Homework

Obviously we have a lot going on here.  So the work we want to do on this house has taken a back, back, back seat.  We have managed to make a little progress on the kids rooms, but they still are not complete.  There are little things here and there that I would like to finish, but either they can't be done due to the stage the kids are in, or I'm just not sure yet what I would like to do.

This picture is where we started with Lilli's room.  It used to be an old office I suppose.  This is at the stage where we ripped down the old chair rail all around the room and filled in the gap with dry wall mud.  The walls had been papered and painted many times to the point where the chair rail left about a 1/8" to 1/4" ridge.

Once the walls were cleaned up we painted them a bright pink.  And all the trim and doors painted a clean coat of white.  Then we ripped out the nasty carpet.  The closet had this lovely puke yellow colored carpet that I'm sure was about as old as the house.  Why someone would leave that nasty carpet and put in new carpet in the room is beyond me.  What is a few extra square feet really?  This is Lilli's book nook.

I hung a canvas covered in chalk board paint in the corner opposite the book nook.  It's low enough for Lilli to reach, but I have not come up with a cool storage system for chalk yet.  I'm thinking a coat rack with buckets hanging from the hooks placed below the chalkboard.

Lilli was always our little birdie when she was a baby.  So I designed her duvet cover fabric and had it printed at a little website called www.spoonflower.com.  I love the way it turned out, but I have yet to finish it.  First the bedrest put it on hold, and now Lilli has bedrails on her bed that don't allow us to make her bed, so I figure, what's the point?  It will get done soon and her bed will be all fresh and pretty when she no longer falls out of it.

This is the wall hanging I also designed, had printed, and sewed together above her bed, matching the soon to be duvet cover and pillow shams.  I happen to love the way this turned out.  The birds hang from little silver clothes pins and can be removed to play with.  I have come into the room at nap time to find the little one with a birdie in her bed.

And my favorite piece...John snagged this dresser off a moving neighbors' front lawn.  It was the right size for a room as small as Lilli's, so we thought a nice paint job on the worn out wood finish would turn it into the perfect piece.  I sprayed the entire thing with silver spray paint, then rubbed it with a charcoal paint.  I left the handles original at first, but decided I thought it needed a little oomph.  Hot pink handles did the trick.  I love how it turned out.  And the mirror is hung just perfectly to catch the sparkling, girly, chandelier on the ceiling.

This was Lilli's room before we learned we were having twins.  When we moved into this house, we didn't bother doing her room because we knew we wanted to start trying for #2 (and #3).  We thought we'd just make it function long enough to get pregnant and then make it into a big girl room when the crib was needed elsewhere.  It is the biggest room on the main floor.  So once we learned of the boys, we had to move her to the smaller room next door, which I just detailed.  This room also had a fair amount of chair rail, which was removed and the walls cleaned up.  Thankfully the previous owners had already taken care of the carpet in this room.

I wanted to make the boys room fairly simple because we have to load it with furniture.  Two walls are painted a nice mid-tone blue and two are white.  I think it brightens the room.  At first we just kept Lilli's crib in the room and moved a full size bed from one of the upstairs bedrooms.  The babies slept together in the one crib and the full bed came in extremely handy for overnight feedings (you can't nurse twins tandem in a rocking chair) and long sleepless nights.  The twins started sleeping through the night about the same time they got big enough to separate into their own cribs.

Now Lilli's old crib is Will's crib.  No bumpers, no blankets, just as simple as it can be.  A few pieces of fabric hung over the bed and a new rug and the room is starting to take shape.

Sam's crib was his cousin's, given to us by John's sister.  Thankfully we had this gift because when faced with having 3 children and losing an income gifts are graciously accepted.  She likely knows how OCD I am and let us know that we could paint the crib to help it match the other one a little better.  Four coats of paint later, and I think it turned out well.  The mobile is also a hand-me-down from Lilli and the boys hang out under it together when mom is putting away laundry or getting the bath ready.

And these have been posted before.  Hanging next to Sam's bed we have their little chalkboards, which will one day be hung at their level.  For now, I keep them up to date with the latest stats.  I can't believe we are already up to 4 months and these babies are starting to do such fun things.  Twins are really an amazing phenomenon.  I look at them everyday and wonder how they got here.  I wish I could get more done around the house, but I couldn't ask for a better distraction than my three kiddos.