Picture post!

[same_sky]

I have promised pictures of a thousand different things lately, so here is an attempt to get myself back on track. This is about as far into the backlog as I'm going to go, which is okay because I am worrying about it far more than you are anyway. Everything past the first thing is going under a cut--click for crib, dresser (before and after) and bedroom/bathroom renovation pictures.

Because I am somewhat insane, I sewed three dozen two-sided flannel cloth wipes. One dozen is backed with terry, for those jobs that need a bit more power. Most of them have different patterns on the front and back. It doesn't take long to make one cloth wipe like this. However, it takes for-freaking-ever to make three dozen of them. I am (very) roughly estimating that I have approximately a quarter's worth of fabric invested in each one on average, but there was a significant time factor involved. I did it because it was a hell of a lot of fun, and I smile when I look at them, and if something is going to make me smile while I am wiping up poo--I am all for that. In one of the last dozen I made, I accidentally put the wrong sides together, and one of the pattern sides was facing inside--I didn't even notice it until I was ironing prior to top-stitching. This prompted the following conversation:

K: I am such a dork. *showing mistake on remaining wipe*
M: I think it'll be okay.
K: No, I'll just rip the seam out and start over.
M: It's a shit rag, baby.
K: It's a shit rag FOR DUCKY.

We are freaking hopeless. Anyway, I'm very proud of these, simple and silly though they might be. If nothing else, I managed to make myself slog through the last dozen even though I was bored with it already.

Here is the obligatory picture of Daddy putting together the crib. There was a better in-progress picture but the flash from the camera portrayed a rogaine situation (unrealistically, of course) with the top of M's head and he grumbles when I post those pictures. The fact that I am writing about it now is probably going to increase the grumbles rather than decrease, but one does what one must for one's art.

Here you can see the crib in place in the nursery. Yes, it's caddy-corner and very precious. We took down the not-nursery-style artwork, but unfortunately, not before the picture was taken.

You can see the crib bedding a little better in this picture. The tags are awful, haven't done anything about that yet. The bumper pad is coming down before the baby gets here anyway.

And now for the rest of the nursery! I mentioned previously that we had decided to use the furniture that my parents bought for me when I was about ten. It had yellowed with age and from twelve years spent in a smoker's household, so it was in pretty bad shape. M started with the dresser, and he brought it in just today. The drawer rails still need replaced, and I need to clean the inside well, but then I can do lots of laundry for sweet, sweet baby!

This is before. Lovely discolorations!

And this is after. Isn't it nice? There's a mirror that goes with that--M painted it today, but it hasn't been replaced yet. Coming up next--desk and chair. I would like to say that I have not hovered over him during this project fretting about how it will turn out, but I would be lying. Sorry, sweetie!

And now for something completely different--the renovation of the previous guest room/current master bedroom and attached bathroom. I'll switch to a thumbnail/link format from here on out, because I'm feeling a little guilty about the bandwidth usage of this post, and you don't really need to see as much of these to get an idea of what it's about. Also, they're a little less current and interesting. Click to see the larger image.

The cabinet under this sink was plastic ivory-colored fake wood grain, and installed in the seventies. It was, to put it nicely, awful. Not shown--rickety white metal medicine cabinet with bare light-bulb fixture. The second image shows the floor in front of the shower. The previous owners were apparently unfamiliar with the concept that water makes wood like, rot, and stuff. We discussed several options for the floor, from tile to linoleum to vinyl tile to laminate, but we eventually decided that the room is small enough that we could TRY to refinish it, and add a very dark stain if necessary to hide the bad spots. As you can see in the last picture, most of the stains on the floor came up. I love the way the raw floor looked, but of course we couldn't keep it that way. We also found a can of stain in the basement that matches our floors, so we ended up putting the same shade back in. It looks fantastic, and M started making noises about refinishing the bedroom floor at that point. I couldn't go for it because I was terrified of the polyurethane fumes, and was more than ready for that room to stop being sealed off and the bathroom fan to stop running all day long. Someday. The last image shows the bedroom before. It's hard to tell, but that's painted wood paneling, which required a bunch of spackling to cover over. I won't say too much about this, except that Google said that was a valid method of covering paneling, but.. I wouldn't, if I were you.

And, the after pictures! The bathroom as a whole is very hard to take a picture of because of the mirror. We replaced the vanity, mirror and light fixture, and added a small cabinet over the toilet (not pictured, of course.) We also replaced the towel/toilet paper holders, and M did quite a lot of wall work. The wall was peeling above the shower. And the floor! You really will have to click to enlarge that one, because you can't see a thing in the thumbnail. Ooops. Then there's the bedroom. The walls are a little darker than that in actuality. The colors in the rest of the room will be black and white to accent that, but we're not done with that and we haven't taken a single picture of the room with furniture in it anyway. We totally stole this room from a Home Depot inspirational paint sample card.

Whew! That was a lot of effort, but I think I've shown everything that I've said I'd show in the last few months. If not, you can remind me and I'll add it to my list for the next gigantic oops-haven't-posted-pictures-in-ages post.

Comments

[e11en.livejournal.com]

Wow, impressive work, especially the dresser and the bathroom! Nice job, M! The shit rags are very sweet. Thanks for the before picture on those since I really don't need to see the after shots of those.

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

Yes, I was thinking about that just today, that they will only be pretty for a short while longer, which is a bit sad. I will convey the impressiveness to the boy, who tackled both the dresser and the bathroom and.. well, everything that requires manual labor. ;)

[lizardek.livejournal.com]

You are TOO damn cute with the wipes!

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

Actually, that's not me in the picture, that's a rubber ducky... oh, what, you weren't speaking literally? :) Thank you! :)

[courtesy.livejournal.com]

Oh my, what a post!! What an incredible post and incredibly impressive stuff :) The cute cuteness of those soon to be shit rags is unbearable and I love it how Ducky appears in appropriate pictures. I also LOVE the colour on the walls in the last shot, what is it? That's the kind of thing I wanted in my living room but ended up somehow with a very weak Latte which just looks like dirty white *hrmph*

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

I figured you would like this post. I dreamed about you last night, by the way. I met you in an aisle at WalMart or somewhere and we made a stupid joke or something and then walked off. I have a feeling that there would be a lot of SQUEE should we randomly meet in a store aisle at some point instead of a casual hello, but that's how dreams go, I guess! :) Anyway. Thank you for all the things that require thank yous, and.. umm. The paint color. I don't remember what it's called. It's really a darker tan than that, too. It looks pretty good--it's surprising when you walk in, but it's very earthy and warm. We would NEVER have picked it out if not for the picture of the room we saw, and the fact that our current bedspread is white just like the one in the picture. I am a little afraid that I will be tired of it soon, though. I mentioned that to M just yesterday, but then the world went dark and when I came to, he was hiding a bloody stick. No, I jest. Of course. The bathroom is painted off-white, and I was afraid it would just look dirty, but it worked out.

[helloheather.livejournal.com]

I love the cloth wipes! Now I want to make a bunch. I'm not using cloth diapers (though I am regretting it more and more. You are so smart and cool to be doing cloth.) But I would love to use cloth wipes anyway! Hey, what are you going to use to wet them with? Just water? Spray bottle? Some kind of tea tree thingie? Tell tell, because I want to copycat you. :)

The dresser looks astounding! It's gorgeous, and now Duckie will get to use something that was Mommy's and that is just too too sweet. I love it.

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

Hey, it's not too late to switch. ;) Actually, I will save all the evangelism until I am sure that I am going to stick with it so as to avoid looking like an idiot.

Anyway, thank you! I had fun making them, for the most part. These are pretty self-explanatory, though I could add that the squares were 8.5x8.5 inches to make a total of an 8 inch square, which is supposed to be the size that will fit folded in a commercial wipes container. (Yes?) About wetting them... I'm not sure yet. The three popular choices seems to be making your own wipes solution (water plus a drop of baby soap, and sometimes an oil, like tea tree oil, appears in the recipes I've seen) and either keeping a spray/squirt bottle by the changing table or putting enough of them in a container with the solution for just a day or two, to prevent mildew. The other way is wetting them at the sink when you're ready to change a diaper. I am not entirely sure which way I'll go since I'm not sure exactly what the whole thing will be like. I'll probably try all three, though. What do you think would be easiest?

I am really surprised, and happy, that the painting of the furniture is turning out so well. I have been worried, because on one hand I was originally thinking that we might as well get rid of it all, since it was so discolored we'd never want to really use it, and at the same time, I don't want it ruined from us trying to fix it. But it's turning out well, and I'm also glad that my mom is also agreeing that it looks nice--I was afraid of what she'd think since she's the one who paid for it all those years ago!

[helloheather.livejournal.com]

My gut says the spray bottle would be easiest. My experience is that you often don't know how many wipes you're going to need until the baby is actually on the changing table with the diaper open. And sometimes, you end up needing more wipes right in the middle of a diaper change. So having to go to the bathroom to wet a new wipe sounds like it could be awkward.

Having them already wet in a wipes container would be good, too. I did that with a dozen soft, thin washcloths that I was using as wipes when Nathan had a little bout of diaper rash. It worked fine. (I used plain water in the wipes container.) Nothing mildewed, but then again it was winter in frozen Chicagoland. Nothing mildews here, really.

I asked my mom what they did back in the day before disposable wipes were common. She says they kept a damp rag on the changing table. So that is just more evidence (to me) that keeping them damp and handy is the way to go.

OH! I just had an idea. You could keep just a handful damp and ready to go, and wet new ones AFTER each diaper change so they're ready for the next time. That might work.

Anyway, enough ramblys for me. Hope this helps!

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

I was thinking that I would try out the wet-in-container approach and see how that goes first. Seems to me that's the most convenient thing about the disposables--they're always ready. If that doesn't work out well for some reason, I'm thinking about combining the spray bottle/wet-one-as-needed tactics, depending on where I'm at and what I'm doing. I really need a baby before I can practice this part. :) On the bright side, rumor has it that you tend to need fewer wipes with the cloth, because they're more efficient. Who knows if that's true or not?

[helloheather.livejournal.com]

Oh, I totally bet that's true. Cloth would "grab" the messes, where disposable wipes can just smear or slide over things.