siobhan.'s Profile

@notbob - yes! Design help is a godsend and saved us thousands. And a mobile island (or a longer one - making it 2 feet longer would still give you plenty of traffic clearance) is a great idea.

For the space, I don't think you can get more efficient than a revolving shoe rack. You can get a lot of shoes into one sq foot of floor space.

They aren't the most attractive things (the soles of shows are kind of on display) and some large shoe sizes don't fit well (particularly wider men's shoes - they fit, but you have to skip some slots).

Standing:

http://www.amazon.com/Household-Essentials-Four-Tier-Revolving-Chrome/dp/B000P6CEQW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369230702&sr=8-1&keywords=revolving+shoe+rack

Floor to ceiling

http://www.amazon.com/Household-Essentials-Ceiling-6-Tier-Revolving/dp/B001HOXGA4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1369230756&sr=8-2&keywords=revolving+shoe+rack

barn doors on the bedroom side - doors need to be larger than the opening

http://www.houzz.com/barn-doors

You can't just add a fan in place of a light fixture. The air would have no where to vent to. Fans need to push the air outside somewhere. So some kind of hole in the exterior of the building and duct work from the bathroom to the hole would also have to be added.

If you vent the warm, moist air to the space between the bathroom ceiling and floor above (and not outside the building), you'll get water, mold and eventually structural damage.

I'm glad you are not my tenant.

90. Only tripped up on the painted ladies.

I think the company is Dahlens Aluminum (the logo makes it look like the D should also go in front of the Alum...but I think that is stylistic choice).

Bloomingdales sold some of their designs in the mid 1960s.

- No ironing kids clothes (possible exception for one special shirt/dress for weddings/funerals - but REALLY special events - kid birthday parties do not qualify as special).

- 14 tops, 7 bottoms, 3 sweatshirts, 5 sets of pajamas, maybe 7 pairs of socks, a few bathing suits (we swim 2-3 times a week). That might be too little for fashion conscious kids, but it works for our little boy. Everything but the socks is hung up so it is easy for him to see and find what he wants without making a mess. (also in the dresser - spare sheets for his bed and his extra towels).

- We pack away non seasonal clothes to keep things tidy.

- If they are old enough to change their clothes multiple times a day, they are probably old enough to do their own laundry. Teach them. My son is 3 and he can put his dirty laundry in the hamper, help load the washing machine, press the buttons (we have a stacked washer/dryer, so I load the dryer) and mostly fold/hang up his clothing.

- We do laundry Thursdays (most of the week's clothes) and Sundays (a few days of clothes, sheets, towels).

- Anything that adults have to fold gets folded in the living room floor or dining room table while we watch TV (we save some TV for Thursday nights for this very purpose). Multiple pairs of hands makes it go faster. Doing it out in the open (instead of down by the laundry) makes sure that we actually finish and we put everything away.

- If we fold anything of our sons after he has gone to bed, we put the folded clothes in basket outside his bedroom door. Clean laundry gets put away in the morning before we go downstairs for breakfast (he likes a few sleepy minutes in his room before we really get going).

- Hampers and stain stick in each bedroom and the dining room (source of most messes with our little one).

Also in MA (Cambridge) with a 3 year old. And we went outside every dang non work day this winter. Even mid blizzard (although that was for less than 5 minutes, just to watch the snow fall).

I believe school went for recess all but two or three days (only exceptions to going out were during major snow and rainstorms - drizzle/light snow are fair game). Everyone had a snow pants and layers.

I wear a pedometer a lot. On weekends, I generally log 10+ miles of walking and running a day with my little guy. Saturday morning, we walk to swimming, then spend a couple of hours at the park. After nap, we usually have a long walk and maybe another park visit (Cambridge has loads of parks, so we visit many different parks each week). Sunday mornings we generally have an outdoors family outing (go to a farm, walk at an Audubon Society reserve, etc) in the morning and serious walk/play time at the park in the afternoon. I'd say we average 5+ hours outside each day.

I'm not trying to win outdoors mom of the year here. I don't like being cold (nor do I like being hot, bugs, and other inconveniences of spending lots of time outside).

But with a high energy kid, outside is just SO much more pleasant than being cooped up indoors. Lots of time outside (even when he was littler and not expending so much energy playing) resulted in better naps and night sleep. Outside just made life better, even when it was cold. If your kid is high energy, there really is no bad weather, only bad clothing.

In Scandinavia, kids nap outside in the winter.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21537988

Room and Board does a number of iron/steel beds that are similar or slightly more modern/streamlined. And many of them have low foot board options. We've had a low foot board Parsons for a decade and still love it. It manages to be sturdy as all heck (but also comes apart easily, a real bonus over a number of moves).

http://www.roomandboard.com/rnb/product/detail.do?productGroup=19564&catalog=filter&menuCatalog=room&menuCategory=191&menuSubcategory=135

http://www.roomandboard.com/rnb/product/detail.do?productGroup=866&catalog=filter&menuCatalog=room&menuCategory=191&menuSubcategory=135

http://www.roomandboard.com/rnb/product/detail.do?productGroup=24878&catalog=filter&menuCatalog=room&menuCategory=191&menuSubcategory=135

Above your desired price range, but I have to throw in an Angela Adams. I covet her work.

http://www.angelaadams.com/Adriana.html?optionid=1411