You may recall that I lost the Bunk Bed Battle of 2013 and the boys' beds are officially much higher than I would prefer but their father is thrilled. I did get a minor revenge victory when I informed Chris that if we were going to bunk the beds we really needed to put them right where the forward facing book shelves were hanging so the shelves were all going to have to be moved. So......that's something.
Well, the room was finally clean enough to take a couple of pictures of, and apparently Aunt Kate hasn't been the recipient of one of David's facetime bedroom tours and was dying to know just what we did*, so.......you're welcome.......
The After:
I can't get a picture of the whole room at once so I'll have to spin you around. Here we have the beds, one dresser full of clothes and another full of legos....you know, the necessities.......
Grandpa's medals are now out of storage and proudly displayed.
With all of the added floor space we were able to move all the toys out of the living room and into their new home. Of course most of them are still dragged back out to the living room daily but, you win some, you lose some. Who can fault my sweet boys for wanting to play where mommy is? :)
On the other side of the room we moved the rest of the toys and the bookshelves to make a kind of reading/lego nook in front of the window......
For a more accurate picture of the room, imagine this area except with all of the books on the floor covering a pile of cars with a thin layer of legos underneath--clear ones, the kind that are invisible to the naked eye but not to the naked foot. Also there is at least one child standing on top of that dresser about to fling himself onto all of the bedding in the room that has been piled on the floor to form a "nest" next to the naked bed.
Looking at these pictures, I'm thinking I really should just choose a pair of curtains from my giant curtain pile in the linen closet already and get them hung up......I'm sure I'll get around to that one of these days..........
And for the grand finale, we've got this wall-o-closets that takes up one whole side of the room. One side of the closet houses extra toys and the boys' memory boxes.
The other side houses our play kitchen and one crazy faced child........
And, that's about it. I apologize if you've been underwhelmed :)
I suppose it still has a bit of a nautical feel although I'm totally over making "themed" rooms and have moved on to "putting things in the children's rooms that they won't hate in five years and want me to replace." I'm thinking it's a better way to go--for my sanity and my wallet.
*I'm totally exaggerating, Aunt Kate was only mildly interested. I'm just an internet over-sharer.
Great room, Cristina! When I think about the challenge of moving every couple of years it amazes me that you can put together such a comfortable and charming room in a short time and know that you'll have to take it all apart again relatively soon. Kudos to you and all in your situation! And those medals are really impressive! How did he come by all of them? They certainly deserve to be seen!
ReplyDeleteIt makes it easier knowing that the military movers will pack it all for me so all I have to do is set it up again. I take it as a personal challenge to fit all of our things into each new space--rearranging it all and finding spots for ALL THE THINGS :) I make it my mission to cozify each new home to make the constant moves less stressful on the kids. Hopefully they'll look back and remember that we always made each new house a home :)
DeleteGrandpa is a retired Marine so he came about the medals in the course of his career--I should probably make him write out a list of what each one is for and tape it the back of his shadow box!
Very nice room arrangement! Lots more play space available!
ReplyDeleteOkay, that last picture reminds me so much of my 4 year old son...adorable! And I love the room...especially the book nook! I need to rig one of those up in my boys' room. So you really have to move every few years? I'm not really sure how that works. Do y'all move until your husband retires? Do you have any say where he gets stationed? Have you ever been overseas?
ReplyDeleteOh and I cracked up seeing the picture of the basket labeled "more train tracks." Story of my life.
DeleteThank you!
ReplyDeleteYes, we will move every two to three years--not everyone in the military has to move that often and sometimes you can get another job in the same city so you can stay in one place even longer--but apparently that's not how it's going to be for us. We'll keep moving until he retires so only another twelve to twenty-two years or so--no biggie :)
It looks like we'll have more say in where we go next, but you never really have control--you just have your preferences and then you get what you get. We haven't been overseas yet but I hope we will go soon. They offered us Naples, Italy for this tour but my husband declined it since I was pregnant, moving alone, Naples is supposed to be gross and also he is scared of living overseas. He has yet to live it down--and he probably never will--especially since we would have been soooo close to the Vatican for the conclave and everything, but.....I'm not bitter :)
And our neighbor just brought over a box full of trains and tracks that her boys have outgrown and clearly that is exactly what we need around here!