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Friday, February 3, 2017

Creating A Family Friendly Home

With our new addition due in May (just over 3 months away!) Mr P and I have been busy turning our Jarrah Jungle into a family friendly home.

We are trying to finish all our renovating projects big and small in the next few months before our little one arrives - from plastering and painting ceilings, to installing door handles, wallpapering, planting a vegetable and herb garden in our front courtyard, setting up our new deck and patio space, making the backyard dog friendly with some grass and paving for Lexi ..... there's so much we want to do!


Besides all the renovating projects we also need to make changes to create a more family friendly home for the baby's bedroom, living space and bathroom and this is what we've come up with.

1. Goodbye Study/Craft Room .... Hello Nursery

We have 4 bedrooms - our master bedroom, guest bedroom, Mr P has his man cave and I have my study/craft room.

So what room will be turned into the nursery? After much consideration, unfortunately for me, we decided the best option is to turn my study/craft room into a nursery so Mr P gets to keep his man cave for now!

I've been busy finding a new place for all the bits and pieces I store in this room. I loved having my own creative space but I'll admit it was used more for storage and I would actually do my creative projects in the living room.

I can't wait to set up the nursery and plan to decorate it on a modest budget and use furniture and decor we already have. 


2. Creating extra living space .... An outdoor room

Another issue we have at home is we only have one small living room. Perfect for a couple but it's a bit of a problem now that it's going to be a combined space for entertaining adults mixed with an area for the baby's toys and equipment and things.

I like my home to be neat and tidy and everything in its place and know that sitting on the couch trying to look over all the baby's things will drive me crazy!


We are hoping our new backyard deck and patio we have just finished building will give us essentially another living room that can be an outdoor room and entertaining space for adults. 

We'll put some comfortable outdoor furniture and a TV out here so Mr P won't miss out on his sport if the cartoons are on and if the baby's equipment is spread everywhere inside we can retreat to our adults only outdoor room!


3. Bath time without a bath

The other issue we have is when we renovated our bathroom we indulgently removed the old bath and included a big double shower which I absolutely love but it means we don't have a bath for the baby!

I plan to get a baby bath to sit in the shower but from what I know most people bath their baby and young kids in the bath not the shower - I hope it won't be too difficult trying to use a baby bath in the shower.


We did think ahead when we did our laundry renovation and installed a large laundry trough and a laundry bench in here.

So for bath time I'm hoping we can utilise the laundry as well as a baby bath in the shower.


I'm pretty sure for the first year at least we will manage just fine in our home as it is with these changes.

Although we are keeping an eye on the housing market for a bigger family home to move into for the future, but for now we don't want to leave our beloved Jarrah Jungle home!

I think we're on the right track for creating a family friendly home.

Did you need to make any family friendly changes to your home?

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4 comments:

  1. We did not have a bath until our daughter was 9 years old and moved to a different house. By then she could shower happily. Until then we just kept buying larger diameter tubs from the Reject Shop! They are out there - big plastic tubs. I think the laundry tub for a baby is fine; and you don't have to bend over. We had a tub on the ground and I was always nervous getting up with a wet baby. Babies do not know about baths, they learn. They can learn an alternative. I think your outside area for parents is a great idea. The other idea is to have lots of large containers for toys and make packing up part of the game; by bedtime the lounge is clear and ready for adults - to fall asleep on the couch!!!!

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    1. Thanks for the tips I must look into those tubs and more storage, making it a game is a great idea :)

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  2. My daughter is 8 and still takes a bath, but she could take a shower if I helped her wash her hair. A baby bath will be fine though for a long time!! :) I remember giving up my creative room and I still miss it at times. I do all of my crafts on the kitchen table now and I store stuff downstairs (which I need to tidy up!).

    Carrie
    curlycraftymom.com

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    1. You understand my pain then Carrie no more craft room I'm so sad! But I'm equally as excited about doing up the nursery!! Like you I do my crafts in the living room so it doesn't really matter that I won't have a room to sit in, it's just where to store everything that has become a problem :)

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