Well, we accepted an offer on our house along with a possible moving date of December 15.  So while I have some plumbing issues to address:

some walls to build:

And some safety issues to sort out:

I have been busy.  Painting.

Oh, and making plans to build a chicken coop.

It seems a little out of order, especially at one in the morning when the children are all sleeping on the floor while I paint, but there does seem to be a limit to what I can do with five children on my own.  Once the estimates come back for the work we are hiring out, I think things should be moving along quickly.  But right now, I feel a bit like I’m very busy accomplishing nothing.

But I don’t have any time to reflect on that.  I have some major packing to do.

As I shared previously, we are remodeling our former porch to make it into a bedroom for our daughters. We replaced the windows to make the temperature a little more stable…today was cold and windy and it was so nice to be inside and not feel the chilling breeze! Here are some pictures from our efforts over the weekend:

We have light! And note the ceiling? My husband and brother hung that and it looks beautiful!

We have heat! This area still needs a third coat of paint and then we will put the cover back on the vent. See the hole cut out of the wall as you peer through the door? That is where they knocked out part of the wall to connect the vent. Eventually that will get patched up!

We have color! This is the yellow from my daughter’s quilt we got her for her birthday. My mom is selecting fabric to make curtains from. Hopefully we will have them after Thanksgiving, but we should at least have a photo of the fabric to share.

So much for phase one. The space is now livable, despite the below freezing temperatures we had today. Phase two will involve laying a new floor. We currently have really ugly and badly stained blue carpeting. We are planning on laying wood laminate and putting a nice throw rug on top. Phase two will also involve this corner:

Imagine all that stuff gone. The bed will go here (it is a daybed with a trundle underneath). Around the bed, we are going to build a sort of arbor with lattice work and string some plastic ivy and little white Christmas lights to go with our garden theme. And delight our little ladies who love that sort of thing. There will be a curtain in front of this to give them some privacy. Unfortunately, our house is a bit too small to give them this whole room as theirs alone. It still will be the playroom/sewing room. But they can have a little corner to themselves.

Hammering. Drilling. Sawing. Our house is undergoing some major modifications. Technically, our house is all of 700 square feet. We also have a sort of sun room that is 210 square feet that we use as a playroom. Last week, we got new windows so the heat stays pretty steady up there, making the room usable year round. My parents came up to help with more remodeling.

This weekend, we are extending duct work, putting in a new ceiling and painting.

Later, we will be re-flooring and putting in cabinets under the windows.

Then, we will be putting up a bed out there with a curtain around it and the girls will have their own, very nice, bedroom.

This is where the bed will go with a curtain around it. We will be installing a small reading light over the bed. You can’t see the ceiling very well, but it is basically plywood painted white. If you look at the pillow sham hung over the rocking chair, you will see the colors for the room. The walls will be painted that yellow, and the curtains will have that lavender. The floor may as well, but we haven’t decided what kind of floor to put in. That may be a project for next month.

This is the east wall/corner. A shelf will go around the room, under all the windows. This will be a nice workspace for the kids, especially for artwork, play dough and studying our birds. Under the shelves will be box units. Some will be drawers, some boxes, etc. This will be for storage. The shelf will be strong enough to hold someone sitting on them.

We are redoing the ceiling, as well. I’ll take a picture when it is done. I’m so excited!

So is my daughter. We got her a quilt and pillow sham (same colors as above) and she says it is her favorite birthday present ever.

Related Tags: homeschooling, remodeling, family