Completed Baby's Room

Here are a few pictures of the baby's room before we move all the "stuff" in.

I cleaned the carpets today and hung these curtains that my sister made for me ages ago. They go really well, but I've also got some great tractor fabric that I really want to use to make curtains. I've put these curtains up temporarily until I can find the time and energy to make the tractor curtains.

A little dark without the flash, sorry.

I do have to brag on my eldest boy some, though. Throughout this whole building process, he's been an absolute dream of a child. From playing with his army men in the room while we were remodeling it, to helping paint and vacuum (in his own way), to playing by himself in another room when I needed him to, he has done REALLY well. This process would have taken much longer and been much harder if he hadn't cooperated so much. I really do hope and pray that my next son looks up to his older brother as they go through their childhood together.

And now for something completely different:

Every time I think I'm big, I think of how huge she's going to get and feel for her.

Texturing the Baby's Room

Christian and I finished mudding and sanding the baby's room this past weekend (Yea!!!) so today I used our fancy new texture gun from Home Depot to texture the walls. Sophie took Silas down to Japton Park with his cousins to play while I did the room. This was actually a lot of fun to do and didn't take very long at all (the complete opposite of mudding and sanding). It was with a tremendous amount of relief that I was able to finally put away the joint compound!

Next step: Painting!!

Remodeling the baby's room - Phase 2

We recently completed another phase of the baby's room. JD and Shana came out again to help build the closet, finish, the sheetrock around the windows, and finish mudding and taping the room.

Sophie helped me out one Saturday by sanding down the first layer of mud. I didn't realize how much dust this would create, but 2 or 3 weeks later and I still have a thin layer on a lot of my furniture, even after dusting. Sophie could have fit into any Middle Eastern culture quite easily, I think.

Shana helping put in the sheetrock around the windows.

The building of the closet, and moving a light so I'll have one in the closet.

JD in front of the new closet. He wasn't expecting a picture :) The rails and shelves will be put in the closet after we texture, paint, and lay baseboards.

Painting

Need a translation? That's a robot, with rain, thunder and lightning over its head. And the thing on the right? A quart?!?

Poor cloud kitty doesn't have any eyes, ears, whiskers, mouth or nose.

Remodeling the baby's room - Phase 1

Our second child's room is in desperate need of remodeling. The previous owner of the house built this addition about 15 years ago. I think it was once supposed to be a sunroom because it has these giant 8 foot x 3 foot "windows" (plate glass that were framed in) across one side of the room that let in a lot of sunshine in the summer, and unfortunately a lot of cold air in the winter. The room is freezing in the winter and boiling in the summer. It was also never quite finished by the previous owner. The closet was still unfinished, there were no baseboards, and the eaves never got closed in, to name a few things.

It's a very odd-shaped room. It's 20 feet in length and only 5 feet across. This is due to the rocky hill right behind this part of the house. When we bought the house we knew this room would be difficult. Expanding it out a few more feet will cost more money than we currently have due to the need for a bull dozer. Then there's the issue of removing chunks of a hill right behind your house. Can you say landslide? It also wouldn't help solve our desire to have a real master bedroom and bath. I'm not going to go too in-depth on our long-term goals for the remodeling of the entire wing with the bedrooms. Suffice it to say that our only course of action for the new baby's room was to make it more like a bedroom, less like a sunroom, and able to keep it's warmth in the winter.

Since Christian is full-throttle on the last few modules of his degree, he doesn't really have the time for this project. He finishes in June. Baby #2 is due in May. Time for demolition and renovation just isn't in the schedule. So my lovely brother-in-law and sister came out this weekend to help with phase 1 of the renovations.

Please forgive me for not taking before pictures, but I'm guessing anyone who is reading this has actually been to my house and seen the wonky room.

JD removing the humongous pains, I mean panes, of glass.

One of the old windows removed. Pregnant sister trying desperately to find something she was allowed to do.

Notice Christian ditching schoolwork.

Demolition and remodeling is just so much more fun than writing a 3000-word essay on the differing Christian views of ecology.

The new windows.

Framing in one of the old windows so they can fit plywood and sheetrock onto it.

Silas and I supervised.

Framing in a wall where a door that led to the outside used to be.

The only injury - hit in the lip with a crowbar. You should have heard him cry (haha!).

Phase 1 complete - outside sealed in, ready for the day we replace all of the old siding with plywood and hang cedar siding. They also replaced the rotten fascia boards.

New windows and sheetrock filled in the gaps where the old windows were.

Old unfinished closet (soon also demolished). To be replaced with a bigger unfinished closet.

One end of the room, where the crib will go.

Other end of the room, with the closet behind the door.

Phase 2 includes finishing the sheetrock around the windows, mudding and taping, texturing, painting, laying baseboards, building a closet, closing in the eaves, and moving some electricity lines. Make that Phase 2, 3, and 4.