The Nursery: Take Two

It has been another exhausting weekend, but I'm happy to say that we are one step closer to the final stages of Operation: Decorate Nursery. If you recall, we started out with a nursery that looked like this:


It was essentially a dumping ground for all those things that didn't have any other place to call home. We then cleaned it out, took you on a little tour, and started painting once we found out we were having a little boy. The nursery went from this...


... and this...


... to this...

...this...


...and this.


Dad Q. was on hand again for some final trim work and he did a mighty fine job. Seriously, put a good brush in this man's hand and he can cut the paint in like a pro! And he donned some new paint duds this time around. :)


Then this was delivered:


Yes, that's right. The baby's furniture is here!! Thanks to the help of our burly neighbors (Chris, Ed and Shawn - Thank You!!), Ed was able to transport the boxes into our freshly painted nursery. Very exciting!

Since we have no patience, we dove into those boxes like it was Christmas morning. It was quite a scene ... one that Lucy took in from the comfort of her blankie.

Actually, she was not really that interested. :) The beautiful dresser was 100% built so all we had to do was put it into place. Not so much on the crib, but it was a pretty easy set up. I was expecting the worst and was pleasantly surprise. Lucy was a little more lively during the crib stage, but only really showed interest when it was complete. She is Union; she was on break.


So after a little staging, we have a nursery that looks like this...


... and this...


and this.

We are VERY pleased with the furniture in the space and can't wait until the glider gets here. Of course there are still shelves to be hung, a rug to be bought and decorating to do so once that is complete we will share the final reveal. Lucy (and Ed) can't wait!!

Some "To Do's"

In addition to fixing up the nursery, we are also taking this pre-baby time to tackle some other projects in the house. If you are a home owner, you know that the list of "To Do's" is never ending. I actually have a "To Do" notebook and 3-ring binder filled with lists and ideas for future projects (nerd alert, I know!). This coming weekend, we are going to be checking a few of those projects off the list.

Our friendly neighborhood contractor, Doug Kidd, will be on hand this Saturday to build us a window seat / storage chest in the front window bump out. While we don't have a full on bay window, we do have an 18" bump out giving us plenty of room to create some much needed storage in the living room. With a new custom cushion (that I'm hiring someone to make) it will give us some extra seating and be a great vantage point for Lucy to look out the window.


As you can see, this area is kind of bare, but in the next 2 weeks or so there will be a total transformation. In addition to the bench, we (meaning Home Depot) will be installing new blinds so that we can finally stop everyone on the street from checking us out.


Another happening this weekend is the minor remodel of the Master Bathroom. Ed has been working hard to get the walls into shape so that they can be primed and painted. Since this bathroom has no window and flat paint, the walls had started to look shoddy so we knew it was time for some updating. While we can't afford to do a major remodel, we do plan to paint, add a new light fixture and medicine cabinet as well as some glass shelving. Once tax time blesses us with some cash flow, we will be adding a clear glass shower door, a canned light in the shower and a vanity for storage. Here is what the bathroom looks like right now...


...not a pretty site. But things sometimes need to get ugly before they can be pretty again. Luckily, we have another full bath on the 2nd floor so we've been living like this for the past week:


FYI - we decided to add a medicine cabinet to this bathroom as well so that our child's future toiletries do not need to live in boxes on the toilet bowl.


So it looks like we have another exhausting weekend ahead of us. Luckily Dad Q. will be back in his snazzy attire to help us finish the trim in the nursery. Gotta love a man with a paint wardrobe!

Love is in the Air

Well, paint fumes are in the air but really it's love as in we LOVE the color in the nursery! It has been a long, exhausting weekend but after 2 days of meticulous taping and spackeling and sanding and painting the nursery is done. Well almost done. We still have to touch up the trim but in my world, that is pretty much done.

If you remember, the project started last week with some prep work and continued in to the early evening on Sunday. Dad Q. was on hand to help Ed since I really shouldn't be inhaling the paint fumes even if the paint is low VOC. The day started with Ed tackling the ceiling while Dad tackled the cutting along the crown molding. Mom and I decided that the best way to help the guys was to get out of their hair and go shopping! We did bring back lunch right in the nick of time. Saturday ended with a 2nd coat of ceiling paint and a first coat of paint on the walls. It was a good day...but we were not quite finished.


Sunday began with some more attention to the ceiling. First, let me just say one thing. Painting a ceiling is a giant pain in the you know what. It's awkward to apply the paint and typically it is white on white so it is hard to tell what has been painted already. To make matters worse, we realized during the prep stage that the previous owners had painted it blue with white clouds and then covered it with a thin coat of white paint. Not ideal. But we managed to bang it out and I have to say, it looks pretty damn good. Dad Q. showed up for another day of fun and tackled more of the trim and molding while Ed put a second coat of paint on the walls. I again contributed by leaving. :) By mid-day the room was done and was looking FABULOUS!!


As I mentioned earlier, we still have a little more work to do with the trim, but all in all, the room is looking great. Ed is very pleased with the color - as am I. I know I wasn't really on Team Blue for the nursery, but I'm loving that this particular blue is more of a grown up blue vs. a baby boy blue. So, here is a summary of the nursery painting project in numbers:

• 1 industrial strength halogen light to help illuminate the fairly dark room and point out the crazy ceiling situation.
• 2 gallons of paint to do the 2 coats on the walls.
• 3 ruined drop clothes when a 1/2 gallon of paint was spilled on the floor.
  
• 4 trips on Home Depot on Saturday alone to pick up supplies.
• 5 or so different rollers and paint brushes used to tackle the 10 x 10 room.
  
• 6 articles of snazzy paint clothes that Dad Q. brought for the project.
• 7 F-bombs uttered when Ed realized he had to sand and repaint a portion of the ceiling.
  
• 8 times that Lucy checked in on the boys to make sure they were behaving.
  

So there you have it. The paint color has been revealed and we are on our way to getting this nursery in shape for our little boy's arrival.

It's All Happening

I'm a fairly neat person. I like order and live by the mantra that everything has a home. My husband, on the other hand, does not live by that mantra so you could say that there is an enormous amount of nagging that goes on in our house.

So you could imagine my horror when I came home from a work function the other night to find our second bedroom looking like this:


Even Lucy was horrified! But in my hubby's defense, it was for a good cause because the nursery currently looks like this:


Ed spent the evening Wednesday night prepping the nursery so that it could be painted this weekend! This is a BIG step in the world of baby so we are very excited. Since I really shouldn't be around the paint fumes, we have recruited Dad Q. to assist Ed with this project ~ thanks Dad!! He is a pro at cutting so between his skills and Ed's skills I just know that the nursery is going to look great. And of course, Lucy is going to supervise. :)

The big color reveal will be coming soon so stay tuned !!!!

So Busy!

Things in the Mangiaracina household have been crazier than ever and it is just going to continue to go nuts! I've been a bit MIA as I was out in California attending a conference for work. The conference was good, but seeing pals Patrick Wilson and Franco Anzini (and lovely wife Dawna) was GREAT! Patrick just so happened to be in town from Portland so we were able to catch up. Franco and Dawna call Santa Clara home so they gave me the tour of the swankier part of silicon valley. All in all, it was a good trip.

Unfortunately, because of my time away, there is a lot of playing catch up going on. And I don't just mean with work (which is out of control nutso right now thank you very much Toy Fair!). We have been working on many things around the house in anticipation of our bundle of joy and everything seems to be happening right now.

We figured that once little baby boy Mangiaracina makes his entrance, life as we know it will cease to exist so we need to get things done now or forever hold our peace. So, with that said, here is the laundry list of To Do items that will be blogged about in the near future:

1. Install blinds on all windows throughout the house. Or rather have Home Depot install them so we don't screw it up!
   
   
   
   
2. Build a window seat in the front window bump out that seconds as an attractive toy chest for all the anticipated baby stuff. 2A. Order cushion for said bench. (P.S. We also hired a pro for this as we do not have the skills nor the tools to conquer) (P.P.S. Not our house in photo below...but you get the idea.)
   
   
   
3. Paint and prep nursery. This one will happen in stages but painting is a must in the near future. The color will be revealed shortly.
   
   
   
4. Paint and minor renovation of the Master Bath. I've mentioned our issues in here before. We have some serious wall issues in here since the previous owners thought it would be a genius idea to put flat paint in a bathroom with no windows. It's time to slap up some satin finish paint, install a new light fixture and a new medicine cabinet. The full renovation is unfortunately out of budget at this time, so our mini reno will have to do. 4B. Find said light fixture and medicine cabinet (harder than you would think!)
   
   
5. Install medicine cabinet in the upstairs hall bathroom. For some reason, this house has terrible storage situations in all 4 bathrooms. It's now time to fix that ~ especially since we will have a little person who will be using this bathroom soon! Our fav:

This laundry list of items is more for me than for you so that I can keep track of everything, but I promise to share with you the progress of each project as we are very excited for the end product.

Anyone else out there doing some light home renovations? Share, share!!

Overwhelming

That is the word we use to describe all things baby registry this weekend. My goodness...is there A LOT of things to think about and A LOT of stuff to choose from. Our heads were spinning as we were walked around the massive store filled from floor to ceiling with toys and bottles and clothes and bouncy chairs and whatever. I mean look at all the car seats and strollers they have!


It's enough to make you want to forget what the doctors say and grab a big drink ~ I didn't, of course! We headed to Buy Buy Baby first thing Saturday morning to set up our registry and were treated to the knowledge of an associate named Claire. She must have seen the blank stares on our face because she took us under her wing and helped us sort through the sea of pink and blue.


First stop was car seats and boy did she WOW us. We never thought we'd have the reaction that we did when she showed us how easy it was to install the base of the Chicco KeyFit car seat on her test bench seat. I almost hugged her! From there we went to strollers, then playards, then high chairs, then bath time and then safety. The good news is that in 2 hours, she helped us pick all kinds of stuff for the kid. The bad news ~ we are no where near done. But it was time to go. We were hungry and tired and could not look at one more pacifier or Boppy pillow.

Another trip to Buy Buy Baby is in store for us...but not before a little break. We need about a week to decompose and regroup. Plus I am headed to California tomorrow for the week to attend a conference and I can pretty much guarantee that Ed will not sneak off to add more baby stuff to the registry. :)

Blue

It's official: The peanut is a BOY!!

Yup - come March the gender scales will be more even in the Mangiaracina household with me and Lucy holding it down for the girls and Ed and our future son representing for the fellas. And we couldn't be more excited. Lucy even showed some excitement when she heard the news!

We just found out the great news this morning at our 20-week sonogram. And I am happy to report that this baby boy is healthy as can be and is growing at the correct rate. All parts are present and accounted for!

Now that we know the news, the pregnancy is that much more special. We can actually refer to the baby as "he" and "him" vs. "goy" and "shim". And you know that the planning will be kicked into high gear now! And even though it is a boy, we plan to keep things ~ especially the nursery ~ fairly gender neutral so don't expect to see baby blue coming out of our ears around here. :)