The Great Room Swap of 2007

People have certainly taken on bigger projects than this one. Created more chaos, exerted more strongly, performed more professionally. Still, that doesn't minimize the chaos and exertion of our own massive project.

Plus, you've got to take into account that we're lazy.

Anyway, when Number One (#1) turned eight we bought her a loft for her birthday in an effort to give her more room space, because when we moved into the house she chose the smaller bedroom (due to the cool turquoise sponge painting). Number Two (#2) is about to turn eight so we offered her one, as well.

She wanted one. #1 was tired of hers. But we didn't want to just move #1's loft to #2's room because I was afraid of destabilizing it. J suggested they swap rooms. #2 cheered #1 said no way. Days of debating and deliberating and waffling ensued, but finally both kids embraced the change. J took off last Friday and Monday, days the kids had off already, and we started preparing.

Overall, it went smoothly. Both kids worked on clearing out the rooms for a couple of weeks ahead of time. That went better for #1 than #2. She even moved most of her own furniture out.

I neglected to take a picture of #2's room at the height of the insanity. Here is how it was near the end:


See all the crap on the floor? Multiply it by 100, fill in several more pieces of furniture, and you have an idea of how bad it was.


I think that trash bag on the floor was about the eighth 30-gallon bag that came out of this room.

These shots were taken Saturday afternoon (after the frigid soccer game--wind chill had to be in the 20s). On Friday #1 cleared her room out, we cleaned it and moved #2's furniture in. So where did #1's stuff go? Here:


This isn't so bad. The bed was added Saturday afternoon, so imagine that leaning against the armoire there in the middle. The rest was here:


Yeah, that's my living room. Over on the far right, behind that purple thing and the two bamboo shades leaning against the desk that's on its side, is the dog's chair. She couldn't get to it. Nor could she usually get to me, when I was there. She was in a constant state of high anxiety for a week. Which meant pacing and panting and howling at my heels. Drove me insane.

Here's what #2's room looked like Saturday night, after she had all the furniture and some of her possessions in. It took longer than it should have, because we'd tell her to box up stuff in the old room, and five minutes later she'd wander into the new one carrying, say, one purse, looking around for a place to put it. *sigh* But we got there eventually:


Then came cleaning and taping to prepare the other room for painting. #1 picked her own paint. J did not buy hole filler or primer. We just pulled out all the nails, slapped the paint up, and moved everything back in. Since we had a 7-year-old helping us, it was not the neatest job, though she did pretty well overall.

Prep:



On Sunday we painted two walls, went to Easter dinner, came back and put on the second coat, painted the other two walls (different color) and the ceiling, and later went back for the second coat on the second two walls. Remember, #1 chose her own paint colors:





Monday we cleaned up, stripped off some of the paint removing the tape (tip: don't tape baseboard heaters freshly painted with latex paint when it is 30-something degrees outside. The paint will come off).

#2 I think is totally unpacked and all her laundry is put away, even. #1 smashed her finger in a TV tray today so I think she'll finish tomorrow. She's mostly done, though, and both kids are very thrilled with their end results:


Please note that it is already trying to revert to its original state. LOL We're curbing the crap this time.


#1's usual sheet, a leopard print, was in the wash. We don't have a lot of twin sheets (I usually wash them and put them right back on the beds) so I put Bob the Builder on. She freaked out when I said I was taking a picture for my blog, and put ET over it.

Me: "ET is better than Bob the Builder?"

Her (shrilly): "YES! ET is classical!"


So there you have it. The reason I left you all despondent and without witty *cough* insightful *cough cough* blog posts for, what, seven days? Or does this make it eight? :)

Next project: The Dining Room