This Independence Day, my children are celebrating the lack of independence. When we moved in, the second bedroom of our home had a poorly patched hole in the wall under the window. As our babies grew into rambunctious preschoolers, they had an obsession for the great outdoors just like every other kid on the planet. Unfortunately, as they looked out the window standing on the bed, they soon found that it was almost as much fun to kick at the big hole as it was to watch out the window.
As time passed, the "poorly patched hole" just became a "hole." That room has also always been the worst insulated room in the house requiring a large heater in the winter and complete abandonment in the summer when it remained in the upper 80's long into the night. So, we decided since walls were going to be coming down anyway, we may as well redo the insulation (if we found any) and redo the drywall in the whole room.
So, Ryan was moved to a toddler bed in our room (along with us & Z in his crib). Ryan's bed is mostly in the garage (his headboard has been camping out at his friend's house). The rest of his furniture and toys had to be dispersed throughout our house. So, while we felt a little cramped before with 2 kids and 2 cats (who take up a surprising amount of room!), we are downright squished now!!
During nap time, Ryan used to play in his room for a while and then go out to the living room. He is feeling it being stuck. I have found him playing in the bathroom floor (an interesting feat considering the floorspace is minimal at best) and under the kitchen table. Lately he has been doing color, cut, and glue during nap time. Which is great except for the teensy tiny scraps of paper I keep finding everywhere.
The first few days, we just went outside for most of the day, but soon, the rain and in hi temperatures ran us back into our little slice of construction zone! A very interesting little tidbit of information I have learned is that when you take 2 children who usually run the entirety of a 900 square foot house and take away 100 of those feet, they extra energy they exert goes into tearing up the furniture. I am sure this Law is in the big book of Law's of the Universe and I just have yet to be informed of it!! Something like, "Little boys bouncing across the room will continue to bounce even if there is a couch and end table in their path?"
On the up side, my kids are learning valuable skill sets. I am fairly certain that if we told Z we wanted a wall taken down, he could handle it! Ryan's job has been to write measurements on the drywall marking the distance to the outlets, etc. His number writing skills have improved...along with his mural drawing skills. After Tim told him to write something on the wall, his little eyes got real big and he said, "I can write on it???" And he proceeded to do a beautiful pencil mural that I will have to be sure to photograph before we paint over it.
So, how long is the process going to last? I have no idea! Tim works when he can. There is fresh drywall on 1 1/2 walls and insulation is up on 3. Then, we will still have to pull out the carpet and rip up the time that is under that....so, I am sure updates will be forthcoming and in, we will have a party when we can move the boys out into their very own new room!! Then the biggest problem will be deciding how to decorate. R wants Scooby Doo and Jake & the Neverland Pirates and Z wants sports....this could be a very interesting looking room!! I wonder if it would be acceptable to make Jake play soccer and Scooby play baseball???
