I had the best week with so many of my friends! Even with all our exams I was able to see my friends to celebrate my 18th birthday.
He said
Some time early this past summer, Emelia–ever the planner–began work about presenting to us the amazing opportunity to let her take the basement to turn it into a quasi apartment for her to live. In fairness she had presented the option a couple of other times in the last year, but she finally had an angle to use: university. Because if she was doing us the favour of staying home for university (I kid, I kid), it made sense that she live more independently in the basement. Given that she would be turning 18 this year (and, already did) we agreed to the idea. And, to be perfectly honest it would give is back some usable space on the bedroom level. This house is definitely not a palatial manner!
So initially when the green light was torched we had to work (and rework) at managing Emelia’s expectations–meaning it wasn’t going to happen over night. There was a long list of things that needed to happen in order to convert the former daycare space over to her room. Most notably, we needed to make the store room a lot more usable so we could get the bike tools, tools and the random bits of storage we used in a mixture of the 2 rooms in the basement, all into the 1 store room. This meant having to build in some storage and also quite a bit of downsizing. We got started on this at Christmas time, donating away all the of the workout equipment that we no longer use (with our Gym membership). That freed up a lot of space. But, it sure didn’t cure Emelia’s need for an immediate want-it-now hopes.
Over the course of the last few weeks, we’ve been slowing chipping away at getting the work done in the store room to make it much, more usable. That meant tearing away some of the drywall to solve an insulation issue but also, to ensure we were anchoring into studs and not the plumbing and wiring that exists. In the last week we have managed to make major headway on that room and are actually getting it close to becoming the proper storage room we need it to be. Once we are done there, we can move onto making the main, larger room into a more private setting for Emelia by putting in a wall at the one end that will allow her, her own space, but keep access for the laundry without having to traipse through Emelia’s space.
Once that gets sorted, we’re kind of in the spot where we can move her bedroom downstairs which means we can than get to reclaiming and repurposing the rooms upstairs which all things being equal, may finally give us an actual legitimate spare bedroom should we need it for overnight guests–something we’ve kind never had. The irony of all of this is that, we converted the basement so that Danielle could have the daycare and take care of Emelia (among a slew of other kids, too). We actually really haven’t done anything major to our house since then! It’s kind of exciting to be back in this place of renovation and change, because it has been so long. But the hardest part is getting Emelia to a place of understanding of just how tedious and slow it can be.
She said
This was such a big week, very busy and full of lots of milestones for Emelia. First things first Emelia turned 18 on Monday. In a blink of an eye we went from having a newborn to an adult. It was a huge milestone for her and we wanted to make sure we celebrated with her and all those who are important in her life. On Sunday her actual birthday we had some of her closest friends and some of our family over to celebrate. On Monday and Tuesday Emelia had to balance out cheer training and her final exams. Emelia was nose deep in her study notes for days and from all accounts things went really well for her. The one mark she has back already was her law exam and for that she got a 94%!! We could not be prouder.
As the week went along and by Wednesday night she was done exams and was able to have some freedom back and some time with her friends that did not involve studying. On Thursday she had her bigger friend group over for some drinks, pizza and hanging out. They had to move plans around a bit so not all her friend group could come, both Shai and Matheus had other things they could not move around to come but the rest of the friend group were able to come over. Emelia was excited to have all her friends over because on Wednesday she had one huge rite of passage for her 18th birthday which was her first tattoo. Emelia had been asking for 2 years to get this tattoo, she had put a lot of thought and design into this and the tattoo design has deep meaning. Emelia has always had a deep connection to my late mother even though she passed 0ver 20 years before Emelia was born. She knew that her first tattoo would be tied into the memory of her late grandmother, the design grew and started to evolve 2 years ago when we realized that she was going to loose her uncle Greg. Then the entire tattoo changed to be a full family tribute and partial memorial tattoo. The design is a bouquet of fine line flowers, each flower respsents a different family member, the flowers include – Greg, Helen, Doug, my late mother, John, myself and Emelia. She is so happy with the final result and it turned out beautifully.
As the week wrapped up with exams done and her big birthday present done we could focus on her larger all girls party here. Emelia invited her closest 20 girlfriends, The girls all came over Friday night and partied into the wee hours. From all we could hear from the second floor in our room the girls had a blast. Emelia was showered with gifts and love. She has finally found her real tribe, everyone of these girls have been her rock and have her back always. She has folded into an amazing larger group of friends. The whole friend group is trying to take it all in going into their last semester of high school. Although many of the kids are staying London for post secondary everything will change in just a few months. Tomorrow Emelia starts her last semester of high school. It is going to be a huge year for her. She is living her best life and we could not be happier for her.