Don't get me wrong, I do love our lil' casa, but if Kevin's heard it once from me, he's heard it a thousand times... "We've outgrown our house. We're bursting at the seams."
Technically, no. We are not bursting at the seams. I suppose I was being a bit over-dramatic :) We've got plenty of space in empty bedrooms, office closets and an entire storage room for stuff.
So my little tirade of outgrowing our house, is more my attempt to motivate myself to do a serious deep clean, sort through things, donate, trash, and just get stuff organized.
What better motivation than a little bean? And the need for a nursery and an empty closet and more empty space for everything that comes with a baby.
Very soon after we found out we were having a little bambino, I kicked it into high gear. The guest bedroom upstairs, which never had a comfortable bed, rarely got used, and frankly, I ran out of juice when it came to decorating it, was renamed the bean's room. But with this change meant clearing out a closet full of my clothes, moving shelves full of shoes, relocating current furniture and redecorating and repainting to make the room fit for the bean.
Finally, after several weekends of reorganizing and resituating every other closet in our house, and one big garage sale, we finally had an empty room and a blank slate.
This was the only "before" picture I managed to take...excuse the paint mess.
I spent hours scouring pinterest and project nursery for inspiration on paint...colors and patterns. I wanted something different than just paint on the walls. But I also know we aren't going to stay in this house forever, so it wouldn't be wise to spend a fortune either.
So, we settled on something in the middle.
I've always had a thing for stripes...even though I had a rough experience with painting a red striped bedroom in college, I was ready to tackle it again.
But this time, not red. Something a bit more subtle, but still enough contrast for the stripes to pop.
And one weekend at Sherwin Williams, we found the perfect colors.
It was the perfect mix between grey and beige...properly named Perfect Greige. And then a lighter shade to compliment it.
Testing out the paint colors to make sure there was enough contrast...
Kevin's masterpiece before the stripe-maddness took over the wall...
After the red-striped fiasco circa 2004, I knew if we were going to get these Perfect Greige stripes perfect, we were going to need lots of patience...and lots of time.
Originally I wanted to do horizontal stripes all the way around the room, on all four walls.
But then I realized, two large windows, one closet and one door combined with an attempt to make the lines super straight and still match up after going all the way around the room, was going to be nearly impossible.
So in an effort to maintain my own level of sanity and keep my husband happy, I settled on one wall of stripes and the other three walls painted solid.
The first task was to paint the lighter color on the entire soon-to-be striped wall. Next, we painted the other three walls the solid darker color. I had sketched out the dimensions of wall and the thickness of the stripes and determined we needed five dark stripes.
After several days of waiting for paint to dry, literally, we taped off and conquered the first stripe.
And after another week of waiting and rebuilding up our patience, we conquered the second stripe.
And finally, many days later, all five stripes were completed.
And I pretty much loved it from a distance, but up close, there were some places, if you looked hard enough that the paint bled through the tape a bit.
And anyone that knows me and my crazy-type A personality, knows that I wasn't going to be content until it was fixed.
So, I found these super-tiny paintbrushes at Home Depot. And using that brush, little by little, I touched up all of the spots where the dark paint was and it wasn't suppose to be.
Now, I loved it. Our Perfect Greige stripes.. perfectly fit for the bean...king or queen.
Speaking of, bean's room isn't the only project that is making progress... bean is continuing to grow and his (or her) development is progressing nicely... and now, 17 weeks along, he (or she) is apparently 5 ounces big, which is just shy of 1/2 a pound. Still just a little bean, but the bump has officially made it's debut...sorta.
This was 13 weeks...
And now 17 (almost 18) weeks...
I can't believe we're almost halfway done with this pregnancy thing.
The first three months were a bit rough, but it seems the afternoons and evenings of morning sickness have slowly become fewer and far between and I'm even starting to gain my appetite back (but don't tell Kevin because I've still convinced him to do most of the cooking!)
Fruits and raw veggies are still my favorites, but the bean gets pretty upset if he (or she) doesn't get an occasional scoop of ice cream. So, I willingly comply. That's how the story goes right?...bean wants, bean gets. :)
We've still got lots to do in the nursery... but I'm holding out as much as possible since we'll find out if bean's a boy or girl in about three weeks.
I'm getting anxious to pick out colors, rugs, curtains, bedding, clothes, but I'm trying to keep it together...
In the meantime, we did pick out the most comfy chair and ottoman imaginable... so comfy, I think you just be able to sleep in it. I'm sure bean will give us the opportunity to test that theory out soon enough.
And we're in the process of sprucing up a couple of old dressers by adding legs, some paint and some fancy knobs. I've also got a couple of other non-gender specific projects up my sleeve to keep us busy until we find out.
What can I say, my husband is one lucky guy. He's got a pregnant wife with a to-do list a mile long. Unfortunate for him (fortunate for me), it's probably not a good idea for me to be sanding down or spray painting dressers or operating heavy machinery like saws, drills, or even vacuum cleaners :) so most of the to-do list has been assigned to him.
But I'm pretty good at giving directions, observing, and retrieving cold beverages. What more could he want? Just kidding. I'm not too much of a slave-driver. Not really...
But I must say, I count my own lucky stars that he's so wonderful and patient and understanding and handy when it comes to my crazy projects and ideas.
And I can already tell, bean's lucky too... he (or she) is going to have the best dad ever.
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