Finally...a playroom

Our family has some exciting news for the blog world that I haven't shared yet here on Common to Moms... we are expecting!

Furthermore... we are expecting TWINS. 

Our 20 week ultrasound tells us that we are expecting ONE BOY and ONE GIRL.  :)

We are beyond thrilled!

That being said... there are some major changes that will take place in our home over the next few months.

1. Melody and our foster baby, "Peanut," will move from separate rooms to sharing a room.

2. We will create a new nursery for our twins. 

3. Our home office is going bye-bye to make room for a kids-only playroom and learning space.

4. We plan to reclaim our living room as an adult-friendly space (no longer half and half). :)

Getting our house ready for this transition is going to be intense.  We are about to have four children under the age of 3 in our little, humble abode.  A friend of mine put this link on my facebook to give me some ideas for catering to kids in a small space.  This post is FULL of awesome ideas to help you create a kid-friendly play/learning space, so consider this an "Inspire Me! Monday" link on Saturday night. ;-)

In honor of reading this post, here is a list of things that will be put in our play space after we clear out all remnants of adulthood.

- A 9 block cubby holder/book case for toys,books, etc
- A play kitchen
- Probably a glider/rocker for nursing & possibly a baby gate contraption around it to keep kids away from poking newborn babies while I nurse
- Baby swings
- A pack-n-play to give Peanut a safe place to play while I nurse

Other things I don't have, but might like to make/get for the play space

- Lots of pillows for a reading space on the floor
- An arts and crafts type storage area with learning boxes and activities
- A table for drawing/coloring, etc
- Cozy kid chairs or bean bags, maybe like these but without the names on them
- Artwork displayed across the window with a line and clothespins
- Pictures of my kids on at least one wall

I am so looking forward to finally having the motivation to turn a room in our house into a complete kid-friendly space.  The only non-kid stuff that will have to remain in that room is our washer and dryer... The room we have been using as our home office is actually our laundry/bonus room.  So I will also be looking for ways to kid-proof the area in front of our washer and dryer, so kids can't mess with knobs, etc.  I am sensing the need for a closet to be built around them... but we will see. 

And of course, there is LOTS of work to be done in that room before we can even begin to really make it into a kid space... clearing out the adult junk, fixing a problem window and priming and painting it.  Luckily, I've had one or two people volunteer to help me with this project and I am definitely itching to get started on it.  It might take a little more time to start on it though, since I am still backed up from the first trimester blues... which honestly lasted until the last week or two.  The morning sickness, tiredness, etc are still not gone, but they are definitely not holding me hostage anymore and I can eat now, so things are definitely on the upswing. 

It feels so good to be back on the blog, telling you what's going on in my head.  Hope to see you again soon! :)

Love,
Rachel


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Gettin' Creative

Thank you to Brittany and Lindsay for weighing in on my "playroom dilemma" where I outlined the problems I am having with storing the guest room furniture to make way for a new play space. After reading their comments and talking with the hubby a little, I have re-worked a few ideas.

First, I realize that by leaving the bed in the room I could probably do without a changing table since I could do diaper changes on the bed. This would be especially great since I don't actually have an extra changing table. :) By reorienting the bed, we can (hopefully) still have enough floor space for substantial play area.

Second, there is plenty of room under the bed for toy storage. Pull the toys out for play, and put them away where they can't be seen or gotten to easily without help from an adult. Perfect to keep little ones from ransacking the room without my knowledge. :)

Third, those DIY pillows I like will have plenty of "storage" on the bed. Great for cuddling on the bed while reading books or pulled down onto the floor.

As for the heirloom end tables, my husband assures me they will safely survive in the attic despite the temperature range. They will be safe while I use an old nightstand from my child hood that will stand up better to kid use. (It can also be repainted to a fun color!)

By pulling a bookshelf into the room from another part of the house, I will have room for books and more toy storage. I will also be keeping the chest of drawers that is in the room already to use for storage, but like the nightstand, I am hoping to give it a makeover one day also.

By this point, if you are anything like me, you are needing some sort of visual to really understand what I'm talking about, so here is my not-to-scale-at-all creation of the future playroom in Publisher. :)




Update: I should add that the top door is the doorway to the room, the bottom one is the closet door.

So basically you can see the art area clearly defined, reading could be near the bookshelf or on the bed and the middle of the floor would be the main play area. I haven't added the nightstand yet, but I'm pretty sure you can guess where that would go. Also, the hubby pointed out that if we really wanted to, we could move the bed when guests come to give guests access to both sides of the bed. This would make the room really feel more like a guest room than a playroom to them, but we can always move it back when they leave. How smart is he?!

Anyway, with the new furniture arrangement only the rocking chair and the hope chest are left needing a new home.

There is an old wooden vanity in our bedroom that I have been thinking about using as an art table/storage space for the play room. If I did that, there is the the potential to swap the hope chest for the vanity- although that would create a new storage/mirror dilemma in my bedroom. (Don't worry, I would detach the mirror from the vanity for play room use.) Then only the rocking chair would need a home, and as a bonus, I wouldn't have to spend money on a new table for the play room! Although it's not hard to find a short table at Goodwill for under $5 to use for art purposes... and I would still need chairs.

I guess the point of this now-slightly-rambling-post is that I am having a little bit of success thinking of some creative solutions to my dilemma. While the "art area" still remains undefined in my plan, I am looking forward to moving ahead with the playroom concept instead of letting old hang-ups slow me down!

Hopefully this means I will have an updated post for you soon- maybe with a picture of some furniture moved around! In the meantime, the suggestion box is still open- feel free to offer suggestions on the original post or on this one.

Thanks for contributing your thoughts!

A Playroom in the Making?

In our house we have three bedrooms, and I have been giving a lot of thought lately to how they are used. Currently one is the master bedroom, one is Melody's and one is a guest room, but I have been wondering if that is the best use for them. We love having guests have their own special place when they come to visit, but that means our third bedroom is empty most of the time. Our living room is also fairly small, plus we do everything there except eat and sleep, so as time passes I am sure that room is getting smaller (cabin fever anyone?)- not to mention it's getting overrun by toys. My solution? I have been thinking about changing the guest room into a playroom.

There are lots of benefits to having a playroom to me.

1. Kids bedrooms stay uncluttered by toys. (I love the idea that bedrooms are just for sleeping.)
2. Toys all live in one place.
3. I keep children in my home part time, so having an extra room to play in would be nice.
4. Our guest room connects to our office, so M loves to play in there if I have work to do in the office. Currently, there is nothing for her to do in there except run around the bed.

So here is the break down of the switcheroo I am thinking about doing in our house.

The first row is our rooms and their functions now. The second row is what their functions would be with a playroom.

My plan for guests would be to have a spare air mattress (one of those really tall ones maybe?) to blow up in the play room, so that guests would still have their own space when they came to stay with us.

I have also been thinking about how this arrangement would work if we introduced a second child into our family. (We aren't "trying" or anything yet, we've just started thinking about it.) When I think about 2 babies, I love the idea them sharing one room for sleeping and having an extra bedroom be a play area. I know it is hard to have a baby that doesn't sleep through the night yet share a room with a toddler who does, so I have also been thinking about a "transition" plan for that too. This plan would require keeping another crib (we have a 2nd one) or pack-n-play in the play room and a bassinet or pack-n-play in the master bedroom.



*STTN= sleeping through the night

So those are my thoughts on how to best use the bedroom space in our house. Have I confused you yet? Lost you in boring details? Anyone relate that this is what moms who want more babies think about- how to logistically give your kids more room to play and room to sleep in your small home? :)

Look out for more about the playroom soon!

Love, Rachel