Being a Grown Up: Bedroom Saga

Tranquil.

Not tranquil.

Let me just start off by saying I love my children.  You know what comes next right?  I'm about to tell you how sick and tired I am of their junk being all up in my grill.  In this particular case, the baby girl and the toddler girl have been sleeping, pooping, and storing all their stuff in OUR bedroom.  You know, the place where the magic supposedly happens.   How we got here is the ceiling in Sweet Pea's bedroom started falling in--literally--due to a roof leak.  B.daddy fixed the leak to the best of his ability last summer, but the damage was done and it looked super bad.  So round abouts November with Baby due in January, I said oh so nonchalantly, "Hey babe? I'd really like for you to redo Sweet Pea's room before Baby is born."  This would be the room both Sweet Pea and Baby would call home. So in the most disorganized fashion possible, we moved everything out of her room, into ours and various other places in the house, and B.daddy started ripping things apart.

Me looking awesome as usual:

no make up, no bra,  

breastmilk, spit up, and paint

all over me.  Awesome.

If you know anything about our house, you know it has very special needs.  And if you know anything about B.daddy, you know he doesn't do anything halfway.  Therefore no job is quick, none of the stories are short, but it always get done down to the very last detail.  Let's see if I can long-story-short this one.

• B.daddy removed every single surface: ceiling, walls, floor.
• B.daddy completely reframed room in an attempt to square it--impossible--and make it safe--possible.
• B.daddy insulated the ceiling, removed chimney, created new closet space.
• B.daddy managed to get a new roof put on during complicating winter weather.

Wait.  Hold up.  What?  A new roof?  Ahhh, yes my darling readers.  The big surprise of this particular home improvement project was the immediately necessary purchase and installation of a new roof.  Merry Christmas to us.  Cost an arm and a leg AND delayed the room project forever.

• Then....B.daddy finished insulating the ceiling, installed gorgeous shiplap ceiling.
• All new electrical and drywall, trim hung; windows reglazed, painted, balanced, and hung.
• B.daddy relaid antique wood floor like a jigsaw puzzle & painted radiator.
• Painting, painting, and more painting.
• Touch up the painting.

FINALLY--and I left a bunch of stuff out--it was move in ready yesterday.  The day before yesterday I oh so nonchalantly said, "Hey babe, I'd really like to make that our room instead and keep the babies in here."

Hear me out: it's smaller than ours, but now it's GORGEOUS!!  Like I said, I love my babies.  But if we moved into the new room I would actually have a beautiful, peaceful, clean room all to myself! (I would let B.daddy share it with me of course, since he did all the work.)

You see, this purganizing project of mine is not only about getting my tangible sh!t together.  It's a mental health thing as well.  One of the most important aspects of my own self care is a lovely, peaceful home.  And yet, my bedroom is historically the last room that gets any attention.  It catches all the mess when frantically cleaning up for guests, the laundry piles high, and the thought of redecorating is a complete joke.  But this very practical opportunity arose to 1) downsize our own junk and 2) have a beautiful, brand new room that will be completely and totally clean and organized from Day One.

(It also makes more sense for the babies who require two beds, a rocking chair, a changing table, and a dresser to have the larger room.  So I'm totally looking out for them.)

So even though I planned to kick off my purganizing project with something small like our mail sorter, I ended up jumping feet first into the biggest, messiest room in the house.  See below.

Our sleeping arrangements these past 7 months.  Cozy.

The mess was indescribable.  And, um, my cleaning helper
had been here two days prior to this photo.

My "creative" under bed storage solution.

Now, for the REAL before pics:
The baby room w/ falling ceiling and nasty everything.
The doorway furthest to the left is a walk-through closet that leads directly into our old room.

The bricks in the center make up the chimney B.daddy tore down.  It and the fireplace it once serviced were totally unsalvageable. :(

Creeeeeeeepy.

With the chimney removed, we realized we could create a recessed storage area which is incredibly valuable in a modest house built in 1832!

Debris.

Taking it all down to the barest point.

And now he can begin rebuilding the room basically from scratch.

One of our cool finds: a vent that used to allow the heat from downstairs to come up to warm this room.

The roof is FINALLY done!  So B.daddy finished insulating and installed this wonderful shiplap ceiling. 

Here he has leveled the floor as much as possible and laid a new subfloor.

Ceiling is done, walls are done, time to do some painting.

So close, yet still so far away.  At this point B.daddy was just about ready to lose his ever-lovin' mind!  He was SO tired of this project hanging over his head.

This is a very big deal.  None of our four upstairs bedrooms have had a light switch.  The light fixtures operate on a pull string.  So this is our first bedroom to have a real, grown up light switch.  We even got a dimmer switch. :)

The amazing floor B.daddy rebuilt w/ wood from this room and various other sources.

Isn't this the most beautiful room you have EVER seen?  It pretty much embodies all our hopes and dreams for our antique colonial cottage.  If that's not a thing I'm totally making it up because it perfectly describes our home. :)

(The floor in this pic still has one coat to go.)

Our bed is moved in and we are gradually getting our stuff moved in.  I've imposed a strict no clutter policy, so we don't put ANYTHING in our room until it has a place to be stored.  I've downsized my things like a mad woman which feels wonderful.  I'll post more pics when the pretty things start falling into place.