Nursery Progress!

We've known that we would have a little one coming this fall since we've lived in our new house, so we've had a designated "nursery" since we moved.  The idea of my little one sleeping in the bedroom beside us makes my heart happy every time I walk past the room, but in the beginning, the room needed a lot of work.  Thankfully, I have a super handy husband who is willing to make lots of improvements so it can be more like the nursery I want.  Ray noted early on in the pregnancy that the nursery is "all about the mom" (his words).  It's true... I'm not going to lie.  I know that my little man won't care what his nursery looked like when he grows up, but I'm going to enjoy his room for now.

Here are some BEFORE pictures.  The original wall color was a light green.

I love the wood floors in the house... it's one of my favorite features.  The floors are not in perfect shape, but I still love them.  I just tell myself that the imperfections add character.  

Yes - that's right - no closet doors.  It's okay though because the closet doors in some rooms are huge mirrors.  Sick.

The first major project that Ray did with the help of his dad was to change the light fixtures in all the bedrooms to ceiling fans.  We bought the fans at Lowe's when they were having a Memorial Day sale.  The fan was called "The 5 Minute Fan" because supposedly you can install the fan in 5 minutes.  Ha.  Not so in a house that was built in 1958.  This was the light fixture that the guys had to work with:

 That's right... you're looking at the most hideous light ever made.  Before the guys replaced this light I would just stare at it over my bed at night and wonder, "why did I move into an old house?"  Anyway... it's not the easiest thing to replace.  The guys went in and took the light out and then there was just a huge hole in the ceiling for awhile.  After a couple more trips to Lowe's (thankfully we live close), they were able to get what they needed and now all the fans are in the bedrooms and they are so nice!  By the time they replaced the last fan, they had the time down to 12 minutes - not bad!  Now when I lay in bed and look at the ceiling, I just think, "all is right with the world.  Old houses can be fixed up."

This is the fan in our bedroom.  See?  All is right in the world.  This pregnant lady is MUCH more comfortable with a fan.

The next project in the nursery was to paint.  I was inspired by my friend, Hannah, to paint the walls grey.  It's just a nice neutral color.  With all the bright colors going on with all the baby things in the nursery, I wanted to tone down the walls.

It's a good thing that Ray is an awesome painter, because I'm HORRIBLE.  I can roll all day long, but my trim work looks terrible.  I'm so thankful that he paints for me.

After he painted, we went to Ikea to shop for some furniture.

Ikea is great, but of course everything comes in a compact box and you have to assemble it yourself.

Well, in my case, Ray assembles as I look at the instructions and help when needed.

He did not need too much help with this one, so I just sat and watched.  I was there to encourage :) 

I've known that I wanted to create a gender neutral nursery since the beginning because I don't want to have to change everything if we have a girl down the road.  Since I've been thinking gender neutral, I continued to change my mind on an almost weekly basis between green and yellow.  I would be sold out on green one week and then love yellow the next.  Then I would just start to doubt myself all over again.  Finally I started thinking outside the box and I decided to go with TURQUOISE!  It may be a stretch and I'm sure I'll look back in a couple of decades thinking "what were you thinking?!?" but for now, I'm liking turquoise.  I went ahead and bought stuff and took it out of the package so that I would just commit myself to this theme and move on.  Ray took some pictures of me decorating with my new turquoise stuff in my turquoise dress:

We got the bookshelf and the mobile from Ikea.  The mobile is currently hanging on the fan.  I got the bins in the bookshelf from Target. 

20 weeks!  And the super soft and cute giraffe that Aunt Donna gave me.  I'm a little obsessed with giraffes.

The toy chest we got from Ikea.  Lamp is from Target. 

We got the white rug from Ikea too.

Another 20 week picture.  And you can't really tell, but this outfit has giraffes all over it.  We bought it from Carter's and I love it.  Have I mentioned that I'm obsessed with giraffes?

Well, there you have it!  We're super excited about meeting the little man, but he needs to stay inside for a few more months.  Any and all turquoise things and giraffes are welcome in Baby Boy Bower's nursery :)