The joy of empty space

What is it about kids and empty rooms?  We have one right now and my kids love it more than the toy room it used to be.  I kind of lost my mind again and decided to push forward a project to replace our awful TV room carpet with hardwoods.  Seemed like a good idea at the time because I have excellent free labor right now.  The mess it created at the exact time I'm trying to decorate for Christmas is definitely a downside.  Instead of decorating my big Christmas tree with our family memories - I'm climbing over boxes and furniture that doesn't belong in the library/office.  The good things are the tree is up and the decorations are all waiting upstairs, the bad part is that ornament boxes are buried under toys and pillows.  The wood is now on order and hopefully will arrive tomorrow and I'm guessing as I write this my old nasty carpet is being pulled up and thrown far far away.  That is a very good thing!  Then to add to my insanity I couldn't stand to put back the off-white leather couch I bought in 1996 which is now a dingy grey with marker and ink decorations.  So my awesome parents watched the girls on Saturday while Ric and I made a 3 hours shopping excursion which resulted in a new couch and chair for Christmas - no Coach purse for me but I'll take that trade.

The girls on the other hand are loving this development.  Somehow the empty room is much more fun then the room full of toys.  Two nights in a row the girls have run, chased, danced and laughed in the room.  They have even been going out on the chilly back porch to play with the kitchen we were thinking about getting rid of since they mostly ignore it these day.  Everything is more fun when it is different I guess.  They aren't going to be happy when they aren't allowed in there tonight but I'm guessing the first few days of a new room configuration will be pretty exciting.  Those days are two weeks away since I'm donating the couch ASAP and the new furniture won't be in for two weeks.  At least they will have a few more days of an empty room after the hardwoods are in!