These days, it seems like our house is constantly in a state of transition. When my husband and I first moved into our two-bedroom house, we were the lone occupants. We didn’t have a lot of “stuff” yet, we weren’t physically in the house that often, and there seemed to be ample space for us and our things. Fast forward twelve years and we’ve found our occupancy has nearly tripled yet our house hasn’t increased in size, which means we’ve had to get creative…which causes some chaos.
There are few sacred spaces in our house that haven’t done double duty at one time or another. Our porch was deconstructed to be recombined with our laundry room. Our living room was a makeshift nursery when we initially brought our daughter home from the hospital. Our current master bedroom was formerly our kids’ room which was originally the room we used to dump everything that didn’t seem to have a place of its own yet. Even our bathroom once functioned as a makeshift kitchen when we were renovating.
Our office has probably been the most itinerant of all spaces. It started out strong with a room all to itself on the main floor. I could toss in a load of laundry, or start a meal, and still be able to complete a few tasks in the office just a quick walk down the short hall. When we had our twin boys, the room morphed into an office/baby’s room combo, which worked surprisingly well considering those two spaces make strange bedfellows. I do recall working away on our tax returns under the supervision of our sleeping infants. Twins can’t share a crib forever though, and after five months, we needed to set up our second crib which meant the office was on the move once again, this time downstairs. Having an office in the basement has a few benefits although I can’t think of any at the moment. I will admit that it is nice to have a dedicated space for an office and one that has a door on it that is regularly closed. It is a bit trickier to multitask with other household chores while I’m working downstairs, and I also worry that I will miss a visitor when I’m out of sight. However over the years, I have spent countless hours in this room. If the volume of material I can cram into an office were a measure of achievement, I would say the room has been wildly successful.
Our house is evolving once again and it’s time to move our three kids, who have been sharing one room quite magnificently, into two. The boys are anxiously looking forward to spreading their wings and getting their own space in our former guest room downstairs. Our daughter has the idea that having her own room will involve a lot more pink than was deemed appropriate earlier in her shared accommodations. What the move means to me is translocating the guest room into the office, which first needs to be cleared. It’s a process, and one that we are kind of in the middle of.
I also have to adjust to my kids growing up, which might be the biggest challenge of all. I’ve honestly enjoyed having all three of them in one room, learning to share, learning to work together and coexist. Forts have been built, stories have been read, siblings have collaborated to stack stools on top of chairs, on top of peanut butter jars (true story!) to reach contraband play-dough from the top shelf of the closet. What I will really miss is creeping into their room at night to watch them sleep, just like any self-respecting stalker mom does. I’m going to miss it all.
We will continue to trade spaces as our family grows in size and grows in personalities. I’d better stop dragging my heels and start moving furniture.
