Lots of Moving

There are many problems with the layout of our house that Ellis and I did not realize when we bought it and moved in. My two biggest complaints - 1) no bonus room/playroom (for all the kids' toys and such) and 2) the two bedrooms near our room are very disproportionate in size. The fourth bedroom is up a separate set of stairs over the garage, along with a small, odd-sized room. We've used the fourth bedroom as an office and the small room has served as my junk room since we moved in 4 1/2 years ago.

In July, we moved Will out of the smaller bedroom into the bigger room and made a big deal of his move into the "big boy room." The smaller one was to stay as a nursery for child #2. (ahem, not child #2 and #3)

A couple of weeks ago, Ellis and I finally made the agonizing decision that it made no sense for Will to stay in the bigger room while we cram the twins into the smaller nursery. Thus, this weekend became the weekend of a whole lot of moving and a whole lot of organizing. Here is what we were up to (and accomplished) over the last 3 days:

• We moved Will's room into what used to be the nursery.
• We moved the nursery furniture into what used to be Will's big boy room.
• The new crib arrived and Ellis put it together in the nursery. (We ended up getting the same one we already have - its slightly different but the closest match we could come without having to sell the one we had and buy two new ones.)
• I put the crib bedding I bought into the cribs.
• We went through all of the junk that had accumulated in the office area and the junk room, getting rid of a WHOLE lot of stuff.
• We moved the guest room furniture into the the fourth bedroom, cleaned it up, and made it a guest room.
• We turned the junk room into an office. (This was actually a project 3 months in the making that is now complete.)
• Ellis totally organized our attic storage area.
• I went through about 7 huge plastic containers of all of Will's clothes that he has grown out of, weeding out the very few things that the girls could wear and separating out the rest for consignment and giving away.

WHEW! We owe a lot of thanks to my dad for helping us get all this done. I can't lift things nowadays so we needed his help. He worked for several hours Saturday and Sunday to help us move all of this furniture, along with fixing a couple random projects around the house that he saw needed to be done. (He is an absolutely AMAZING Mr. Fix-It.)

I don't have a picture of the nursery yet because its a work in progress with many boxes and things all over the place. I'm not a 100% pleased with it because, even with the bigger room, its hard to put two cribs, a big oversized chair and ottoman, chest of drawers and dresser into a room. But, it will work. And it looks way better than it would have in the smaller room.

The best part? Will had absolutely no problem moving to the new room. He was very excited about it and "helped" the guys move everything. The two posters of Buzz and Woody that I put up helped a good bit too! As it turns out, Ellis and I both agree that his stuff looks so much better in his old room. I wish the walls weren't quite so yellow, but that is a project for another day ... or another year.

I need to fix the curtains and take care of a few more things, but overall the room is more together than it ever was in the former big boy room.

The best part of this busy weekend is that Ellis and I both agree that our home has suddenly gotten a whole lot more homier. We are using every room in a way that makes sense and everything just feels more cozy. And that makes us both happy.

One more step closer to getting ready for the twins...