Color

I mentioned that we had some room painting going on. Here's the nursery now:

The orange is really pumpkin-y. It doesn't really come through on my computer, but it's a really warm color.




Yes, Mom and Dad, that's your couch, minus the middle bit, which is in our living room. Works well this way. :) The "art" in the nursery is decorations from the baby shower that Cheryl and family threw for us. I have more permanent plans, will let you know when that happens. :)


And, on the other side of the Jack'n'Jill bathroom, here's Eamon's room:


Halfway through taking pics, E stripped his bed. Don't know why, but he really does have a pillow and blankets, see?

Eamon insisted that his bed was the "Emergency" that all the planes were flying to. I think he has heard a lot about fire bombers lately.
The ball drop alternates purposes. This conformation means that I don't have to make his bed around all of these creatures.

That bookcase has three shelves of books for E. Like the one in the nursery, it is packed full...thanks, Mom.

Ray still has some metal airplanes to hang - they were my father's and are a little interesting with the orange, but the boys like them as-is, so they'll be going up as soon as Ray feels up to doing more anchoring and hanging, since they're a little heavy and pointy and, much as E loves them, they need to be secure.

Anyway, little bits left to do, but I'm pretty happy. Amazing what a difference some paint makes! This seems to be the most recent entry that shows any of what the nursery looked like... when E was still in it a year ago...

Border

This one is purely for Heather.

The border on our floor is my best artistic replication of the Arkansas River from Granite to Canyon City Colorado. These are some of my favorite whitewater runs and many runs that Ray and I have done (Milk Run (both), Brown's Canyon (me), runs around Salida (both), Cotopaxi area runs (both) and the Cotopaxi KOA (both, and shown above), and then my favorite, Parkdale (me)). Ray actually suggested this. I agree with those who have said it would be better wider, and I tried it, but then we couldn't get the detail of the curves in that we wanted. Ray likes that it looks about like it does from 30,000 feet.

What's up?

Yes, I know, it's quiet around the blog. It is still not quiet around the house. Painting bedrooms (more on that some other day) and renovating floors have been the order of the day.

A long time ago I asked Ray if I could just paint the floors. He was... less than enthused. Then we priced the hardwood we wanted (eek). Then we priced **cheap** laminate (still eek, and ich). Then I helped our friend replace her kids' bedroom carpet with "hardwood" made from ripped and painted plywood. Then I showed Ray this and this. Suddenly, he was on board. Now just everyone else thinks we're crazy.

Two weeks ago we pulled all the furniture out (don't ask how our living room looked). E helped.

Sort of.

Here's the beige carpet looking its absolute best.

I pulled the carpet and pad (yay, the carpet layers weren't paid per staple they put in and the pad wasn't nasty),

Ray filled and sanded (boo, the builders had used the floor as their workbench), and I laid down black floor paint and the border. Ray laid down the two coats of (low odor, water-soluble urethane) and we had this:

BEST SOCCER FIELD EVER!

E quickly learned to be careful about the size of the toys he chose.

The next weekend we started in on the hallway. Sadly for Ray, this carpet pad was in way worse shape. But look how pretty the section that is done looks! (E was fascinated with the carpet seam.)

Annnnd - here we are! We still need some trim, but looking much better. (also: what happens when you ask E to "stand over there and look cute")

Again, we need to hang some trim and transition pieces, but this is much better! You can see the border I added (at Ray's suggestion) here as well. (If you're curious: go here (AHRA) and click through on every picture from Granite to Canyon City. E is next to Brown's Canyon in the shot below.)

Return the carpet and vacuum:

...and back in business! (We put the couch on the section that had a week to dry, so it's a little cramped and will expand.)

For comparison:

I like it soooo much better, (not just because it's not full of 3-year-olds). It's warm like a wood floor and a lot smoother than I expected. It's loud without the furniture/carpet in to suck up the noise, but pretty nice when everything is in (just harder to play soccer on). We'll see how it holds up, but for now, it's great!