The Haggerty's: End of September

When we first toured our house before buying, Addison was quick to point out which room was the "girl's" room. It was decked out in pink accents. It was the smallest of all the bedrooms and closest to the master bedroom. But, since that was the "girl's" room, that was the one Addison choose as her own. After a few months and with Pumpkin's impending arrival, she changed her mind and decided to switch to the largest - apart from the master that is. So! Full steam ahead! I might have been eight months pregnant, but I wasn't going to let that stop me for redecorating her room. In fact, it was quite the opposite. I knew if we didn't get the majority of it completed before Pumpkin was born, we'd been in trouble to finish.

The previous owners (bite my tongue) painted every part of the house brown. I probably mentioned this before, but I'll say it again. Brown, brown, brown. Icky, cold, boring brown. And not just one shade, but four icky, cold, boring browns. First step, get the walls and ceiling ready to paint. Second step, rip out all the old trim that was painted white. [Tangent: The house has five types of trim. (original/ very dark; white; 5" tall honey colored; 3" honey-colored oak; and 3"honey-colored pine - that's the one we want) When I first realized how inconsistent the house was, I almost broke out in hives.] We decided to rip it out and start new because reworking the existing would have taken immensely longer and may not have looked as nice in the end. Third step, rip out all the shelving in the closet, remove wallpaper (Yes! INSIDE the closest!), repair walls, paint white, reinstall shelving. So, as you can tell, it was more than just a paint job. Another snowball project. I wanted it to be exactly the way we wanted it. Sometime after painting was completed I decided to rip up the old blue carpet too. A lot of projects have been started and stopped in this house. Maybe that's because we're the ninth owner in 36 years!! Poor house.

I did acknowledge my limitations and let Ian do the vanish work. A stinky job. Addison and I did the painting. We had plenty of ventilation and used water-based paint. I should tell you how the room color and decor came about. Any shade of pink or purple would have screamed "girl" and "princess", but Ian came home with a small brochure of a Disney Princess room. Yup, he asked for that one!

BEFORE

PRIMER DONE - my little assistant in her painting clothes

PAINTING COMPLETE

I checked for the final, finished room pictures from 2008, but didn't see any. Guess that got missed in all the new baby-ness of our lives that year. The pictures below were taken today (January 10, 2012). She's had more than three years to accumulate toys and books and dolls and dress-up clothes and and and! It's a full room, but you can see how great it still looks. The pink rug we purchased at IKEA in Japan. It was in her bedroom there. It took up 95% of her floor in Japan, but doesn't cover half of the floor here. What a difference!