Movin' on Up!

Quite some time ago, when we first purchased this house, I showed you these picture of our upstairs:

Left side.

More left side.

Right side.

More right side.

That was waaaaaay back early last spring (April?). Since then, my AH-mazing dad (seen in "More left side") has taken this big open space and created TWO bedrooms. You see, the house was listed as a two-bedroomer, but one bedroom was in the basement (which is now our den) and the second was the massive upstairs bedroom, shown above (when we first looked at it there were a few beds set up sort of dormitory style). With a little one, this just wasn't going to work, so my dad sat down, created a new floor plan, and set to work. (I've recently informed my father he NEEDS to start a blog to showcase all the awesome stuff he's done in our house and his own, and maybe try some how-tos. He's got mad skillz when it comes to this stuff.)

Anywho, this is what where we're living now:

Left side, our bedroom.

Just had to show these off--they're pillows I made!

Other side of our bedroom.

Right side, Lizzie's bedroom.

I know, her window is crazy big (and beautiful, my dad and DOH installed this new one). Currently, there is a heavy bookshelf in front of this window prevent any little people from tumbling out.

Her closet and the chimney (which she thinks is so cool; she asks if Santa is going to leave her presents in her room ALL the time).

More chimney! What Lizzie's room lacks in width is made up by height. She has an awesome vaulted ceiling and when we get the ladder back down and she's a bit older, she'll have access to the loft that's just above our room.



The beams that go over her room. She now has a beautiful light-up paper star hanging from there as her bedroom light.

While anything was better than living in our old apartment, it was really nice to move ourselves to the upstairs bedrooms after a couple of weeks of all of us sharing a bedroom (and bed, most nights). It felt so good to be able to spread out and have our own rooms again! And, on top of it, they are such beautiful spaces. The last time I got to pick the color of any room, let alone two (and, of course, we've chosen colors for other rooms, too, but they're waiting to be painted), I was ten, so it was lots of fun deciding what we were going to do (seen in this post here).

A lot of things have changed since I last posted a "tour" of the house, so I might have to do that again, soon, or at least post the rooms that have changed. A lot still needs to be done both inside and out (the garden is INTENSE here--I ought to post some pictures of that, too), but slowly and surely we're getting there. My hope is that everything basic that we want to get done inside will be done by Christmas, if not sooner. Here's a short list of what we (and when I say "we", it's a combo of me, DOH, and my dad) need to complete:

• Repair the ceiling over the dining area (there was some water damage).
• Install the new side door.
• Paint the new stair treads and banister.
• Paint the upstairs bathroom and tub.
• Paint, stencil, or wallpaper the sections of the main floor that are currently covered in the hideous grandma wallpaper.

It's really not that much to get done, for which I'm thankful, considering I grew up in two houses that had to have MAJOR renovations done (like, entire sections of houses needing to be rebuilt and rewired). Also, a little more decorating needs to happen, so I'm looking forward to slowly but surely picking up a few pieces to add some character to the rooms in this house.

But regardless of what does get done and when, I'm eternally thankful to have this house, beautiful lot, and my family living in it. It doesn't get much better than that.