Siblings Sharing Spaces

For roughly two weeks I have been working on a room re-do for the big kids. Carter and Lydia are now sharing a room.
Asa moved to Carter’s old room and Lydia’s empty room is waiting on a new occupant(arriving 2011).

To prep for the swap-a-roo, we took all the toys in the entire house and put them all in the living room.
Oh my holy mole, what a crap-load of toys!
Each kid got to pick his/her 10 favorite toys.
The rest were either sold at consignment or donated.
(And yet I still feel like I have toys coming out of my ears!)

We shipped the kids off to my in-laws during their fall break and my dad and I busted some major butt getting stuff done around here. I painted the bedroom and bathroom(not shown).

I assembled shelves for the massive amount of books we seem to have accumulated(and continue to accumulate).
And Marshall spray painted frames used for our own personal little art gallery.

I made book slings for each of them and my own fabric wall art(you’ll be seeing more of this craft soon!)

But the pièce de résistance is the play closet!

My dad spent countless hours designing and building a loft in there, complete with a rope ladder entry!
It is SO cool!
We originally planned on the top being a reading loft,
but after thinking about not wanting the baby up there(hence the rope ladder),
we decided to make it the art loft.
I’m currently in the process of moving all their art supplies up there.
They can create when they please without having to worry about spilling paint on the carpet or keeping Asa out of the way!

The “floor level” underneath the loft is a doll house with all of Lydia’s doll and doll accessories.

And hanging to the side are all of the dress-up clothes and accessories.
Carter has out-grown all the boy-ish ones, but still enjoys being a princess occasionally.
(Note to self: get more costumes at the post-Halloween sales!)

The kids are happy.
I am happy.
And I am shocked that we haven’t had more trouble getting them to go to sleep each night.
(They used to be really, really horrible about talking after lights out and that was my biggest fear about them sharing a room.)

But now I’m exhausted and there are a billion things to get the new baby’s room done.

At least I don’t have to re-paint it!
But I guess I do have to at least clean out the crib!