Max’s Room

It’s done.  Finally have things hanging on the walls, books on the new bookshelf (or on the floor in front of it), and toys in their respective places (spread across the floor).  It’s the one room I wanted to be completed first so Max would have a place to play and make a mess, without having to worry about getting lost amongst the boxes.

Let’s take at look at what I’ve done, shall we?You’ll remember that we painted the walls before moving in, the blue and the chalkboard.  The chalkboard wall is a big hit, if you can’t tell.  I’m so glad I chose the black chalkboard paint.

This chair.  I LOVE this chair.  It swivels and rocks.  I prefer it to the rocking chair, especially for those middle of the night feedings, I actually fall asleep in it.  It was in the basement, and Rob’s parents didn’t want it anymore so it became ours.

This room is a little bigger than his last room, and allows for much for play space for throwing toys and books and socks and clothes.

I hung a lot of the artwork above the changing table, where I thought it looked good, but it turns out to just be one more distraction and one more reason to not use the changing table anymore (That is in addition to the fact that diaper changes quickly turn into acrobatic displays of attempted base jumping and parkour).  I have a couple of crafty projects in mind for more artwork for here.

The two cross stitch pieces were made by my BFF Joy Bush.  You can, and should, check out her Etsy shop here!  The painting is the Mother’s Day gift from Rob, and the photo of Max and Rob on the wood plaque is my Father’s Day gift to Rob.  I took the photo of the M at the Portland Children’s Museum.  Rob constructed it at the giant Light Bright installation.  And of course there’s the Rob and Erin baby photos, where we’re posing similarly, and the photo of Max also in the same position.

The closet doors were ugly, and not very stable so I took ’em out.  The curtains are the brown ones from the living room at the old house.  I don’t think they’re permanent, but I can’t find anything else I’d like to put there.

The shelf above the bookcase houses the vintage lunch boxes we bought before Max was born, the vintage toys (the fire engine and Cookie Pig) Rob gave Max for Christmas, Rob’s old Ernie doll, the Precious Moments figurine that topped the cake at the shower my mom threw us.  You know, the ruin-able things.

We had to get an actual bookcase (a Billy Bookcase from Ikea) because his little library was growing quickly.  In fact he’s inherited my books from when I was a kid including some of my favorites There’s an Alligator Under My Bed by Mercer Mayer, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, Rotten Ralph by Jack Gantos, my series of Pudgy Books, A handful of Roald Dahl books, and the Beatrix Potter collection of books.  Oh yeah, and my card collection, in that Lion King Trapper Keeper.  I totally collected Lion King, Ren & Stimpy, and Beavis and Butt-Head cards.

We did anchor it to the wall, and it’s a good thing we did, because he is already attempting to climb it.  This is the age where that helmet would come in really handy.

On top of the bookcase sits the frames my mom got us/Max with some of my favorite photos, and the little book my mom made of Max’s first week of life.  When I want to make myself cry I look at it.  The photo of Rob and Max was taken at Kenilworth Park by our old house when he was 8ish weeks old.  The photo of Max and myself was taken on our second wedding anniversary at the Kennedy School.  The photo on the cover of the little book is the picture Rob took on his phone right after Max was born and sent out to friends and family announcing his arrival.

My only issue with this room is that it gets pretty cold.  We’re not sure if the insulation has deteriorated, or if that’s something that can even happen, or if the heat vents are blocked up a little.  In an attempt to seal the heat in I purchased one of those plastic over the window kits from Home Depot.It was super easy to put on (as opposed to the  tinted window covering we used at the old house), but didn’t do what I had hoped it would.  It definitely stops the draft, but the room is still cold, especially at night.  Now, I know you’re thinking But what about poor Max?  Isn’t he cold?  No, he’s not.  Thankfully he is his father’s son, and the kid holds heat like an oven.  He’s always warm.  I check his fat face and hands throughout the night and they’re always warm.  Eventually we may look into new insulation for the room, but not before we cross off all the other possible causes first.

I had a lot of fun putting his room together.  I wanted it to be a space where he could spend his play time, and also be a room that will grow with him.  I mean, what kid doesn’t want walls he can draw on?

Future Home: Living Room and Max’s Room

We’ve spent most of the last week at Future Home painting, painting, touching up, pulling up carpet and painting some more.

Last Saturday was the beginning of it all.  We had the help of a couple of my best girls, Katie and Joy, and got the ceiling and trim done.  Painting the ceiling was 1) soooo much easier than I thought it would be and 2) so incredibly satisfying.  Watching the yellowed and dinged color disappear under the crisp, clean white was…it just made me so glad I decided to paint it at all.

Sunday was all about walls.  The white walls in the living room and the blue walls in Max’s room.

Again, seeing the fresh white paint on those walls was so satisfying.  Both the living room and Max’s room took two coats, as predicted.  We were able to do both rooms the same day with the four of us working.

Monday was all about the accents walls.  The green wall in the living room and the black chalkboard wall in Max’s room.  Now, let’s talk about that black chalkboard wall.  I’m getting the feeling that it’s either a love it or hate it type of thing, and obviously I love it.  Rob’s worried about what his mom’s going to think about it.  I think she’ll like it too, especially once there’s chalked graffiti all over it.

Back to the walls.  I was so excited to see what both of these would look like.  I put the first few rolls of Envy green on the living room wall, and I was immediately enamored.  It. Was. Gorgeous.  I wanted to hug it.Mike and Katie took over that wall while Devo and I worked on the chalkboard wall.

I bought 3 quarts of chalkboard paint from Home Depot with the hope that that would be all I would need.  I poured an entire quart in the tray and got to work.  We were able to do one coat with that quart with some leftover.

Both walls needed to dry before applying a second coat, so we finished up the following day.  Once both walls were done, I just wanted to sit and stare at them.  I was, and am, so happy with how both rooms turned out.

I did a bad job of taking before and after photos of Max’s room.  In fact the after photo was taken with my iPod.  But you get the idea.  I love it.  I love it and I can’t wait to draw all over it with colorful chalk!

So, today after a couple of days off we returned to remove the carpet.  Rob and Mike actually had the carpet out and were pulling out tack boards and nails when Shauna and I got there.  There were still tack boards and nails and staples in the floor, but it looked beautiful.  Still glossy and untouched.

The boys left to do take care of other things and Shauna and I got every last nail, staple and tack board out of that floor.  You guys, we got really lucky here.  These floors look fabulous.  Just take a look at the before and after:Look at that shine on the floor!  All I did was sweep!  Now we’re going to have to have the wood floors throughout the house polished to look this good.

While I am more than happy with the way this room looks, we’re still not quite done.  We still need to:

-Finish painting the baseboards. The bottom half was under the carpet.

-Paint the green stripe.

-Touch up the green along the ceiling.  A little bit came off with tape.

-And eventually refinish the mantel.  I know a few people would choke me for wanting to do that, but I’m just not big on light colored wood.  I think I’d like to re-stain it a darker color.  Thoughts?

-MOVE IN!

Speaking of painting that stripe, I don’t think I mentioned where my inspiration for that came from.  While we were over at Future Home a few weeks ago Rob was looking through an old photo album and pointed out a photo (pictured below) that showed what the living room looked like circa 1984ish?  Three of the walls were white (same 3 as ours) and the accent wall was orange.  There were blue and orange stripes going around the mirror on the mantel.  I immediately thought we should do the same.How adorable is little Rob there?

So that’s how that came to be.  Hopefully we’ll have the remainder of the checklist checked off by the end of the week and we can start actually moving in.  Also, it would be really swell if the weather cooperated.  Does anyone have any pull with Mother Nature?  If you do, will you please put in a good word for us?  Thanks!

Oh!  One more thing.  THANK YOU to our totally awesome friends who’ve helped us out (and will continue to).  We truly couldn’t have done it without you guys.

The Beginning of the Transformation

We’ve begun work on Future Home and OMGIAMSOEXCITED.  Holy crackers I have so many things I want to do and paint and refinish and make my own.

Have I mentioned how this all came about?  I don’t remember so I’m going to tell you anyway.  About two years ago Rob’s parents mentioned us taking over the family house at some point.  They would downsize and live the downtown life along Portland’s waterfront, and we would raise the next generation of Campbell’s in the family home.  At the time neither of us were ready, but then that whole me getting pregnant thing happened and we realized how nice it would be to have more space.  So the idea became a plan.

Rob’s parents are on a nearly 3 month long cruise (to amazing places like ANTARCTICA!) and the plan is for us to move in while they’re on their trip.  Before they left we went through the house and took notes on what they wanted to keep and what they wanted to get rid of.  When they get back in March they’ll be living with us until they find a place.  So, for the time being all their belongings are being moved to the (finished) basement to make room for our stuff.

Sunday Mike and Katie came over to help clear out the living room and Max’s future room.  These are the two rooms we’d like to get painted before moving in.  We got them cleared out, and Wednesday Katie and I cleaned the walls, removed all the outlet and switch plate covers and filled in any holes with spackle.  Now, paint.

I have a love hate relationship with painting.  I love watching the change happen, but man it kills my arms and it is so.  damn.  messy.  I mean, I’m so damn messy with it.  I am determined to change my ways with this house though.  A big plus is that we’re going to remove the carpet in the living room right after we paint (hardwoods underneath), so big giant free drop cloth!  Sucky thing is, we’re painting the ceiling too, and I’ve never painted a ceiling, but I can only imagine that it’s 10x worse than painting walls.  After this I will have crazy strong arms.

So, in Max’s room (formerly Sherri’s craft room, and before that it was Rob’s old room) we’re going to be painting 3 of the walls a pale light blue, and the 4th will be painted in black chalkboard paint, and the trim will be white.  Also the ceiling.  Ugh.

In the living room we’ll be painting the the wall to the right a bold green called Envy.  The remaining three walls will be white with a stripe of the green about 3/4 of the way up the wall.  After we’re done painting we’ll be pulling up the carpet to utilize the beautiful hardwoods underneath.  Not excited to be pulling staples and tack boards out though.

Painting will begin this weekend with the help of many friends.  I’ll be on hand to document, bark orders and make sure no one is having any fun.  Stay tuned!