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Tuesday, August 16, 2011

The Never Ending List, Part 1


I know everyone has one, it's just a product of not having enough time and too much to do. I think about my list all the time, especially when falling asleep and I've even dreamed about it. I have separate lists - work, house, Nikhil. Jeff says he has never dreamed about a To Do list, nor has it ever kept him up at night, but that's probably the difference between us!

With baby #2 only 12 weeks away, I have a lot to do in the next couple months. Add to that a full time job, this book I'm writing with people from Boston (not a fun, fiction book, just a book on surgery), and spending time with Nikhil, then it literally leaves 2 hours a week to get everything done. That's every working mom's problem, I guess!

Since my parents have generously volunteered to come stay with us in Hawaii for 3 months when the baby is born, there is also lots to do to prepare for their upcoming stay as well. So, the list has 3 parts - Part 1, the playroom conversion into Nikhil's room, Part 2 - changing the nursery, Part 3 - updating the guest room for my parents.

Since Nikhil will soon be moving into his big boy room to give up his nursery for his new little brother, I have to get everything organized in his new room. Currently, that room is his playroom, so at least the groundwork is there.


If you're interested, here are pics of the play room when the previous owners lived in our house. Different, huh? Somehow, it seems so much smaller because of the peach color paint and lack of a rug.
Before Before






















And, here are pics of the playroom now.





































Here's what I need to do in this room.

1. Add a bed - this has been ordered but shipping being what it is in Hawaii, it'll arrive maybe with one week to spare (fingers crossed).

2. Refinish/paint the little table and chairs with chalkboard paint
- These were generously gifted to me by my sis-in-law, but I've been dying to try out the new chalkboard paint and wanted to refinish them.

3. Refinish/paint blue dresser



- This was an awesome Craig's list find. I love the vintage style to it, but it has like 16 coats of paint, which are peeling, so it needs to be stripped and then primed and repainted. I also want to change out the knobs on it.
-I'm hoping my dad will help me with this, since it'll require an oil based primer, which does not come in low VOC and I don't want to use that when I'm pregnant (hint, hint, Dad if you're reading, for your first task when you come out here!)

4. Reorganize closet
-I briefly contemplated us doing it ourselves and buying stuff from Home Depot. But, once I started measuring, I realized this closet has lots of funn
y angles and lips, that make it difficult to install something pre-fab. So, this will be outsourced and we'll have a closet company come do it

5. Install art project.
-I was perusing my favorite mag, Coastal Living, when I came across this pic. I love the molding with the clipboard clips. I thought it would be a neat way to add some architectural detail to the room, while allowing me to rotate Nik's artwork. I bought 2 pieces of pre-painted 8 foot white molding from Lowe's and ordered the clipboard clips online. I had to ship the clips to my parent's house in NC b/c of course for some reason, amazon wouldn't ship the clips to Hawaii. So, I'm just waiting for the clips to arrive in the mail and I can get started on this one.
6. Install blinds for light control
-Currently, I just have some West Elm linen curtains hanging (on sale!). They're nice, but don't provide any of the shade necessary for an afternoon nap. We just bought the faux white wood blinds from Home Depot for $30 which they custom cut for you, so all we have to do is mount those and hopefully, we're done!

Source List:
On the off chance that someone other than my fam and friends is reading this and really wants to know where I got stuff in the playroom, here's a list.

-White storage cabinet/toy box - I know, it looks like Pottery Barn Kids, but I couldn't pay $1000 + the mandatory $350 flat rate shipping to Hawaii, so I actually bought all this from JC Penny. Here's the link. And, it was like 1/3 of the price, thought it took me forever to put together b/c we had left the power drill at the office to I hand screwed it, approx 100 scress.
-Navy poufs - specialty Indian boutique store, Chai Honolulu
-Blue dresser - craigs list
-Train table - Target, on sale for $50! And, it reverses to a blank white side for when the boys have outgrown trains, it can serve as a craft table
-Rug - Thomas Paul robin rug in blue, from www.spunkysprout.com. 100% wool and free shipping to Hawaii (which is HUGE!)
-Nature artwork - http://www.form-baby.com/modern-nursery-decor/
-Framed pics of baby and family - PBK, photos all courtesy of my friend, David Lau
-Baskets - on sale at JCPenny ( no longer available),
-Chalkboard labels - 4 for $2 at Ben Franklin's (beats the Pottery barn kids price of $8 each!)
-Green kid chair - gift for Nikhil's 1st birthday, PBK
-Animal growth chart, etsy.com by aluckyhorse. It's a decal, but it literally took Jeff and I 2 hours to get it up because of all the little lines and we were super anal about it being exactly right. I write the date and height on the little birdies to the left for Nikhil. I have butterflies to record baby #2's height.

Hmmm...I'd like to give myself a deadline to get this stuff done and then move on to Parts 2 and 3 of the list, but that usually doesn't happen. So, we'll just see.

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