Extreme...disgustingness?

Last night the Manchester, NH Extreme Makeover Home Edition aired. It was a very exciting night in our household since Kirby had worked very hard on the project alongside the stars including Ty Pennington.

Kirby and I had worked together on the last Extreme Makeover site in the area a few years ago when they came to Wells, ME. It was a pretty neat experience. This time, however, Kirby was there from beginning to end.

Here are some great shots Kirby got of the process:

The outside of the house:



And again:



Look up on that ladder! That is Ty Pennington!



The family finally seeing their house:



Ty practicing his lines before he heads back into the house:



Needless to say, Kirby was very proud of his involvement in this project. It was a very cool experience and he was excited to be able to share it with us last night when the show finally was aired.

Unfortunately, Zachary wasn't able to watch it with us. I'll give you an idea why...see below:















Zachary's room is a constant source of argument around here. Zachy takes after his parents. We have not been very good role models in the area of organization.

But Zach was given plenty of time to get his room clean. I told him at noon that he needed to have it done before he could watch the show. Knowing how important the show was to him I really thought it would be incentive to get it done...I was wrong.

7 hours and plenty of arguing later his room still looked like the pictures about (actually, those pictures were taken this morning). I had fought with him for about 4 hours, coaxing him (okay, now pick up the dirty clothes...done? okay, now the books...done? okay, now the...), begging him, hollering at him - finally I gave up. I told him that I was done, it was his decision. Needless to say, he chose not to watch the show - let me rephrase - he chose to not clean his room and it was totally "not fair" that he couldn't watch the show because of it.

It was heartbreaking not letting him watch the show. He kept coming out of his room saying, "it should be family time" and "can't we just make up" and "it's not fair". I had to explain to him that he wasn't there because I was angry with him, he was there because he made a choice to not clean his room. He cried and he cried...I wanted to give in, but I knew I couldn't.

This morning I decided I was sick and tired of it. I decided that, with my day off, I would take care of his room. **I need to say here that this is something I do not do. I will not be responsible for cleaning his room, he needs to learn to be responsible for his own things.** However, I wanted before and after pictures, I wanted a day without a fight and I wanted it to be done and done right.

I realized today why he couldn't do it. Even I was overwhelmed. The room was disgusting (so disgusting I can't even say some of the things I found in there here for fear that he will one day realize that this can be read by the entire world and he will either disown me or kill me). There were dirty clothes mixed in with clean, CDs all over the floor, tiny legos everywhere, a toy box full of old school work and crumpled papers, books in with the toys and ROCKS EVERYWHERE (Zachary is an avid rock collector).

I worked from noon to 6 cleaning like I have never cleaned before and it is still not completely done (all I have left to do is vacuum). I made it through Janet Jackson, Rascal Flatts, Anna Nalick and Shakira, two cups of coffee, two bags of trash, half a bottle of Spic-n-Span and nearly a half a bottle of Windex.

The end results:





Inside the toy box - amazingly enough it only has TOYS in it:









I have also labeled EVERYTHING. I went as far as labeling the book shelf with "BOOKS", should there be any question as to what goes there. The dresser drawers are labeled, the toy box and all the tupperware containers. There will never be another question about where anything goes. I will also be posting the "after" pictures in his room so he knows exactly how it is suppose to look when he is done.

He has also been told that I have taken possession of his room and all its contents. He will be working to earn his room back this week. Presently, I have given him permission to borrow it so he can sleep in it.

I am exhausted. It is had been a long day...

Part of me feels like an evil mother, part of me feels like I have done something for him that I shouldn't have...but most of all, a large part of me knows that I have made it easier for him to clean it from now on and MOST IMPORTANTLY, I know that I won't have this fight again for, at least, another week :)