In My Spare Time...

For those of you who know me well, you know that I LOVE working around my house-and no, I don't mean housecleaning:) My husband and kids (and parents for that matter), NEVER know what sort of project I'm going to come up with next. I think secretly my husband is afraid to come home some days because he doesn't know what project I've come up with since he left in the morning :) It's been joked about (well, I've joked, but my family is serious), that someday I may even BUILD a house. I've taught myself to lay tile floors, I've built some furniture, obviously done paining, wallpapering, etc. Well, this time I decided to pull out the big guns (well for me anyway; this may be small potatoes to some of you). I thought it would be fun to share my latest project with you.

With Ali moving home in August one of the concerns we all had (and what was really keeping her from being able to make the decision to come home and teach or stay in Portland), was where would we "put her" :) Obviously she had her own room, but I know it's difficult going away to college and being out on your own as a "real adult" for a year and THEN taking a "step backward" by moving back home. We all felt if she had more than just a room to come home to, the transition would be easier. Since our plan all along was to break out the wall between Cassie's and Ali's room to make a media room someday, we figured "Why not do it now?" It seems that whenever I get a project into my head, Katie is always there to help me out. She definitely takes after me in that respect. She LOVES just getting in there and working on projects! She's definitely my home improvement partner in crime.


Our plan was to take the weekend of June 7th and begin demo. The problem with that is that I get a little antsy when it comes to a project I'm getting ready to do. My mom and I have teased each other for years about how I just dive into things, while she thinks and thinks about things (which is not a bad idea; maybe I should try it sometime). I came up with the analogy that if we were both building a pool, she'd have to spend months just trying to decide to do it, then spend another couple of months deciding on the shape and color, a week or two checking and double checking the water temperature and THEN she'd dive in :) My pool would go something like this...I'd build the pool myself in a couple of weeks, jump in and then look down to realize, hmmm, I hope the water's warm enough-did I even put any in? :) I get a plan in my head, do the research as I go along, and learn A LOT in the process. I don't do anything haphazardly, but I when I get an idea into my head, I just seem to be on a mission. I figure if I ever get myself into a situation I can't get out of, there's always someone around who can help guide me through it.

Oh, back to demo. Here's a photo of Cassie's adorable room before her mother got the bright idea to shake things up a bit ;) In case you were thinking Cassie is getting booted out of her room, don't worry :). The second phase of this little project is converting the guest room into a room for Cass-she's FINALLY getting the red room she's been wanting! I decided I wanted to get a little ahead of the game and begin painting a few of the walls that weren't going to be affected by the removal of the one wall. Well, that was yesterday. Katie's boyfriend Nick had the day off of work yesterday and while he was over helping Katie and me paint he decided to put a little hole in the wall; just a 1x3 foot section. However, that was all it took for me to get another idea in my head, "why wait until the 7th to pull the wall down. I'm caught up on work, what the heck!" So this morning, within 30 minutes I had pulled one side of the wall down. When Katie came home, she and I took the other wall down! I probably would have thought about getting to this wall sooner than we had scheduled, but I've been hesitant, because until yesterday, we didn't know for sure whether or not this was a load-bearing wall. Fortunately, I found out it wasn't so it was full steam ahead!




I think Nick and Louie will be pulling the studs out this weekend as well as the carpeting, so we're ahead of schedule! (Don't you think my shirt's appropriate :) Maybe not extreme...unless you're living in my house right now :)

I'll keep posting photos of the transition as we go along. Thanks for letting me share a little of my "home life".