Playroom Makeover

We moved into our current house in October of 2006.  Before moving in we made several cosmetic changes.  Every room was painted, the floors were sanded and restained, we removed a wall in the laundry room and between two bedrooms, and added new carpet in the playroom. During the last five years we have also had the outside repainted a new color, torn down an outbuilding, patched the sunroom roof, painted ceilings, and done several more "mini" projects.

Our playroom is our main entrance into the house from the detached garage.  Once upon a time the playroom was the garage.  It has a concrete sub floor and was carpeted.  You can imagine how gross the carpet had gotten from the constant tracking of four people in and out of the house, not to mention the two dogs that stay mainly in the playroom.  The walls were covered in grass cloth wallpaper painted teal green when we bought the house.  Our contractor said he couldn't get the paper down and it would be easiest and most cost effective to paint over it.  I had it painted Benjamin Moore's olive branch with carpet in the same shade of green.  I liked it in the beginning but was ready for a change and something fresher.

Please excuse the mess!  It's a work still in progress.

In September Phil ripped out the carpet in the playroom and installed laminate flooring that resembles hardwood floors.  His 81 year old dad also got in on the action.  I was AMAZED to say the least at my husband's handiness!  I never knew he was so talented in the construction way.  I told him it opened up a whole new world of possibilities for me around the house.  I was thoroughly excited to say the least.

By November we were ready to start on the walls.  Phil and his dad began hanging sheets of paneling over the grass cloth.  Phil can only work on the weekends and occasionally in the evenings.  It has been a very slow and arduous project.  In addition to hanging the panelling, he had to add an additional strip of moulding under the existing crown.  I came in at the end and did the painting.  All the trim had to be primed with an oil based primer because it had existing oil based paint on it.  It was PAINFUL!  I don't mind painting at all but hate dealing with oil based paints. 

There is one brick wall in the playroom that has six windows going across it.  Over the windows was about a foot of the grass cloth wallpaper.  The rest of the wall was/is brick.  We have debated and debated covering the brick with panelling and finally have decided to leave it and just panel over the grass cloth.  To be totally honest our decision was based solely on convenience.  I am ready, beyond ready, to wrap up this project and move on to something else. 

Working on adding coat hooks and a shelf over this bench.

I have been looking at fabrics for drapes, pillows, and to recover a chair.  That is the fun part for me.  Because it is the kid's room and the dog's hangout I need sturdy fabrics that are stain resistant. Luckily, there are many more choices than there used to be.  I'll post pictures of what I'm thinking soon.

Semi-Formal

Saturday night was Mary Anna's first semi formal dance at her school.  She goes to a Christian school where there are lots of stipulations regarding the dresses the girls can wear.  All of which I strongly agree with, however, very difficult to find.  We had gotten a cute jacket to wear with her black velvet pants but she wasn't feeling very excited about it.  I happened to remember a consignment shop here in town on Friday and ran in to see if anything was worthy of her trying on.  I found several cute dresses and put them on hold until after school.  We went back after school and she tried on several and we wound up buying two, one for this month and one for the Valentine's dance.  She was so excited and said she felt pretty in them.  SUCCESS!! 

Here is the princess getting ready.  I did let her wear a bit of makeup.

Samuel is so not into this whole dress up thing!  Can't you tell??

And she is off to the dance with her friend Sarah.

I snuck in the last ten minutes and got to watch her dancing.  She was SLOW DANCING with a boy!  Well,

if you want to call it dancing.  It was more like swaying back and forth with one looking one way and the

other looking another way.  Pretty cute!! I pray she will stay this happy and confident through her middle

school years.

Birthday

     My sweet Mary Anna turned twelve on New Year's Eve!!  How did that happen? Seems like just yesterday she was wearing a princess dress and driving in her Barbie Jeep.  We had a slumber party with four of her friends from school on New Year's Eve.  Eleven and twelve year old girls are SILLY!! They were still laughing and giggling at 3:30 a.m.  This momma is too OLD to be up that late.  I felt like I had been hit by a mack truck the next morning!! They all had a great time and there seemed to be no girl drama so I call that a success. 
     The kids went back to school on Tuesday much to my dismay.  I love having them at home with me.  When I picked them up from school on Tuesday Mary Anna got in the car and informed me there is a middle school social this Saturday night.  She said she will need to wear make up or she won't look like the other girls!!!  UGH! I calmly told her she could maybe wear a little mascara and lip gloss but that was about it.  Samuel then joined in by informing me that I wear makeup so why shouldn't she?  Thanks for the support Samuel.  I told him Mary Anna was much prettier than me and didn't need makeup.  To which Mary Anna turned around and said that older women had to wear makeup to cover their wrinkles.  WOW!  My confidence was now in the toilet.
     So... last night my best friend, Anna, went with me and Mary Anna to the local mall to look for a dress for the dance.  When I say mall don't think Lenox Square or Perimeter, think small people very small, maybe at the most twenty stores.  The dress code states semi-formal.  Now to me this is fancy dress but not prom dress.  However, the teacher says not jeans but doesn't have to be a dress.  I need a bit more clarification.  Has anyone tried to find an "appropriate" dress for a twelve year old girl lately??? IMPOSSIBLE!!!  Talk about a frustrating and nearly tearful experience.  There is nothing out there that I would even dream about sending her out in public in.  Who in the world is making the decisions about the clothes these little girls have to choose from?  I would REALLY like to have a heart to heart with them.  It is truly ridiculous and sad, very sad, that this is what the fashion designers deem acceptable for young girls.  I spent hours online looking at junior dresses earlier in the week.  NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING!!! 
     After trying on dozens of dresses and skirts that were too short, too tight, too revealing, and just too ugly we decided on a short black furry jacket with a camisole underneath  to wear with her nearly too small black velvet pants. We also found a cute pair of black flats with some sparkly on the toe.  She is a nervous wreck about being the only one in pants.  I tried to reassure her that all the other girls would have an equally hard time finding suitable dresses also.  I also told her that she didn't want to look like all the rest of the girls but to stand out somewhat.  I promised her I would never send her out not looking her best. 
     When we got home I had to have a glass of wine!  It was that BAD!  Raising a confident, Godly young lady is so hard.  Every day is a new challenge and a new hoop to jump through.  I need prayers and lots of them.
     Pictures to come.

The Day After

Well, Santa has come and gone!  The children are enjoying their new toys and playing with the neighbors.  I've spent the morning picking up and straightening up as much as one can with a houseful of new toys.  I'm fighting the urge to put away all my Christmas decorations and restore order to our home.  My husband doesn't ask me for much but has asked that I not put away the decorations until the end of the week.  For anyone who knows me, knows this is sooo hard for me.  I don't function in chaos... but I guess I will this week.  I try and remind myself that my kids will only be little once and to just enjoy and treasure this time and not get bogged down by the mess.

I'm new to the blogging world but have been a voyeur for about six months of other blogs.  My favorite blogs that I look forward to new post are Nine & Sixteen, Holly Mathis, Lots of Scotts, and Story of the Sparkmans.  I swore I would never become a blogger.  No time for anything else!  And here I am trying to figure out the whole process.  I wonder if anyone will find my life as fascinating as I find Tessa's or Holly's?!?!?

I'm off to catch up on laundry and continue to organize everyone's new toys and clothes.  Enjoy your holiday week and Merry Christmas!