So maybe I’m not an old lady yet, but our house is definitely starting to feel like living in a shoe. We are experiencing growing pains.
We live in a modest 3 bedroom/2 bath house. About 1650 square feet. The two kid’s rooms each have a set of bunk/loft beds. Our living room has seating for 5. Our kitchen has seating for 8, but only after we took out the island. Don’t show up unexpectedly for dinner, there is not seat for you.
Our living/laundry room.
We un-lofted the loft bed to keep the maniacs from climbing them. So much for that plan.
Our kitchen/dining room/home-school/used to be an island here. Please disregard the banana peel. Obviously I did.
Our garage is filled with 3 tricycles, 4 bicycles, a scooter, a John Dear tractor push toy, a small roller coaster and a double jogging stroller. Our formal dining room is now my More Love Mama shop. It just got too hot and mosquito-y to sew in the garage. Our dining room used to be the playroom, but the kids never seemed to play in there. They would just drag their toys into the living room and hallway.Our former dining room/playroom, currently MORE LOVE MAMA headquarters. Yes, there is a piano in my shop. No, I don't know how to play it.
Small hallway/play area. By some strange miracle all the toys had been picked up when I got ready to take this picture. It doesn't usually look so empty. JoJo is not in time out. He is sticking his fingers under the door, trying to wake up Louise from her nap.
But now that they are restricted to the living room, hallway, and bedrooms, it seems like our house is folding in on us. The kids are fighting more. The house seems messier and more cluttered. We literally seem to be running into each other and stepping on each other’s feet ALL THE TIME.
So it feels like it is time for a bigger house, bigger yard, more elbow room! I'vedaydreamed for quite awhile of moving out to the “country” onto an acre or so. Growing lots of vegetables. Raising a small herd of fainting goats. Yes, seriously.But we’re sort of in a Catch 22. In order to buy another house we would have to sell this house first. We absolutely would not be able to pay 2 mortgages for even a day. Plus, we have no down payment money so we would have to assume that we would make at least a small profit on our current house.
However, in order to make a profit, we have to have a house that someone would want to buy and quite frankly, my kids have been very hard on the place. But I’m afraid to make any improvements because it’s almost inevitable that the kids would ruin the improvements before anyone even knew that they had been improved.
The house would have to be painted from ceiling to base boards. We painted about 14 years ago. Then the kids came and started to graffiti on the walls. We certainly don’t encourage the behavior, but every time I turn around Kat has a crayon in her hand.
Our carpets would need to be replaced, but what is to keep Manny from smearing ketchup all over it, like he did this week. We would have to put the island back in the kitchen, but then where would we eat? Experts say a house shows better if it is not too cluttered, but the whole reason we need to move is because our world is so cluttered, not with extras, but with the normal debris generated by a family of 8. Where do we hide all the stuff we need to live, so that house looks like a place that someone else would want to live in?
Our house is so crowded we have to store our silverware on Grace's face.
So I guess what we really need is for someone to call us up and say “Hey, I have this spare house that I don’t really need anymore. It’s big and empty and desperately in need of a big family to come live in it. You can stay here for free until you get your house sold and then you can start paying this mortgage. But no rush. Take your time moving, take your time getting your other house fixed up. I know that you are really busy people and you still need lots of time for taking your kids on bike rides and cuddling on the couch”.OK, I’ll be waiting for the phone to ring. I guess, in the meantime, I’ll re-arrange the furniture one more time. I imagine we’ll probably be staying put for a while.
By the way, if you haven't had a chance to read it yet, take a peek at my post about this weeks MORE LOVE MAMA Featured Family. They just got an update today! They boys they are adopting are officially theirs. They passed court in Congo. Now they're just waiting for permission from the U.S. government to bring them home. Remember, 15% of all sales at MORE LOVE MAMA that use the name Bergstrom will go to support their adoption fundraising efforts!