Friday, January 25, 2013

Progress on the Kids' Rooms

I can't tell if I'm moving in slow-motion, or so fast my head is just spinning.  Two bedrooms down and our new way of life is starting to fall into a routine.  Hopefully the whole fam coming home at 10 p.m.--like last night--will not be part of that routine!

We worked on Kai's room last week...he likes to add a little graffiti each time he paints.


He found several design elements he liked on the much-loved houzz.com, but after much discussion, we decided a really cool horizontal stripe technique would be the best bet for longevity.  The green is left over from the color of his other bedroom.  It turns out quite dark when full on all walls, but was perfect for this accent.  I eyeballed where to place the stripes along the wall, then measured and marked all the way around.  Thankfully, I didn't get out the level as it might have drove me more crazy.  Bring on the frog tape!


Worked like a charm!  I don't think I pressed hard enough on the top tapes so had a tad bit of seepage on the brown stripe, but nothing that 40 minutes with an artist's brush and a steady hand didn't take care of.  The best advice I found, but didn't take, was to go over all the edges with the base color before doing the stripes...I think I wanted to test out the claims of the green tape!

We hung the now brown doors and replaced the outlet covers last night...he already has his tent set up, ready to camp, or more likely, do his reading in the new space.


So this week I've been working on Elena's bedroom.  It's a vision in lavender.  Even the ceiling.  Actually, it's a really cute theme with a stenciled border of carousel horses and two shades of light purple.  But that's not going to fly with my girl.  She has done her research...again on houzz...and has quite the plan.  But first...as she wrote in her English assignment yesterday..."I've learned it takes a looooonnnnngggg time to prep to paint!"

And even longer if Momma insists on learning to use new tools.  I'm ever-so proud of myself for figuring out how to use a paint sprayer in order to save me hours teetering on a ladder cutting in a vaulted ceiling.  Many props out to the paint guys at the Raymore Lowes for giving me a full-on demo when I showed up with my borrowed machine and asked for help!


This is the set up, and above you can see the handy-dandy extension wand that made my ceiling-painting a breeze.


Someone asked how I managed to not have paint all over me.....


 That's how.  Awesome.

And after seeing how easy it was to use the sprayer, I decided I should just spray all the trim too!  So yesterday I decided to rip all the carpet out of her room.  All you gym-goers...forget that...just rip up carpet.  It was quite the workout and I may have some nicely sculpted shoulders and arms after this project!  (Good timing since I'm no longer carrying around a toddler, which usually takes care of that.)   I was delighted to find that they did not staple the pad down...hoping that is true for the whole house.




Cutting in around the ceiling yesterday...it's a long way down.



Elena took care of the corners and around outlets...while Super Z-Man...well, that's how he usually looks.


Today I tackle the sprayer again to do the trim in Elena's room and perhaps the hallway.  Our special-order Cocoa-colored grout should be ready for pick up in the next few days and we can then grout the three rooms already tiled...maybe four as Eric is working on Elena's bathroom floor today.  Yeeeee!  Excited!

Meanwhile...the kids are liking doing school work down in the basement (just didn't want anyone to think they were off the hook LOL).  We're studying China for two weeks leading up to the big Chinese New Year celebration at the Nelson-Atkin's Art Museum.

And don't think Eric and I are JUST working...we're playing in the Ice Bowl disc golf tourney this weekend (my first tournament) and plan to go freeze our patooties off in the name of charity.   Brrr...the tag line is "No Wimps.  No Whiners."  What a perfect tournament for me.  Ha.

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