Baby Room - Crib

So, scraping wallpaper and painting a baby room while taking care of a baby is just not happening. Ugh! Maybe it will get done by the time Kizzy is one, or at least I hope. Poor child may just have to live in a room with partially scraped wallpaper.

It is time to transition Kizzy from her bassinet to a crib though. Actually past time since the weight guidlines for a bassinet is up to 15 lbs. and Kizzy is now 17lbs. Oops! Since we bought an older used crib at a yard sale, I wanted to at least paint it before she started using it. We got it for only $15 and it was a bit worn, but it is functional.We did buy a brand new mattress for it. :) As you can see in the picture, I taped off all the areas that were plastic, the side pieces where you hook it all together and the plastic on the top of the sides.

I debated for a while on how to paint the crib. Doing a quick search of how to paint a crib basically went with both spray paint and regular paint. So, I guess it would just be a preference. I chose to spray paint cause I figured it would be easier with all the bars and such. After all is said and done, I think the best way to paint a crib would be to use a spray gun and regular paint. This would give you the best coverage.

Then I debated (with just myself of course) what color to paint the crib. After browsing Pinterest, I found this picture of a red crib and loved it.  (Found here.) But then I wondered if that would be too bold. So, I almost convinced myself to go with a white or cream paint. Then I saw this one and was sold on the red.  Red will be perfect for the sock monkey theme that I plan to go with.

Painting the crib took longer and more paint than I expected. It took a whole 5 cans of spray paint to get it all covered. Trust me, it isn't a perfect paint job either, but it will work. So, here is the end result. (Ignore the less than great picture.) For now the crib is in our room, as we haven't transitioned Kizzy to her own room yet. Thanks to my brother, Dale, for helping my assemble the crib. It was more difficult than I anticipated.

One last note. Since this is an older crib, it has a drop down side. That is a big no-no these days since it is a safety issue. Sometimes you can get parts from the manufacture to fix it. If not, there is an easy way to fix the crib so that it is safe to use. All you need are two corner brackets and some screws (about $5 at most hardware stores.) Just put the bracket at the bottom of the side rail, with the railing in the highest position, and screw it to the bottom of the rail and the side leg of the crib. Do this on both sides and the rail won't move at all.Problem fixed and crib safe! The only down side to this is that you can't take off that one side of the crib without taking off the brackets.

Again, here is the crib before and after.

Time to Get Back to Work

Yesterday was Mother's Day. My first Mother's Day. It was also the anniversary of when we moved into our home. Three years, we have been in this house for three years. In that time I have only gotten two rooms fully redone. At this rate the house will be the way I want it about the same time we pay it off. It isn't that I don't have plans. I have plans for each and every room and outside. I even have plans for it we are ever able to add on to the house like we hope to do someday. Plans ain't the problem. Time, motivation, and money seem to be what stands in my way.

Since finding out last summer that we had our first baby on the way, I knew that the nursery would have to be the next room to get done. On December 31st I posted Step #1 of getting the room done. (You can find that post here.) I got started on the room.......then we had a surprise five week early arrival. The early arrival was followed by a twelve day stay in the NICU. Then the reality of not being able to get anything done with a newborn set in. Now that our baby girl is almost four months old it is getting slightly easier to get some things done. She isn't in her room yet though, which is good. You'll know why it is a good thing when you see the pictures of the current condition of the room. She will be moving out of our room and into her room when she is six months old, so it is time to get back to work!

The cats think the spare bed is their bed. (Notice all the sock monkeys, that will be the theme and color scheme.)

We cleared out clutter......and need to clear out clutter again. 

Partially scraped wallpaper. It is a long and not very fun job. 

Baby Room Redo - Step #1

With less that two months until Baby Geurs arrives, it is time to get going on the Baby's room. I have had plans for the room since finding out the gender. Having the time, motivation, and energy to work on the room has been the issue. So, now I begin.

First off, the room still had several boxes of random stuff that we just put in there when we moved into the house cause we didn't know what to do with them. And there they stayed for two plus years. We have also accumulated other random item in the room along the way. To begin the process we had to move all that stuff out of the room. That meant sorting, throwing away stuff, donating stuff, and moving stuff to the attic, basement, or other rooms. Not a fun process. We got it done though. Here are some before photos that I snapped quickly to show how the room started out. Note that at this point a lot of the extra stuff had been removed and some baby stuff had been moved in.

Not real exciting photos, but you can see that there is some work to be done. I have started removing the wallpaper. Not an exciting job, but it has to be done if the room is going to be painted. The old wallpaper (like much of the rest of the house) was in terrible condition and was ripped and coming off in several spots. Not to mention there are three layers of wallpaper and three borders on the wall. I have not idea what these people were thinking when they just kept layering it on. 

Stay tuned for updates as the work progresses. Step two is to remove all the wallpaper and paint the room and ceiling.