4 Moms Open House- Bedrooms

I'm so thankful Kimberly gave us a heads up this week that we would be showing our bedrooms.  I always need a few days notice to get our bedrooms looking decent.  We are on the brink of bedroom transition at our house, but I'll show you the way it is now and tell you what we're planning on doing.

When we bought our house it had 4 bedrooms laid out in a split plan with the master on one side of the house and the kids' rooms on the other side.  This is the hallway to the 3 original kids' bedrooms.  To the right is our dining room/dollhouse workshop :), to the left is our kitchen.

As you walk down the hall, the first door on the left is our storage room and the next door on the left takes you into the bedroom shared by Twinkle Toes (9) and Measle (7).  This is the view inside from their doorway.

Then panning right...

And now panning to the left...

All of this beautiful Ethan Allen furniture in the girls' room was mine growing up.  We haven't done a thing to it.  What a blessing!  Thanks, Mom and Dad!

I mentioned room shifting:  Twinkle Toes really wants a room to herself and Measle really wants to share with Louie, so we may be moving Measle into Louie's room at some point in the not-so-distant future.  Speaking of Louie's room, it's the last door on the right down the hallway.  Here's the view from Louie's bedroom door.

And there's Louie!  She was hiding.  Now, panning to the right...

And the view of the left side of her room taken from the closet.

At the end of the hallway is the girls' bathroom. 

Next to Louie's room and across the hallway from the girls' room is a bedroom in transition.  First it was Monk's then it was shared by Monk and American Boy, then it was just AB's (after Monk moved upstairs), this summer it was my husband's adult nephew Josh's (after AB moved upstairs), and now we're getting it ready for the new baby.

I think I've decided to leave the bed in here.  This is our largest kid's room and we didn't really plan on using it for a nursery, but it was the only way to avoid re-doing a children's bedroom since this one was already "boy".  Our plan is to move Baby Calvin upstairs when he's 2 or 3 to share American Boy's room with him.  In fact, AB's already excitedly talking about this.  Oh, and please notice the painting above the bed- Monk (11) painted this canyon scene in art class this summer.

Imagine a crib here where you see the parts leaning against the wall.  Big D's working on getting it together and he informed me that this has to be the last baby boy since the bolt casings are getting stripped inside.  He doesn't think the boy crib will survive being disassembled and reassembled even one more time.  Hmmm.  Maybe we'll just have to find a way to store it in the built position, or have girls from now on :) .  The crib bedding is 11 yrs old and the twin bedding and room decor are 7+ years old.  I've never had the crib and twin bed in the same room before, but am thrilled that they coordinate so well.

I've been working on getting Baby's closet ready.  It's so fun getting down the baby boy clothes again.  It's been 11 years since we had a baby boy.  Our American Boy came to us at just under a year, so he wore lots of his big brother's 12-18 month hand-me-downs, but I haven't seen the 0-6 m and 6-12 m baby clothes in a LONG time.

Before we move upstairs, let me tell you a bit about how our upstairs came to be.  A couple of years after we bought our one-story home a huge hailstorm came through and wiped out our roof, which was shake shingle.  Our insurance company encouraged us to switch to a composite roof, but according to our policy paid us replacement value on the shake shingle roof.  So, Big D and I decided rather than just spend the money, which was substantial, that we would re-invest it in our home.  Thus began our 4 year upstairs addition project. 

Big D did much of the work and contracted out what little he didn't do.  It took four years because he does have a full-time job, after all, and we paid as we went.  There were MANY times we regretted ever starting this project, but now that it's finished we're so glad we did (except when it's time to pay property taxes each year)!  We LOVE it!

I showed some pictures of our playroom in the last post on living areas.  We also have two bedrooms and one bathroom upstairs.  Here is our American Boy's bedroom.  My husband designed and built the built-ins, with my input, of course.  The two large drawers under the window seat are filled with toys eliminating the need for a toy box and the cabinets house our board games.  We just added a closet to AB's room, but it hasn't been painted yet.

Now, moving across the playroom, we arrive at our oldest son's bedroom.  He is completely responsible for the upkeep of his room incuding dusting, which is why it's a little dusty.  I did have him tidy it up a bit before taking the pictures.

As you can see, Monk likes to build things.

With the exception of the white shelf that used to be in the playroom, all the furniture in this room was my dad's childhood furniture.  It's all over 60 years old!  We did have it refinished about 10 years ago, but can you believe how well it's held up?  They don't make furniture like they used to, that's for sure!

I'll show you some old pictures of the boys' bathroom since it's looking a little more lived-in this morning.

How do you like Big D's handiwork?  This was his first time to tile a shower.

Monk painted this nautical scene a few years ago.  It hangs above the toilet, and you really don't need to see that, do you?

Now, descending the stairs once more to the master bedroom.  Big D says this is really the only bedroom we need.  Just yesterday I rolled up three sleeping bags from our floor, Louie usually sleeps in the bed with us, and our arm's reach co-sleeper is on the way for Baby Calvin.  Why do we have so many bedrooms, again?  I once helped a friend babysit for her nieces who informed me that their beds were just for decoration.  We're not quite there yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's where we end up.

The dresser was my aunt's when she was a little girl.

I just moved the baby swing in today.

Notice the paint and wallpaper books?  Our bedroom is going to get a facelift in the very near future.  We've decided to go green.  What do you think?

It's not that I don't like the yellow, though Big D has never much cared for it.  When we bought this house, the master bedroom already had a border around the top of the room and Big D explained to me that the easiest thing to do was to find another border and slap it on top.  I don't know what I was thinking, but I chose monkeys.

 

Well, 7 years later I just can't stand to have those monkeys looking at me any longer.  I asked Big D if we could paint our room, but he said that would involved taking off the two borders, sanding down the floated out border area, scraping the texture off all our walls, and then re-spraying texture over all the walls.  Or he said I could pick a paper.  I chose the latter.  (Remember the dollhouse? It still isn't finished and I'm having a baby in 6 weeks!)

And finally, our master bathroom.  This room had to wait 6 years before we touched it- I guess because it's so out of the way that no one ever sees it, until now, anyway.  It was definitely worth the wait, but it wasn't easy waiting SIX YEARS.  Before we re-did it, the laminate flooring was peeling up, it had a pink tiled shower for two, jungle animals all over the walls, and a swimming pool of a jacuzi tub so big that we didn't have enough hot water to fill it!  So now you know why we love our master bath SO much! 

A friend of mine who's a real craftsman made me that jewelry chest as a gift.  (I don't have very much jewelry, but it's so beautiful I love having it out.)

The shower is to the right of the tub.

No glass shower door means no glass shower door to clean :) .  And a close-up of the shower.

Big D and I are extremely grateful to live in such a nice home.  We certainly don't deserve it, but are happily filling it with children.  I think we can easily fit a few more, don't you?

Now make sure you check out all the 4 Moms bedrooms at Raising Olives, Smockity Frocks, In a Shoe, and The Common Room.