TT's Montessori Room / Shared Boy Room Update!

Just like with TT, this mama never figured out how to transition a sleeping baby from her arms to a crib, so at about 8 months, we drove up to my sister's house, finagled her half-taken apart Kura bunk bed onto the top of our car, and drove it home to use it.  We played with a few different set ups (including the queen under the Kura), but this set up works the best.  We bought a European Sleepworks children's mattress - and dash still has the organic natural latex bed that we bought for Turner.

Our boys are sharing their room and beautifully!

One morning TT and I went to the hardware store and came home with two curtain rods and plumbing parts.  After a giant rip appeared (most likely done by elves in the middle of the night - since I have NO IDEA how my kids would have access to something to rip a curtain) in the living room sheers, I replaced them, but we took the ripped sheers and created TT's tent.

Perfect for a cozy "alone" space for him, for time travel adventures, and peek-a-boo for our peek-a-boo addict.

We painted the bed with chalk board paint BEFORE we put it up and it has been a huge outlet for TT.  In fact, I didn't know he knew how to draw identifiable objects until we got the bed and he was drawing on this huge scale - now he spends a lot of time on paper, but, as you can see, the chalkboard bed gets a lot of use.

This is our time travel machine.

 The kids spend a lot of time under here - reading, playing, wrestling, cuddling.

Dash loves his sheepskin

And...wants to attack the camera

The curtains help "protect" TT from his nightmares and give him a way to play with toys too dangerous for the baby.

The boys clothes and toys are in the expedit all labeled (with pictures so they can find them themselves).

 We've had to really consolidate our stuff at this point - we're bursting out of the seams of our house.  It is time for a purge, but we keep purging and more and more stuff just keeps appearing...We've truly utilized every inch of this room without it feeling claustrophobic.

 

I am so sorry

You guys, I am so sorry!

I just looked in my spam folder and there were SO MANY emails from you that I have never seen or read before (from over a year ago some of them).  I have NO idea why this happened, but my heart warmed up hugely reading them.  If you get a response from me randomly - you'll know why.

I can't believe this. 

SO SORRY for not responding, all of you!

Kitchen Remodel take 456

I knew when we bought our house that I'd want to re-do the kitchen.  The tile, while cute, was NASTY.  It was cracked, the grout was creepy, and tile on a countertop just didn't make sense to me.  Plus, it was really shallow.  The owners had done a crappy, quick, and thoughtless "update" before we moved in and laid sheet linoleum, sprayed the cabinets (in and out - with the contact paper still in and with shitty paint).



When we had the wall of tile removed, a giant two inch gap was left between the wall and the linoleum.  That was in 2011.  Two years later, I decided to do something about it.  We knew that there was a plywood subfloor under the linoleum since we could see this:

 

I was going CRAZY with the ugly linoleum.  I thought  painting the floor a cool color might be a great solution...

So one Saturday afternoon when the baby was asleep, I started ripping.  And steaming.  And ripping.



Only to find...ASPESTOS TILE!!


Ah, what luck.  So now we have an aspestos, paper, linoleum tile.  The greatest thing was when we ripped up the lino and was steaming the aspestos tile, the smell of 50 year old cigarette smoke and burned food wafted through the entire house - it was dreamy.

Now, my $60 project has just gotten much more expensive.  We could have had the aspestos removed for approx $500 (we just had it done at the riverhouse, so I knew approx. pricing) OR we could just put something on top of it so as not to disturb it.

I had ordered some samples from ifloor for the river house and liked an imitation slate vinyl plank.  I placed the order and waiting for the shipping confirmation...

Meanwhile, my kids were dropping food - a lot of food on this nasty paper/aspestos floor.  The black beans were getting smushed into the paper, broken glasses were getting lost in the layers, etc.

Growing up, my parents removed the carpet in our house looking for hardwood underneath.  What they found was full of nails, holes, and paint.  But, since they didn't have the money to replace it, we lived with it like that for what seemed like years (though it could have been weeks, really).  It was not cute.

Anyway, TWO FRICKEN WEEKS LATER, my flooring arrived.

And, while the children were asleep...this happened.



It took a whole 4 hour period to figure out what we were doing.  But on day two during naptime, we finished.

This was our kitchen after our mini remodel two years ago...after running out of money for the floors and table...
 

Here it is today (well, bad in the dark picture with all the dusty stuff piled next to the sink).


And our stove...
 

Today!  I think it looks particularly awesome next to the chalkboard!


Bubbs cut our table a few weeks ago when I had just had it with the nasty original tabletop.  I painted the base last week, but I have to put a coat of voc free poly on it when the kids are out soon.  The poster above the bench is getting repaired b/c our ikea frame just fell off the wall and broke the other day.



Bubbs also created this genius pot/pan closet a few years ago and I always meant to paint the shelves and clean it up. 
 

Two years later I finally got around to it :)


We're going to have to finish the trim next weekend, but for now, I'm so happy with the results.

12 days till completion!

Folks, we're 12 days out. 

Floors are being refinished, kitchen cabinets are NOT delivered (OMG Ikea delivery company, Dynamix, SUCKS!  I should have yelped them before using them, since our experience is EXACTLY what everyone else yelps.  They are going to be a week late on delivery - and our stuff is in the truck!).

Paint in on , trim being put in. 

I have to put the final poly finish on our dresser turned bathroom vanity today then get it up there for finishes.

This is exciting stuff.

Meanwhile, both my kids are sick, I'm covering for a colleague at work, and Bubbs and I are tag team parenting b/c our work schedules are so ridiculous right now.