The furniture is ready!

This may not seem like a big anouncement but it turns out sanding and painting two cribs is a LOT of work. We also gave the changing table/dresser I got on Craigslist a fresh coat of paint so the whites would match.



Tom and I made a deal that if I found used cribs (purchased from my friend Liz who has twins) then he would sand and paint them the color I wanted. It turned out to be way more work than either of us thought. For two full weekends and every night all night after work Tom slaved away in the garage. When the paint didn't go on as hoped and was looking pretty rough in areas he told me something like that "was just how it was going to be", but Tom is his own biggest motivator and couldn't stand it till he sanded any rough areas down and repainted them.

The cribs turned out great and look so fresh and bright. We brought them into the nursery to build and then tried different arrangements for the furniture. Turns out that all this extra space we were going to have in the nursery even with the furniture was just an imaginary land in my head! The only arrangement that either of us liked was one crib on each wall, the dresser in front of the window and the chair in the corner by the closet. Turns out the chair was smaller in my imagination also. Just one problem...the dresser covered the heating vent and as it was didn't have any clearance from the ground in front.

This caused quite a problem since then that meant the only other option was both cribs on one wall. It looked like a Romanian orphanage from some sad 20/20 story. That was not going to happen in my babies' nursery! Tom kept insisting that was the only way to fit it all and I just kept saying "it's not going to happen, we have to figure something else out". I have to admit, I came close to a melt down. When you dream of your babies' nursery it doesn't involve the institutional look. Not to mention it would have made customizing a side for each of them impossible. I really wanted a girl and boy nursery and not gender neutral.

We went on in this test of wills for quite a while until I had a light bulb moment. Lots of dressers have feet, why couldn't we add feet to ours? At first Tom didn't understand my idea until I hunted down a Restoration Hardware catalog with footed furniture and said "go find something like this". I think he saw the crazed look in my eyes because he didn't protest but obediently went searching. He found some that worked in time to finish up the painting on Saturday and we moved it in on Sunday. It worked. My nursery was saved! Yeah Tom!

It looks pretty monochromatic right now because we haven't painted yet. It's still white on white but not for long. That is a whole other saga for another time.