We live in a 4 bedroom house. When we first got married, the bedrooms seemed about right. Emma, 4 1/2 years older than the nearest girl, got her own room (the smallest). Brooke and Rachel, just 2 1/2 years apart, share a room. And the 3 boys, 1 1/2 years from oldest to youngest, share the largest bedroom. A "bonus" room above the garage, it is plenty big enough for 3.
Then along came George.
As an infant, we kept his bassinet in the master bedroom. But after several months he was ready to move out.
We had a spare room downstairs off the kitchen. The floor plan called for it to be a dining room but we never planned to use it as such. It was carpeted and didn't have a hanging light like you would expect to find in a dining room.
We decided to move the 2 girls down there. Partly because they spend part of their week with their mother, partly because they generally keep their room pretty tidy. They like being downstairs during the day, closer to play in their room, but at night they felt lonely, far from the rest of the family. Like any new room, it took a few days for them to get used to it.
Victoria did a great job setting it up. She blocked the wide entrance (to the front living room) with bookcases on the living room side and a beautiful quilt made by the girls' grandmother on the new bedroom side. The doorway to the kitchen was temporarily closed off with a curtain.
Well after several trial months we decided we would go ahead and put a real door in the doorway. I went to Lowe's and got a pre-hung door. The doorway was wider than the door and frame so I needed to narrow down the opening by about 2 1/2 inches.
My good friend Randy volunteered to help out. He has a garage full of power tools, and is much more skilled and experienced in home projects than I am. Randy and I got together on Friday and ripped some boards to the right size to use as spacers to narrow the opening. We added some shims and leveled the door on all sides. Randy used his power-nail-gun to secure the spacers and the door frame. Thanks Randy!
One funny thing, when Randy left about all that was left was to attach the doorknob. I put the spindle in and wanted to see if it was set correctly. Rachel and I went in the room and pushed the door shut. Oops!
The spindle fit just right and latched the door shut. But I had neglected to attach the knob, and now the knob was on the other side of the door than us. Rachel and I were trapped inside! Brooke came to our rescue but couldn't get the door knob apart. She eventually brought Victoria and Rachel and I were set free!
We still need to put up trim to finish the doorway but this room is now more of a room. My sister Chris was here a few weeks ago for George's birthday, and mentioned something about the kids playing in the "extra bedroom." In a family of 9, I'm not sure there is such thing as an extra bedroom, and we had a good laugh about this.
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