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Nursery News – Clearing the Room

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“Why do you want Baby Will to live in the woods?”

That is the question that my nephew Cole asked this past weekend.  

We had no response. 

I should have said something about Pocahontas & the woods & painting with the colors of the wind.  It would have made him feel better about his future cousin’s living quarters.  Let’s just hope Cole doesn’t tell anyone that his Aunt is going to put her baby in the woods.  That might be bad.  Really bad.   

Also bad is the fact that I am 65 days away from D-day…that’s “Due-Day” for all you non-pregnant peeps.  That’s just a little over 9 weeks.  And prior to this weekend, we had yet to do a single thing in the future nursery.  Nothing.  Nada.  Noche.  (wait…that’s wrong….scratch that last one)

So I started dropping the hints whenever Jeremy was around.  Like if someone came up to us & asked me how I was feeling, I would respond with “Oh great! But don’t ask about the nursery…it’s not even started”.  Or like how occasionally I would send him an email with a craigslist link and a subject line of  “maybe for the nursery that is still an office?”.  Or like how I wore that t-shirt that stated “I AM FREAKING OUT BECAUSE WE HAVEN’T STARTED THE BABY’s ROOM YET”.  Ya know…really subtle hints.

And it worked.  This past Saturday, Jeremy told me that if I cleaned out the office, then he would get going on the ‘accent wall’.  So I did.  And he did.  And here are the chronicles of the weekend where we prepped the room to become the nursery:             

Day 1

The office was still intact.  The desks were still taking up the majority of the space…and the clutter had pretty much exploded on every flat surface.  Cleanfreaks…save yourself…look away now!

I don’t have a clutter problem.  I refuse to believe that I have too much stuff.  I just don’t have enough closets.  That’s my only problem….when it comes to clutter.  Whew…good thing I put a disclaimer there 🙂

As a sidenote, Jeremy works from home…which requires him to have an office space.  Have I mentioned that before?  He literally rolls outta bed & sits at his computer & that’s it.  No commute.  No distractions.  His own personal potty.  And one stocked fridge…okay…okay…maybe it only has sweet tea & bacon but seriously, what else do you need?!?  He is one lucky dog.  And I am one lucky dog’s wife.  I think there is a name for that. 🙂 

But it also means that this lucky dog will be relocated down to the basement for a much quieter & cooler workspace….and our ‘blue room’ will become a clean slate ready for nursery-decor.          

Speaking of decor, most of the pieces in the room will get relocated to other areas of the house.  Waste not, want not, right?!?  The white frames will probably either stay in this nursery or get moved to the basement or hall.  And some of the shelves will stay…some will get a new home in our basement living space.  The ships wheel is also getting a shift…either down to the basement or it would also look dashing above the fireplace, dontcha think?  And those fabulous Goodwill chairs?  They will be finding our basement quite cozy.

Also, I didn’t think about it before this day…but there are seriously going to be twenty plus holes that will require patching and touch-up paint before we can start to hang anything on these walls.  Just one more thing to add to the TO-DO list. 

Day 2

After I spent six hours cleaning out my desk, packing away all the electronics, paperwork and trinkets, the room was finally ready for Jeremy to come in with his magic tools and put my idea for the accent wall to work. 

First, he removed the shelves and previous curtain rods off our walls.  Then he ran out to the home improvement store to pick up some plywood.

You heard…err…read right.  Plywood. 

Plywood would be the base for our accent wall (more on that at a later date).  And the plan required my hunky boyfriend to cover an entire wall with the thin cheap layers. 

After some quick measuring, he cut the first piece to fit on the right hand side of the window.

Then he cut the second piece to fit on the left hand side of the same window. 

We decided to go ahead and attach the wood directly to the studs…so that anything attached to the plywood would be super sturdy.   So we measured and double checked the location of the studs first.

I called them out according to my very technical stud-location chart,

while Jeremy measured and screwed in the plywood.

Then he tackled the middle section. 

While my boy-toy tacked the center pieces, I spackled the holes. 

There were a lot of them too.

29 to be exact.

Now comes the hard part – trying to find the paint for this room in our shed.

And just for you technical friends – yes, we just installed the plywood above the trimwork…we didn’t want to make it ‘un-accent-able’ so we left the floor trim & the window trim and screwed the plywood even if it left a little gap.

Day 3

Basically all we did on day 3 was to remove the desks.  Note – “we” refers to Jeremy & Kent (who helps us out a bundle!)

Oh and I sanded the joint compound. 

One of the desks will be in our basement for Jeremy to use as a makeshift office until we get his real space set up.  The other desk we sold on craigslist. 

It felt so good to have the room cleared out for the most part.

We still have to touch-up paint. 

But for the most part, I feel like we are well on our way to a completed accent wall.

Completed accent wall…not room. 

There is a ton of stuff still to do for the room.  But gosh darn it – this accent wall will be rockin.  and boyish.  and hug-worthy. 

Up next is installing the accent wall.  Yup. 

Any guesses on what we are gonna do?  Yeah.  You got it.  It has to do with that stack of wood on the floor.  Afterall, nothing says “I am leaving my kid in the woods” like a cabinesque wood wall. 

My dream of a lumberjack son are coming true.  Stay tuned as we get one step closer to Will “Paul Bunyan” Bower’s completed room. 

So – now tell me…anyone wanna tell me how they answer kid’s tough questions?  I better brush up now.  And please share with me how you did a last minute renovation just in the nick of time!  I feel like the minutes are ticking by & this room is never gonna be complete!

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Comments

  1. Great idea for an accent wall, I love it!

    I’ve never done a last minute renovation…but I know you will be able to pull it off! 🙂

  2. I can’t wait to see the completed nursery!

    I work with kids, so my response to tough questions is often, “Hmmmm, that’s a good question….what do you think?” Only keeps them at bay for a few minutes but now you’ve bought yourself some time! 🙂

  3. Hey Katie – Just pray that your little guy doesn’t arrive early, like mine did! I was in the same place as you, begging and pleading the Boyfriend to get moving on the nursery. Our little man ended up sleeping in Boyfriend’s home office for 2 weeks while Boyfriend was locked in the soon-to-be nursery painting and putting together furniture.

    But alas… the little guy didn’t seem to mind that his nursery wasn’t ready, and he hasn’t held it against us (yet)! 🙂

    Good luck with the renovation. I can’t wait to see the transformation!

  4. My “littles” are all grown up, but I believe the best policy is a version of honesty.
    When asked tough questions about Santa, Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny and the magic Chocolate Troll, I start the sentence with “I believe” and give them my explanation. It’s not a lie, it IS what I believe. Harder stuff thean that, you just need to know your “little” and how much of the truth they can handle. The line “what do YOU think”, helps with that. Then, of course, all gloves are off on the answers when you want to mess with their little minds!!!!! JK

  5. I was totally last minute putting together my little mans nursery. I delievered 3 weeks early. The only thing assembled in his room was the glider and ottoman, where we sat after bringing him home and watched daddy put together all his furniture!
    =D
    Even if everything doesn’t get done before Will arrives, it will all get done at some point or another.

  6. here’s a doozy…
    my hubs little brother came up to me when i was feeding my baby and asked me “what are you doing under that blanket?” I told him I was feeding the baby and he said “but how” and I said….”go ask your brother, he will tell you.”
    My husband told him that milk comes from boobs I think he is weirded out.

  7. We had brand new kitchen counters installed 5 days before hosting Christmas dinner for 10 people! It was stressful but the kitchen makeover was finished just in time!! You’ll be great! 🙂

  10. I’m curious to see how the accent wall is going to look. Fortunately, I know that we will get to see the finished details soon, very soon, right?

  12. I laughed out loud at Lisa’s comment because I am guilty of the same thing. I’m not a mom yet, but as a teacher I’m always having to hold those little kiddos off when they ask a question I don’t know the answer to. I always ask them to research it at home that night and let us all know what they found. Although that won’t work for an itty bitty, it’s a tip for when your lumberjack gets a little older. 🙂

    ps. I’ve just been blog-“stalking” your blog for a few weeks now, but I love it! Thanks for the laughs and inpsiration! It keeps me coming back daily.

  13. Katie – I’ve been a follower of your blog for a couple of months now (heard about you from YHL) and truly enjoy every post. You are so cute and funny, it brightens my day! But alas, why am I coming out of the dark to post you ask? I just got home from visiting my very first niece at the hospital and am practically BURSTING with joy!!! She was born last night and I was there! She came 2 weeks early and is a precious bundle of joy. I couldn’t be more excited for you and hope you are enjoying every minute of “nesting” in preparation for your little one! The room looks great so far, I can’t wait to see what you’re concocting for the final product! Keep up the good work!

  14. You know, even before you do anything more with that wall, it looks awesome! I seriously wish my 1970’s wood paneling had that sort of rustic, treehouse feel… instead of dated plasticy laminate wood :/

    But I’m completely giddy to see the progress. I fell in love with your moodboard the moment I saw it. It’s PERFECT!

  16. Can’t help you with how to answer hard kid questions, but when I was 7.5 months pregnant, we tackled a mini renovation of our kitchen which involved stripping wallpaper off the wall, painting, chair rail, new cabinet hardware, new lights…you get the picture. So worth it 🙂 even though my back certainly ached after the wallpaper days. That stuff is evil without a big belly to hold up!

  17. I can’t wait to see what you guys have in store for the accent wall! And on a completely unrelated note- I live in an Atlanta suberb and my house is Very similar to yours, built around the same time…small world!

  19. Oh my gosh, it’s going to look great! Don’t worry, my son was born without a room waiting for him, or even an outfit to wear home. He is now a perfectly happy 5 year old with a super cute (complete) room and he doesn’t seem terribly scarred from his rough start. 🙂

  21. I decided three weeks before my second was born that my older daughter’s new “big girl” room needed flowers stenciled around the entire room. Not just any stencil, but a mulit-layer, multi-color, extremely time consuming stencil. I was so stressed about finishing it before baby came, I even took a day off and worked 8 hours to finish it. I must say it did make the room though.

  22. I cannot wait to see this room finished! I’m so confused as to what you’re doing but I know it will look great. Good luck!

    -Emily

  23. Like Lisa suggests, asking them what they think first. What comes out of their mouth and what they are really wanting to know aren’t always the same thing! Only after some lengthy explanations and embarrassment have I learned that when a 4 year old asks certain *ahem* “tricky questions”…the answer they are looking for is so far where my adult panicked mind jumped to! 😉

  25. Hi Katie, I am not new to your blog but new to post a comment. I don’t have a blog so I guess that means I am just a stalker but the good kind if there is such a thing. Anyway my daughter and I just celebrated our birthday this past Sunday she turned 1 and I turned a year older too (enough said). Anyway I enjoy reading about the nursery transformation and it reminds me of getting ready for our little one. I think I washed every article of clothing and then could never decide want to dress her in. As for answering the kid’s tough questions all I can tell you is they don’t speak the first year instead they just eat cheerios off the floor and lick shoes (something that oddly doesn’t gross me out anymore).
    Anyway I am intrigued with the direction your nursery is heading. I have an idea of what I think you are going to do with the accent wall and can’t wait to see it! Best of luck and if I can recommend one must have item it is the bumbo…a portable chair that can also double as a first highchair. it’s great if you travel a lot.

  26. my nursery had to wait till the last minute to be complete, actually till after my son was born. We ordered our crib online and had it delivered 3 times before we had one that didn’t look like it fell off the back of a truck. It was fine, my son was in a bassinet for 6 weeks anyway. Don’t stress about it, you’ll have plenty of time even after the baby is here. I’m sure it’s going to look great.

  29. Sigh if relief! I was like why is their plywood on the wall – started making me thinking of tacky 70’s faux wood — bet then you started expsoing more of your ideas which I love – why was I doubting you – you have great style! lol

  30. My daughter is 8 months old and her room is sadly still not fully complete. The basics are there, but not everything made it up on the walls or in the oh-so-tiny closet she has. But, she doesn’t care one bit right now.
    As for last minute “nesting”, I was finishing the paint on my daughters dresser when my water broke. And while waiting for my husband to get home and for the doctor’s office to say it is okay to come in, I pulled, er, dragged her dresser in to the house and placed it in to her room, then sent the hubs to the store to get the nobs for it. The dresser was completed before we left for the doctors office. For me, this was more satisfying to get done then setting up the crib, which I managed to do only a few days prior to that.
    Have fun and don’t let the little details bog you down. Oh- one tip on your dresser, add a shelf or two above it (out of head smacking range :})and a mirror on the wall so Will can see himself and you while he is being changed. I like it, my husband is afraid of it. My daughter loves the mirror and was carrying on a conversation with herself this morning in her mirror. Too cute! We also added a half shelf to hold creams and such, but it’s not out of head smacking range right now, so we are a bit mixed on it.

  33. We didn’t START my son’s room until he was a couple of months old. He was sleeping in a bassinet in our room, so it wasn’t a problem. What WAS a slight problem was when I was 45 minutes late for my induction because I was still washing and putting away all his clothes. You might want to start in on that now.

  34. I don’t think I have commented before, but I just wanted to say that I love, love, love your blog. I read it everyday, and you have given me so many ideas. Most of them I can’t actually use since I live in an apartment right now, but just the little decorating tips get me so excited that I have to do them right away! And girl, you are too funny! 🙂

  41. I think I answered this before in a comment…let me look and see. Yup…quarter inch. That’s what I thought 🙂
    xo – kb

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