Room to Move? Part One

I've been neglectful of my blog, but we've been busy here in my house. My husband and I had a conversation a few months ago about how it's getting more difficult for me to go to bed. Don't worry; I'm not going down that road, I just mean that it's difficult for me to climb the stairs every night. Some nights, I end up sleeping on the couch. Okay, more than some nights; many nights is more accurate.

You see, our bedroom is upstairs. For me to go to bed, I've got to climb the stairs, and walk all the way down the hallway. The living room is in the front of the house, the stairs are in the back of the house, and our bedroom is in the front of the house. As I've said before, our house isn't big, but sometimes at night, particularly after a busy day (busy for me), walking the length of the house, climbing the stairs and then walking the length of the house again seems impossible.

I don't sleep well on the couch. I don't sleep well anywhere, but I sleep less well on the couch. Sleeping on the couch creates a vicious cycle of being more tired than I need to be. So, my husband had an idea. We'd move our daughter's room to our room, and we'd take our daughter's room. Her room is on the first floor, close to the bathroom, so it sounds perfect, right? Right, except...

When we first moved in our house, my daughter's room was our room, and my daughter's room was on the other side of a wall of that room. We have a king-size bed, and my daughter's room (formerly our room, soon to be our room again) was too small for our bed. I mean, the bed fit, but that was all. I think there was about a foot to eighteen inches of space left. Barely enough to get into bed. No room for dressers, no room for a nightstand for an alarm clock, there was just no room.

Sadly, we don't even have this much space in the room we're going back to

At some point, we moved our bedroom upstairs; I think it was shortly after our son was born. Anyway, we moved upstairs, and there used to be 2 other bedrooms upstairs. Our kids had those rooms for a little while, and the other room down here was their playroom. The bedroom downstairs became known as “Aunt Pat's Room” because when my aunt and uncle visited from out of town, they stayed in that room.

My house continually looked like Toys R Us threw up in it because the room that we used as their playroom just wasn't large enough to contain toys for 2 kids. My kids were pretty good at cleaning up after themselves, but there was just no place to put their stuff. I tried every organization tip that I read about. Eventually, my husband took down the wall between the 2 bedrooms upstairs, made that room into a playroom, and we moved their bedrooms back to the first floor. Our house was that way for a long time.

When my mom came to stay with us, we gave my son's room to my mom on the first floor, and my son moved into the room that had been the playroom upstairs. Are you still with me? Good.

When my mom moved into an assisted living facility, we turned the room that she slept in into a craft room; something I'd wanted for a while.

Which brings us back to the present (rather awkwardly, but I'll tie it all together sooner or later).

The room that we're moving (back) into barely fit our bed. There's no room for dressers. So, for us the make the move, realistically, we had to downsize our bed. My husband is tall, so a regular full-size bed isn't long enough. We decided to go with a queen. Even downsizing our bed won't give us enough room for dressers. We'd have to commandeer the craft room to house our dressers.

A few years ago, local furniture manufacturer went out of business. We stopped at their liquidation sale and found an amazing king-sized headboard, dresser, and chest for pennies on the dollar. When the set was delivered, it took three movers to bring them upstairs piece by piece. One of the movers told my husband something to the effect of, “I hope you're not moving anytime soon. These things are heavy emmer-effers” (only he didn't say emmer-effers)!

When the movers brought the dressers upstairs, they didn't take the drawers out. My husband and I figured that once we got the drawers out, the dressers would be somewhat manageable. Well, we know why the movers didn't take the drawers out; the drawers don't come out. These things are really solid; the thickness of the sides of the drawers is about ¾”. The dressers had to stay upstairs. Which meant we had to get new dressers. 

Sigh.