Ch-ch-ch-changes

We commenced work on the boys’ Final Room (as I’m calling it) this weekend. We’re nowhere near done - the real torture begins today, as I have to go through all of the crap that came out of their room and figure out how to dispose of it all, but we at least got done what I wanted to get done over the weekend - removal of all items, painting, and setting up of beds. The H had to ditch out of a long-planned night out with friends for dinner and a Hannah Gadsby comedy show - but it was worth it as he used that time to set up all the furniture.

One big lesson learned: for the love of god, don’t let your kids put stickers on the furniture or walls. I beg of you. I spent pretty much the entire day painstakingly scraping stickers off of their dresser, only to end up dinging and scratching the wood and pretty much ruining it. Also made big holes in the plaster of the walls where the stickers were. Good times.

We spent probably 5 hours at ikea, as I pretty much expected. It was torture. My feet and legs hurt so badly from all the standing and walking that I still feel it now. I had a plan for what I wanted to get, of course - I’d already made a trip over there some weeks ago - but the H wanted to look at literally everything in the store to make sure we weren’t “missing anything”. As in, I don’t trust your judgment (when, shocker, we always end up going with my plan anyway). This drives me nuts, but I also know men are like this. 

However, being a person of unending patience, we got through it without much conflict other than me having to tell him to stop snapping at the boys (pay attention! You need to be looking for things to put in your room! Why is nobody listening?”) who understandably were bored AF and just wanted to get out of there. 

To be fair, the H is facing a major crisis at work - the motherboard of his printing press is fried again, which means he can’t do any work and has no discernible income for an unknown period of time, and really should have spent the weekend farming out his existing projects to competitors to get them done on time instead of doing this, so he was very stressed out. I get it. 

Here’s some before pics of their disaster of a toddler room:

And here’s what we’ve done so far: beds, new rug, new paint. Next up is setting up their new desk, book shelves, and under bed storage; putting things on the walls and switching out lighting (some things have been ordered and won’t be available until next week).

The main thing is sorting through all The Stuff. I’m hoping this is the last time we have to cull their toys and kid books - they really shouldn’t have toys anymore, being as they never play with anything except their devices (mostly VRs). 

It’s weird to think of them being high school kids and beyond in this space. Of course, Bobby will most likely elect to move up to the attic at some point. Or to the shed, and that’ll be a whole process of making that space livable. But thankfully that’s for another time.