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?

Project: Office Relocation – Part One

The projects continue around our house. They are equally exciting and exhausting. I really do love the opportunity to get things organized. It’s amazing to find what things we have shoved in drawers or in the back of closets that we have no reason to keep. I think our trash man might start to hate us. We have had several garbage days with abnormally large piles waiting for him. And we’ve only lived here a few years… it doesn’t seem possible to have accumulated so much junk already!

Our home office used to be located in one of our spare bedrooms. Although it was working out as a nice setup, we now want to be able to use that space as a bedroom for when we become foster parents. So, we decided that the best place for our new office space is in our master bedroom. Our bedroom is pretty big so there is plenty of space for our desks, it’s working out quite nicely.

Step one involved choosing a paint color for the bedroom. I guess this wasn’t actually a necessary step, but it seemed like a good time to go ahead a paint.

Paint choices

Since we had to rearrange our furniture layout in order to accommodate the desks, it was now or never. There is now way we would have wanted to move out even more furniture to paint in the future. Now that its done I’m glad we did the painting, but it sure was a lot of work! I moved all the small items out of the room to make for a very cluttered hallway.

Cluttered hallways

Then I used lots of sheets and blankets to cover up our big pieces of furniture. I love our bedroom furniture! There was no way I was taking chances with getting paint on anything, every little part was well covered.

Ready to paint

Our room was extra tricky to paint because it has vaulted ceilings. We had to borrow a taller ladder to reach the top of one wall. Kinda tricky to concentrate on painting when you’re that high off the ground. Once I got the first, big wall done I knew I liked the color I chose. It’s definitely dark enough that you notice the color without it being too dark and feeling like a cave. I really thought hard about the color, especially since we now spend so much of our time in here.

First wall done

I had been planning on doing all of the painting myself. I finished with all the priming in one day. That night I was so sore and worn out, I knew there was no way I could paint again the next day. Jesse was so excited to move the computers in that he wasn’t willing to wait the extra recovery day so he decided to do the paint coat himself. It’s just as well, he did a very nice job.

Me paintingJesse painting

While he painted the top coat, I worked on painting all the outlet covers. Those are always fun to paint. Plus it makes such a huge difference to have them matching the walls in the finished room.

Painted outlet covers

Check back soon for Office Relocation – Part Two, pictures of our finished office spaces…