Me: Good night Avery. Avery: My penis got stuck. But now it's aaaaaalllllll not stuck.
Me (noticing a basketball game): Avery, what game are they playing over there? Avery: They're playing shoot!!
Me: (reading from a book) You should remember that God loves you, so if you feel too young or too small to do something, God will help you. Avery: God is our best friend. Me: That's right! Avery: He's the president. Me: Um....ok.
Avery: Mommy, see that sign? (deer crossing sign) It says watch out because you don't want to hit the reindeer running across the road.
Avery: Mommy, why is your hair so long? Me: Because I let it grow. Avery: JUST LIKE ELSA SAYS! LET IT GROW!
For a cheap $7, we picked up this clam shell sandbox/pool on a random trip to Walmart.
Though tiny, I knew my kids would have a great time splashing/throwing rocks at each other in the evenings. Although meant for sand, I really despised the idea of kids covered in sand, sand in diapers, sand all over the house, etc. Taking a hint from other blogs, I decided to use pea gravel. True, it doesn't make castles, but my kids just want to dig and put rocks on each other's heads, so I thought it was just fine.
Three bags of this was under $12, so this project was going pretty well for me. Now pea gravel is pretty dirty already, and I wanted to give it a good rinse to get what loose sandy materials off of it I could. I didn't have a big rinsing container or giant colander, but I did have a shell pool!
First, I took a drill and put a ton of 3/16th holes in the bottom of what was going to end up being the rock side.
Not sure where this line across the photo comes in, but hopefully you can see all the holes
Next, I dumped in two bags of rocks (that seemed to make it deep enough, and now I have some in reserve to replace all the ones that are being dumped on the ground) and then Avery helped me hose them all down while Dash pretended not to care.
Once the water was in we (well, really I because at this point, Avery had lost interest) pushed the rocks around in the water to loosen up any dirt. I was please to see the water draining out of the holes in the bottom.
And, not that my kids waited for it all to dry, but it did eventually dry. All that was left was to throw a bath mat in the pool side, fill er up, and let them go nuts. And by "go nuts" I mean Avery gets naked and hides.
Here's the finished project - they love it, with our without the water part. Our new favorite game is to manually transfer rocks from one part to another. For less than $20, I can't complain!
Two late afternoons in the new house and one very stretched-at-the-end gallon of paint, and we have a painted room! Here's a closeup before and after:
This was really a four-day venture:
1) Spackle
2) Sand walls and prep
3) Paint cut-in areas and the corners
4) Roll the rest of the walls
I used a 2-inch angled brush for the cut-ins, which worked nicely, and used some blue painters tape on the top and bottom (I'm steady enough to paint around door trims without it) to get clean edges. For paint, I used Olympic's "Thin Ice" in an eggshell primer + paint, which is this very lovely light grey color. Really brightens up the room, I mean WOW! Let's see the real befores and afters, shall we?
Sorry for the oddly shaped photos - I got a new phone between the befores and the afters, so the dimensions come out all different now.
I'm thrilled with the color and how much bigger and brighter the room looks now. Just a few touchups to make and this room will be ready for the next phase!
Thin Ice, by Olympic
Total cost so far: $40 (from the post on the ceiling) + $32 (for tape and Thin Ice paint) = $72
At the end of my ten months as a single mom, my patience was wearing pretty thin. One week, I yelled at Avery and left him sad because I refused to read him a bedtime story, and I couldn't get the image of him reaching for a book and looking at me out of my head. SO, that Friday was a day off of work for me. My original plan was to go take the kids to school and do a bunch of work on our new house, but I decided to make it Mommy/Avery Day instead and we had a great time together!
First, we went for a little breakfast....
Then we headed out to Fort Washington and toured the old fort
Then we went to "see" Rio 2 which was mainly just enjoying these awesome theater chairs.
A trip to Lowe's gave me ceiling paint, rollers, a brush, a cup and a dropcloth. All that makes Ali a happy girl!
My goal is to try to hit up one room a week and start with the ceilings. You may remember that I was inspired for a ceiling full of stars for my little man, but I wanted a clean, white ceiling first. Here's the before:
Meh. At Lowe's I picked up some Olympic brand flat ceiling self-priming paint. I did NOT want to be painting a ceiling more than one coat, if possible, so the self-priming was ideal. I also picked up a kit from Wooster (on sale!) with two rollers, an angled 2-inch brush, and a tray. Adding in a dropcloth, a trim cup, and a plastic tray liner, and I was in business.
I borrowed a ladder from my work and started in on the part of the ceiling that meets the wall. I didn't pay too much attention to any paint I got on the walls, but I did try to avoid actually painting the walls as much as possible. (No pics of this - was on a tight schedule). Two quick trips around the room and it was time to roll! I didn't find an extended pole at Lowe's, so I had a regular roller, which made for some backaches I felt the next day, but it went fairly fast and I got two coats of paint done (even though I didn't want to do two coats, I really needed to) in about an hour and a half. Check it out!
So fresh and clean looking! Let's change the pictures around to get a real side-by-side!
Me likey. And while I was waiting for the first coat to dry a bit, I couldn't help but think about the next phase!
To be continued.....
Lessons learned: Find an extended pole, wear goggles to avoid little splatters in your eyes.
Ok, time for the first look in-depth at rooms in the new house, starting with Avery's room!
Let's talk about the problems, then think about solutions.
First, in case it's hard to see, the carpet is dark brown, pretty cheap, and unchangeable. Second, the walls AND the ceiling are that amazing fleshy color that covers the 1990s (even though this house was built in 2002). You may note that color goes out in the hallway as well....and the entire rest of the house. There are TWO cable lines coming out of the walls (one coming out of a main wall and one coming out of a closet). The window isn't visible because it was playing tricks with my camera phone, but it's just a single window with a gross miniblind on it.
So, let's talk solutions and inspirations.
I need to:
Paint ceiling
Paint walls
Find a big rug
Put in his furniture
Change/paint doorknobs
Hang black-out blinds and/or curtains
Get some art on the walls
As for inspiration, I'm obsessed with this ceiling, from Project Nursery and I want to base the whole room idea around these stars:
So, I'm thinking maybe light grey walls, white ceiling, gold or silver stars up high. And that's as far as I've gotten, but I can't get past how much I love the stars.
He's a big boy now, but I thought about taking artistic photos of his favorite toys and blowing them up black and white to hang on the walls. I've asked him if he wants trucks, planes, stars, or if he has any ideas. He likes them all. He doesn't spend a lot of solo time in his room, so I don't need to make it into a giant playroom (despite the temptation), but I still want to make it a nice place.
Me: Does Callou have any hair? (he's a bald cartoon character) Avery: No, he just has his head!
Avery: I think I want something to eat and drink. Me: Hey, how about you eat and drink your Poptart and milk that's sitting right in front of you? Avery:.....oh.....that's a good idea!
Backpack on Television: Can we use a flashlight to catch the jaguar? Avery: No, the ROPE! Backpack: Can we use the umbrella to catch the jaguar? Avery: No, the ROPE! Backpack: Can we use the rope to catch the jaguar? Avery: YES! THE ROPE! THAT'S WHAT I SAID!
Me: OUCH (after touching Avery gave me a little shock) Avery: That was a little pinch!!
Me: Dizzy means we fall down and busy means we have lots of things to do. Avery: ok Me: What does dizzy mean? Avery: Fall Down! Me: What does busy mean? Avery: We're taking care of things!
