The Great Rearrangement of '08

Well, here was the problem: 2 children, one small room, no space, and lots of waking one another up. We have 2 bedrooms on the main floor of our house. One is very small (9x9) and the other is bigger (10x12). Since Mandy was born, the girls shared the little room. Emma is a sound sleeper and never wakes in the middle of the night when Mandy cries. We crammed a crib, a changing table, a twin bed, and night stand into the tiny room with an even tinier closet. The room was always a mess because there wasn't enough room for everything. We've had increasing problems with the girls waking each other up in the early morning hours and not going back to sleep or Emma waking Mandy up when she goes to bed. During Mandy's naps, I would have to ban Emma from her room so that she wouldn't wake the light sleeping Mandy.

My solution was to move Emma out of the tiny room and into the bigger room (the parent's room). The grown-ups would then move upstairs to the even bigger room that has been our guest room. It is a nice room, but the entire upstairs is in need of a few 1000s of dollars worth of work, including insulation, new windows, a bathroom remodel, and carpeting. We knew we couldn't do anything on the list of upstairs projects, but decided the move upstairs was the best plan anyway. When I presented my plan to my change-reluctant husband, he said "OK" as long as I painted the plaid wall.

I painted the wall plaid. Yes, painted. I enlisted the help of my sister and friend, Jenni and we spend an entire day making the wall look like that. I saw the idea in Better Homes and Gardens, but my wall never looked like their wall and I've really hated it for going on 6 years. The plus side was that for 1) it was a conversation piece, and 2) guests could not handle staying long in the plaid room.

It took 3, count them 3, coats of Kilz to cover the plaid. Emma was a big help, but managed to get Kilz in her hair. 9 days later, she still has Kilz in her hair.
I painted the wall "Toasted Brie"