Her Own Space

Subtitle: From Meth Room to Tween Room

I mentioned in a previous post that when we bought our 100 year old house with a creepy, unfinished basement, we found an even creepier single roughed-in room that we were pretty sure was used for growing "stuff". It just had those attributes. We used it for storage.

Then about a year ago Brynne started requesting her own room. You see, this little house only has three bedrooms so she and Eli have had to share a room. That wasn't a big deal because even though they had their own rooms in Oklahoma, they shared Eli's room anyway for sleeping.

But a tween girl needs her own space. You know?

We didn't have any money for a reno, so we just painted the walls with some leftover lavender paint my mom had and painted the floor with white paint to try to brighten it up a bit. There are no windows in that room so no natural light. We covered the creepy fluorescent lighting in the ceiling and put in all new drop ceiling tiles (my mom bought those for her). Then we put in her furniture and threw down a rug we already had in another area of the basement.

And she had a room.

And it was okay.

But it wasn't very inviting, it was dark and dank, and it had an overabundance of camel crickets. Have you ever come face to face with one of those? They are completely harmless, but they jump and scare the poo out of you!! She wasn't a fan.

So she moved back upstairs to Eli's room again.

And then she started dreaming of Dawson moving out so she could have his room. Since that is not very likely to happen for several more years, I needed to come up with another plan.

A few months ago I came across some alternative flooring from Best Step that is like interlocking garage mat flooring but looks like hardwood. I covered an area in front of my washer and dryer in the basement and have loved it. So I decided that if we covered her entire room with it, did some rearranging and some more intentional decorating, and kept it treated for bugs, that the room just might work for her.

The flooring was our biggest expense, about $170 for the space. With some new lighting and the other fun additions, it has turned out so great!!

She loves it!

In fact, other than eating, doing her schoolwork, and using the restroom, she has been in her room non-stop. She had her first sleepover in her new room the first night it was complete and it was perfect. They were able to stay up half the night playing without disturbing anybody.

She told me that her room "is the best thing that has ever happened to her".