A Bored difficult child + time on her hands = TROUBLE!

KTMom91

Well-Known Member
She's bored. She's tired of everything being the same all the time. School is boring, work is boring, she has nothing to do...until 4:30, when she heads back to church to watch kids. I'm sitting on the couch, playing with my Facebook animals and minding my own business, when..."I want to paint my room this summer. I think purple. And I want the door put back on." Umm...no door. Since that's going to be my library once she moves out, no door. "OK, then can I have a closet door at least?" No again. We're planning to demolish the tiny closet and build a huge walk-in one, again, once she moves out. "Can I at least have the bed frame back?" We took out the bed frame because she was putting food under there, but all right, I'll agree to the bed frame.

So then she decides to move all her furniture around, because she has time before church. The panther boys follow her in, get underfoot, and she starts yelling. I herd the panthers back into to the living room and close our bedroom door. There are the most horrible bangs and crashes coming from the other side of the house, but we don't dare go check on her, because we don't want to get yelled at! She just marched through with a sour face, carrying a small bookcase that is in her way, and put it in the backyard. The crashes have started up again...

I'm afraid...very afraid...
 

tiredmommy

Well-Known Member
Lol! I move furniture when I'm bored too. I don't bang or crash stuff, of course but I do like to change things up!
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
LOL Nichole does this when she's bored too, as does easy child. A trait they must have picked up from husband's side of the family as I've never been prone to it myself. I'm rarely bored. lol I hope it turns out ok.
 

KTMom91

Well-Known Member
It seems to be ok so far... no broken windows this time, no new holes in the wall. She did ask how to cover up the holes, but since we're going to totally redo wiring, drywall, etc. for my library, I told her not to worry about it. She has enough posters...that should cover up the holes just fine.

I wonder what shade of purple she'll choose?
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
LOL, husband does similar stuff. Usually to our bedroom or the livingroom -- I never know when I might find things moved around.

Hey, at least all she wants to do is paint. Let her have a go at it! I painted easy child's room a medium lavender two years ago and it looks great. The top 1/3 of her wall I painted a light cream color to match the shelves that run along the perimeter.

You could let her hang a rod across the top of the closet and hang a curtain for a closet door. We did this for easy child's room as well. I got a regular wood closet pole from Home Depot, painted it, and used closet pole hangers to mount it. The curtain I got from Ikea -- it has uber-large grommets at the top and the pole runs through them. The curtain comes unhemmed, but includes fusible tape, so you just pin it to the length you want, then fuse it with an iron. Very easy, and looks very nice. Plus it makes access a whole lot easier than the sliding doors we had before. If she wants to get fancy, she could sew ribbon or silk flower petals or some other embellishment on the fabric to jazz it up. AND she can take the curtain with her when she moves out!

Wow, how's that for a 2-cups-of-coffee burst of inspiration!
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
I understand the crashes. These happen in our house with Onyxx's normal room cleaning. Usually at 1 AM, as well. I finally told her if she wakes me again, I will clean & rearrange her room myself. This is NOT something she wants.

Onyxx needs to lose her door, too. However this created more issues than it was worth. First there was an all out rage - and yes, I hid - and this was several years ago! This was after the rage when she found out we'd removed the lock from her door. Then she slept in the bathtub. So she could close the door. However that's the bathroom upstairs - the one husband and I use - and getting her up in the morning is a chore anyway. Tried the curtain route - came home from work and it was in tatters and she had stolen husband's duct tape and created a door. Never mind she couldn't get IN or OUT.

Then she used a broken pair of scissors to "lock" the door by pushing them through the frame. I took them away and she decided to use a bread knife. My good silverware no less. Took that and told her when she starts paying her part of the mortgage she can have a real lock. Until then, no lock, and if she tries it again she not only loses her door, but everything in her room besides 1 mattress, 1 set of sheets, 1 pillow and the clothes I deem acceptable. For a nun.

So far so good... I think she finally realized I was NOT JOKING.

Last February we did let her paint her room. Random-width black and white stripes, and every so often a red pin stripe. YUCK! But she loves it.
 

KTMom91

Well-Known Member
We bought zebra print shower curtains for the doors, hung on tension rods. She can take those with her. I suspect she'll choose a really bright, obnoxious purple rather than a nice lavender or lilac, and she thinks she'll paint large geometric shapes on the walls, in pink, lime green, orange...

The proposed library will have a lighthouse theme. Blues, creams, beiges...oh, well...
 

AnnieO

Shooting from the Hip
Just hope she does not use lipstick on the wall.

An even dozen coats of Kilz and I had to cover the mess with a poster still.
 

KTMom91

Well-Known Member
That's why Hubby plans to tear out the walls, insulate with something other than newspaper and horsehair (I'm not kidding), and put up nice new drywall. There are probably 8 layers of wallpaper on there, and Lord only knows how many coats of paint. While I believe in preserving history, this is too big a mess to preserve.
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
Sounds like a proper gutting is in order, then. So who cares what she does, huh?

by the way, Goo Gone gets lipstick and other gunk off walls.
 

trinityroyal

Well-Known Member
Back in university I had a job every summer as a house painter. We used to use Zinnser primer. Covers EVERYTHING! Get it tinted in the same colour you plan to paint, and you'll save yourself at least one coat if not two.

difficult child 1's room used to be chlorophyl green. Practically glowed in the dark. When he moved to the Residential Treatment Center (RTC), I repainted the room in a lovely soft blue. One coat of Zinnser tinted blue, and then one top coat of latex paint in the same shade of blue.
 

Shari

IsItFridayYet?
OMG, you live in MY HOUSE!??!??! How did I not notice!

The slatboard walls, covered with newspaper is GREAT in the winter....especially when the wind blows hard! The plaster, then wall paper, then paneling...wow.
 

KTMom91

Well-Known Member
Miss KT's room isn't part of the original construction - there's no plaster. I think her room was added on in the early 40's. I haven't gotten down to the Hall of Records to work on the house's genealogy yet. The house is wood, covered with asbestos shingles, again, from the 40's, and her room is hot in the summer and cold in the winter.
 
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