We live in a commune.
Yes, it's just like you're imagining. This:
Okay, no. Not really. Although Nick wears some plaid occasionally and he has a beard...
It's actually more like this:
We live in my grandparent's house. Their house is quite large and we've been able to live in our own corner of the house. Well, more like top of the house since we're pretty much the attic. BUT, we have our own living room area, bathroom, bedroom, and two summers ago we built a small closet-size room for Oliver, and built a wall on Ellie's room so we technically have 3 bedrooms upstairs. Everyone has their own room! Hooray for personal space!
My aunt and uncle also moved in a couple summers ago (this is basically when the name "commune" came up). I say aunt and uncle, but they're really only 5 and 10 years older than me. One of those mixed families thing. Anyways, they converted the indoor pool building into an adorable 2 bed/1 bath apartment. An insane DIY remodel complete with 3 dump truck loads of sand to fill the pool, but fun!
To add to this, my great-grandparents moved in in the spring, followed by my brother. So, my Oma and Opa live in a basement area with a bedroom, living space, and bathroom and my brother gets a single room.
So, we have 9 adults and 4 kids under 4 living under the same roof. And somehow we all still have our sanity in tact!
...mostly!
Ellie and Oliver were born into this house and I think it has saved my sanity more times than I'll admit. They're always loved on, have live-in babysitters (sometimes), and we eat pretty dang good (except for the hoards of bacon we devour each month and the lazy pizza nights. Oh, and the fact that we live 3 blocks away from $1 delicious ice cream cones). My aunt and uncle also had both of their babies (now 2 and 11 months) while living here. Our kids are quite fond of each other and we have some great dance parties after dinner. Seriously. It's pretty dang cute.
Some questions people usually ask us when we tell them we're living with so many people under the same roof:
Q: Do you all eat meals together? How does that work?
A: We usually make our own breakfasts and lunches (sometimes we're nice and make extra pancakes for others), but dinners are usually done by one person or it's a last-minute group effort. We do occasionally buy pizza! The nice thing about cooking dinner is that you usually don't have to do dishes if you cooked. I like this arrangement.
Q: Do you all get along? Are you stressed?
A: Most of the time we get along well. It helps that we all have our own living quarters to retreat to when we need it most. I feel like I just have different stresses than if we were living on our own.
Q: Wow! How big is the house?
I actually don't know the square feet and it's not THAT big, but it's enough for everyone to have their own room(s), bathroom, and personal living area. So, that's big right?
Well, now that our secret's out, can we still be friends?
