We recently turned our guest house, which was previously the "nonchalantmom" store when I first started in 2004, into a Disco Room (first it was the 'dance party room' but the kids changed it to the 'disco room'!). The guest house isn't truly a 'guest-house' it's more like a room with a bed... we like to call it #2 (hence the #2 you may or may not have seen on the front of the house). When we were renovating we lived in #2 for a few months, it's about 400 square feet and we slept in it like an army barracks, myself, my husband and at the time just our son who was only 2 years old, but then there was also our friend, and contractor, who was coming up from NYC to help us, his assistant (another friend from NYC), the plumber and his wife. It was hilarious and we have very fond memories of the whole 'situation'. Which included a kitchen on the deck outside with a tented tarp over it, thank god for the outside shower! and a lot of dinners at the neighbors house!
Over the years we have never changed a thing in #2, we have always meant to renovate it but have never pulled the money together to do it, and really... it's just kind of fun the way it is! (I don't think my husband feels the same way about it though...) This summer we loaned an old pair of speakers and a receiver from a friend (and a turntable that we can't seem to figure out how to work), we get three stations on the receiver which is perfect (NPR, Oldies channel, and a classical channel).
The kids made a sign for the door, and then announced that you had to have a ticket to enter, then invited the neighbors and well it's just a blast in there! Lot's of music (loud!) dancing and just general jumping around! There are a few 'break dancing' bust-outs that I had no idea they even knew about.. and since the whole Michael Jackson thing it's only become more intense.
At one point everyone had to make their own ticket and then they taped them to the door! (above) and then sometimes you need to put your ticket into the 'ticket holder' (below) -- I love it! The best part is we left it all up to the kids, we just plugged in the stereo and they took it from there! I think that this is an easy thing to translate to a room or a basement and just have some fun!
