Skipping Ahead (for now)

Last night was a milestone night in our house.  After three months of preparations, our boys finally moved into separate rooms in our downstairs/basement.  During the course of the last three months, I have painted and planned and thought about the little details, and it was exciting to see some of it come together.  This past Monday we had the mudjackers come out to fix the sunken slab issues in Finn's soon-to-be room.  It took about two hours (actually, the front walkway which had a horrible trip hazard took the longest of that time) and when they were done we no longer had a gap between our drywall and our slab for mice to run it.  Then on Friday morning the carpet arrived.  Once again it took them about two hours to get both rooms carpeted and then they were out of here.  After they left we vacuumed the new carpet and ran to Lowe's to grab our baseboads.  We still don't have the baseboards installed, but on Saturday morning we began the move.  While we listened to General Conference the kids ran up and down the stairs with their stuff.  Finn was killing me.  He was trying to move one stuffed animal at a time.  It was going to take forever!  Kai was not much better.  And of course, in the process they found toys that they had not seen in a while and had to start playing with them.

With help from me on the moving end, and with Reid building and then taking apart and building furniture again, by the afternoon session we were about done.  We organized new closets and made mental lists of furniture that we needed.  Bree and Finn enjoyed playing in Finn's room with all of his new found treasures.  Poor Finn has had his stuff crammed into one corner of a closet for the last 4 years and so many things that he would have played with just didn't even get seen or found.  Having his own closet is going to be a huge blessing for him in many respects.  Kai will also enjoy his own closet, but it's not quite as big of a deal for him.  What Kai needed was space.  Space to read, space to be alone, space to have quiet.  He is getting older and needing more personal, private time and having to share a room with a little brother who always wants to play and doesn't understand when his brother doesn't want to play, was getting hard.  And of course, there's the tricky balance that came when one of them got sick.  Finn has been sick this week and there have been several nights that Kai has been woken up by us cleaning up Finn's throw up or trying to help Finn blow his nose to cut down on coughing, etc.  Honestly, it was time for them.

But just because it was time, doesn't necessarily mean that it wasn't emotional for them.  Around 8pm last night, as Finn was doing treatments, Finn commented to me that he was remembering staying up in his bed talking to Kai at night and that he was feeling sad that that could not happen anymore.  And last night when I laid down with Kai in his bed at bed time he told me the room felt lonely as he wiped a stray tear from his face.  It's definitely a new chapter for them but I think it will be a good one.  I'm hoping that by giving them their own space that the times they do come together will be more thoroughly enjoyed and more special.  And with their own place to retreat they can also have places to do what they want to do without feeling the burden of having to be with each other.  

Last night when I went to bed, it was strange to stand in the kitchen and see the door to their old room open--and empty.  I went in and found this lone fish tank standing on a lone dresser, with a few random toys strewn on the carpet in an otherwise empty room.  It was nice to rinse some dishes and not worry about the clanging waking up the kids.  (Although watching TV last night before bed was a bit nerve-racking as their rooms are now directly outside of our TV room.)

This morning Finn woke up first and came right upstairs.  He said he slept well.  I was shocked that Kai continued to sleep and found something else I was grateful for--that each kid can have his own schedule now.  No more being woken up when the other wakes up, and no need to keep a tired or sick kid up later than necessary just because we can't put the other one to bed yet.  And then, Finn grabbed Bree and without even asking they took off down to his room to play (in the past there would be fear of going downstairs and lots of begging mom to come but I sat on the couch and watched and then even asked where they were going--I was shocked).  Kai woke up a little while later and said good morning to them and then returned to his room to read a book quietly in bed.  When I went down to give Finn meds, that's how I found them--Bree and Finn playing nicely in Finn's room and Kai enjoying a book in his new room.  It made me happy.

We still have things to do to "finish" the rooms.  We have pictures and decorations to hang on the walls, baseboards to put up, and some furniture to buy to fill it in, but right now these kids are happy with their spaces.  And while it makes me sad that they are growing up way too fast, so am I.

The empty old bedroom, late at night (sorry for the bad lighting)

Part of creating a space for the boys downstairs included making sure the bathroom was an inviting place.  I was surprised by how much a lighter paint color, nice warm large bath mat, and new shower curtain pulled it all together.

The view from the door to Kai's new room.  He has gray walls (which look blue!), and a royal blue ceiling.  He wanted to keep the bunkbeds but because the ceiling is lower in this room we have moved him to the bottom bunk.

The ledge under the window was an oak color that lat minute we decided to paint white.  I really like it.  We will put the dresser on this wall just as soon as we move it.

Kai's closet.  I have a few things that need to be put up on higher shelf still but you can see that also last minute we decided to tray to paint the closet white.  That's another story, but you will notice that no one else in our house has a white closet (they are all the old beige color that our house came in) and there is a reason for that!  Also, see the door out to the TV room.  If you look closely you can see the line where the old carpet ends and the new carpet begins.  The new carpet is so soft and so plush.  I love it!  Hopefully we will eventually put the same carpet, or at least the same style of carpet, throughout the rest of the basement.

One final angle of the room

The view of Finn's room from the door area.  Finn loves having a slide off of his bed and a fort under his bed.  He's not convinced about the stuffed animals being in that fort (and I'm sure he's not happy about the bins of medical supplies I put under there) but I'm sure we can figure it out. And that carpet--can I say heaven?!

His closet.  Yes, it's beige and it will stay that way unless a professional painter comes to our house.

The other wall of the bedroom.  This picture doesn't look great but I actually like this area.  We need some things on the wall, but that will come.  This wall is gray (I know it's hard to tell in the lighting), and one a half walls are "lawn party green".  The half way didn't show up in these pictures but it's the wall his bed is against.  I couldn't get a picture of that corner of the room because the lamp was there and it just wasn't working.  I'll try later.