As you may remember back in December, we traveled to Georgia to celebrate the marriage of (my brother) Scott and Kelly (see post here). Clay and I were both in the wedding party and ‘assigned’ to each other. This means I had the pleasure of being escorted down the aisle after the ceremony by my lovely husband…again – one day shy of 7 years later. Except this time, our two year old son ran into our arms just as were approaching the door. Weddings are about love and this captured moment was just one of many that make parenthood such a rewarding journey.
I am beyond thrilled to be part of this wild and crazy ride.
Last week, I shared the sad state of our laundry room. The room was graced with dirty beige wallpaper hosting some lovely rose colored flowers that weren’t roses (those tricky wallpaper designers…), not-so-fresh cabinets, and dirt streaked beige walls. In case the picture doesn’t let you in on the room’s (former) dirty little secret – it was totally hot for dirty beige. The room never felt clean, no matter how much I scrubbed the surface area. And one of the last rooms in your house you want to give off the aura of filth is the laundry room, seeing as how it’s primary purpose is to serve as a place to wash and dry clothes. To review – new tiled floor, mutant wallpaper, and extremely functional storage. And was it ugly. As in U – G – L – Y, you ain’t got no alibi ugly. But not any more!
Why hello there, you little clean looking space…how you doin’?
The previous owners had left behind a gallon of high gloss white paint and a gallon of primer so we lucked out and saved some money in that department. To paint the cabinets, I followed the steps provided by Young House Love. It really does make a difference when you properly sand, prime, paint, and seal cabinets, and even though I was tempted to cheat – I did the right thing to ensure a lasting finish. As you can see, I chose not to replace the hardware at this time. The existing hardware actually looks quite nice with the painted cabinets and just seems like an unnecessary expense right now.
It is amazing what a little paint can do, isn’t it? I detailed my wallpaper removal trials and tribulations last week. In effort to save the unprimed drywall, I sealed the wallpaper with KILZ oil-based sealer, used joint compound on the seams, and then sanded until my arm felt like it was going to fall off. Let me tell you, using an oil-based sealer in a room with virtually no ventilation is not a pleasant experience. Because Clay was away, I worked well into the night after little guy had gone to bed. The fumes are no joke and I really made an effort to limit Weston’s exposure. After the sealer was dry and no longer smelly, I used joint compound and a trowel to created textured walls to match the non-wallpapered walls in the room. Finally, I mixed a couple of existing leftover paint we had to get this soft blue/gray combination on the walls.
I followed his technique and then incorporated somethin’ somethin’ of my own.
The posters and bulletin board were in our art stash, which equals free wall decoration.
In case you were wondering what our clothes see when they emerge from the dryer…
And finally, the countertop and backsplash. I was unable to get to these beasts as part of my original deadline and that is okay because I really want to explore options and see what will work best for us at this point in time. I am still leaning towards painting them until we can save for a new countertop but I am not 100% sold on that idea…yet.
So there you have it – the laundry room progress. It certainly feel cleaner in here and I like to think that our clothes are happier. Whenever I walk by the room, I turn on the light, look in, and smile. And smiling when doing laundry is always a good thing. So far, I have spent $25.93 on the laundry room makeover, well under the $75 budget and gives me some wiggle room with the countertop and backsplash. Not too shabby.
Over this past week the little guy has been waking up anywhere between 4:30am and 5:15am, thanks to the cutting of some molars – good times. With our sleep schedule interrupted, I find myself more tired than usual and practicing some lazy parenting techniques. Yes, we have watched Despicable Me every morning this week. What can I say? Weston likes the minions and I like being able to accomplish a task without a little person continuously saying, “Momma, momma, momma, momma, momma, etc…” (No, he doesn’t actually say et cetera but you get the point I’m making).
I think I’ve casually mentioned on here that Weston doesn’t have the world’s greatest vocabulary. In other words, he doesn’t talk much. He is only 27 months but we’ve encountered children his age that have a better grasp of the English language than 39% of Facebook users. The little guy understands Clay and I just fine – he just a boy of few words, so we’re not worried at this point in time. And new words are entering his vocabulary, it just happens to be at a slightly slower rate than average.
That being said, I’ve been trying introduce educational activities that don’t give off the I am forcing my child to practice alphabet flashcards six hours a day so he can attend the most posh kindergarten in the world and then people will validate me sort of vibe. I am a huge advocate of letting kids be kids and I identify with the montessori theory that so much can be learned from engaging in everyday tasks and nurturing the natural development, at least for the toddler crowd. But Weston is at the age where I think he can benefit from a short structured lesson on letters, numbers, colors, shapes, etc… in between periods of exploration.
It doesn’t help that Weston has the attention span of our dog, Lucy, in a sausage and bacon emporium. While he will engage in an educational activity for a couple of minutes, it isn’t long before he has taken off to climb pieces of furniture or go spelunking in some cabinets. Members of our church joke that he is going to be an adventurer when he grows up – we don’t think they’re off base with their assessment. And who am I to stifle an adventurous spirit? He loves sorting and responds well to traditional montessori activities, which I think play into his free-spirited nature.
