Winterizing, part 2

My mom used to teach at an independent elementary school in Cambridge, MA that was housed in a 4-story, brick building in a residential neighborhood. Eventually, the school outgrew the space and moved to a new location, and the old building was bought by a wealthy family with two young boys who converted it into their house. Obviously, there was major renovation required to turn what had been a dozen or so classrooms and offices into bedrooms and living spaces, but the new owners chose to leave the fourth floor exactly as it had been. The fourth floor was a gym, with gorgeous wooden floors, high ceilings and huge, well-protected windows. I often find myself fantasizing about this situation during the Winter, when the kids are running circles around my legs and declaring my body as "base!" I could certainly do without the dozen large rooms of living space, but I can't help but think that life would be pretty amazing if only we had a gym in our house. Seriously.

Luke and Jasper's second home

The first time we moved after Luke and Jaz were born--they were 11 months old--it was with this image of an indoor gym in my mind. We moved into a studio apartment on the fourth floor of an old factory building. The apartment was huge--2100 square feet--but was comprised of only one room (plus a bathroom and a closet). The kids could run, and run, and run, and run (and yes, they were running at the age of 11 months). It was January, and we felt like we'd found the best possible solution to surviving winter with little kids. Plus, we'd always been into rearranging our homes (switching the living room and the bedroom, adding and removing guest rooms, etc.), and the big open space offered endless furniture arrangement possibilities. We moved out after 13 months (and several different arrangements), longing for doors we could close and the ability to contain "the playroom" somewhat (as well as some outdoor space that was more exciting than a parking lot). But we've never lived anywhere quite as indoor-play-friendly since then.

During my initial burst of post-Solstice tree house reorganization in our current home, I once again decided to make our home as much like a gym as possible. Living in a much more limited space than we ever have before, there aren't as many possibilities as far as rearrangments go. But I quickly realized that the first thing to do was to lose the living room couch.

living room (before)

Our living room is not exactly tiny, but it's not exactly big either. And the couch was taking up a lot of space. I thought about all of the things that we did in the living room, and "sitting on the couch" was nowhere near the top of the list. For the most part, if we're hanging out in the living room, we're laying around directly in front of the woodstove, or playing a game on the floor. Sure, there was the occasional pregnancy-induced afternoon nap on the couch, but there were many days that left the couch entirely neglected, especially since the arrival of a second couch in the kitchen (we are huge believers in the kitchen couch). With Zeben's help, I dragged the living room couch outside and left it in the snow (and later moved it into my mom's basement next door). The resulting opening allowed me to both move the train table into the living room (it had previously been in the kids' room upstairs, mostly ignored), and bring over the big, soft blocks that we'd had in storage since the move.

living room (after)

The big blocks were a collective gift to Luke, Jaz and Zeb two years (and two houses) ago, and they were certainly at the top of the list of the most-played with toys before we moved. But we didn't see how we could fit them into our new, much smaller house (we more than halved our square footage in the last move). We thought about selling them, but just couldn't bring ourselves to do it, and I'm so glad that we didn't! The kids were beyond thrilled to come home and find the blocks waiting for them, and have been playing with them constantly ever since.


And while the pregnant member of our family was somewhat disgruntled to learn that I had gotten rid of one of her comfy resting spots, I've shown her that I can simply build her a little couch out of blocks in the evenings when she wants to recline by the fire. I'm not sure that she's been entirely convinced, but she does agree that the new set-up has allowed for much more playspace and much more active, engaged, imaginative play. It's not a gym, but it's as close as we can get. We may end up bringing the couch back inside when winter is over (and when there's a new baby needing to nurse all day long), but so far it's hardly been missed. I'm not sure that our living room really qualifies as a living room anymore (perhaps it would fit better into the "playroom" category), but then again, it's seeing a lot more life in its new incarnation.


Next, I took on the dining room. Simply by rotating the dining room table, I totally changed the energy of the room and made it feel much bigger (and created a larger passageway for the kids to run through). I also moved out the tiny table from the corner and replaced it with a larger table that functions as an ever-available art space for the kids. This has been wonderful because it means that the big table isn't always covered with art supplies. Plus, there was room to make the play kitchen corner into a cozier, more dynamic space.

dining room (before)

dining room (after)

the art table

The new set-up just makes so much more sense, and I think we will definitely be leaving it like this from now on. No space is wasted, and every corner has a purpose. It's way more than just a dining room now.

Last night when Katie and Aaron came over for some post-inauguration celebrating (woo-hoo!), they brought with them one of their indoor Winter solutions (passed down to them from another parent who had used it as a Winter survival tool): a small bounce house. It just about filled our mudroom and definitely filled our house with the sounds of giggling, bouncy children.

Lukas, Zeben, and Aryeh, bouncing and recharging.

I'd love to know of other ways that people have found to Winterize their houses and to help their kids stay engaged and find appropriate outlets for their boundless energy (so that you don't happen upon them jumping off the top of the fridge, like Lukas did last night).

1 month down, 2 months to go . . .