wall decals, and the matching bedsheets.  We will make it look very feminine and pretty, and yet not so overly-flowery and little-girly that she will want the whole thing changed in two or three years.  (Yes, I am anticipating that we may still be living in this house in two or three years.  Have you seen the stock market lately?)

But first, Ane is going to be completely displaced.  We’re hoping to have the boys moved into their new room by the beginning of the school year (August 31st), and to do that, we’re going to have Ane sleeping out in the living room and completely gutting the bigger room to get it prepped.  Step one of getting everything prepped was saying goodbye to the old baseboard heaters in the kids’ rooms…

… and saying hello to forced air heaters.

Don’t you just love the turquoise paint that was hiding behind this baseboard?

Thanks to Little Mo and Big Jay’s dad, who is a contractor and who we hired to do the job, we took out the baseboards in the kids’ rooms, moved the smaller forced air heater from the living room into the smaller room, put a new forced air heater in the bigger bedroom, and installed a much bigger forced air heater for the living room that will do a more efficient job at heating a larger space.  And we upgraded all three thermostats to programmable digital ones.

The next step is to get Ane actually moved out of her room and start taking up the carpet.  This lovely dark teal green carpet that was here when we moved in and we have never cared for, and thus allowed the kids to trash and vomit upon without much concern, is going to go in these two rooms.  Little Mo’s dad took a peek under the carpet and it looks like we have oak hardwood floor under there.  What condition it’s in remains to be seen, but if it is salvageable, that’s the direction we’ll probably go in.

And we’re trying to figure out how to orient the furniture, and we need to buy Tad a captain’s bed.  We know that we probably can’t squeeze a dresser in the room with the boys, so if we can gain some storage back with a captain’s bed for clothes, that would be the most ideal solution.

We discussed a bunk bed.  I decided against it.  First, Rerun isn’t ready for a twin bed, and we already own the toddler bed.  Second, it would mean Tad would have the top bunk.  How do you tell him NOT to jump off the top – the child who has already broken two bones?  So, we’re shopping for a captain’s bed.

I’ll keep you updated on the home improvements as they come along.  But the changes around here have officially begun.  This should be interesting for us all.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 11th, 2011 at 1:26 am and is filed under Children, Home Improvement.
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