Nursery Move-In!

My husband and I have lived up-stairs for nearly 2 months now and our daughter has remained in her old room.  We were concerned about moving her upstairs before she was ready and before our upstairs home was safe enough for her, especially with a full flight of stairs and her history of febrile seizures.

This past week, we knew it was time.  She'd fall asleep in our papasan chair and the trek carrying her downstairs to her old bedroom was becoming tiring and sometimes dangerous.  The only problem we had now was that our daughter's room looked like this:

Sadly, it has been our renovation storage room for 2 months.

We changed this in 2 days.  The first day we spent categorizing tools, finding new storage space in the garage for them, and emptying the room until the floor was at least clear.

All clear of most renovation supplies.

On day 2, I got to work cleaning the walls, the windows, and the trim:

We hung a temporary lace curtain a year ago until we decided what curtains we wanted for the room.  Everything was dusty: the curtains, the screens, the 20 glass jalousies.  The room was closed away after we repaired and painted everything a year ago, so cleaning was a must.

Our jalousie windows use a crank mechanism to open and close, a little nod to the past we decided to keep only in the bedrooms for convenience.

After removing the cranks and window screens, I uncovered this:  flowers, dust, and even ashes from a mountain fire 4 months ago.  The problem with living upstairs and having screens on the insides of the windows is the ability for the sill to trap these goodies.

Beyond the dust, I noticed the view from my daughter's window.  The roofing of the original house, a neighbor's house, our fruit trees, including my favorite mango tree in the world, and mountain views.

We decided to use 2 of the free bedsheet fold-top curtains I originally made for the living room in the "nursery."  We took the screens downstairs to shoot with a water hose while we watered our container garden in the front of the house.  My daughter played with the beads of water trapped between the screen holes while I put the curtains up.  :)

I tied back the curtains with soft green pom-pom fringe we had purchased a year ago for the original curtain design.

My daughter and I did some touch up painting where there were scratches or scuffs from renovation tools, then we swept and mopped the floor thrice and prepared to attach shoe moulding to cover the expansion gap between the flooring and the white baseboards.

I pre-cut the shoe moulding months ago, but had delayed in attaching it to the baseboard because we selected an inexpensive, non-wood shoe moulding from Home Depot. I would have had to pre-drill holes for the nails, prime, paint, nail the moulding and countersink the nails, fill nail holes, sand the filling, prime the filled spaces, and paint one last time after caulking the gap between the baseboard and shoe moulding.  This seemed like much too much work for me months ago, especially considering what a big task this was to complete for our entire space.

However, I felt pressed for time, and wanted to complete my daughter's room for her, so I picked up a tube of Liquid Nails construction adhesive I had in our tool storage, and thought I would try to attach the moulding with it.  The adhesive was compliant with indoor air quality regulations and had the Green Guard label, so I gave it a shot.

The results were great, and I didn't mind that the shoe moulding was not the same color white as the base boards.  If it meant not having to prime and paint all the shoe moulding, even for this little room, the slight shade difference is worth it!

The nursery floor finished with adhesive attached moulding.

After scrubbing the floor again, disassembling the crib downstairs, and reassembling the crib again upstairs, it was time to put atleast the essentials into the nursery for my daughter's first night in her new room.

Our revitalized mellow yellow side table resides in the closet with nearly all my daughter's 3 year old clothes.  The organization supplies in the closet were purchased with Walmart gift cards we received before our daughter was born.  Because they fold, we were able to bring it with us on the plane when we moved back to Hawai'i from Florida.  Even though her closet is 3 times smaller, it's just right for all of her clothing.

To make my daughter's move upstairs even more special for her, I unveiled a new blanket I purchased to coordinate with the subtle greens in her faint pink room:

We got it for $7 at Ross, which I suppose is a fair price for a Hawai'i purchase.

It was gratifying to see our daughter's nursery transform again from a storage room into a little girl's bedroom, even if it's not close to being "finished" yet.

It was even more gratifying to see the transformation from a year ago to now for about $315, only $115 excluding flooring cost.  Here's the cost breakdown of this renovation:

• Paint for trim, wall, and ceiling:  ~$30 worth Olympic from Lows
• Ceiling fan box and ceiling fan: ~$60 from Home Depot
• Curtain rod: ~$12 from Ross
• Curtains: ~$2 for pom-pom fringe; curtains were re-purposed bedsheets
• Blanket: ~$7 from Ross
• Shoe moulding and adhesive cost: ~$11
• Allure Ultra flooring for 67 square feet: ~$200

Our daughter's first night in her new room was last night, June 5, 2013.  We are thankful that she had a full 12 hours of restful sleep in a room she helped prepare.  :)