Movin' On Up

I get bored.  Easily.  Which is why I'm always making things, building things, painting things and daydreaming about things.  If I don't have a project that I'm working on or towards, you can't tell the difference between me and a lazy sloth.  Of course there are always chores to do, but unless I have a reason to hurry through the chores to get to something better, my motivation sinks like a rock in a bucket.  On a recent snow day, I was home with the kids since school got canceled.  At one point, I was so bored that I dumped out a clean pile of laundry on our bed, with the best intentions of folding it - but instead I climbed on that warm fluffy pile and took a nap on it.  Like a cat.

Not my proudest moment, but it was then that I really started pressuring Brent into letting us get the gears in motion to dive into a project.  Money is a little tight around the Kruse house right now, we are paying for some hefty medical bills for Owen and we are also trying to ramp up our vehicle savings account since Brent's minivan could go at any moment.  This means we can't do anything major like a bathroom remodel or attic renovation.

But what we can do is increase our home's square footage by about 500 square feet.  Let me explain...we have two bedrooms on our main floor, Brent and I have one and Emma and Owen share the other one (with bunk beds).  The whole second floor of our house is one gigantic room, which is technically Emma's room, that has been acting as a playroom for the last 5 years.  Click here to view a tour of the second floor of our house.  The kids mostly only go up there when a friend comes over to play.  Emma's clothes remain up there in a fairly large closet because the closet in Owen's room isn't large enough for both of their things.  So each morning, Emma puts on her thick fleece robe and slippers to run up there to pick out an outfit - that's the fastest I ever see that girl move because IT IS CHILLY UP THERE!  It's not uncommon for her clean laundry to just get stacked on her stairs because no one wants to make the trip up into the arctic air.

This arrangement has worked ok for us for the past 5 years but we are all ready for a change.  Brent and I could barely squeeze our clothing into the tiny closet in our master bedroom and we were ready for extra breathing room since our new California King bed was taking up most of the floor space.  Click here to view a tour of our original master bedroom and kids room.  It's time to move our master bedroom to the second floor and create a little retreat.

With our main floor bedroom empty, it was a perfect opportunity to move the kids' bunk beds into our old bedroom.  It's larger than their current room, there's plenty of room for both of their clothing to fit in the dressers and the closet.  Plus, it's much warmer than their old bedroom, which was drafty from all the windows.

But it turns out, moving the bedrooms around wasn't enough to satisfy my overly bored brain, so I decided I may as well spend the next few weeks/months fixing up their new room for them.  The color on the walls was great for Brent and I's room, it made it feel dark and moody and relaxing.  But for the kids, I want something light and bright with storage for their toys and books.

Here's what we're starting with - I was too tired to bother picking up toys and making the beds before I took these pictures - I'm sure many of you moms can relate :)

Painting trim/doors and walls begins tomorrow night!  And over the next few weeks and possibly months, we've got lots of other fun projects in store to make this room functional and comfortable for the kids.