New Room

Well, I have a backlog of things to tell you all about, but frankly that feels overwhelming. So, instead of trying to get all caught up at once, I am going to pick one thing.

The New Baby's Room.

When we moved into this house 3 1/2 years ago, we loved it for a lot of reasons.  It had 4 bedrooms, a real yard and just a lot of things that were us.

But one of the bedrooms was strange.  It was big enough to hold 2 queen size bed, comfortably.  No really.  That was ok.  Elliot used the room and it had a spare bed for when guests came.  But it seemed like a silly waste of space really. 

For whatever reason, I don't have a good before photo, but this one gives you somewhat of an idea.  That's a queen bed and a set of bunk beds in the same room and there is still a desk and a rug behind the camera!

So we got to thinking, "What if we put a wall up in the middle of the room and cut a door to the hallway?"  We talked about it when our friend Jamie was here and helped us build all sorts of hobbit shelves.  She thought it was doable.  We talked to other friends and finally our landlord.  He was a bit skeptical about it, but when we said we'd pay for it and that our architect friend thought it would be fine, he was good.

So, in mid January, we finally were able to hire two guys to come and build the new baby's room! 

It was a simple project as these things go.  It was just putting a drywall wall up to split the room in half and cutting a door in the existing hallway wall.  I say simple.  We still hired someone to do it.  But there was already separate wiring for lights and outlets, and a window on that side of the room, almost as if this had been the plan all along but they just never got to it. 

So now Elliot's room is much more manageable.  I think he feels not so overwhelmed by it.  He's got new green everything (his favorite color).  I would show you a lovely photo, but honestly, when I went up to take one, I realized he managed to leave the house this morning with a lego explosion everywhere.  So instead I'll just show you pictures of the Baby's room because she can't mess it up...yet. 

There are still some things that I want to do in here, like paint her name on a sign above her changing table, but that requires that we know her name, which still isn't certain yet.  Yeah, yeah, I know.

I love how the furniture came together in this room.  The changing table and the rocking chair came from our church here.  We did some updating of the nursery there and those things needed to be moved out.  So we got to give them a home.  The changing table is the same style as one we had in the states with the two biggest kids.  It's sweet when God gives you gifts like that.  The red pillow on the rocker is one that my great grandmother made. The crib is one we used with Quinn.  There is something sweet about reusing all the baby things.  There is even a walker up on the shelf above the changing table that at least three of my siblings used along with my boys. 

The little table with the light came from the garbage and I sanded it down and painted it.  I love how it turned out. 

The book shelves Noah found on a sale site and they needed some love. So we sanded those down too and painted them.  There isn't much on them, yet, but I am sure they will fill up in the years to come.  I am thinking baby needs a rag doll soon.

So there you have it.  The new room.  I am sure it will morph over the next while, and baby probably won't sleep in it for several months after she is born, but it feels good to have that huge project checked off the "To Do Before Baby Comes" list!