Phase 2 of The House Behind The Trees ~ The downstairs #TeelsBuildaHouse

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So we are starting the downstairs ... I HATE to say basement because we had a basement in our old home, where you opened a door and went down stairs separated from anything else. It was a finished basement complete with a bedroom, craft room, family/game room and we spent a lot of time there ~ our oldest son moved down there in jr high and stayed through high school ... until we finished the master suite in the attic then he moved back up to the bedroom floor with his brother and sister.  So here our downstairs is open to the rest of the house, you can see through to the outside from the top of the stairs going down because we have a wall of windows down there as well.  We really didn't plan to have a kiddo down there but since we are having to do a switch-a-roo with rooms (I'll explain later) he is moving home soon and will be downstairs. Anyhoo, our downstairs will house our main family room, our middle sons room, a full bath and kitchenette.  I thought it would be fun ...
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This Old House, Our Old House ~ Eme's Bedroom Re-Do

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Ok fellow readers ~ If you follow this blog you know that I'm obsessed with Christmas! I have 14 trees (you can see a sampling of them here) that I put up in each room of the house. Well this year (after 14 years of being in our wonderful 100 year old home that we have slowly, lovingly re-modeled each room in) we thought we would finally sell it and build a house because my husband is an engineer and has always dreamed of designing and building his own ~ I on the 0ther hand have never had the desire (yes I know, crafty person that I am DO NOT have this desire). After being on the market 9 months with only 2 bites, in early August we decided to continue to love it and FINALLY build our dream vision of this house's attic space ~ A Master Suite.

If you know me personally you know that my husband and I never once looked at a newer house when we purchased this house ~ our first house purchased when we were 23 and 25. We were very blessed that this is our first and only home purchased. We told everyone that commented on how big it was and asked what were we thinking purchasing so much house as our first, that "we would never have to leave it as it does enough space to grow our family". We also said that as much as we love it and call it ours according to the bank, that is really isn't ours, rather we are only the current caretakers of this grand, old, brick home.....there have only been 4 families in it and we are the 4th!

Back to my point....as you know old homes don't have en suites and while we do have 4 generous size bedrooms and we have 3 kiddos, we only have 1 full size (and it's very large) bathroom. This worked well when everyone was little but with a teen, tween and wishing-she-was- a-teen 8 year old this just isn't quite working out so well in the mornings. So we took the house off the market, my husband drew up plans, and the master in the attic (which was bare bones) has begun. (I will be blogging about this experience too ~ with photos!)

Anyway, my initial story was to share that just as we decided to tackle the attic, which stores my 14 trees and the numerous tubs that hold the ornaments, I told my husband that this year I will just put our 12 foot main tree up and of course Eme's because what little girl doesn't want their Christmas tree put up, and we can take the remainder of things to our storage unit, out of the way for remodeling purposes. Well, just as I was saying this, I got a call that our community was going to have it's first Holiday Homes Tour and would love for us to be included......WOW, what an honor! So of course I said yes (without talking to hubby) and then started to fret over the massive remodel, moving kids rooms around, and of course getting up all those trees before December 7!

So as my husband has started the attic and I have started the daunting task of re-doing our kids rooms because the oldest will move from the basement (yes we have a finished basement in this 100 year old home) to our room. This devastated our 8 year old daughter who thought she would be moving to the biggest room with the biggest closet. Instead of moving her and our middle son, I told them we would refresh their rooms for the tour and because it seemed everyone in the family was getting a new room.

Here is the start of Eme's room re-do and believe me, I am excited because I HATED the Barney purple that she and hubby picked out 3 years ago ~ note to reader: DON'T SEND HUSBAND AND DAUGHTER TO STORE FOR PAINT WHEN SHE IS 4!

We are going with Tiffany Blue walls, Black and White bedding from Pottery Barn, and updating her dressers. TIP: Instead of paying the astronomical price for the PBTeen white bedding, I cheated and bought the Shabby Chic Rouched Bedding at Target for half the price =) I will post pics of progress as it comes!

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