Project Upstairs!

Dave's sister Liz moved out at the end of January. She had been living with us in our upstairs room since July 2018. She left us to move to Tyler, TX to take her dream job working as a NICU nurse. We are so excited for her!

After she was gone, we got to work moving our current playroom, which was also the guest room and piano room, to the upstairs. It's taking the kids some time to get comfortable going there to play since it's been off limits for so long, but we know that eventually they will like having all the extra space and we will love having all the toys and mess out of sight. Charlie will also be moving into the guest room once baby comes, so it was nice to get all the toys out of there to make room for him. 

Farewell to Liz! Charlie is going to miss her the most. She moved in when he was only a few months old and he does not remember life without his "Lizzie."

This space is still a work in progress. Eventually we will get some big cube shelves for toy storage, a better couch and maybe some bean bags for extra seating since this is also the movie/video game room.

While we were working on the upstairs, we also tackled the attic! Since access is through the upstairs room, it had been neglected for the last year and half. Everything had just been dropped by the door and you could barely move around. Now it's nice and organized. I even vacuumed the floor!

Updates to Sophie's Room

Sophie's room didn't need much change, but we did make a few updates after completing Davey's room as a surprise for her. She never complained once about Davey getting so many new things, which actually surprised me. Sophie normally has an inner alarm that starts blaring anytime she detects unfairness (whether it's reasonable or not) and I was proud of how well she handled watching his new room take shape.

One day we will probably repaint her room since it's SO PINK, but for now it will stay that way because she likes it and we don't want take on an unnecessary project. We did change a few pieces to move away from her "owl theme" she had as a baby, and got her a bigger reading chair since her old one was both too small, and very worn out.

 I didn't take great "before and after" photos of her room, but you can see where we traded out her rug and her chair (top is old, bottom is new). When we visit the beach this summer we will look for some cool shells to display and try to take some ocean photos that we can print on a canvas to hang on her wall. 

Sophie chose a blue rug, to be like the ocean, her new chair is the shape of a shell, and the inflatable dolphin was a prize she got from the dentist. 

We had already replaced her flower bedspread with a mermaid one a few months ago. 

I picked up a couple shell art pieces and we got her a new bedside lamp. It's a touch lamp, which had asked for and really loves. 

Project Backyard

Now that we've in our house for a year and the essential purchases have been taken care of, the next project was the backyard! It was in pretty good shape when we got the house, but there was nothing out there for the kids to do. Whenever I sent them outside to play it never lasted more than about 20 minutes. We have looked into getting a play set, but our grassy area is not huge and is slightly sloped, and they are so expensive! We will probably  revisit that idea again in a year or two, but for now we went smaller.

The first addition was a little trampoline! It's low to the ground so the kids can climb right up (even Davey) and has a net all the way around so they can't fall off. Liz and I assembled it ourselves, with a little help from Davey. He loves jobs and tools, and so we let him hang all the springs on the frame. We put it together on the covered patio because it was a hot day and we wanted the shade, but then decided to just leave it there. We have no patio furniture and it fits great, so why bother putting it out in the grass??

This has been such a great way for them to burn off energy!!

Next were some hammock swings. These have been my favorite addition! I wanted a comfortable place where I could sit and watch the kids play, and these have been amazing. We started out with two, but we have room for two more, so we made add some down the road. At first they were way too high, so Dave ran to the hardware store to get some chain, and now they are just right. They are the perfect place to relax, especially on late summer nights!

That first picture is when the hammocks were way too high, almost four feet off the ground - yikes!

 

We had also always talked about removing the giant paver stones in the backyard, and while we were on vacation, Liz took care of it for us! I am so glad to have them gone. They took up so much room, were uneven, and sharp! The kids were always trying to pick them up and it was only a matter of time before one got dropped on a little toe. Under the stones was a bunch of gravel. Dave originally wanted to put in a sandbox over on the side of the yard, but we decided this gravel works just as good. We call it the "quarry" and it's great for digging and playing with trucks. Liz also got a "digger" as a surprise for the kids, making it even more fun!

I didn't take a before picture, but this is what it looked like. The previous owners had put the stones down to create a second, unnecessary patio area. 

Stones gone = much more fun! Since we really don't need a quarry this big, we may square it off next spring to create an area half the size, with gravel twice as deep, and put in more grass. 

And while this didn't add any fun to the yard, we took out some dead trees along our fence over Labor Day. They were killed last winter and looked so ugly. It had rained really hard the night before, so it was a muddy job, but the soft ground made it possible for Dave to pull out the entire root ball once we had trimmed off all the branches. This will be another area that needs grass next spring, or we might try a garden instead. 

Before and After

Davey was really excited about these giant "cutters"

Bye-bye trees!