We have a pretty large playroom upstairs, and we had ds's bathroom have doors to both his bedroom and the playroom (one is a pocket door.) This made sense for us for many reasons. Right now, the playroom is more 12 year old ds's domain....it has his basketball goal, his video games, all his boy stuff. When his friends come over, that is where they hang out. I am glad they use ds's bathroom, with his slate-colored tile! Wouldn't want them using dd's pretty white bath, or my powder room! :) Dd (9) likes playing in her room with her friends, so they use her bath. Another reason we gave the playroom access to a bath is that it could function as a secondary master if (waaaayyyy in the future) we ever sold it and the family who bought it wanted to sleep upstairs with small children. I planned a really big storage closet in there that could be re-configured into a clothes closet.

Talley Sue those parties sounds great! And I definitely think they'll remember them & even more so b/c you involve them in the planning stage. I don't know why people think their kids won't remember all those experiences. Annellis~ While those material things are not necessities I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting or being able to to give your children as much as you can. And there is nothing wrong with wanting or having the best you can AFFORD. Since when was that a bad thing? There is an odd assumption that if you can provide these things then something else must be sacrificing, such as savings. While we are not wealthy & yes none of these things are easy to come by I do believe that you can have those things without sacrificin things that are a priority to me. For example, we wait for certain things in our home so we can do them exactly the way we want & withoutinucring debt & we do have savings (sure we could have more) & have saved more than most people for her future/college by her age, but I like giving my daughter everything I can now. Life is too short & this is the way we choose to enjoy it. I also find it hard to believe that so many people have created this politically correct home environment they'd like to let others believe they have - doing only what studies suggest, i.e eating properly, little tv watciing, lot sof physical activity, not ever overindulging, children with perfect manners & values, a large savings account..... If we're going to believe studies it's hard to believe that just abotu everyone on this forum is leading that sort of life b/c US studies say that most people live paycheck to paycheck, don't eat properly, haven't saved enough for retirement or college, are overweight, lack physical activity, childen do't have stable family life or enough parental involvement.... It's easy to be so perfect "in writing". I also believe that many people who can't do what I do for my child are big on taking a stand against my type of lifestyle beause they can't & not so much b/c they wouldn't. Everyone wants more for their kids than they had - I had lots of toys, tons of clothes, HUGE Xmases, wonderful family vacations, & nice home based bdy parties BUT I lived in a tiny apt where my sister & I shared a 6x9 ft bedroom & we didn't do much in terms of outside activities. In turn I give my daughter what I had plus she started her education early, is involved in several ouside activities & our parties for the most part are a step above what I had. Hopefully my daughter will be able to give her children more than she had when it's her turn. I don't think the STUFF should or does take the place of teaching values or a quality family life. That would mean all rich people who have lots of fancy things are all evil & lead terrible family lives & don't have any values? I doubt it. Materialism really has nothing to do with how you lead your life in terms of being a good person or what you teach you kids in terms of values or how you treat others. You can be a very contributing person to society & your family. All this though can give her something to work towards. If she wants to live the lifestyle she was accustomed to growing up in or better then she'll know she has to get a good education, work hard, save & get those things that are important to her little by little (things didn't come quickly to us). If she wants less & is happy that's fine too. That's what I wish for my daughter. Michie

Thanks everyone so much! What great ideas. I love the clothspin idea but I'm thinking if I get some of that command poster strip stuff, hopefully that will work. I will have to figure out how to make it level as we don't have any chair rails in our house. I will post a picture when I figure it out. I am so not creative which is why I love Land of Nod and Pottery Barn. You can look at the rooms and get some great ideas. My whole house if very neutral in color so I was excited to paint this playroom green. It's really fun. Now if my 2.5 year old would actually play in there so I could get something done. Lol! Citymom-I love your dining room makeover! I know what you mean about never using it. Dh & I were just talking about converting ours to something more useful. We never use it! Thanks so much for posting your pics. It looks great! Thanks everyone!

Answering my own question here, but after a bit of noodling around, I found a cheap (less than $100) security recording system to replace my ancient one, drop in a hard drive, so decided to give it a try. About a fifth the weight, a quarter the size, lots more capabilities, takes both analog inputs and some digital/IP cameras (limited number though). If I were starting from scratch would probably go all digital but being able to use what I already have wired made this an easy decision. Terrible instructions with this unit, but eventually figured it out, and now I can see what's on the cameras from away on my phone. The only extra expense was that it made more sense to replace the ancient monitor (old connections, no hdmi, terrible image and burn-in), so a small cheap digital TV sacrificed, as it also fit the wallmount space and vesa mount perfectly. I had meant to measure the power draw on the old ones and forgot; given how big and old and hot, I could argue that on electricity alone they'll save some money (okay, likely not much). At any rate was only a matter of time with the old system - even the old hard drives it uses are increasingly hard to find and expensive (for what you get). I was pretty surprised at how much smaller and lighter newer gear is in comparison - not to mention reasonably priced.