Neutral Nursery

This nursery has been a long time in the making and the room has certainly come a long way! At 37 weeks and 3 days along, I can happily say it's done...for now. Once baby is here there are some gender specific items I'll add, but right now this is it and it makes me so happy to walk by or sit in this room.

I've always picture a gray and white nursery for us. When I bought the canvas below, two and a half years ago, I pictured it to one day tie into a "woodland" nursery. Isn't funny some ideas come and go and some stick?

Formerly as a guest room

And now for the big reveal; the place we'll change many dirty diapers, read many books, have sleepless nights, sing lullabies, rock the night away, and fall so deeply in love with our babe; our nursery.

We started our nursery furniture hunt back in March. I knew I wanted a white crib, white dresser, and gray chair for neutrality and to keep the room soft but bright.  We ended up ordering all three from Pottery Barn Kids (in store). Ultimately, there were many headaches with our order.

One of the biggest issues was our chair. I had a total of three chairs delivered, all with some kind of damage. I was shocked with this kind of quality control (or lack there of) from a name brand company and the price point of the chair.  In the end, PBK offered a fair refund for the unfortunate events. Ultimately, we got a chair we love, it glides and reclines (something I wasn't set on, but leave it to Ben to pick out something pricier; at least it wasn't me!) and will be getting a lot of use out of. 

Chair: PBK 'Wingback Glider and Recliner' in Washed Grainsack Gray
Arrow curtain rod: Target (purchased in pewter, spray painted gold)
Curtains: IKEA 'Vivan' in gray

For our dresser/changing table, we ordered the Kendall Dresser and Topper from PBK. While I'd initially considered getting a dresser from IKEA, we agreed it made sense to invest in a quality dresser and knew that ordering our crib and dresser from the same place would ensure the white finish was the same on both.

Before ordering the dresser I asked if the knobs were removable/replaceable and was told they were. Guess what? They weren't.  I know it's a stupid reason to return a dresser; but it would have been even more stupid to keep a dresser that: 1. Was expensive; 2. Made me cringe with I looked at it. In addition, the dimensions of the dresser were on the smaller and shorter side. In the end, I ended up returning the dresser and going with my original pick from IKEA; which I'm smitten with!

Dresser: IKEA 'Hemnes 3 Drawer Chest' in white stain
Knobs: Hobby Lobby
Changing Pad: Keekaroo
Changing Pad Cover: Koala from Babies R Us
Animal Prints: Minted (gifted from my sister)
Picture Frames: IKEA 'Sondrum'
Fiddle Leaf  Fig Tree: Hobby Lobby
Gold Planter: Ikea
Diaper Pail: Dekor

More embarrassing than returning a dresser because of knobs, is my rug hunt. You would not believe how hard it is to find a true gray hue rug (I'd say harder than our 8+ gray paint samples). So many rugs say they're rug, but in person they're a combination of brown/cream fibers or black/white, etc. I'm surprised I'm not banned from Target online shopping. I ordered a total of 11 rugs before finding the right one. Thankfully I was smart and ordered the smallest size possible to check color (and thank you Target for allowing in-store returns for online orders.) 

Funnily enough, in the end we ended up ordering the gray version of a rug I'd purchased in blue for my Vail apartment. I originally found it on RugsUSA but was worried after my other rug coloring experience I wouldn't like it and would have to pay for return shipping; then I found the rug at Home Depot (who also always in store returns for online order) and it was the one!

Rug: NuLOOM Maginifique in Light Grey (purchased from Home Depot, also available at Rugs USA)

Crib: Pottery Barn Kids 'Emery Convertible Crib' in Simply White
Crib Sheet: Pottery Barn Kids 'Sateen Broken Arrow' in grey
Dock-A-Tot Deluxe in Dream Weaver
Bulldog Stuffed Animal: Ikea

It's been so fun (and admittedly, stressful. There were a few moments I thought I was going insane or going to put myself into pre-term labor) pulling this room together. It's gone through waves of inspiration and lulls; keeping an open mind but an open eye for items to add to the space. Most recently (as in this week), I decided we need to add a shelf near the crib for our video monitor but I wanted to keep the wall along the crib open to add gender specific items later on. This little shelf ended up being the perfect match and really completed the wall for me.

Canvas: Hobby Lobby
Shelf: Target
Adventure sign: Hobby Lobby (sold as dark bronze, spray painted silver)
Mini-terrarium: Anthropologie (old)
Moon sign: Hobby Lobby
Monitor: Summer Infant

Confession: I HATED the lamp cord plugged into the outlet below the table, so I ran the cord under the rug and across the room to another outlet so it wasn't visible at the wall. #OCD; Also, it took three lamp purchases to find a lamp that was sturdy enough that Ben and I didn't knock over it over while sitting in the chair. Whoops!

Lamp: Safavieh (purchased from Home Depot, also available on Amazon)
Blanket: West Elm (old)
Table: Target
Picture Frame; TJ Maxx
Faux Succulents: TJ Maxx
Stuff Animal/Tree Stump: Gift from MIL/SIL

I will say, while Pottery Barn Kid's quality has been an issue, their customer service and credit card rewards are worthwhile.  We got a Pottery Barn credit card when we bought our house and dining set.  The card gives you back 10% in store rewards for every $250 you spend. Because of this, we were able to get a few items (crib conversion kit, sheet, etc) for "free" with our rewards money.

There you have it! Our nursery. I'm sure it will change and evolve as we discover annoyances, nuances, and items we're missing, but for now, it's everything I'd hoped for. We're as ready as we're going to be for your arrival little one!

If you're interested in seeing the nursery before, knowing more about the wood plank ceiling (a huge thank you to my husband and father in law for their DIY skills), or paint color; read here.

Nursery in the Making

We have spent a lot of time over the past two weekends working on former guest room turned nursery and I'm happy to say we both agree the hard work paid off. I think I've heard Ben say every day since we started painting, "man, this looks awesome".

Nursery before; aka blue gu

Our house was built in 1908, so nothing is flat, nothing is level and walls certainly aren't smooth. The picture above was strategically taken to hide those imperfections.  If you were to look up, this is the ceiling. 

Hideous, right? It's worse in person!  When we first bought the house in Feb 2014, we paid someone to come out replace drywall ceiling of the main living/dining room. We also got quotes to correct the two guest bed ceilings (the above is certainly the worst of the two) but decided not to spend money at the time.

As soon as we found out we were pregnant, I told Ben, we have GOT to fix that ceiling. So we again got drywall quotes and unfortunately they hadn't magically lowered over the past three years ($1,200 to fix ONE room's ceiling; what?!). I have to confess, I was desperate enough to say let's suck it up and pay but Ben called me crazy.

Enter Plan B. Spring 2015 we had the exterior of the house painted and new gutters installed. When we were in Chicago, it seemed like every porch ceiling was wood. We loved the look but hadn't seen much of in it Denver. My father-in-law is much more handy than we are, so Ben and I stained and sealed tongue and groove pine then during once of their visits, my father-in-law and I installed the wood for the porch ceiling.

So we came up with the idea of trying to install a similar ceiling in the nursery. Thankfully my father-in-law said it was doable and we lined up the project to take place when they came to visit this February for our nephew's birthday. When we initially started talking about the project, I think MIL and FIL thought we were off our rocker, but by the time they got here, they knew about the pregnancy so it made more sense as to why we wanted it done.

I was still living in Vail at the time, so I can't say the guys were happy to see me when I walked in Friday afternoon (per my MIL's progress texts during the week, there was a lot of cursing).  Between Ben and my FIL, I think there was a lot of frustration, but the result is absolutely perfect (not to mention, a fraction of the price). To install, they first located the floor joists for the level above and then put up fur strips. This allowed the tongue and groove to have something to secure to. I cannot thank them enough for their hard work! 

Next step, paint. I'd always envisioned a primarily gray and white nursery, which goes along perfectly with our decision to wait to find out the gender. However, finding a true gray proved to be quite the challenge.  We put up seven samples, all from Sherwin Williams: (shown in order of) Repose Gray, Agreeably Gray, Worldly Gray, Light French Gray, Knitting Needles, Olympus White, and Lazy Gray.

We were told by SW that Light French Gray was the only "true", black/white mix gray (the first color on the left in the picture of four). Strangely enough, it appeared beige to us. We thought we had our decision made after putting samples up on the blue wall. However, there was a ton of prep work needed to sand out old cracks and fill divots (we're talking days and hours), so it made sense to work on wall prep and prime. After priming, we'd put samples back up to make the final decision. I'm glad we did!

I put the first coat of samples up Friday night. Saturday morning Ben came in while I was working on sample coat two and he said I already know which I like...thankfully it was the same color I wanted! We mutually agreed upon Olympus White. (Originally we liked lazy gray, but then it seemed to dark once the primer was up). So Saturday and Sunday were spent painting!

Furniture was ordered today (ahh! it's getting more and more real) and white crown molding will go up in the next month.  Meanwhile, I might just sit on the floor and take in what's already become my new favorite room in the house :)

Hello There.

Give me a little more time and I'll finally have some more time to dedicate to you (and a real space to use for the computer instead of our little bistro table, yeesh!).  Yep, tomorrow is closing day. As you can imagine, we are thrilled, although it still seems unfathomable that tomorrow we officially become home owners.  All of our searching and budgeting has paid off. We found an amazing house AND will still have a comfortable savings after tomorrow's hefty check is handed over.

We lucked out and have a week overlap of owning the house (ah!) and our apartment lease; which means this weekend we'll be rolling up our sleeves and getting to work. The first major projects to tackle are the scraping of our living/dining room popcorn ceiling (after much debate about paying someone, we decided we'll take a whack at it first) and painting our woodwork trim white (I know, I know, some people, my mother-in-law included, think it's a sin. But it's our house and we'll do what we want). Wish us luck!

 

In the meantime, I'll live vicariously through you. Go out and shop these deals, will ya?

• Banana Republic: 40% off in stores and online with code BRTUNEIN through 3/2 (2% back via ebates.com)
• Gap:
• 20% off women's and men's online purchases and 10% donation to your choice non-profit online with code DOGOOD
• Semi-annual kids and baby sale; up to 40% off in store and online
• 2% back via ebates.com
• H&M: $4.95 sweatshirt today



• Old Navy: 25% off women's styles online with code ONSAVENOW and up to 75% off clearance sale in stores (2% back via ebates.com)
• Nike: Extra 20% off clearance items with code BESTINGAME through 3/6 (6% back via ebates.com)
• Piperlime: Extra 40% off final sale items today with code FINAL (2% back via ebates.com)
• Shutterfly: 50% off 10"x10" or larger photobooks with code BOOKSMART through 3/5
• Starbucks: Now through 3/4, receive a bonus star for every purchase with your Starbucks card (that's 6 purchases for a free item!)
• West Elm: Up to 70% off newly added clearance items

V-day

Hello there Valentines! Thought I forgot about'cha, did ya?  It's been a busy week with work and gathering documents for our mortgage lender...but the big news is, we have a closing date and time!  Two weeks from today, this will officially be ours (and two weeks and a day from now we'll be busting our booties to get all of this trim painting white; is that a sin?)

Given the major purchase, we agreed to forgo gifts and dinner this year.  This weekend we'll be headed up to Summit County to stay at our family friend's condo (the owner happens to be our realtor's daughter) and spend the weekend snowboarding prior to all of this homeowner business. 

 

Denver Restaurant Week is Feb 22-28; so we agreed we'll do a nice meal out (at a discounted price) as a Valentines/Home celebration. Yesterday Ben sent an email along the lines of "just checking, we're not doing gifts or cards tomorrow, right? I'll buy you some flowers once we're in the house". I agreed and low and behold this morning I woke up to this, jerk (I mean that in the most loving way).

Although...that really does say a lot! Happy Valentine's Day!

 



Belay On

Yea, so the house inspection came up with some little items and major repair items.  We heard from the seller that they were willing to fix the little items but not the large yesterday.  All afternoon I was ready to burst into tears (this is probably a good reminder why you shouldn't check personal email at work!).

The seller claimed that from the inspection report, the items deemed as needing "attention" did not warrant necessary repair or maintenance for function or safety reasons; thus, they weren't interested.  Our realtor tried to reason that these items would come up with any potential buyer and the seller came back with, that's part of the reason the house is priced what it is.

I called our inspector and walked through the list again. I was happy to learn that he truly doesn't not think the roof needs replacing, rather there are a few shingles that need repair.  The other large issue is the sewer line is close to one hundred years old and that definitely needs repair, if not replacement. But given the neighborhoods we want to be in and knowing the majority of the homes are the same age; this issue could come up anywhere. My dad has worked in the water industry for years and cautioned that yes, we need to get on that. We'll have another sewer scope done when he's out here to get more important and understanding on it's condition.

Otherwise, the last major issue is the A/C. We decided we can try living without central air and see how it goes.  There are always window units until we decide to bite the bullet. Plus, so many have reached out to us to say that they've lived in houses without central air and that summer heat here is dry; unlike the humid mess in the Midwest; so we're taking our chances.

Back to yesterday, pretty much as soon as I got in my car, the tears started flowing. I tried to place the emotion and reason for the tears, but couldn't. I couldn't decide if it was the fear of walking away or something else.  Now looking back, I think it was the fear of how much I wanted the house and worrying Ben wouldn't feel the same.

Good ole Dad called to talk through some items and the biggest one that stuck was, okay, adding on the worst-case costs for sewer, air conditioning and roof repairs, to the sale price of the house; how does that pricing compare to other listings? Thinking of it in that light, even with the add-ons (which we'll take care of as we need to and won't impact our monthly mortgage, which is comfortably what we budgeted for), the house is still a fair, if not good, price, given what the house has to offer and the location.

I was pretty shocked when I sat down on the couch and said to Ben, "so....", and he said, "well, we love it...and I think we should do it". Relief rushed over me and I was thrilled we were on the same page!

So there you have it! We ARE buying our current dream house and closing on the 28th!

Now to get onto the fun things; like decorating and I'm already on top of that (although I'll take your ideas too!)