Project: Kid’s Room

We are getting SO close to being done with the licensing process. Today we actually emailed our final signatures on our home study! We had made some minor changes over the weekend, such as correcting my favorite subject in school from History to Math. Yes, the questions were that detailed when we were interviewed. Our agent is waiting on a response from our last neighbor reference and then we should be completely done. We are so excited, we can’t wait!

Our final decision on our age range is 0-3 years old. We chose that because we felt like we weren’t ready to deal with a school aged child and have to figure out bus schedules, teachers, and homework. If we were to get placed with three year old we would at least have a year or two before having to learn about that, if we had them for that long.

Even though we are hoping to get a baby, we really wanted to have our third bedroom completed in case they are too big for the nursery. Plus we eventually would be open to a sibling group once we get in some practice. Our third bedroom used to be our guest room. Much of what was in there stayed the same, but I tried to add some fun, kid touches.

Before: Plain guest room…

guest beddresser

After: Rearranged kid room…

Before paint

And of course, being me, I had the entire room set up before I decided that I should paint it. We had been going back and forth on whether or not to paint in there forever. Finally, I got a crazy idea one day and decided I would paint tomorrow! Jesse has been slammed with work over the last couple of months so I knew I was on my own if I was going to do it. My last painting project resulted in Jesse having to help me finish on the second painting day. Since I couldn’t ask him to stop working, I decided it was best to do both coats of paint in one LONG day… that way I wouldn’t have time to realize how sore and tired I was between coats. Good choice because I could barely move the next morning. My hands were so swollen that my wedding ring wouldn’t fit my finger for a couple of days. It was worth it though… all the holes and scuff marks are covered up. It looks so much better and more finished.

Doorway leftDoorway right

So far the room is filled with little things we had stored in the garage from when we were kids (a great reason never to get rid of stuff), and some of the garage sale finds I’ve been collecting. We wanted to keep it gender neutral and leave it mostly plain so that the child can help decorate with their own interests if they want to. It’s funny because as kids Ashley and I shared a room decorated with balloons and that’s what we happened to find at a garage sale.

DresserPicture frameToy shelfDesk hutchDesk chairMatching stool

So, there you have it. Two bedrooms ready and waiting to be filled with a foster child. What do you think?

Garage Sale Deals

We were excited to do a little shopping this weekend and get a little closer to our goal of getting our foster care license. We’ve been moving slower than we thought we would, mostly because items we need are a little more expensive than we anticipated. But with a little more saving and a few garage sale deals we’ll get there soon.

We were really hoping to be able to find a crib. Unfortunately, all the cribs we saw were drop-side cribs, which we are not allowed to have because they have been recently banned. However, we did get some good deals on several other items. I’ve had several people ask to see what we got, so I took some pictures of our growing collection of baby items.

First, here are a few items we picked up at a previous garage sale. I never took pictures since we hadn’t yet shared about our foster care decision.

Toy chestStep stool

We got this matching set toy chest, shelves, and step stool. I thought they were cute and very gender neutral, which is a must for us. Plus when I was a kid my sister and I shared a room that was decorated with balloons. We got all four balloon pieces for $20. They are going in our non-nursery room for later on.

Ballon shelf

We also got a stroller, car seat, and two car seat attachments. The lady we bought them from just really wanted to get rid of them, she gave us the whole set for only $25!

Car seat set

Again, I think it’s a cute, gender neutral pattern and it looks almost brand new.

Stroller

Now for the items from Saturday’s garage sale. I bought these three canvas pictures a while back at Target for only $1 each. I figured they were so colorful that they would match with whatever we found in the future.

Animal pictures

Turns out that cute, cartoony animals is a pretty popular look. We had no problem finding things that coordinated pretty well. The first item we found was a swing that looked barely used. It has different speeds and plays music. From my babysitting experience I knew this was an item we needed. We paid only $10 for it.

Swing

We also found a bouncy seat with similar animal designs. It still had the tags on it and we paid only $20 for it. We knew that was a good deal because we had seen them in consignments shops for $50.

Bouncer

Then we got a pack ‘n play for a great deal. I hadn’t really thought about getting one, but for the price we couldn’t pass it up. Especially since it had the fun animals to coordinate with the other items we had bought.

Pack n play

It had a price tag of $15 on it, but without us even asking the lady offered to give it to us for only $10!

Fun animal print

We also got a high chair, the kind that is just a seat that straps on to a regular chair, but I’m not sure if it’s going to work or not. We have a high table and I’m not sure if the seat is quite tall enough. We’ll have to see on that one.

We’re off to a good start. We’ve been watching the sales ads to see a crib or crib set that we like. Once we get that I think we’ll be ready to get our home studies going!