It’s one of those dreary mornings. I’ve been up since way before my alarm as little miss decided she needed a drink and then she decided to steal the back off of the remote as she attempted to turn on her favorite show, Miss Rachel. I couldn’t go back to sleep as she was very squirmy and then my mind was thinking of a few of the remodeling dilemmas we’ve been facing.

I was anxiously waiting for daylight so I could outside to do some storm prep as we have been having some very strange weather here. Many areas around us have actually closed school for the day in anticipation of the severe weather this afternoon. Little Miss has an oncology appointment this afternoon and I’m waiting to see what the weather does as I really don’t want to reschedule it. I’m also hoping the weather doesn’t get too bad as I’d like to stop at the second-hand store on the way home to see about a shelf they had advertised. It looks like it might be perfect for the hallway and I am also looking for a cabinet to use as a linen cabinet.

I knew I shouldn’t get on my phone but I did it anyway and that was the end of trying to go back to sleep. I did find some creative solutions to some of the issues like a way to make some rails for the top bunk beds, a new adjustable baby chair, and a shoe rack for the narrow hallway area that we will have once we finish framing the old doorway in. I also found quite a few things that I wasn’t looking for like some ideas for my closet and the little nook area in our bedroom, some ideas for my laundry room remodel, and some overpriced gadgets that I don’t really need but they looked interesting… don’t worry I didn’t buy anything.

We’ve also really been trying to get back to our normal pre-Christmas routines although we are in the middle of a semi-major remodel. The kids seem to think we should all be on holiday because we have the bedrooms torn apart but really we need to try to keep things as normal as possible… even if they have their closets in the living room for now. Mr. W has been doing surprisingly well with all the chaos and mess but he knows he can always go back to his little area because we haven’t changed anything there yet. He doesn’t know that the remodel is being done so he can have a bigger area for himself… we’ve been calling it ‘the office’ to keep him from getting too anxious about the upcoming changes.

We have the new drywall hung in the girl’s bedroom and in Mr. W’s area. We’ve made two new doorways to these areas as well as moving the door to the other bedroom. We still have to hang some drywall in the boys’ room and the hallway but most of everything that has been hung is ready to be finished and then painted… yay! With this being a doublewide some of the construction hasn’t been quite as smooth as we had hoped but we have made it better than it was and it should function so much better once we get it all finished.

The plan in the girls’ room is to keep the bunk beds and then use one of the existing cubby storage along with a smaller new one to create a ‘built-in’ closet area for them. I have been getting rid of the dressers because they take up too much space and the newer ones just keep falling apart. I’ll post pictures of what we’ve been using in place of the dressers just as soon as we get these rooms finished. We have bought a few new decor items for this room which I’ll also post about later. Their color scheme plans are pink, grey, and white with some black accents.

We should also have room to try moving Shyanne back to the big girl room again… this time I’m keeping her a bed in their room though because the last time the girls ‘took over’ Shyanne’s space when I relocated the bed to my room. All of these plans on dependent on some major decluttering as well. I don’t know how these kids manage to get all this stuff into their rooms but sometimes they pull things out that I don’t recall ever laying eyes on before. All I can think of is that they must be taking every opportunity that I’m gone to sneak things in from the sheds and other areas.

I did buy some of the cabinet paint that I used for the kitchen cabinets because it has held up so well. I got it in a warm black color… not sure what makes it warm but we’ll see. I also got a very pale pink sample because I was thinking that I might use it somewhere in the girls’ room. The black paint will be for all the bunk beds. I originally wanted to paint the girls’ beds white but the beds have a lot of black on the metal frames and such so I didn’t feel like ‘fighting’ with it… I’m sure it will all look good in the end.

Mr. W’s area will have his bed, his old armoire, a sensory light, and an arcade game. He doesn’t like a lot of things to clutter his area so we are keeping it pretty minimal. We might be able to add a few shelves for him to put some of his collectibles on and I have ordered some superhero decor which I’ll share in a later post. He really likes his armoire and I’ve tried swapping it for something smaller in the past without luck. He will take out whatever I put in it and then put his clothes back in it… no matter where I put it in the house. I am going to try to paint it and hope he does well with that change… I may end up sanding it back down if he doesn’t like it though. His color scheme plans are gray, blue, and some accents.

The boys will be keeping their room and bunk beds. I will also be bringing in another existing cubby storage to their room plus a couple of cabinets that currently have school supplies. One of those cabinets needs to be emptied which means more decluttering so that I can condense the two cabinets into one. I will also be redoing their closet area as they had been using the area that will now be Mr. W’s area. We took down the walk-in closet shelving and bars from Mr. W’s new area and I plan to try to reuse some of that in the boys’ closet. I may even end up removing the door to their walk-in closet as it would be the last old door in that part of the house… these old doors are horrendous and that one is falling apart already anyway. We will be buying new, bigger doors for all the bedrooms but I may have to space them out a bit. I have bought some curtains to use in the meantime though. Their color scheme plans are gray, black, and maybe some green or blue accents plus they will have some of their color code colors in the closet area to help keep things a little more organized.

The boys’ room will not get completely refinished during this phase of the remodel as my budget just won’t allow for that. I’ve already spent most of the budget on extra materials that we hadn’t planned for so some of the ‘extra touches‘ will have to wait a little bit as well. We have been fortunate that we had a good majority of supplies on hand from other projects as well as a variety of paint. We had bought enough paint for the whole house when we moved in but we never got around to actually painting everything yet. I still need to check the paint supply to see exactly what colors we have so I can decide exactly what paint we want to use accents and where. We also want to paint the ceilings as we go, if we have enough paint to do that right now.

The hallway will be finished in this go-round as I have been staring at the 2×4 marriage joints for over four years now! I’m hoping to get the shelving and storage situated in this area as well but I may have to wait for the right cabinet to come along. I had found the perfect cabinet at the perfect price, FREE, on the FB marketplace but it was pending pickup by the time I saw it.

Right now I’m waiting for the kids to gather around the table so we can get our Morning Work finished… our principal didn’t cancel school on account of the weather… lol. They have finished up most of their morning chores and we did get the chicken tractors covered so everyone will stay dry. We also had a grocery delivery so we are set for the week as far as food and supplies go and yesterday we made a feed store run so the animals are good for the month. It’s been pretty busy already and I still have a ton of work to get done before I leave for the appointment. I really need to find the back to the TV remote as well. We do have a pork roast in the crockpot and I need to make some bread this afternoon as well as prepping some pizza dough for tomorrow. Our menu days are a little out of order but that’s ok… this is life and we just roll with it.

Praying you all stay safe and sound!