It's not all finished, but the girls are having the time of their life right now. Now that most of the rough work is done it's down to the fun part of decorating it just so and moving furniture in.
There is a lesson to be learned in this space. The day a couple of weeks ago that Grace told me she wanted to fix up that little attic room I inwardly groaned because I really thought that short of thousands of dollars there was really no hope for the little room. Well, I have certainly been proved wrong- with lots of elbow grease, and several gallons of both Kilz and paint, it somehow it went from dump where you needed to kind of hold your nose and cringe, to being a lovely, cozy room with, I have discovered, absolutely swoon-able light in the afternoon (I'm sorry I just wrote that word: swoon-able, but there it is).
As for having both faith and hope that the little room could ever become usable, it abounded in my daughters but I was sorely lacking. It's hard to believe that we've lived here for a year and a half with this little treasure, providing an additional much-needed 400 square feet, right under our noses, and it was only just now discovered. Thanks for the lesson, girls.