At Home on this Mountain

I will just say right off  the bat that I will NOT be sharing my boys’ bedroom this week. Maybe ever. ‘Nuff said. Instead, here are some photos of my girls’ charming (in my eyes and theirs, anyway) bedroom. Formerly this was the CHILDRENS’ bedroom, as in, all four of them shared it. My amazing husband built a MASSIVE double bunkbed (two full size mattresses) which took up the majority of the space (the room is just 9 feet square, including the closet (which is now sleeping quarters.) I’ll tell you more about what’s there, how it came to be and what it used to look like as we go along.

Standing in the doorway at the end of the hallway; to the right you can see the end of the changing table:

Standing just inside the room with the doorway at my back. You can see more of the changing table as well as the window and my beloved Pooh print, given to me by my parents when I was a teenager. We’re not huge fans of Disney stuff but I have always loved Pooh and this is so much more subdued than your average Disney Pooh stuff that I let it into the girls’ room. They love it but MJ wants to know when we can finish coloring it in. Yikes! You can also see part of the “pet net” in the upper right hand corner:

Here’s Baby EP’s area. Her clothes are stored here, the giraffe belongs to her and she gets changed and dressed here most of the time. As small as our house is, a changing table seems like a bit of a waste of space, but I LOVE having just one spot to store all of her things. So much nicer than trying to find a diaper from one of many hidey holes around the house. The butterflies were a present to MJ from the “J’s” ((my brother and his fiancée) on her last birthday. She decorated them with glitter and rhinestones and we hung them here at her request. I crammed myself in amongst the hanging clothes to take this shot:

Next we have the toy kitchen and a better view of the pet net which is overstuffed but I can’t do a cull here until the kids are away or very busy somewhere else. Also two of the several baby beds. You need a lot of baby beds when your pet net is this full. The wooden cradle was mine when I was a girl (for my dolls) and my folks repainted it and made new bedding for it for MJ’s second birthday. I found the tiny Moses basket at Good Will. I made the cushion to go inside of it and RK got it for her third birthday.

Now we have the girls’ beds which are built into the former closet. We took the malfunctioning doors off years ago and just had Mom and Dad’s clothes hanging there. One of my jobs for this project was to get the hanging clothes to a level that would fit in the space just to the left of here (which you’ll see next.) Underneath are the big girls’ drawers- one for each of them. They’re just one of the “charming” built-ins from the original trailer. The same closet set-up is in the boys’ room and their beds are done the same way. The very top shelf is currently storage for whatever. I plan to paint inside the bed area someday and probably the drawer fronts and the surrounding wood as well.

Next we have the remaining closet in the house. The whole family’s hanging clothes are here. Originally there was a built-in desk with mirror here. Then we took out the desk and put the crib here when RK was big enough for a crib. It’s a slightly smaller than average (but still safe, I checked!) older crib. A standard modern crib would not fit here. When we packed away the crib, we put in another clothes bar to fit everyone’s stuff in here. Underneath we have most of the diapers from our baby shower (we were blessed with over 500!) plus the cloth diapers that we’ll use once the paper ones have run out (still a couple months off) and some random junk that I need to sort through and put away. At least it’s all in a box though!

This view is just inside the doorway, taken from underneath the pet net. This shelf was the same color as the drawers and was originally in the living room, under the giant mirror. It was also built-in. We had movies and a few books on it for a long time, then transferred it in here. We took it back down so I could paint it this cute turquoise color a couple months ago (when EP was brand new) and Hubby rehung it for me, because he’s nice Now it has a bunch of little girl treasures on it. Those “Growing Up Girls” belong to MJ and I have been pretty good about getting them on each of her birthdays. I always wanted a set of those growing up but it just didn’t happen (Plenty of other stuff happened so don’t pity me for a lame childhood or anything. I probably never even told my mother I wanted them.) She loves them as much as I always thought I would. Now I am trying to decide whether to get sets for the other girls or not. The only have blonde and brunette. RK is definitely more blonde than MJ. EP looks to be headed the same direction as MJ but I don’t know what to do yet. More doll beds here too. The bunkbeds were my sister’s when she was little (7 years after I was little) and they went through the same treatment as the cradle for MJ’s second birthday. The Little House books on the shelf here are my second set. The first set is in my room, worn and read to shreds. This set is for more general consumption.

Aside: a comment about the flooring in here. Just a few months ago there was REVOLTING shaggy orange and brown carpet in here and it smelled awful. Blame that last bit on the Chihuahua. We pulled it out to find that there was kind of cute original flooring still in here and the boys’ bedroom. I kind of like the look in the boys’ room and theirs is in better shape. There are a lot of bad spots in here though so I plan to have Hubby paint it at some point. Until then, it’s beige, so it kind of blends in when you’re looking at it every day. It is light years beyond the old floor so I am NOT complaining.

Finally we have the doorway again. The shoe holder was a thrift store find and has done a good job of keeping the kids’ shoes corralled for several years. I recently emptied about 12 pairs of outgrown shoes from it so it looks much better now.

Now a word about how it all USED to look. In addition to clothes where the bunks are and a crib where the clothes are, there was also a giant double bunkbed where the changing table, toy kitchen, toy boxes and window are. There were about 24 inches of space between the long edge of the bed and the drawers/closet area. There were about 18 inches of space at the foot of the bed from the doorway most of the way to the current closet. “Cramped” may not be quite accurate. However, we were happy to have a place for all 4 children to sleep comfortably and without being afraid of anything (because who can be scared with 3 other people in the room and their parents in the next room?)

And now that you’ve read way too much about my kids’ bedroom, please go read what the Four Moms have to say about their other bedrooms!

The Deputy Headmistress

Connie

KimC

and Kimberly

It’s so much fun!!

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I don’t know if my bedroom actually qualifies as a master bedroom since there’s no en suite bath, but it’s a bedroom and that’s what’s cooking this week with the Four Moms. Please go check all of their bedrooms too, I know you’ll enjoy your visit!

Connie

Kim

Kimberly

Deputy Headmistress

Here’s our humble room, which I think might be 12 feet square, but I’m not getting up to measure right now.

From the doorway, the “door” of which is just one of those plastic accordion-style things.  A real door is on our to-do list.

The quilt above the headboard is from my infancy, made by an aunt in 1978, from pieces of doubleknit polyester pants suits. It’s super thick and an excellent floor quilt for babies, but I keep it on the wall now. My mom made the afghan on the headboard and the matching pillows. I love them! And here! Isn’t she nice? And talented?

This is my side of the bed, and Baby EP’s. Lots of books, diapers, wipes, Puffs Plus Lotion (because my allergies can’t take anything less than the most expensive best tissues.

The shelf above my head has several toys from my childhood as well as a few that just remind me of my childhood. On Hubby’s side are some other toys made or thrifted by me, and his silver baby cup. The little pink creature with blue ears was mine as a baby too.

Then we have Hubby’s side of the bed. Bible? Check. Current book? Check. Gun and blacksmithing magazines? Check. Blonde imp? check. There’s also a TON of hammers both on the nightstand and on the floor under the bed. Isn’t that where everyone keeps his spare hammers?

(I have no idea why that photo insists on staying on its side. It’s right on Photobucket but won’t behave itself here on HSB no matter how many times I change the orientation and recopy the link. Oh well. Just tilt your head to the left. Thanks.)

Here’s the bookcase at the foot of the bed, standing on my side. It has many books, but also lots of mementos. That cool mirror up there, with the hooks? My sister gave it to me for Christmas a couple years ago because she’s awesome. Hubby won the Kermit doll for me on our honeymoon in Las Vegas.The ceramic statue on the top shelf was made by my grandma when I was a teenager. She still looks new. I think that’s called being “timeless.” And the baby in the frame on the far left? That’s me.

Here’s the wall next to my side with the window and AC unit that keeps me sane in late pregnancy in the Alabama summertime (almost time to pack it away for the winter!), my hooks for robes, clothes, etc (I cleaned that off a good bit before I took the picture, believe it or not). Sorry about the darkness. I had all 3 lights on and it still looked like this. It was much darker when the walls were still half dark paneling (the other half was light colored paneling. Chic, no?)

And finally, in the spirit of keeping it real, here’s the wall on Hubby’s side of the room (more imp!) The mattress will someday go into our storage area, but for the past few months it has lived here. We just keep living around it.

And my plan for the wall there is to hang all of our family portraits. Currently they’re stored behind the newest one in the frame. I would like them all on display as well as some other family photos. I plan to spray paint all the frames one color but I’m not sure which one yet. And speaking of color, I don’t think I will ever get tired of the color of the walls in here. We painted them a couple months before RK was born, so over three years ago and the color still makes my heart sing. It’s so calming and really helps this room to feel less stifling to me. And I’m the one who matters because this is my room

The photo in the center is me on the day we got engaged. I had an inkling so I dressed up and had the neighbor take a photo of me in his much-prettier-than-mine apartment. On the right are my parents-in-law and on the left is me with all 4 children when RK was just a few weeks old.

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Hopefully I have fixed the blog so that folks who do not have homesteadblogger accounts can tell me what they think, too. Sorry about the difficulty that several people had. I didn’t know there were any restrictions set or that I could change them. Hope you’re having a blessed Sunday.

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{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you want to do the same, share your link in the comments at SouleMama’s blog here.

Wishing you a blessed and restful weekend!

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I’ve been meaning to join in with the Four Moms for the past three weeks on one of their open houses but I haven’t gotten my act together until today.

When you’ve checked out my living room (which should take all of about 13 seconds ) please go gawk at theirs as well:

Smockity Frocks

The Common Room

Life in a Shoe

Raising Olives

These are all fantastic mom-bloggers with families even larger than ours. I love reading all of them, though I don’t comment often (I have five children you know ) So please go admire their homes with me!

Now, onto my house. Have I mentioned that my house is just shy of 900 square feet? And that there are seven of us? Just making sure. Our living room is very small, probably a consequence of the whole house being on the small side. This is the view while standing in the front doorway:

From right to left you can see a sliver of the gun cabinet, the cedar chest (or the baskets on top of it anyway), Hubby’s recliner, the kids’ thinking chair in front of the woodstove and then my recliner. Also many books. You haven’t seen the half of the books. The brown chair (not coincidentally right in front of the AC unit) is where I sit while we do the read-aloud portions of our lessons in the morning. The kids sprawl on the floor, in my green recliner and in the thinking chair.

On top of the woodstove you can see most of my cast iron cookware (I store it there all year) as well as yet another stack of books and our globe (which has the USSR on it- bonus!) We love this woodstove. It keeps the front of the house toasty warm all winter and when we get too hot we just retreat to the bedroom where it is much cooler. I will have to remove the cloth, books and globe soon because IT WILL GET COLD AGAIN. I keep telling myself that, even if it is hard to believe when it’s 88 degrees and humid enough to quench your thirst if you step outside.

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Now I am standing in front of the boys’ bedroom door, about a foot in front of where I was standing for the last photo. I also turned my body 90 degrees to the left.

You get a complete view of my chair and end table which houses a couple of piles of unshelved books. There’s also a box of them underneath, behind my sewing box. In the foreground is the top of the baby’s swing, where she takes her naps. Except at this particular moment (as I type) she’s napping in my lap. That works too.

You can see the kitchen from this point (as well as from most other points in the house) and thankfully it’s relatively clean. The giant bowl of apples and the blue bag (of apples) beside it just happen to be hiding the lunch dishes in the sink. You can also see the banana hanger Hubby made at the forge. Just past the books shelves on the left you can see the entrance to the dining room (with the hangers at the top- that’s my indoor “clothesline.”)

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Here I am standing in front of Hubby’s recliner, facing toward the front door which is just to the left of the television and therefore outside the photo.

To the right of the swing you see a large mirror (part of the trailer when it was brand new, before I was born) and 2 lovely bookshelves, each of which is holding more than its fair share of books. Underneath the bottom shelf are more books. We have the boards for the shelves but Hubby is blacksmithing the brackets and those take a while. He’ll also have to take the mirror down and dispose of it so it’s kind of on hold at the moment. We will have a total of 6 shelves there when all is said and done.

The television is sitting atop a thrifted dresser that my grandma used for the last year or so of her life, while she lived with my folks. It houses (from top to bottom) frequently-used tools and hardware, movies and the kids’ movies. To the right of that is our “media cart” which is home to our Wii, the DVD player, iPod dock and a couple of books of DVDs.  AC finished his lessons earlier than anyone else so he is playing Star Wars: The Clone Wars (although he was nice enough to pause it for a few minutes for me to take photos).  And in the far right you can see RK’s elbow as she watches her new Strawberry Shortcake movie on Daddy’s computer in the dining room.

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Finally we have the view from the other side of the room, standing on the line between the kitchen and living room.

From here you can see the wall Hubby built a few months ago to enclose then-playroom to make a bedroom for the boys. The living room used to feel much larger without this wall and the white folding door to its right, but the bedroom is only about 9 feet square and the boys are so glad to have their own room now. So are the girls. You can also see the two foot stools I bought for $2 each at Goodwill a few months ago. I love those footstools! The kids sit on them, I put my feet on them when I don’t feel like reclining and they STACK! Also, I saw them in the background of someone’s apartment in the movie The Bounty Hunter. Cool, huh? Especially since they’ve obviously been around a while. The movie ones had different color cushions than mine and there were three of them, I think.

My plan for this area is to move the cedar chest where Hubby’s chair is, move the chair to the other side of the room where my green recliner is, put a loveseat on this wall and give away the green recliner. The only hangup is the gun cabinet which really doesn’t fit anywhere else. Well, and the fact that I don’t have a loveseat. Currently we can only really seat two adults in this room and there are two adults living here already. So having guests is pretty much not happening. Unless they’re young and don’t mind spending the visit climbing trees or sitting on the floor.

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