Um.
Yikes.
There's so much to be done between now and then; it feels overwhelming. The biggest project is almost finished in some ways, but just beginning in others. We live in a four bedroom house. It's not huge and it's not really intended for a family of six. However, we're going to make it work because it's what we have and it's what we're going to have for many years to come.
Once we knew we were having a boy, we had to settle on bedrooms and shuffling the kids between them. Finally we settled (and by "we", I mean "I" because no one else was willing to commit to making a decision) on putting the girls in the larger bedroom over the garage. Together. My daughters. Oil and Vinegar. Day and Night. North and South.
Again. Yikes.
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| The early stages of the project. |
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| Bye-bye little girl pink. |
The process of getting the room ready was a month long chore. First, I let them pick colors. (Okay, first I picked colors and watched them roll their eyes. I quickly realized I had to give up control if this was going to work.) They agreed on purple and orange. It's just paint, right? And they're 15 and 12, so I couldn't expect them to like the neutral tan I had chosen. I removed the pink, floral wallpaper border. Then David patched and sanded the walls. The ceiling presented a heck of a problem. J had plastered it with posters and over the years, the tape and become a gummy, gooey, nasty mess and refused to come off the ceiling without a serious fight. An entire weekend was spent experimenting with adhesive removal products. We finally found that wallpaper glue remover was our best bet.
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| Hello... interesting... combination of colors. |
Then up went the orange. Holy moly. Orange. The purple wasn't nearly as shocking in comparison. The Pepto pink wasn't giving up without a fight and we still had to use two coats for each color even though we'd gone with the more expensive paint with built in primer.
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| Our Siamese got in on the act... and we didn't paint over it. It's our Elliot seal of approval. |
Finally we tied it all together with a rather colorful boarder:
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| Channeling our inner hippies. |
Now it's done and the beds are moved. I ordered matching bedding. We hung bright curtains. The beds are on risers so we can have plenty of storage. So it's coming together and looks really cute, despite the interesting color choices.
Tonight is the first night they'll share their "new" room. The true test will be to see how they sleep. K is a night owl. She has been since birth. We've actually taken her to Johns Hopkins for a sleep study because at 4 years old she would only sleep 7 hours every night. They said she's fine and this is just the way she's wired. I often wonder if I had given birth to K first if we would have had more children... she's definitely been a challenge since day one.
(As I'm writing, K just bounds through the front door, yelling and taking over all the energy in the house. She's been away for 2 days. She spent yesterday in DC with her Girl Scout troop and today was spent with her best friend at the local swimming pool. Hopefully she's exhausted and will make their first night peaceful. Although the girls are already arguing because apparently there's a wet bathing suit on J's bed now.)
J is a sleeper. She always has been. She was sleeping 8 - 10 hours a night by the time she was 6 months old. She woke up starving, of course, but she wanted - needed - to sleep. Where K is chaos, J is calm. Where K is noise, J is quiet. And that's not to say J is perfect. The girl can shriek like nothing I've ever heard and her tendency toward silly is much greater than average . But across the board, J has always been an easier kid.
I'm trying to set serious expectations for both of them. J has to allow K to have some say in what happens in the room. K has to not destroy things or poke holes in the drywall. (That's another story.) J has to understand that K owns half the room now and while it's not easy to give up that space, K gave up her entire room without pouting. Compromise is going to be key... that and remembering that J leaves for college in 3 years. (And don't even take me down that road. I don't know quite how I'll manage to let her go. I like having her here and the thought of her being on her own already makes me cry. But another day.)
Tomorrow I will - hopefully - start to work toward moving G into his new room (K's old room). But we also need to clean the fridges, the basement, put away laundry, organize the garage... I'll never get to all of it.
But we got to this and in that I will find some peace.
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