PROJECT: BABY'S ROOM

PROJECT BABY'S ROOM:

The baby's room started as our spare bedroom downstairs in what used to be the basement. This room wasn't totally finished when we moved in several years ago. It had 4 walls, but two of the walls were painted concrete, while the other two were framed drywall. So the first step in creating the perfect baby environment was to frame and drywall the concrete walls. This required installing furring strips with a gun that shot nails into the concrete using gun powder. That was exciting. For anyone in the Portland area, Bob's Rental on Stark just west of 148th has great deals on rental equipment- everything from ski's, snowboards, and rafts, to any construction equipment needed.

Next step was to drywall. I'd like to give a special shout-out to Jesse Larimer and David Hendrix for the help. I couldn't have done it without them. Then it came time for mudding, now I see why it is such an art. We learned two things: mudding corner tools are fantastic, and drywall dust gets EVERYWHERE, including Elisabeth's closet full of nice clothes- oops. By the end of that week the basement windows were framed, the mudding was done, and the walls were ready to paint.

Then we decided to finish the ceiling too. Since the room was originally a basement, the ceiling is essentially the sub flooring. To top it all off, there is a heating duct that runs in the middle that fed both that room and the room above (seen in the far left picture below). So to make it look better we decided to enclose the whole thing. That sucked. Another few days, some cursing, two more pieces of drywall, two recess lights, and some not-so-fancy mudding later it was finished. We finished just in time for Elisabeth's mom, Ann to arrive two weeks ago.

Picture on the left shows the cement walls, unfinished roof, and heating duct. The boards on the floor are the firring strips used to frame for the drywall.








As the construction finished, the painting and clean up began. We painted the room "wicker", and the ceiling white. While waiting for the paint to dry we cleaned out Elisabeth's closet and washed ALL of her clothes. I say "we", I really mean Elisabeth and her mom.
After the room painting was finished it was time to do the trim. Baseboards along the bottom, quarter round along the top, and molding around the windows gave the room a finished look. Carpet shampooing completed that phase of the project.









In between coats of paint, clothes washing, sleeping, shopping, and meals, we were busy. We sanded, primed and painted the baby's furniture. This included the crib, changing table, side table, and a small chair.











Finally it was time to assemble the baby furniture (I was very excited- this is such a daddy thing to do). The glider rocker went together without a hitch- and may I say that I LOVE IT. We weren't so lucky when it came to crib assembly. We learned quickly that the craigslist crib we had been storing for over a year was missing a few parts- UGH! Thankfully home depot had some of what we needed. The rest of the furniture was placed inside the room. Elisabeth and Ann washed all the baby clothes that we have been accumulating from garage sales, organized, and stored them.

The room is now ready to receive it's occupant. In the meantime it's Magnums favorite place to hang out, and our favorite place to relax in the glider rocker. A great big thanks to Ann for her help.








So what's next?.... Well Elisabeth mentioned painting the rest of the house. I quickly vetoed that idea. Maybe we should turn our focus onto the huge pile of dirty laundry that has been accumulating, the dust bunnies all over the floor, and oh yes... school and work.

Josh