Lisa: refeathering the nest
In a practically lethal combination of pregnancy-induced nesting and reading a LOT of Young House Love, I've come up with a list of house-sprucing projects I want to try to do before the baby is born.
As a bit of pre-explanation: I already convinced Blake to let me pull up the carpet in our little hallway as an experiment, and what Sarah and I uncovered is good enough that I think we'll continue in the upstairs bedrooms as well. We have also already started buying one or two of these items each month, in an effort to spread out the costs and avoid buying everything on credit at the last minute.
THE LIST:
Nursery (see some before pictures here, although it's evolved a lot over the last three years)
buy and assemble Nora's new, bigger bed
give away Nora's toddler bed
rip up the carpet, install quarter-round, and buy an area rug
pare down Nora's clothes and toys
move most of the toys downstairs into the family room
go through our storage to unearth the old baby stuff
touch up the paint on and reassemble Nora's old crib
replace the ugly, dated ceiling fan with a cute light fixture?
Living Room
buy BILLY bookcases for each side of the fireplace
buy a flat screen TV to fit inside one of the bookcases
paint the living room (and possibly also the adjoining dining room and hallway) a color like Behr's 410F-4, Mother Nature
give away our green TV cabinet (which you can see half of here)
move books and TV components into the new bookcases
buy new throw pillows to better coordinate with the artwork that's in the room now?
Family Room (see some before pictures here)
move the fancier books upstairs into the new living room bookcases
pare down our collection of movies, video games, and books
make room on the bookshelves for toy baskets or bins
set up a real playroom area for Nora and the baby, since the majority of the toys are going to be moved down here
Master Bedroom (see some oldish before pictures here)
pull up the carpet and install quarter-round molding
recover my DIY headboard with new IKEA fabric
buy a new duvet cover and linens--possibly white with black accents
hang new art/family portraits in black frames
sew a new cover for the laundry sorting basket (possibly from the wrong fabric I bought with the headboard in mind)
pare down display items
replace the ceiling fan with a pretty light fixture (Honestly, we will probably give both of the ceiling fans one more summer to prove their worth before getting rid of them.)
So. Thoughts? I'll try to post updates if and when I get around to actually completing any of these projects. Let me know if you want to put your name in for the toddler bed or TV cabinet (or the dish display rack, for that matter), or if you have any last minute warnings or advice.
Posted by lisa at February 20, 2011 02:35 PM
