Game room, tile, more progress

What I wouldn't give for an extra hour or two each day. For reading, organizing, running errands - maybe even sleeping.

I could sure use it.

Today was a flurry of activity. While I was on the elliptical, my mind starting racing around, thinking of what I could do upstairs. But first I should back up: We moved all of Maddie's stuff from the third-floor game room down to her room - success! She is completely moved in (though to say everything is neatly stowed away would be a stretch - that is her job, and this week she is incredibly busy, with three swim meets, tests, ISTEP, science fair, etc. I can wait.)

So, with Maddie out, I cleaned, cleaned, cleaned ... in order to move Sylvia upstairs. We got the biggest portion of her necessary stuff moved up there; since she'll only be there for two weeks or so, we decided some of her furniture could stay in the hallway, or even move into our room (the sitting room off our bedroom).

And, since Sylvia is not taking up as much space as Maddie did, it suddenly dawned on me, while on the elliptical, that we could actually arrange the furniture in the TV area the way we would like, as we no longer have to accommodate for all of Maddie's stuff.

Thus I spent the morning moving furniture (and vacuuming thoroughly underneath everything I moved). It looks good. Not great - that will wait for the day Sylvia is no longer up there and we have a new couch (I've priced them - after this kitchen remodel, it will be a while). None the less, it looks much better, much less cluttery, much more usable space.

This took up much of the morning, but I feel so much better about the state of our house - we are seeing such progress. Today I am seeing this in the new part of the kitchen:

It is even more beautiful in person. Soon we'll be seeing new kitchen cabinets. I'm thinking "soon" is a relative term. But the stain choices are sitting in our house, waiting for a decision.

It is happening. Truly, it is happening.