Progression: Baby's Room

After listing the 298347928734 things we needed to do for Operation: Baby Drop, I am happy to say we have been quickly crossing things off the list.  Most importantly, a lot of those tasks for the little monster's room have been completed.

First off, the room has been painted.

  I originally wanted to go with Valspar's Cincinnatian Hotel Hannford, however we had a bunch of gift cards to Home Depot, so I went with a similar shade from Glidden called Navajo Sand and I love it.  It is neutral, with a hint of grey for a more masculine feel.  I think the teals and oranges I intend to pair it with (shown in my mood board) will really pop against it.

I realized that Frog Tape is much more powerful then I thought.  It ripped the paint off of my freshly coated trim, and I am not too happy about it.

I guess I'll be adding "repaint trim" to my TODO list. 

The closet was a huge accomplishment for us.  If you'll remember, the previous owners had painted the interior of the closet the same dark blue as the rest of the room.  The only form of storage was some busted up pieces of wood acting as shelves.

At first, I thought it would be primed and painted, but then we realized how rough a shape the walls were in.  When JEGs attempted to removed some of the boards acting as supports for the shelves, the original plaster came crumbling down.

So JEGs did what every boy secretly dreams of doing:  he went at it with a hammer, flat bar and (my personal favorite) his fists.

No, he wasn't just blowing off some pent up steam (ok, maybe it helped) he discovered that by punching the plaster, it helped to loosen it up.  The lathing would bounce and then flexed back into place, causing the plaster to crack and loosen up and making it easier to dig the flat bar behind it.

Something to note, JEGs decided to keep the lathing.  In a house this old, the studs are not always straight and level  The lathing adds another level of surface to screw the drywall to.  He figured he was removing 1/2" of plaster,  so adding 1/2" of drywall would put things back the way they were in relation to the trim.  Also the lathing was in good shape so we saw no reason to bust it up.  If there were missing slats, or we found mold or water damage, he would have ripped it out.  However, as it stood, it was a nice level surface to screw the drywall to, and kept the inner dimensions of the closet the same.  We did get lucky in that most plaster doesn't come down that easy either- sometimes you have to just break out the lathing and plaster together. 

Also, to side on the error of caution, I was out of the house while this demolition was going on, and JEGs made sure the room was well ventilated and he also wore a particle mask.  He also had a tarp on the floor to collect the plaster that fell as an easier way to clean up.

After he had gone all Mike Tyson on the plaster, he re drywalled and primed the interior.

Once we had a nice secure drywall, we returned to our old friend Closet Maid to create functional storage for the bambino's things:

We will store his toys and books on the first two shelves so the little guy can access them with ease.

The next shelf was hung a little higher for his hang-able wardrobe

...and the top two shelves  can store things that we won't need to access often such as extra sheets or off season clothing.

So let's review the list for this room, shall we?

  

• paint
• decorate
• add furniture
• get my dresser out of there and into the master bedroom
• fix the gap between the baseboards and floor.
• remove all the crumbling plaster in the closet and replace it with drywall
• install Closet Maid (so help me jeebus, Closet Maid if you leave another ad in my comment section, I will be contacting you about giving me free stuff)
• repaint trim

Not bad, if I do say so myself.  We feel super accomplished now that the major things are done, and now we can start focusing on the smaller things.

On to the next project!

Always & Forever,

  ME