I'm so tired of my house (dumb stuff I want to remember, part 1)

One thing that has recently surprised me about all of this, is how many changes I'm making to my house. I don't know if it's just that I'm just so tired of it (being stuck in it for ten months will do that), or if because our lifestyle has changed so much that our needs have also changed. Whatever the reason, we've made a lot of changes. (Well, maybe it's not that many.)

• New living room coffee table (the wood table on the wood floor was driving me crazy)
• New dining room rug (now that Bruno is gone, we don't have to worry about it getting pooped on, barfed on, etc.)
• New family room rug (again, there's almost too much wood)
• Cleaned out recipe books to make room for a less-cluttered built-in cabinet in the kitchen
• New shoe organization at the door. We had this old, broken thing that was holding way more shoes than we use, especially now.
• Put up shelves in boys' rooms to display LEGO builds so that they're not all over the house

Then there are the BIG changes. After too many large rainstorms that brought water into the basement, we decided it was finally time to get a french drain installed. Thanksgiving weekend we cleared out our basement closets entirely and put all of that stuff in the middle of the basement floor. (Our closests are large and held a lot of stuff. It was terrible having it all just sitting there for weeks and weeks.) The drain installation required destroying the closets. So we had to install new closets, with new walls, floors, and ceilings. The rain (and pets and boys and time) also made the carpets terrible, so we had to get new carpets. After nearly two months, we have a like-new basement, full of new carpet, new closets, a new TV, and a new closet system in the "master" bedroom. All that's left is the necessary new couch.

And of course, finding space for everyone to work and school at home has been tough. We just don't have extra room for anything. The boys are set up for online school in their rooms. I have been working in the playroom, which is less than ideal (space, temperature). Chuck started the school year working in the Scamp, but then winter came and it just became harder, so now he's in the basement. It's not great, but where else can he go? There's barely room in our bedroom for our bed, so that's out. And...now we're out of space. So basement it is.

I guess it doesn't seem like that much. However, what's making me sad is how much I feel like we need a new space with more space. Or just a garage. Or just everyone needs to leave the house.