Nursery In Progress

We've officially started the nursery! And by "we" I mean, I tell Max what to do and he does all the work! He doesnt let me lift anything heavy or be around any paint fumes. What's a girl to do?

The nursery is right beside our bedroom, Im still undecided as to if that's a good thing or not. When I want to check on the sleeping baby 24 times in a 15 minute time span, it'll be good. When its screaming its head off at 3:36 am, Im not so sure.

The room technically isnt a bedroom, since it has no closets, and it used to be our office/Mandy's room. Mandy and her couch got booted out a while back and we recently migrated all of the office equipment into the craft room. I cant seem to find a "before" picture of the room, that particular flash drive has been lost in transit, but it was dark and the carpet had seen better days. This pathetic picture of Mandy shows the moss green walls...which prior to that were a hideous cobalt blue color (we know this because previous painters weren't so meticulous). Since we dont know if this baby is a boy or girl, coming up with a nursery theme that wasnt hokey, took some time. An unsuccessful search for neutral bedding resulting in my decision to make the bedding myself... Stop laughing! Even then, the color pallet changed a few times, especially when I ran across this fabric at the quilt shop. So I decided to paint the room (and when I say "I", I mean Max)a robin egg blue. Blue enough to be boyish, but trendy enough to easily transform to girly. The fabric patterns incorporate lots of blues, greens, and pinks, though I'll use the pink patterns sparingly just in case. I dont want this quilt to be the reason for years of therapy in the event we have a boy.

After picking out the perfect shade of blue, which was actually called Kiwi Splash, Max got to work. Primer, first coat, second coat, and a few drips and smudges in between...not that Im keeping track, and Max was done in a matter of days. Then, sometime during all of his mental negotiations, Max had decided that it was necessary to rip up the carpet. *gulp* Que picture demonstration.
The carpet wasnt terrible, but who wants to subject a brand new little baby to dingy, spotty carpet? And dont get me started on the possibilities that lurk within the confines of those threads. Okay, good choice to rip up the carpet!

Max and my brother laid hardwood in our living and dinning rooms last year and I thought we had enough left over to at least get us started in the nursery. That would be a negative. We went to the store to get more of the same stuff, good news, it's on sale! Bad news, it was still going to cost us mucho dinero to get what was needed. So we went from dark cherry hardwood to a very cost effective, blonde laminate. We picked it out, picked it up, and installed it all in one day! Again, using the term "we" loosely. This is several rows into the project but I would like to add that on row TWO, I came in to offer my services. It took me approximately five minutes to screw something up and I was asked to leave. Politely of course. He didnt need my help anyway, he managed to get it all done without me.
And it helps to have furry foreman watching over things. Wshew! That was a lot of work!
At 10:00 pm, it looks pretty darn good! And first thing Sunday morning, it looks darn near heavenly! Once we finish with some quarter-round around the trim work, we can begin filling the nursery with all things baby! The crib that "we've" picked out is called "chocolate mist" or esspresso as I like to refer to it. So I pulled out these old frames Ive had for years, which I intend to use in the nursery, to get an idea how how it would look. The furry feline foreman approves!

So that's the latest in our baby world. All three of us are making progress!