::teenager drive in::

How is it even possible that Lily is 14!  WHAT!  14.  

It's not like I didn't see it coming but still...

14

This year for her party we decided to turn the party barn into a drive in movie.

I used my old luggage cart as a blanket rack.

Quinn helped with the popcorn machine.  

I loved the treat table.

We had hot chocolate with mini chips and sprinkles.

Whip cream got brought out latter.  

My lovely friend Emily and her family gave me this bowling pin vase. 

It made it too the party table because it'ss so cute.  

When it got dark we drove the trucks in and filled them with air mattresses and blankets.  

Max decided he would sneak in and join the party by sitting on the roof of a truck.

It ended up being five girls total. 

They had a really good time.  

::putting a new barn door - in an actual barn::

My 40th birthday party is coming up!  

I haven't had a real birthday party since junior high and I am kinda excited.  

It's actually a 40th birthday/graduation/house warming/dream job extravaganza.  But calling it my birthday party is a bit simpler. We are going to have it in our party barn space of our big barn.  

Unfortunately as we get moved in the "center room" has turned out to be a storage room for lumber salvaged from the house remodel.  

It's not horrible - like the good little hoarder I want to become.

Let's say - it's disorganized.  

Here it is.

Stop eyeballing my barn wood scraps.  

They are mine.  

(See- hoarder in the making)

Josh gets shit done.  

He walked out there and agreed with me so he modified a different barn door we had taken down from another space to go in the track that was already above the open doorway between the center room and the party barn.  

We took really old white washed boards that where on an old barn exterior door that got blown apart in the wind in a storm this year and reused them to make up the old door.  

I was in charge of nailing them up.  

Josh was in charge of remaining hot and cutting all boards to size.  

There it is open to the center room and partially closing off the chickens area.

And here is is closed and blocking off the center room.  

::lily's bed build::

Here is the original layout of the house.  The first window on the bottom left will become the front door. Along the hallway on the right was three tiny bedrooms.  They had two different ceiling heights and an old chimney hiding behind some walls.  The three bedrooms got turned into two bedrooms with a laundry room.  The two windows on the right hand side became part of Lily's room.  

The door to the old hall got closed in and part of the room became a hall closet.  

The wall blocking off the part that would be Lily's bed got removed.  The two windows where one of the few things to be reused.  

Here is the finished plan.  

This was when they torn down the wall between Max's room and Lily's room.  

See the old chimney that had to come out?

And the football floor found it's self into the dumpster.  

The window you see is what will become Lily'e bed nook. 

The yellowish wall in the background in the wall that is now gone.  

You can see the awesome beam that we got to expose wrapped in drywall to the left of the window.  

 Lily may have the best room in the place.  We knew from the first that a built in bed was in the future, but we were not sure when we would be able to do it.  Her room has an L shape and this area of it was designed to exactly fit a queen bed.  

I dug through Amazon one day and found a very inexpensive mattress that had really good reviews.  I bought it and it came shrink wrapped in a box that was smaller than a dishwasher.  So far - I would highly recommend it.  It for sure beats the twin mattress she had on the floor. 

Josh started by building the frame into the wall. 

It's all anchored in to studs.

Quinn was very helpful in making sure it was all strong and up to his codes of safety and fun.  

Her nook for her cell phone is in the background.

Cross bracing for strength. 

Notice Q's feet are not even on the ground.  I think if it can hold these three it will do.  

Plywood decking being added. 

A piece of trim board covered the 2 by 4 construction.
Josh and Lily marveling at the handy work.

Here is the bed nook all done with her 100 pillows.

We intentially left room under it to add a trundle bed latter.  

When you lay in the bed you have a view of the original hand cut beam that's holding up the house.  A big window and an industrial crystal chandelier. 

One happy teenager.  

Still left:
Add a built in desk at other end of L shape
Display shelves above desk
Closet doors
Door for secret pass through between closets
Add trundle