Re-Arranged and Ready for Fall

The seasons are changing here from summer to fall.  I LOVE fall.  I'm not exactly sure why, but I just do...the colors of the changing leaves, the crisp morning air, the clear nighttime sky, the feel of my cotton sweaters...I love it all!

This year, the changing season brought a decision by DH and I that I haven't quite adjusted to yet...

You see, last summer right after I quit my job of 3 1/2 years and became a stay-at-home mom, DH and I decided to move from our master bedroom on the third floor of our house to the guest bedroom we built in the basement.  The reasoning at the time was good - it was hot as Hades in our upstairs bedroom during the summer and Buddy HATED being hot.  And when Buddy was hot, he didn't sleep for crap.  Add to that the early sunrise in the summertime (we're talking sun glaring at 5am, people) waking Buddy up and moving our king-sized bed and baby crib to the basement where it is almost always 65 degrees was pure genius!  Plus the basement bedroom only has one window that opens into our carport, so that glaring early morning sun had no chance of waking the baby!

So, just over a year ago, a very sleep-deprived DH and I moved our bed, the baby's bed, the baby's changing table and dresser and one night stand into the basement and moved the guest bed up to our master bedroom.  We didn't even have room to move our dressers or the second nightstand to the bedroom.  As it was, we could barely fit the items we moved; despite the fact that the room is a decent size bedroom.

The move worked well for us.  In the cool darkness we all found rest and recovered (mostly) from our sleep deprivation.  Last fall we chose to remain in the basement because it was SO much work moving down just a few months prior and because Buddy was sleeping pretty well and that meant more rest for us.

But, somewhere along the line, our house became a kind of giant cluster - our computer desks and all the mess that goes with an office and running your own business and household were right in our living room.  Our bedroom was dark and comfortable, but there was an entire floor of our house that was going almost completely unused (except for hosting the occasional overnight guest and storing stuff).  So, we decided to move back upstairs to our master suite!

Just getting ready to move back upstairs was a chore.  We had accumulated stuff that needed to be sorted through and much of it given away to our local thrift store.  There were baby clothes to be sorted and stored for future use (not for me but for family members - my baby-making days are over).  There were boxes that hadn't been opened since we moved to Colorado nearly five years ago that need to be sorted and dealt with.  I developed a mindset that everything I touched needed to go into one of three categories: this is where this belongs, this needs to be given away or this needs to be sold.  Getting things put away, given away and sold has been insanely liberating!  I worked during Buddy's naps to sort and clear and organize every day.  And two Saturdays ago we began moving furniture.

It's so nice to have ROOM in our room again!!

Now, moving from the basement to the third floor in any home would be a chore, but in our house the stairs from the basement to the main floor aren't big enough to fit our mattress and box springs through, so we have to carry everything out the basement door, load it in a trailer and pull around to the front entrance where we have to climb up onto the front porch, in through the front door, flip (literally) furniture or mattresses or whatever over the railing of the top stairs and carry everything up the stairs into the master suite.  Carrying things out to the basement requires all the same steps, just in reverse!  So, once we moved our bed and Buddy's things back to the third floor, it was time to tackle moving our desks (and everything on and in them) to the basement.  And these desks are heavy particle-board commercial desks I bought from my employers in Florida.  We DREAD moving them because they are so heavy and because the hutches have to be removed from the desks just to get them out the door!  BUT, we managed to get everything moved and agreed that the next time we move those desks it will be out to a pile for a bonfire!  Seriously.

All that great space in front of the bay window was taken up with office stuff before...now we have light and a view!!

I LOVE moving furniture and rearranging, but this was just plain old hard work.  It took us all day Saturday and most of the day Sunday just to get everything moved.  I've still got stuff sitting in laundry baskets waiting to be sorted and organized.  But, we're moved back upstairs.  We've got an office/sewing room in the basement and Buddy has plenty of room for all his toys in the family room attached to our office so while I write to you, my imaginary friends, he can rearrange his train track and re-enact all sorts of adventures of Thomas the Train and all his pals in Sodor.

Buddy's trains...just outside my office door!

I haven't gotten into the groove of our days being spent downstairs yet.  And I haven't sorted everything that I need to yet.  But it finally feels like our house is becoming ours once and for all.  Maybe we'll stay here a while!