Breaking Ground

Bags after bag after bag of 12 year old plus trash has been thrown out of the closet. Items untouched since the day we moved in. Dust gathering in layers that could tell the story of our lives in this house.

Layers of moving in dust. Layers of painting other rooms dust. Layers of remodeling dust. Layer upon layer of 5 different cat's worth of cat hair infused dust.

Today is the day that all changes. Now a new layer of dust is going down - the remodeling of this room dust.

Sierra (Thank you! Thank you so much!) volunteered to help paint the room and remove carpeting. Today we (I say "we" but really, it was Eric and Sierra - I just got my ginormous self out of the way) started with removing all remaining stuff that we want to keep out of the room (temporarily in some cases), ripping up carpeting and padding, removing the baseboards and tack strips and discovering just what kind of damage Pixel did to the subfloor. You know, considering that we'd replaced the original carpet just a couple of years after we moved in and that that room was off limits to cats for many years, it is amazing just how quickly Pixel was able to destroy that carpet. Oh, and he had to work hard at it, too, since there was grey rubber mats all over to protect the floor from the weights.

So yes. The floor.

Here's the plan:

1. Remove carpeting and pad. Done!
2. Remove staples in floor.
3. Remove baseboards.
4. Vacuum floor.
5. Paint with Kilz to seal in anything...unpleasant.
6. Begin painting walls.
7. Once the walls are done, remove fan.
8. Paint ceiling in fabulous dark blue with glow in the dark paint used on the stars.
9. Install fan.
10. Apply stencils.
11. Install new flooring.
    
12. Install new baseboards.
13. Pass out from fumes.
14. Install bookcases, crib, rocking chair and sundry other nursery items.
15. Photograph everything for posterity because the room will never be this organized and clean, ever again.
16. Drinks for everyone! Except the Preggosaurus, who will grumble into her lemonade while being uninhibitedly thrilled that the nursery is done and she didn't have to inhale more fumes than necessary.

Pictures!

Really before. This was in the middle of the sorting and removing crap from the closet.



During rip up. Half carpet, quarter pad, quarter sub-floor. And yes, that is a squat cage, thanks for asking.
After the rip up was completed.

Here is Caitlin's new fan. Eric installed it yesterday. The twins will have a matching fan. The existing one came with the house and us oooogly! Not just ugly, people, oooooogly.
The sky in the twin's room will be a night sky, I think. Gotta do things differently this time. The flooring in both rooms will match, though. Eric is going to install Pergo-type flooring in maple to match the fan blades and thus bring more light into the room. I can hear my very-allergic-to-cats mother-in-law cheering from here. Yes, we are removing the carpeting and replacing it with much easier to clean flooring. The twins' room will be first and then Caitlin's room. Then, if I haven't burned Eric out too much, I'll even have him do our room.

Ooooh, the excitement! I know, it's not much in the way of excitement but hey! I'm hugely pregnant, I can't take too much excitement!