September 11, 2022

We’ve completely upended our house. In order to give our daughters their own rooms, my husband and I are moving into the tv room, the tv is moving into the living room, and my oldest is moving into our former bedroom. To complicate matters further, our living room has been used as a dining room since last Thanksgiving, because it fits more people. 

After Thanksgiving, we realized that we liked having the big dining table in the living room and having a couch in the dine-in kitchen – the couch felt like a cozy little drinking lounge, and both my husband and I admitted that we’ve both always wanted a couch in the kitchen. So we kept it that way for almost a year. Until now, when we needed to swap the living and dining rooms back again to give more space to what will be a combined living room and tv/family room. Bye bye, cozy little drinking lounge! So sad to see you go!

The urgency to give our girls their own spaces has become more and more apparent as they get older. They are both very strong-willed and independent – much like myself – and having their own space to express themselves and get some privacy seems important. 

We did the big moves, getting to the point where our old bedroom is nearly 100% empty – except for the closet – last weekend when the three-day Labor Day weekend afforded us ample time to move everything. Then, we lost a bit of steam when we decided that my oldest daughter’s request for a new area rug was one worth granting. The rug she would have had came from the former tv room, and was, admittedly, ugly. A rug infuses a room with so much personality and mood. To give her her own space, and then furnish something so critical with an eyesore… well, it just didn’t seem right. So now we’re at a standstill with a completely empty room waiting for her new rug to arrive, and the rest of the house is a disaster from all the collateral damage of moving everything else.

My husband and I are both terrible at finishing up the final details. We get excited about something, and start projects with a lot of energy, then the motivation dries up when it gets down to the finishing touches, which are never as fun as that initial push when big changes are being made. So you might guess what we’re up to this weekend: procrastinating. Some of the work that needs to be done is just tedious – putting books back on shelves while trying somewhat to purge some. Other jobs are more daunting, like trying to figure out an effective system for storing tools and hardware, or finally dealing with miscellaneous piles that were previously just occupying space in our bedroom, or condensing my wardrobe down to three dresser drawers (which I know I can do, because I’ve vastly simplified my wardrobe in recent years, but nevertheless seems onerous).

Enough procrastinating now! I’m off to try to see if I can make some sort of progress on the house.