Redoing the Boys’ Room—Finally! (31 of 100)

In April, we set out to tackle a long-overdue project: redoing the boys’ bedroom. The walls and ceiling had innumerable scratches, dents, and holes, plus one window wall that had been damaged over the years by rain.

Nathan got the project started by emptying the room and tearing out the worst of the water-damaged plaster. He spent quite a bit of time filling the larger holes and making the rough spots manageable again.

After that, Percy stepped in and took on the task of smoothing things out with a thinner coat of spackling. I was honestly surprised at how much patching was needed. By the end of it, there was hardly any of the original gray paint visible! The walls looked more like a snowstorm than a bedroom at that point.

We began painting in May, just the boys and me, but the job stalled as one thing after another cropped up. Visitors, illnesses, a broken bone, unexpected errands—each time we tried to make progress, something else seemed to pop up.

Then, in June, Kenton Slabaugh came to visit, and one of the first things he jumped into was helping finish the painting and reinstall the bunk beds. I was finally able to help move the rest of the furniture back in and put the room in order.

After more than two months of patching, painting, delays, and detours, the boys are happily back in their freshly updated room and very glad to be in their own beds again rather than camping out on the landing by the stairs.

It may not have gone according to plan, but we’re thankful it’s done.