New Coat of Paint

Well, I couldn't wait. I had to write about what we've been working on in Asher's room. It's not finished by any means, but I feel like we've really accomplished a lot so far, and I wanted to show it off!

Elijah and I decided that after we were settled into the new house, the first projects we'd tackle would be decorating/updating the kid's rooms. I always pictured Pottery Barn-esque rooms and have thus far fallen dismally short of my personal expectations. I vowed this time it would be different. We settled on a Super Mario Bros. theme for Asher's room and set to work.

Through my extensive online research (read: pouring over image after image of "Super Mario room" Google'd results) I thought it best to paint the entire room a sky blue. I chose Glidden's Pool Party, but had them mix it in Behr's semi-gloss. I make it sound so easy, but seriously the paint choice took longer than any other part of this project!

Before. Asher's blank canvas.

An unwilling assistant cutting in. I suck at cutting in.

Totally worth the work, look at this adorably helpful boy!

Elijah's first, but definitely not last, crown moulding job.

I'm not usually this happy when I paint, Elijah must have been making me laugh.

Finished, with the bed.

We've since moved the bed further up and moved Asher and all of his crap stuff into the room. We've got some more work to do on the walls and I'll definitely post when it's finished. We are cutting it really close to our November deadline. We're supposed to start on Amelia's room in December.

P.S. I realize that all the blues look different. The true color is closest on the pictures of Elijah.

You Wonder How These Things Begin

"This is the bed that gave us the agent
That started the search that brought the house
That had the room that fit the bed
That lay in the house that Jack built!"

Even before we'd moved to Texas and were living in our small rent house, I was obsessed with finding Asher a captain's bed. It seems there is never enough room in his dresser for the piles of clothing I insist on buying him! Seriously, at this point he probably has about 30 pairs of shorts. Add to that his shirts, pajamas, socks, underwear, pants, and his uniforms for various extra-curricular activities, and we have a serious space problem. I have been trading out his summer/winter wardrobe for the past few years and I dread the days of washing, packing, washing and then unpacking. I really wanted enough room for all of his clothes to be out at once. Keep in mind, that simply buying less clothing was not an option for me.

Craigslist to the rescue!

After weeks of scouring the site, I found the perfect bed. In fact, it was so perfect that I bought it that day and it's been sitting in the garage, while Elijah and I debated how to finish it, ever since.

But the most interesting thing about this bed is the fact that it was sold to us by someone who is now real estate agent. We'd sold the Oklahoma house and I'd been toying around on MLS just to get an idea about prices and availability in the areas we liked. After meeting Amy and buying the bed, she offered to set up a search for us just so we could focus in on what we really wanted.

The rest, as they say, is history. Less than two months later we were putting an offer on the house we're in now and the bed is finally finished and being slept in.

Craigslist to the rescue!

I swear the green will make sense once the room is completed!