A Place of their Own!

 Reed and Riley have made the move - out of our house and her house and into their own space!  They had to work really hard to get the space up and running but they did it!  It is still a work in progress and probably will be for a while but it is their own!

Below you can see Riley's recent fortune from the local restaurant.  It was definitely a "telling" fortune!  

The kids had some time off over the Christmas break and got all the ducks, friends, and dogs in a row to make things happen at a little shop on the same property that houses our "Big Shop" that the drill rigs and pump trucks live in.  We had been using it as strictly storage, but in a former life it was an apartment - some friends of ours used it when they sold their house and it sold sooner than they thought it would and waaayyyy before their new house was done!  So we knew it would be able to be a good spot to start out in!

Luckily most of the friends are hockey players or kids who are in pretty good shape to move heavy things!  There was a lot of moving of heavy items for about the first two days!

And no.....it's not a Union job!  Just kidding!  They are debating on where to put all the tires! " Why do you even HAVE this many tires?  Who do these belong to?"   Keeping in mind that we have a large number of vehicles and some of the tires were even from trucks/rigs that we don't own anymore!  They got it sorted!

Here is the start up kitchen.  Somewhere in this shop there is an oven - it only worked for about a week before they had to replace it - luckily they know people!  This is the "Before" kitchen above and below!  Uncle and Reed are doing some wiring so there is better lighting in the kitchen area and since the light switch was all the way across the room from the kitchen door?!  Not sure why.

One of the features in this kitchen is that it was originally set up to be a cold room for hanging meat after hunts.  Back in the day all of the families would get together after hunting season and butcher.  We sometimes also would get a pig during the winter (or if we didn't get a moose that year) and butcher it up in the shop kitchen.  

Above is Reed and Mardi cooking up a meal for dinner on the new stove with the "kitchen drawer toolbox" next to it.  It has a cutting board top so it is super useful next to the stove.  It is a great use of an empty toolbox - although Im not sure why the box would be empty at our shop?  Hmmmmm......

Here Mardi is literally "hanging out" in the kitchen.  Gives you a better idea of what those meat hangers look like!

Hockey players always know how to remove snow from a surface that may have ice under the snow!  They will find ice!  Yes - those are sleds they are scooping snow with!

Plenty of parking at this apartment!

Here is another view of some of the stuff that was stored in the small shop - it is a LOT of tires!  Below is Reedo surveying the site from a tire perch! Why DID we have all those tires?

Riley's little sister gets a little broom practice - no parking here!

Below picture will be the bedroom.  Walls going up!  There won't be any lid on the rooms because of the way the heating system is set up it would make it hard to heat the rooms individually so this way they will have "circulation throughout the rooms".  Feel a draft?  That is your "circulation"!

Here goes the shelving up to act as the closet - the rest will go in dressers.

Entry way hallway below - the bathroom is through the end door and to the left - it makes for a little blocking for in case the big door has to come up and they don't have to knock out any existing walls.  And there is plenty of room for Reeds work clothing to hang without it coming all the way in!

Nothing wrong with a little work break to ride a machine with the littles and have a little fun!

Here is the living room with the futon and the sofa - and yes - that is a beer keg with a piece of glass on top for an end table!  Those were the hubby and I's first end tables at our first house thirty years ago!  Then they went to Hubby's brother for about 15 years and now the kids have them for another round!  

It has been very bittersweet for Hubby and I. We know that it is how things go and that it is the right thing for the kids, but it didnt work too good for us the first time around so we still have a lot of fear factor as well - built in worry stones around our necks and sitting right on our hearts!

But mixed in, and in our higher hearts we can feel and see the love that has gone into this little "place of their own" and we know that will carry into their lives as well.

All will be well.  Blessed be little birds.