This Page

Here is how the window-seat area in the girl's room looks like right now.

Sky built-in bookcases on each side of the window seat area, and built the window-seat out, making it wider and more comfortable to sit on.

We need to find a cushion for the seat.

Oliver finds it plenty comfortable, it seems.









Here is the best "before" photo I could find.

This is the room before the great "sleeping-loft" project began...notice no bookshelves flanking the window, and the seat is not very deep.

Labels: home design, kid's loft

This is a post, you see...about a post.

A cat-tree post, to be precise.

I had planned to call this post,
"Behold, the cat-tree" , but Sky came up with a title more clever.
I've mentioned before that our cat, Oliver, believes our children to be his litter-mates. He sleeps with them, which was cute...until we moved the girls up into their new sleeping loft


I doubted this would fit...


-which right now has a temporary ladder, which Oliver cannot navigate. He was very upset...and then after some difficulty assisting him up and down, he was quite "put out". Sky got a kick, watching him flounce out of the house with his ears laid back, as it were- shaking the dust off his feet on the way out. Cats do not like things changed in their house. And, they do not like noise. We've had quite a bit out all that, with the construction.




Oh, ye of little faith and geometry skills


Sky decided the bring peace back to his house by building a cat tree. Not just a cat tree...but one that would reach up to the loft, so Oliver could climb both up and down at his pleasure.


Nothing he purposes should surprise me.
He continues to amaze me.

And, I was surprised he has such a soft-spot for the cat. He is not a pet person and once remarked, after the cat had unknowingly to Sky, fallen asleep on his legs...and Sky woke up in the morning and without fore-malice flung the cat across the room into a wall...his remark was, "You know it's going to be a great day when you've flung the cat into a wall!"






Behold, the cat-tree!

My husband is amazing.

The construction on the wall is built-in bookshelves and a window seat he is working on.

Can you keep a secret?

Sky is fond of the cat. And, he talks to him.

shh...

Labels: kid's loft

Progress on the kid's sleeping loft marches on.
If you want to see all the posts for the building of the loft, click on the little label underneath this post that says "kids loft", next to the time stamp- that will bring up all of the posts for that topic.

Here is Sky in the midst of mudding and sanding the drywall.
We have dust everywhere...through the whole house....in my closet even. I shed a tear or two and then get out the mop.


Here is Sky putting on a primer coat of paint.

I can't paint a wall even close to passable. I accept that and move on...and pick out the colors and let Sky do it.

I painted the girl's room pink when we moved in...

Pink was voted off the island....

They asked for something "forest-y"...what the heck am I supposed to do with that?? I opted for green and blue. They also wanted sponge-painting like I had done in their room in
our old house...I'm going to try to rag one wall with blues and greens and browns. I haven't figured out which wall or walls yet, it's a zen thing...the inspiration will hit soon.
Sky thinks the inspiration needs to move this week, but I tell him "peace out"...these things can't be rushed..I'm an artist.




Some people are do-ers, like Sky- the construction man..and then others are artists like myself, who think up creative things to do and never get around to them.

Sky will just give me that look until I do it.

We make a good team.

Here's the loft and the laminate floor Sky is installing. He is a constructive artist of sorts...but he also has this weird love for plywood. He was going to put plywood on the floor. He re-assured me when I looked horrified at this, that he would
sand it smooth and paint it. I rained on his parade and told him that plywood is for temporary, emergency support...like boarding up broken windows and such...not a permanent, finished solution.
He remains unconvinced. But, he went out and bought me some Pergo.
He's a good man.

Here are Sky and Demi-Sky putting in the railing. I want natural birch twigs for the railing and ladder....we are having trouble finding a wood store that carries this. I will continue to dream.
When I find it, I plan to have Sky rip this out and replace it.

Shh..don't tell him.

Labels: kid's loft

Conversation overheard early evening;

Dr. Brother: So, what project are you working on now, Sky?

Sky: Well, I'm building a sleeping loft in the girl's room! I took out the ceiling and extended a loft a few feet into the room, taken down some of the drywall...so the girls will have much more room for desks and stuff, with the beds removed and all.

Dr. Brother: Wow, sounds really interesting- so you really have that much room up in your attic, huh?

Sky: Well, not really. You can't really stand up, except in one spot...it's more of a crawl-space really-than an attic. Once the beds are in, there will only be room to sit on them. It's a loft for sleeping only in, really.

Sky: The kids are really excited to be sleeping up there....In the crawl space...

Conversation overheard two hours later at restaurant;

Me: So, Dr. Bro and wife...what is new at your place?

Dr. Bro: Well, we've decided to go ahead and add-on to our house!

Sky: What, 3 stories isn't enough?

Dr. Bro: We want to give each of the kids their own bedroom and bathrooms so they won't have to share...

Dr. Bro wife: and I don't like the laundry room being right off the garage entrance, so we are going to add a new laundry room, too.

Dr. Bro: we are already talking to architects, we are going to hire one to make sure the additions looks seamless with the house.

Me: sounds really nice, how exciting!

It wasn't till hours later at home that I pointed out the disparity/convergence in our conversations...and Sky and I laughed till we cried.

We will probably forever be, "the cheaper chicken" family.

p.s. our kids really are excited, Demi is miffed that he won't be able to sleep there.

and, it will be really,..um... feng shui. And it will be really, er- cozy..now that we removed the insulation and moved the duct-work...promise.

Labels: family, kid's loft

Here is how Sky solved the dilemma of how to hang drywall on a ceiling by himself...I dubbed it "Construction-Man yoga". The top photo shows his technique most clearly: position drywall and hold in place with knees and feet and one or two hands...then quickly grab power- screw-driver to put the screws into place. Lose points every time a screw falls out of while screwdriver is en route to correct spot.
The second photo is my personal favorite, because we have some nice-muscular arm-action going on there. I think I could give Ree a run for her money in the photogenic-husband-arms dept.

Labels: Jen's world, kid's loft

I had a few requests for new photos on our sleeping loft progress.

Here is Meg seated in the loft, she is overlooking the rest of the bedroom. The pink stuff to the right is new insulation.

Our cat Oliver was very approving of the loft, he climbed right up the ladder. He did have difficulty coming down, his hindquarters kept running ahead of him...



Sky promised Oliver a new, tall, cat-tree to help him get down. We still don' t know if Oliver thinks he is a person, or if he thinks we are all cats. We do know he considers the kids as litter-mates and sleeps with them.


Here is something you don't see everyday...construction boots hanging from your ceiling!

Well, our three youngest are staying two nights at the grandparents. I had big plans for all I would accomplish.

So far, it is too hot in the house to do anything- Sky has the air shut off. And I went for a walk/run this morning and I ache too much to do anything but sit. And I have a headache. I've concluded that exercise is just bad for me.

I had the perfect kind of Jenny day yesterday, being that the littles were staying the night at the grandparents. I woke up around 8-ish, went for a walk/run (very little running..I was just test driving it, hence no achiness) then I came home and did some light yoga, took a shower and then headed down to the bagel shop with Meg for a bagel sandwich. (in honor of Starlene, of course) I puttered around the house, did some laundry, took Meg to Rubio's for a late lunch and then we hung out at Barnes & Nobles. Then- we went with Sky to Meg's favorite place for dinner, which happens to be one of my favorite places. Only shopping could have made the day any better, really.

I told Sky it was the perfect schedule for me...the wake-up after 8 and slowly ease into your day part. Homeschooling 5 kids kind of puts a crimp into my style. Sky always says I live on Hawaii time.

It was really nice to get all that exercising done...so I was thinking; I just need to re-set my body clock and wake up two hours earlier. Except...there is always an excuse...except that I am and have always been a night owl, it's kind of hard to re-set that.

Last night I made a valiant effort, I actually went to bed at 10 p.m. so I could get up by 6 a.m.

And I tossed and turned until after mid-night. Ugh. I will try again tonight. Maybe it will take a few weeks.

Labels: Jen's world, kid's loft

Sky has accomplished much this week. Day 1 of the project, he took the day off from work, to give himself a running start. Here are a few photos of how it is going...


After the demolition of the ceiling, we decided to build the sleeping platform out into the room two feet and some inches...it was just too cramped up there, I thought. By pushing the platform into the room some, they gain some headroom and more light.

The old insulation came out, and the air-conditioning ducts were moved, and another register was added to get cool air into the loft.

Labels: home design, kid's loft

Sky tells me that there is a moment in every home renovation project he does, where time seems to stop...as he pauses, with sledgehammer in hand, to ask himself...."Do I really want to do this?" Such a moment occurred as he lifted a power-saw to poke a hole in our perfectly good roof - to add a fireplace; as he took a jackhammer to our front stoop- to build a front porch, and as he took a sledgehammer to the perfectly whole shower tile in the bathroom-before building *this.

That moment was here, as he stood in the girl's room and prepared to remove the ceiling fan- step 1 before demolishing the ceiling.
The fact that it is a perfectly good room, a very nice room, really- kind of gives you pause.



We joke that I am the idea person, and that Sky takes my ideas and makes them work- (and beautifies them, he is really a construction artist).

I have the power to set him on a project- he is usually happy to get me what I want, if possible.

So, comes the cliche...
with great power comes great responsibility.
Is this really what I want?










Well, it's kind of too late now, babe...



The really funny part, sometimes I suggest a project and Sky begins work, and we find out half-way through that we were both envisioning something different. It's always worked out somehow...

eeek!

Labels: home design, kid's loft

Funny thing about being married to an incredibly capable, construction-talented man...

You have to be very circumspect about the projects you suggest.

Our last house, we had about 989 square feet. Think about it; 4 kids, homeschooling, 1 bathroom. It was tight. We were also a very broke-young family, so we talked and planned all the time how to add on to our house with the least expense. As in, not changing the roof-line. We became really inventive about how to get more space. But, when the time came for action- we decided to move instead.

I'm still congratulating myself.

We more than doubled our house size- our current house is about 2400 square feet. And yet, ironically, it is getting a little tight now. Building a second story would be ideal, but we cannot comfortably do that right now. We could comfortably do it when the kids are college age, probably...but then, what would be the point?

So, I saw the magazine photo above....mentally pictured our roof peak in my mind, and decided that Sky should do this (a sleeping loft) in the girl's room. He didn't seem very interested.



Until this week.
He decided it was a great solution to our space problem and ordered me to empty the girl's room the next day so he could begin. He wants to utilize the help of our house-guest, one of the Bible college boys- who is leaving this coming Saturday.

Here is the before photo of the girl's room. The 3 girls share the room, we have a bunk bed set with a pull-out trundle bed for Amie.


The problem, the trundle bed is almost always pulled out and so there is very little floor space.
Meg and Josie each have a desk, flanking a dresser (not pictured). We then had a bookcase overflowing with books and 'stuff'. There is no room for a desk for Amie. My idea was to build a small loft, sort of a cubby for one bed (our roof-line is not high enough to be able to stand in the attic, it is more a crawl space) and thus get rid of the trundle, leaving only the bunk beds and thus opening up more floor space.

Sky took the idea and enlarged onto it...why stop at one bed, when you could put all 3 beds up there?? Since we do not have as much space as shown in the magazine photo...I'm still unsure how this is going to turn out. It will either be a really great idea, or a horrible idea. I hope it comes out the great idea, because construction has already begun...

oh the mess, the mess. Here is Amie's stuff, sitting in the family room...where am I going to put all this stuff?

We are either very creative
or crazy.

Labels: home design, kid's loft