I don't really do the resolution thing, except sort of in my head … things I want to do better on and I usually take stock. 2008 was a pretty great year all things said and done and I am proud of lots I accomplished. I don't really believe in regrets anyhow.
The world seems kind of chaotic, but I am pretty optimistic about 2009, mostly because being pessimistic doesn't really get me much of anywhere. And we've got lots to look forward to, including Miss Tabby's Second B'day and the arrival of our new little guy.
But as I might've mentioned, we're sort of out of room in our house and while he won't take up too much space for a while, eventually he's going to need to move from the p'n'p in our room to an actual crib … and knowing our habits, he'll probably have a fair amount of clothing, so he's going to need some storage space.
We have three bedrooms upstairs. Currently two are used as bedrooms and the third is Matt's office. The obvious thing would be to kick Matt out, stick him somewhere else and put baby boy in the office. But the office has many nice built-in cabinets and counter-space. These make for a great office, but not such an awesome nursery. They don't exactly exude coziness and they are more storage space than your average nursery needs. But they would make some nice storage for say … TOYS. So we are thinking of having the kiddos share the bedroom and turning the office into a playroom (and moving some of the toys and books from the nursery to make room).
Which leaves us with one big question.There are only a couple of places for Matt to go … one would be our “living room.” This currently houses my piano, a cabinet for games and a sofa from our old apartment (actually nicer than the one in our family room) that sits diagonal in the room and hides a cache of Tabby's toys. There are a couple of problems with moving him here … firstly, we have no good place for the rest of the junk. Secondly, it is not a very quiet or secluded spot and a wall would have to be erected to make it secluded.
Another “available” spot is my office which is a sort of bonus room in the master suite. Right now it gets minimal use since my desktop computer died and I moved the Tivo to be near the treadmill. I now do most of my work sitting on my bed. The room has a desk, an easy chair and a lot of built-in book cases filled with my craft stuff and our books. In many ways it would be an ideal spot, but it has one major problem: location, location, location. Due to the nature of Matt's job, he frequently is up at all hours taking calls and doing work. So being near a sleeping wife and baby with lights and computers and noise going is not really all that great.
So that leaves us with THE BASEMENT. The basement has a great advantage location-wise since it is quite secluded. Everything else about it is sort of nightmarish. It is completely unfinished and is currently FILLED with STUFF. It might be possible to make Matt a make-shift office down there without finishing it, but it would have all the functionality of a bombed out building in Khandahar and only some of the charm. Especially since Matt's wood shop is down there, creating lots of wood dust and as I understand it, wood dust + computer = problems. So it needs to be finished … and that is a big ol' task. Since it's hard to finish a basement full of stuff, we need to get rid of more of the stuff and move the rest of it, at least somewhat while we finish the basement. So we're sort of back to this whole problem about the house being full. Especially since half of the “stuff” consists of Matt's GINORMOUS POWER TOOLS that are a 3-man lift and would have to go up stairs, stairs that have a 180 degree turn and are super fun to navigate.
So I predict that the stuff that we absolutely cannot get rid of will be dispersed through the house, into nooks and crannies that aren't quite jam-packed (this will drive me mad) and that I will be parking out front so that our garage may be used as additional storage. Of course, all logistical concerns aside, a remodel of this scale is pretty pricey. We want to do a lot of it ourselves, but some of it will have to be left to the pros and even with DIY labor, lumber isn't free. Methinks we'll be trading in all of our Discover.Card Cash.back.Bonus for Lowe's gift cards.
My big hope is that at the end of the project it will all have been worth it and we'll have a playroom for the kiddos, an office and nicer woodshop for Matt, and a storage room … and we will have added value to our home. That's a pretty big hope. Wis us luck.
Good luck!!!
Oh, what a pain to figure out. I like the basement idea best, but it does sound like a lot of work. I hope you figure something out!
Good idea to have the kids share a room! Remodeling a basement can certainly get expensive. Greg has to be on calls at night sometimes too. He takes his laptop to the family room and camps out there for the night. But, that's only a rare occurance, I'd imagine it would be tough if Matt had to do that several times a week.
You have a piano too? Very cool. I don't know many (any really) other people our age with a piano. I love mine, wish I could play better though.
I totally understand your space dilemnas. We're going through the same thing. I'd love to get a new, bigger house, but like you, we're having to make due with what we have.
Yikes, good luck. I've been there, I feel for you.