Christina's (First) Room

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3/15/2004     Christina moves into her room.  She is told that all she has to do is strip the wallpaper and we'll put our entire focus and energies into renovating it.
11/17/2004     Christina begins cleaning her room.     
11/21/2004     This page is a really great lesson for every girl who is a member of a family that took on a project like this one.  Here it is: if you don't do your part then don't expect your parents/caregivers to lift a finger to do it for you.  They are busy with other things and are actually happy that you aren't getting your room ready.
    At this point in time I have the suspicion that Christina actually believed that sooner or later we'd break down and say to ourselves, "Dear God in Heaven!  How can we allow our little princess to suffer so!  What kind of awful parents are we to let her live in squalor this way?  Let's drop everything and go create a magical kingdom for her, a place where she can while away the hours in comfort and style!"
     Yeah, right.
     The fact is that we'll be very happy to live up to our word and start working on the magical kingdom the minute she gets her butt in gear and does about three hours of work on it to prep it.  We never ask for her to help with any of the renovations because it would be unfair.  All we asked is that she steamed off her wallpaper.
     Eight months later we really believe she's kind of thinking about it.
12/04/2004      We've come to the conclusion that teaching a 14 year old how to discern what to save and what to throw away is not only a difficult task but also a major life lesson.  I (Chuck) am not very good at it because I have a personal hang-up with clutter and pack rats.  This is me trying to teach:
     "You have to decide what things fall into which of the following categories: things you need, things that have sentimental value, and things that are garbage.  Without my explaining what that means, lets use this stuffed bunny as an example.  It looks like something you've had since you were born.  Do you still need it?"
     Christina sadly shakes her head.
     "Right!  Then it's trash."
     Swoosh!  It hits the garbage can and is gone.
     This is just an exaggeration but shows you why I'm not handling this part of her education.  But, Beth isn't much better at it:
     Beth: "Okay, what is this broken shard of plastic with gum on it?"
     Christina: "That's something that was stuck to my shoe on my first day in first grade."
     Beth: (with a tear in her eye) "Then this has obvious sentimental value.  Put it over on your trophy shelf with the clod of dirt we scraped off your shoes from your first soccer game."
      Somewhere in the middle of these two philosophies is where we hope Christina will end up.  As of this date, she has gotten rid of three lawn & garden bags worth of things and her rooms are getting that much closer to being ready for a complete makeover.
12/7/2005      Through the general agreement of all parties, this page will end here.  Christina has decided she would prefer our bedroom and we've decided to exchange it for her space.  Our room was smaller but had a massive bathroom.  Her room is giant and we need the space for our gigantic furniture.
    The wall that we partially knocked down will be reconfigured with a door and the space that we used as a dressing room will become the new guest room.
     Click here to see the journal or photo page for Christina's new room.
     Click here to see the journal or photo page for our new room