Shoes

I think for practicality reasons we've given up redoing the stairs or at least I have. We are getting used to them. The kitchen on the other hand seems to be getting worse by the day. I despise the dishwasher since it doesn't clean well. The new one will be here next week. We still need to address the space and layout issues of the kitchen. We've been working with an online design program trying to come up with solutions. We found one we liked but just out of curiosity I scrapped everything to see if I could do something different. I did and it involves less work. We can really only expand in one direction and that is by knocking out the wall behind the stove. The wall behind the stove is mostly living room but just to the left of that the house bumps out and there is a bathroom. The bathroom has a large shower which we would eliminate. There are no bedrooms on the first floor and there are three additional full baths in the house. I don't think anybody would choose that weird shower over a bigger kitchen. In addition we want a better door to the back. Right now one has to pass through a narrow laundry room to get to the back door. It's ugly. The second plan would keep the laundry in basically the same spot but put it in a closet instead. At first I balked at the idea but it would open up the floor plan and look better than what we have now. Most laundry rooms are really pass through rooms to a garage or something anyway. The laundry area wouldn't be any smaller. In fact with the built in shelves we have in mind it would actually be larger. I think it's a more effecient use of space. Plan #1 has the laundry area in a shared space with the bathroom which I also thought was weird at first but it can be done beautifully.

These pictures were taken before closing. I can't take pictures now because the kitchen is too messy. There isn't a home for everything yet.



This is the second living room. The door on the left leads into the bathroom. That is the shower that is visible. The sink and toilet are to the door through another door. The door on the left has the narrow laundry room and the back door.



To the left is the dining room. We can't figure out an easy way to expand the kitchen toward that because of the bay window. Even if we did we would still want to make a better door to the exterior which would involve removing the shower. It's still a possiblity though. The house has a brick exterior except for the bay window area so it would be easier I suppose to put in shorter windows. That area seems to small for much of a table anyway but that would eliminate any possibitly of being an eat in kitchen. We can't add an island due to the width of the room. We have basement stairs on one side and exterior on the other. Neither of those walls are moving.



One of the other changes we are making is a closet system for Nyla so she can reach her clothes. Buddy bought some lumber yesterday so he could put in shelves and a lower rod. We chose Nyla first because she cares what she wears. I can't remember the last time I was allowed to pick out her outfit. She always has at least some say in it. She will love having more of her stuff within reach. I'm not sure I will but we'll see. Bohdin on the other hand doesn't like to pick out his clothes. Almost every day I choose what he wears. He doesn't really care. The only thing he is picky about are his shoes. After a year in his previous shoes it was time for a new pair. He will only wear the Preschoolian brand of shoes. The are very flexible and light. For the past three years he has had the same style of slip on shoes which he loved but it was time for something different. The easy slip on was also easy to slip off and they were coming off with increased frequency. I chose the style but I let him design the colors. His first design was blue, red, purple, and green. We talked him down to only three colors. He would not budge on the red soles so we eliminated the green from the upper portion and replace it with red. He is very happy with his shoes. They are bright and certainly unique.



Buddy was in the basement the other day and I was calling out to him. Nyla was coming up the stairs at the time so she clearly heard me yelling "Buddy". She told me "No. Name daddy." I stand corrected.