Just to Spice Things Up a Bit

Before I get to today's main topic, I forgot to mention in yesterday's pregnancy update that Beau's estimated weight is currently 5 lb 3 oz. He may be quite the chunky monkey four weeks from now! Any "normal sized" baby just sounds huge to me since Jake & Mal were smaller, so I'll have to adjust my thinking.

Back to the point of this post! Some people might think that preparing for the birth of a child in a few weeks, while already having two very active two-and-a-half-year-olds would be enough to keep a household busy. Perhaps that's true, but we decided to add a major house renovation to the mix, just for fun. We've been hoping to add another bedroom to our house since we moved in & decided that, chaotic as things may be right now, it probably wouldn't get any easier after Beau arrives. So, here we go!

This is a before shot of our living room. Half of the room has ten foot ceilings because the nursery sits above it, but the other half was open all the way up to the second floor, giving it a twenty foot ceiling.
Here you can see where the nursery sits, with a big open space beside it.That highest window went all the way up to the twenty foot ceiling.From upstairs, there was a look through from the den down to the living room. That dead space is now becoming our guest room!
The open doorway at the back of this pic is a little office area that we use for the elliptical & a game table.
Upstairs office areaThis wall in the office area is the spot for the doorway into the new room.
Now that you get the plan, here's the progress. Construction began on Monday morning, so my dining room is now crammed with its usual furniture, plus all of the furniture from the living room.

Our entry hall has been converted to the workers' main entrance, & the living room is sealed off with tarps & plastic to help control the dust.
Don't you like what I've done with my den furniture?
The molding above our mantel was removed on Monday, & floor joists were put into place to make the new floor/ceiling.

Since the upstairs window stretched all the way to the new floor, it is being replaced with a smaller one.
Yesterday, the floor was nailed into place, the window was removed & boarded up until the new one arrives, a doorway was cut & the new closet was framed.
Doorway into new room
Closet
View from downstairs
Today, they've been working on walling in the former look through & finishing all of the frame work. This whole project is supposed to be done within the month of February, so we should have just a teensy bit of wiggle room before Beau arrives.

Surprisingly, Jake & Mal took normal naps yesterday, even with the ridiculous amount of noise. They're currently asleep right now, so it seems we're on a good trend. My entire house is covered with a thin film of white dust, which drives me crazy, but it should all be worth it in a couple of weeks. At least we're not boring, right?