Project Central

First of all, I am happy to say that Brian made it home safely!  Not without events though, like a late flight, missed flight, unexpected overnight stay in Chicago, another late flight, and a lost suitcase.  Lucky for us though, they found his bag, and delivered it to our house....at 3:30 AM.

I actually tried to resist starting any projects this weekend, as I wanted to give Brian a break before we got into anything.  But, with sick kids, and no where to go, the projects were just too tempting.

Now you're probably thinking, "of course they have projects - they are about to have a baby".  And I would say, "baby?  oh yeah!  we're having a baby."  Then I could show you the one-and-only sign around our house that there is a pending stork arrival.

 A changing table, that we're borrowing from a friend, that is set up in a corner of our bedroom.  Those cute baskets underneath it?  Empty.  And as you can see, the changing table is currently earning its keep by holding up some of Brian's laundry.  Most of the time my bedroom door is open, which blocks most of the table from my sight, so I forget it's even there.

I know, it's kind of pathetic.  We have no baby clothes.  No bed set up.  No baby essentials.  No name picked out.  No one lined up to watch our kids while I'm in labor.

I've said this before, and I mean it, that this baby's arrival is no less anticipated than any of our other children.  I think our lack of preparation is just testament to how busy we are, how we have no actual bedroom for the baby, and I guess a bit of maturity on my part (I've been kind of OCD during my last pregnancies).  I guess experience tells me that, everything will work out, and in reality, newborns really don't need all that much stuff.

But back to the main point of this post:  projects.  The boys' room.

Isaiah and Noah's room has been well-documented here and here.  The only changes to the last post are that Isaiah's portable crib was replaced with a cute toddler bed, the pretty silk drapes were removed when the boys started pulling on them, there was a blue-plaid picnic blanket hanging over the window as a room-darkener, and the room was a lot, LOT, messier.

The room had long-since outgrown it's "nursery" status, but nothing was ever updated to reflect that.  Plus after five years, I have grown to HATE the wall color.

As you know, I am working on quilts for the boys, plus I bought them a bunk bed.  We needed to figure out a color-scheme for the walls and bed, so off to Lowes we went to get paint samples.  We came home with about 30 samples and taped them all over the room to see what we liked.  Slowly we eliminated and got down to two finalists.

We really liked a Valspar color, but wanted the paint to be Olympic no-VOC for the safety of me while painting, and for the kids.  Thankfully Lowes was able to color-match exactly.

The top color is what we chose for the walls and ceiling.  It's a very light grey.  We want something more contrast-y for the bunk bed, so we are considering the other colors at the bottom of the sheet (possibly the top or middle on the left, or the top one on the right).

Here is the current state of the bedroom, with one (and a half) coats of primer.  I am all ready in love with how much brighter the room feels.

 And here is the current condition of our hallway.

I guess I should have taken a picture of Emma's room, too, since she is graciously hosting her brothers at bedtime, on her floor.  

We should have the walls finished in the next day or two.  Then we either need the weather to warm up so we can paint the bunk bed outside, or will be converting our garage into a paint booth.