How sweet it is to be 16

Denel Lang, a bubbly Spokane teen, received a big surprise for her 16th birthday last week. The athletic, blond-haired, blue-eyed teenager couldn’t believe it when she heard her parents’ plan for her birthday gift.

Lang was going to get a large, newly made-over bedroom for her birthday. When she heard the news, her excitement spilled over with an exclamation of “That is SO cool!”

Denel’s mother, Renea Lang, says that she, husband Mike and their two daughters, Denel and Taylor, moved into their newly built home in 2001. Since then they have settled into every room except the “bonus room,” a spare room sometimes included in the builder’s package.

After tossing out a few other ideas, Lang decided to assess the needs of her family to decide what to do with their bonus room. Her oldest daughter, Denel, was turning 16, and Lang decided to present her daughter with the room as a birthday gift.

The 525-square-foot room has its own deck and a small office connected to it that Lang shortly plans to turn into a walk-in closet. Lang realized she would need to have the room completely made-over for her daughter. A business associate recommended Linda Keturakat to help with the creation of the room. With a budget of $2,500, the only guideline Lang gave Keturakat was the fact that her daughter’s favorite colors were pink, lime green, maroon and “maybe a little bit of orange.”

Lang felt that her eldest daughter especially deserved this new bedroom, which includes all new bedroom furniture, because when they moved into their house, Denel chose the smallest room as her bedroom, and she is the only one in the family who still used the hand-me-down furniture that the Langs had acquired when they were first married. And, as Lang says, “Teenagers need their space.”

The room was unveiled on April 5, Denel’s sweet-16 birthday. Denel was so excited she invited a few friends over to spend the night in her new room.

It was all so cool.