Bye Bye Blue Room

The room in the back corner of the house that has been destined to be the nursery since we moved in has been known to all as the blue room. Because it had a heinous blue carpet. Here's what it looked like on our final walk through (sorry for the craptastic dark, grainy cell phone picture)

That's what it looked like when we moved in, and that's what it's looked like since; although it has been kind enough to allow copious amounts of junk to squat in there over this past year and a half. As well as being our dumping ground, Kai used it as a literal dumping ground when she was sick. Blegh! So this room was in dire need of some lovin' before we could move a child into it. Those lacy granny curtains had to go, so did the stained blue carpet.

So, this weekend, while Jason (and Mitch) was doing so plumbing on Mitch & Miche's house they're building, us girls got down and dirty in the blue room. The boys enjoyed our innuendo breakdown of how we ripped that sucker out and got the room prepped. It was sweaty, and dirty, but it took us hardly any time at all to go from that, to this...

To this...

Yeah baby! It only took us about 45min to get the carpet out, all the tack strips up, the base & quarter round up, and all the staples up. And we got a great workout in haha. It was all the original baseboard and trim in there, and man oh man, were some of them stuck on the wall. They were attached with the biggest finishing nails I've ever seen! Some of the little pieces could only be coaxed off with some choice words.

The closet we're planning on making bigger (adding a little reading nook in there), so that's what the tape is up there for, to how big the opening will be. We're closing of the linen closet in the hallway to accommodate the larger closet. Our reasoning behind doing that, is we can't do anything to this room to make it bigger (it's not particularly small at 10' x 11'6", but it's not large) we would maximize the closet space, and make it much more functional to perhaps keep a dresser out of the room, allowing for a larger bed down the road. Also, we don't use the linen closet now (since we also have one in our bedroom), and we plan on adding a built-in to the bathroom when we get to renovating it, so anything we will need to store down the line will be housed in that.

So yay! Bigger closet in there, with a space where our avid little reader can go to chill out. (I used to love reading in my closet, or in the little nook that was just outside my bedroom door when I was little) I couldn't get this closet door off for some reason, I struggled with the other one when we were ripping up the carpet, and it fell on me, but this one just wouldn't give. So Jason has to remove that as well as the old baseboard heater unit, and I apparently missed some door trim haha, so that'll have to come down. But it's basically just take that boarder down, and spackle a few nail holes then we're good to paint. Can you see the swatches up there...I think I've got it narrowed down to four colours.


So, huzzah! Although now it seems rather hospital with the dated white floors and white walls, and the question was asked, is it still the blue room now that there's no blue? Probably, I mean the Lion King room was always the Lion King room. My sister and I will hopefully get the wallpaper down before Wednesday, and if I hurry up and make a paint colour decision, I can paint and we could potentially be ready to install the floors by the weekend.

Listy McGhee

Since our last assessment got pushed back yet again (this time it wasn't our fault) we have more time to get rooms actually finished. (Well at least get finishes done, even if the rooms won't be completely done.) So I did what comes naturally for a crazy person, and wrote out about 6 different lists of what we have to do before that time. So here's the list of what we're hoping going to get done by July 21.

 BLUE ROOM

o   Clean out

o   Rip up carpet

o   Remove wallpaper

o   Paint

o   Install floor

o   Cut out bigger closet

o   Make closet doors

o   Get dresser for change table

o   Upholster chair

DINING ROOM

o   3^rd coat of paint

o   get picture ledge up and painted

o   picture moulds

o   base/window and door casing

o   pick up buffet

o   get electrical sorted out

o   Install Octa

o   Finish hutch project

KITCHEN

o   Case and base

o   Make sure all outlets and switches are in working order

o   Mud holes

o   Touch up paint

o   Bottle storage shelf

o   Coffee/tea shelf

o   Open shelving by stove

o   Finish toe kick

o   Counters on peninsula cabinets

BEIGE ROOM/LAUNDRY

o   Tidy

o   Remove  electrical wires

o   Cut out “step”

o   Organize closet

  (how is it I still have no pictures of our living room?!)

LIVING ROOM

o   Get rid of shower

o   Take out built-in

o   Move TV

o   Get rid of couches

o   Bring brown couch over

o   Put switches at doors

o   Organize

o   Pick up chest for shoe storage

UPSTAIRS

o   Finish painting hall

o   Base in bath

o   Shelf in bath

o   Curtains (dye & install)

o   Paint closet

o   Install closet organizer

o   Put up canvas in bathroom

o   Art in hallway

Nursery Mood Board: Gold Glam

It's been a while since I posted a nursery mood board, and the last one that went up while being gender neutral, was still leaning more towards the masculine way of life. What can I say, that's how I roll, I'm not a girly girl. That being said, coming up with this super girly room was rather fun. The thing I encountered most with a "gold glam" nursery was the price of things. Holy Camoly can you pay a lot of money for certain things. (Which I guess is true for anything you do, it just seemed to crop up more with this board) So without further ado, here's my take on a glamorous girly nursery.

1. The colour is called Rainstorm and it's by Sherwin Williams, and I think it's what makes this room more palatable for me, because I'm really not a fan of pink. It's moody, and cozy, but with the pink and gold accents it's still girly.

2. An inexpensive "gold" pendant overhead light.

3. An accent wall with some randomized gold dots.

4. So they'll always know what letter their name starts with. Leave it as is, or spray it gold, or pink, or another fun colour.

5. A great gold foil message for the baby to learn.

6. Some sparkly hangers to display special things. Another simple DIY involving some gold (or any colour) sparkles or sequins, and some pant hangers.

7. Another message baby should learn. These could also be DIYed with gold paint, or gold leaf.

8. I love the Stella floor lamp, she's got vintage lines to her, but she's still modern enough to fit into this glam room. Plus she comes in a bunch of different colours, so she'd fit in many different spaces.

9. Because a gray elephant isn't cool enough, spray mama and baby in pink, and dip them in gold! This would be a super cheap and easy DIY, there's all sorts of animal toy DIY's out there.

10. A little floating shelf is great if you're short on space and have a ton of stuff to hold. Which lets face it, when it comes to babies, there's tons of stuff.

11. I've loved ampersands ever since grade 1, when I learned the word. So pass on the love with this little gold leafed one. Or if you're more into letters, they've got the whole alphabet there too.

12. Cute little cast iron golden birdy. Doesn't serve a purpose, but is pretty cute.

13. I love this gold faceted table lamp. It would work in a multitude of different rooms.

14. Nothing says glamorous like a mirror where you can narcissisticly check yourself 100 times before breakfast, so why not slap some on a dresser? While I'm not inclined to pay the outlandishly high price of the one from Pottery Barn, I'm not opposed to toning it down, and doing a DIY version, where you only mirror the front.

15. A simple white slipper chair is a neutral base to build some of the girlier accents off of, and is something that can grow up and be a reading chair in her room later in life.

16. Speaking of some girlier accents, a velvety pink round, a soft lace edged, and a subtle gold leaf are all good pillow options.

17. Some glitter garland strung above the crib announces this is where the princess sleeps.

18. This pink rug is made from recycled materials, and since there's a bit of white, and blue in it, it's not going to compete with the wall colour.

19. Lay to rest on some gold polka dotted bed sheets.

20. A lovely quilt with some hot pink bands.

21. After a long hard day of pooping and crying baby wants to rest her head in a modern white crib.