Current giveaway: Milk Diapers

This week’s Open House topic is Bedrooms, Part 1.  You can see the other moms here:

• Kimberly @ Raising Olives
• Connie @ Smockity Frocks
• DeputyHeadmistress @ The Common Room

I’ll start with the master bedroom.  Here is ours, in all its glory.

No, wait.  That’s not really what it looks like.  Here’s the real thing:

To be honest, this room was not intended to be the master bedroom.  The kids’ room is a wee bit bigger and originally had a door that went directly to the bathroom.  However, their room and the 3rd bedroom (which is now a library) are under the vaulted ceiling with only an 8 foot wall which does not reach all the way to the ceiling.  This wall is temporary, and will come out very easily when we add a bedroom wing/master suite someday.

Anyway, for reasons that I hope are obvious, we eventually traded rooms so that Perry and I had the bedroom with privacy.

Speaking of privacy or the lack thereof, did you happen to notice how many children are on my bed?  No, I did not stage that photo.  If I want to sit there to read, blog and/or nurse, I have to shoo away enough children to make room for myself.  Please tell me I’m not the only one with this problem.  I think we brought it on ourselves by having family movie night in our bedroom for a long time.

To the left was the only dresser or chest in the room, unless you count the nightstand.  3 of the drawers hold Perry’s underclothes and t-shirts.  I have one for underthings and one for shirts/shorts.  The bottom drawer holds odds and ends for Bethany and Parker.

Here is our closet, with a lace panel hung in place of the future door.

What’s that?  You want to see the inside of the closet?  The inside, which is less than 2 feet deep and holds not just all of my clothes and Perry’s, but also all of  Bethany’s, all of Parker’s, plus Perry Boy’s button downs and slacks?  Plus several board games, a nice stash of blankets, several pieces of electronics and other hardware, 2 violins, a large print of a very famous George Washington portrait, an electric train set waiting to be sold (do you want it?) and who knows what else?  Not a chance.  Thanks for asking, though.  I needed a good laugh today.

Here is the view from what Perry Boy calls the Man Side of the bed.  He wouldn’t be caught dead taking a nap on the other side.  Ack!  There’s another kid in Dad’s red chair!  Kids everywhere!

You can see Perry’s red chair, which is fictitiously bare.  In the real world, this chair nearly always holds clean laundry, exercise clothes, a few books, and a partridge in a pear tree – anything but a rear end, which is what it was made for.

We brought this chair home from a thrift store when we were in Branson last year.  Our van was packed to the gills with people and luggage, but the chair was half price so we made room.  What else could we do? For some reason I seem to remember Deanna riding in it most of the way home, though I must be mistaken because that would clearly be illegal.

Next to the chair is a little round marble table, very similar to the rectangular one in the living room.  Both of them came with us from Ohio, among the very few pieces of furniture we moved.  This, too, is fictitiously bare.  Do you really think we let a flat surface like this go unused and unappreciated?  You should see the stack I cleared off this table.

On the marble table is the little lamp my mom painted for me in a ceramic class when I was 4.  I’m just holding my breath, waiting for one of my children to break it someday.  I’ll let you know when it happens, after my head stops spinning in circles and the smoke from my ears dissipates.  See?  I’m already angry just anticipating the event.  I pity the child who actually does the deed.

Now the view from my side of the bed, the Woman Side.  Parker often naps on my side, but that’s only because he’s too little to object, or maybe because his big brother hasn’t explained things to him yet.  Give him time.

The coat rack holds our towels and bathrobe.  Did you notice the ill-hung mirror?  Do you know why it’s ill-hung?  Because if the door opens even a little crack, people sitting on the sofa can see my side of the bed.  They can also see me standing next to my side of the bed, where I stand to dress.  If I’m not already half-dressed, they can see me bolt for the bathrobe.  And we’re back to the privacy issue.  Seems to be a recurring theme, doesn’t it?  ”Me time” in my mind is when nobody sees me getting dressed or using the bathroom.  We all need “me time.”

Parker’s little bed is next to the mirror.  We kicked the crib habit long ago.  He’ll sleep in this travel bed until it’s too small or he is big enough to pull himself up, and then we’ll break out the pack-n-play.

Did you see the quilt hanging on the chair?

Do you see it?  Isn’t it lovely?  It’s warm and soft and heavy, and has Parker’s name stitched into it.  Can you guess where we got it?

And here’s why we got it: we have the prettiest babies around.  Don’t you dare tell me different.

And now my tale is done.  Show us your bedroom if you dare.  Remember the rules: your link here must point to a single post about one or more bedrooms in your home, and your post must include a link back to one of the 4 moms.

Welcome, friends.  In the last 2 link-ups we sat on the deck for a glass of ice tea, and we had dinner in the dining room.  Now let’s move a few steps to the west and take a seat in the living room.  Here’s the view when you are sitting at the dining room table.

As you can see, the furnishing are simple, durable, and well-used.  We’re planning to paint again soon – probably a soft beige with a bit more body than the off-white you see now.  The walls may look bare to the untrained eye, but we’re still reveling in the absence of bookcases since we moved them all into a dedicated library!

I love my leather sofas, though we’re looking for a leather sectional to replace them.  Leather is very affordable if you’re willing to buy used, and anything wipes right off – not just food, though I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.  Let’s just say it’s perfect for a house with small children and I find it hard to even consider anything but leather now.

Did I mention how comfortable leather sofas are?  This is where Perry Boy loves to take his naps.

Speaking of wiping clean, we have done away with all carpets and area rugs.  The vinyl tile makes for a louder house, but is so much easier to keep clean!  Aside from surface soiling, carpets track a lot of dust, dirt, etc. beneath the surface.  No more need for a noisy vacuum blowing clouds of hot air – we just sweep regularly and mop as needed with a bucket and a few rags.  The tiles can be replaced individually if anything happens to them, but they’re incredibly durable so we haven’t had to do that yet.  We’re not allergic people, but I’ve heard that getting rid of carpets can help if you are.  My asthmatic sister found that her symptoms almost entirely disappeared when she replaced the carpet in her bedroom with tile.

Oops.  Somebody left the vacuum cleaner lying right in the middle of the floor.

My rocking chair was a gift from a group of friends when 6yo Rachael was born, and I’ve rocked 4 children there now.  We’ve had a few puppies teethe on it through the years and had to repair it once or twice, but it’s holding up well.

We just got the coffee table from my sister after it failed to sell at her yard sale.  It’s perfect for us: solid oak and durable enough for Perry to jump up and down on it.  Which Perry?  In theory, either one.  That’s the kind of furniture we need around here.

The fancy marble table?  A vestige of our earlier days.  We used to have a few very pretty, albeit cheaply made, pieces.  This is the only one left, and how it survived I’ll never know.

It makes a nice contrast to the flat-screen TV and Wii, don’t you think?

Disclaimer: the TV has no reception.  We use it for DVDs and Wii.

The mirror is another leftover from our stint in an enormous Victorian style home, though I plan to move it to another wall and replace with a wall of coordinated frames filled with family photos.  Oh, look: there’s Becca holding Parker in the Ergo.  Love that Ergo!

Someday we’d like to return to a sort of Victorian look – not the overdone ultra-feminine fancy-schmancy look, but the simpler look which is a little more subdued and masculine but still beautiful in a more sensible way.

Here is my built-in bookshelf, still unfinished like many of the details in our house.  We’re considering converting it to hold the chimney for a woodstove.

In the interest of keeping it real, I did not clean or straighten those shelves.  I’m just telling you so won’t wonder what it normally looks like.  This is the real stuff here.

Keeping it even more real: I thought about hiding these boxes, because they’re not always there.  We are in the middle of reorganizing our library, and those are the duplicates/culls.  But as I contemplated moving them, I realized that we’re always in the midst of some project.  It wouldn’t be very real to show you our home with nothing going on, so here is our current project in all its glory.

Oh, is it time for you to go already?  I’ll show you to the new door, which we just installed last fall.  It’s not white; just unpainted.  Our old one was red.  What color would you paint your front door if you had a light sage-green house?  Please ignore the waterspots from the hose, and watch your step – the kiddie pool is just outside the doorway.  Kids, do not spray our guests.  Just because Mom likes to be sprayed now and then doesn’t mean everyone does.

Visit the other moms:

• The Common Room
• Smockity Frocks
• Raising Olives

Join the fun and show us your own living areas!
Please remember to follow the rules: your link must go to an individual post about your living area(s), and your post must include a link back to at least one of the 4 Moms.