Wait! Don’t change the channel just yet! It’s not how it sounds. I don’t mean I rock in the whole “yeah, I know it, I rock” sense of the phrase. That would be vain, and they didn’t write the song about me. Honk if you get it.
No, I don’t mean I rock all the time, I mean that I can RAWK (?) on occasion. We’re talking music here. Rock, roll, the works. I’m trying, in my standard long-winded fashion, to tell you about my night last night. My whole day in fact. Because you’ve been wondering about that. Right?
So, my son AJ is a huge metal fan.
His favorite band is a Christian band that goes by the name of Disciple. I think they have some form of advanced communication enabled, similar to my RSS feed, that lets him know exactly what Disciple is doing at any given moment. So when they scheduled three concerts in Florida he knew it. And then I knew it.
We picked the show in Vero Beach, obviously because it was near a beach, and got our tickets. AJ and I left bright and early yesterday for the three hour drive to Vero. We wanted to be sure that we were there in plenty of time for the 7:00pm show. We made it with time to spare.
I won’t bore you with all the details of our day. It was great and involved body surfing some HUGE waves, catching a movie at a beautiful theater called The Majestic, and getting in-line for the concert at 4:30, ensuring us front row seats for the general admission show. Did I mention it didn’t start until 7pm ?
(I’m getting to some remodeling stuff, I promise…)
There were three bands and the show started right on time at 7:00. That was the last I saw of my seat. It faded away behind four deep teenagers in the two feet of space between the stage and the chairs. Don’t ask me how they fit? They did, and apparently they felt like there was plenty of wiggle room because they proceeded to jump, and flail, and otherwise act out the joy coursing through them.
There were speakers. Let me give this to you in remodeling terms. Imagine two Sub-Zero’s on top of one another. They were about six feet from my head. And a stack of twenty wine cooler size speakers were hanging from the ceiling. But they weren’t wine coolers. Nope. So when I say the joy was coursing through them, I mean it.
So there I was (paperback novel in my pocket in preparation for the potential retreat that never came) on the front row, right on the stage, trying to “blend“…yeah, right, like THAT is going to happen. It was fun. Really, it was.
Kids Are Energy
Whew, you made it to the remodeling part. I woke up this morning thinking of all the room additions I’ve built as hang-out’s for kids. Parents all over are building room additions just to keep the kids at their house where they can see them. They fill these rooms with cool home theaters, pool tables, video games, and bean bags. I’ve built dozens of them.
But I realized this morning that I should have reinforced them! These kids are like little tanks! They can destroy! I started thinking of what I would do if I wanted to “teenager-proof” a room. Here is the list I came up with…
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Door Casing – Kids just kill the doors! What is that? So I would need to make sure that my door casing couldn’t be pulled off. That would mean an extra stud behind my door casing when I did framing, so that way it could be nailed solid on both the inside and the outside edge. I’d use glue too.
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Solid Core Doors – Forget these puny hollow core doors. Any respectable group of teenagers will make mince meat of that in no time flat. You would need solid doors. Either solid wood or LDF (Low Density Fiber-board).
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Light Fixtures – Lighting is important, you might need it for impromptu first aid. Fixtures should be mounted, up-high. Forget the lamps, they’ll never make it.
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Walls – I’m thinking solid wood up two-thirds of the wall. A wainscot type look with a nice cap rail on top. It looks great but is indestructible. You could do drywall, but you’ll need this post on drywall repair.
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Paint – Let’s be serious. I have to tell my son five times in one two sentence conversation to “stop hanging on the door”. He touches everything and despite the energetic bouncing I saw at the concert, teenagers apparently need bodily support from walls and doorways most of the time. So the paint needs to be very durable, and washable, and while you’re at it, I say go with a distressed look that way you don’t care when they take a chunk out of the wainscot in some completely unforeseeable way.
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Floors – Stained concrete? If that’s too cold, then I would go with either a solid 3/4″ thick nailed down hardwood floor, finished in-place, or a laminate flooring like Pergo. You’ve seen the demonstrations where they smack it with the hammer right? There you go.
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Windows – no windows.
So there you have it. The story of my wonderful day with my son, the huge metal fan, and some tips on how to design your remodeling project to be teenager proof. I wish I could go back in time, I’d be selling wainscot and solid core doors leftswing and rightswing. Contractors take notice…change order money here!
I’d love to hear some “my teenager destroyed my house” stories, just NOT FROM YOU MOM!
~ RG
love the “no windows” part 🙂
tell your son to check out the christian band We as Human.
I love this post. These are great ideas for teen hang out rooms! It would be a great idea to post about do’s & don’ts of remodeling and small home projects. Maybe about common mistakes you have seen people make and what you would do differently…maybe about where to skimp on projects and where not to…like less expensive paint rollers and costly brushes for example.
This post was funny, too!!! Thanks!
Thanks for making me laugh! I sure hope that our house survives my four boys!
Kara’s last blog post..Glass Marble Magnet Tutorial
hi I like your blog ,do you have any suggestions for a teen who has a drum set ? I ‘m just trying to keep the noise down -it’s actually good music but I don;t want to bother my neighbors too much
thanks a lot !!
Ah, the joys of being a teen at a concert!! Memories……:)
I agree with the paint thing! When we first closed on our newly built house a couple years ago, and first walked through the door after getting the keys, I told my young kids to take off their shoes. You know, so they wouldn’t mess up the new carpet. Wanna know how my 4 year old took of her shoe? By sticking her foot flat against the wall and using the wall to “pry” it off. We had a Katie-sized footprint not 15 seconds after walking in. All we could do was say “Welcome home!”!!!
Stacey @ The Blessed Nest’s last blog post..Organizing 101
Oh, you have no idea how encouraging this post was.
I was never raised around boys and I’ve been shocked and horrified at how different they are than girls! I thought my three guys were abnormally rough on things–walls, doors, windows and floors. It sounds like a chant, or (ahem) a broken record. Hearing this makes me think I might be able to hold on to my sanity another few years. Thanks.
Karen’s last blog post..Jason’s First Flight is Tristan’s Training Flight
My second favorite post you’ve ever written!
YOU TOOK A BOOK WITH YOU!!!!!!!!
I will laugh all day over that one. And what fantastic advice for teenagers and real life use in their space. Love the no windows part. I’m sure that will go over well.
The Nester’s last blog post..Bland Wall Solutions
I wish I had this list before my son turned 14. Right now I have three doors that have holes in them…from edges and corners of I don’t know what and one door (to the garage) that the framing has come loose so when you shut the door the hole thing shutters…AND since it was apparently nailed into drywall with NO stud it’s a huge mess.
I sense door move-age in my future 😉
I will say we have only lost one sliding door to a golf ball-but it needed replaced anyway.
Great post thanks!
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Ha, this is great. We’ve had lots of teenage boys in our house (we have had teenage daughters and that explains the presence of teenage boys) and now we have an almost 9 yo boy and oftentimes his cousin and/or friends around.
We used to have a solid old house that could stand the rigors of dealing with boys. Now, we have a new house and I am forever saying “get your feet off the wall” and “stop hanging on the door knobs” and “don’t slam the door” and “don’t bang into the wall” because one false move and they can do irreparable damage to a new house. They just don’t make ’em like they used to. The houses, I mean. I am sure boys never change.
And rawk on with the book…my husband and you would get along well. I doubt he has ever taken a book to a concert, though, but he takes a book EVERYWHERE else. Just in case.
melissa @ the inspired room’s last blog post..Keeping Things Simple: Real Life Accessories
Bwahahahahahah I read this to my husband, we are busting a gut. And really what IS IT with the door casings?! good grief!
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Great post! One benefit to a hollow core door is the speed and ease of removal… my all time most effective punishment! Teenage boys love their privacy! *smiles*
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Sooo… garages really are a respectable place to hand over to the teenage boys. Just add a ping pong table, music, and stir!
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This is so funny.My kids went to the exact same show.I have spoken with you once before-about growing up in Key West.They loved it.I like Disciple too but they went with some friends from church.I hope that you keep posting.I love the colors that you work with and your ideas.