The house

There are about eleventy billion things that need to be done in our house to get ready for the twins.  I made a list the other day of all the things that need to be sold, bought, organized and rearranged and it was 12 pages long.  Lordy. 

I want to document here the progress that we make because I am sure not all of the things I want to get done will actually get done.  I know you are dying to hear ALLLLLL about it....

Here is the thing.  We haven't really "finished" our house since we moved in 8 years ago.  Granted this house was move in ready and there weren't any big projects to finish but I mean like finishing decorating each room and stuff like that.  Want to know why?  Infertility.  I can blame a lot of things on it but this is a big one.  I feel like our life has ben on hold for the past 6-7 years.  I didn't want to turn our bar into a big fun adult pool table/ping pong room because I had hopes that it would be a playroom for children.  And then that didn't happen in the time frame that I was expecting so everything just got put on hold.  I didn't want to make one of the bedrooms downstairs into a super nice guest room because I want to make it a nursery!  So basically we did nothing.  We had our master upstairs and then some furniture in a room downstairs and called it a guest room.  Then of course when B came along we made her a nursery.  But other that that we have quite a few rooms that were/are not being used to their full potential.  

So that brings me to now.  We have to make room for 2 babies!  Let me give you a little rundown of the way our house is laid out.  

The upstairs is the main floor, the floor you walk in on and the floor where we spend most of our time.  This is where the master is (as well as the living room, dining room, kitchen, and laundry room).  We always lived in this room until we had B and then we moved down to the guest room beside her room which is where we live now.  

The downstairs has three bedrooms and then a large (bonus?) room that has a nice bar and lots of space.  We have used this as a bar/storage room.  Grrr.  One of the bedrooms is smaller and is my husband's office right now.  It has no windows and tile floors.  We call it the dungeon room.  It is a nice room but the others are more spacious and have windows and doors that look out to the lake.  

Anyway.  Basically we are rearranging our entire house before the babies come.  Or at least it feels like it.  Here is small(!) list of the big things that we have to do before babies.  

1.  The twin's nursery is going to be the room we live in now downstairs.  So we have to sell the bedroom set that is in there to make room for baby furniture.  Then we have to move back to the master upstairs.

2.  Move all of the furniture in Blakely's room (crib, dresser, chest of drawers, queen bed and glider) to the baby room.  Buy B all new furniture.  She's getting a new white bed and dresser and a room makeover.  No paint (her room is green) but lots of other new stuff.  

3.  Make the office into a guest bedroom.  There is already a queen bed in there so mainly this will be a bunch of organizing books (L is a book hoarder...have I mentioned that?).  We are going to sell the desk and desktop computers that are in there so it is less office-y and more comfortable for guests.  Ya know, since it has no windows :/

4.  The bar/storage room is being turned into a family room/playroom.  I think this space will need its own post.  It is crazy right now but I have big plans for it in the future.  One day it will be just a playroom but for the immediate future I see it as a family room and a playroom.  It is huge so that will work for now.  

So how am I going to get all of this done?  Well the first thing is I am having garage sale.  I have never had one before and I may never again but I feel it is the best way to get rid of all of the junk we have.  (Side note...where does all the crap come from?)  I am in the biggest purging mode right now.  I want to throw away EVERYTHING.  Ugh.  It is driving me crazy.  I think once we purge a bunch of our stuff then we can start to get the rooms to come together.  The problem is that I can't physically do all of these things.  I have a few good hours on my feet a day and the rest of the day is spent sitting down or laying down with some spurts of "getting shit done" in between.  

So I hired someone.  She organizes for people for a living.  I may or may not be in love with her.  She has been here one day for 6 hours and we completely went through the bar and organized it.  I sat the entire time.  She would bring me a box or something and ask what I wanted to do with it and that was it.  She doesn't get tired or distracted.  And she is totally OCD.  I am so thankful I found her!  She is going to help me get everything together for the garage sale and then work the sale with me also.  I feel like once we can get all this excess crap out of here I will be able to breathe and feel better about bringing a ton of baby stuff into the house!  

We plan to have this garage/yard sale in about 8 weeks....so late March.  For right now she set up the bar downstairs as a garage sale and we are pricing things as we go.  So now when we clean out the craft closet, for example, we (she!) can just take things into the bar to the home decor section or the kids section she has set up and toss it in a box with a price.  I think it will make going through the rest of my house much easier.  Then we just have to bring all of it upstairs right before the sale.  Yikes.  My list of things to clean out/organize with her are:
-bar (done)
-craft closet (it is mostly organized just a few months worth of stuff that I didn't put back in place and threw on the floor.  Ha!  lots of purging will happen here)
-the baby's closet (this has a bunch of sports equipment, puzzles, luggage, large baby items, etc in it)
-Blakely's closet (I have done most of this but still some left to do)
-help get Blakely's toy situation under control.  (pregnant mom + 3rd birthday + Christmas has sent the toy sitch into overdrive)
-laundry room (my god the laundry room)
-office (have to have Lonnie around for this)
-garage (have to have Lonnie around for this)
-our closet upstairs (all of our clothes and shoes)
-pantry (not for the garage sale but just for my sanity)

She is going to organize as we clean out too.  So the laundry room will be a completely usable space unlike the 25% that is usable right now.  

Once we sell the bedroom set in the twin's room (have a few people interested already) we can move all of B's baby furniture in there and order her a new set.  Then we we will actually have a space to put baby stuff and I can begin to go through some of the clothes that I saved from when Blakely was a baby, get the swing out of the attic, etc.

I am thrilled to get started on this huge project and I am so happy that she said she would help me.  To me it seems like a ton to do but she says it will move quickly now that we've gotten started. She's not overwhelmed like I am!  I didn't really start doing a thing for Blakely's nursery until about 28 weeks but I needed to start sooner because we have a lot more to do and because I could end up on bed rest or something too.  Not to even mention if the babies come early (please stay in there!).  I don't have the energy to do all of it and Lonnie works too much.  It would take us a year!  And yes, I will probably pay her as much if not more than I will make in the garage sale but I don't care a bit!  Totally worth it.  

Oh, you want to see pictures?  Okay....  I will take some before and afters for sure.  We organized the bar but since it is the storage place for all the garage sale items it is still pretty hectic.  I want to wait to post before/during/afters of that until the playroom/family room is set up.

Eeeek!  I know you are all as excited as me!