It's summer-time

We have a very small yard that needs a lot of work and only have a metal swing set and not alot of playmates. Ellie loves loves loves playing outside and loves playing with other kids. Doug and I were talking and I told him that I often don't take her to the park because she always wants to stay for hours and I feel bad not staying for hours and frankly it's B-O-R-I-N-G for me when I take her alone. I admitted that I should just take her a couple times a week for at least 30 minutes and at least she'd be going more.

So Doug and I made a deal with Ellie last Sunday that we would try to take her to the park at least 4 times a week (at least twice each) and playgroup days count for me, lol, as long as she would not get upset or argue when it was time to leave.

So far it is Wednesday and she has been to the park three times now, Sunday we took her together, Monday I took her for about an hour by myself and today Doug took her for about an hour and a half - 2 hours by himself - and to a water playground even!

What a nice compromise for a 5-year old eh? And now that Elyza can at least swing and crawl on the grass it's not so bad for her either. She loves the swings and loves to crawl on the grass.

TA-DA . . . The Playroom

First it was Cassie's room, I painted it for her 3 years ago, it was multicolored, Fuscia, blue, green, yellow and purple.

The the "people under the stairs" used it for awhile, still painted as it was before.


After that the room was trashed. The floors was nasty, way nastier than before. The walls were colored on and nasty, there was even food, yes food on the ceiling.


We decided that since Cassie had no desire to sleep downstairs we would make it into a playroom. We did every last bit of work ourselves.


We ripped out the carpet and laid laminate. We primed and painted. Primer although sometimes seems like a waste, it's cheaper than paint and we had to cover the darkly painted walls. We painted a chalkboard with chalkboard paint on the wall. In case you didn't notice it is supposed to look like an old sign, we were going for a semi-pirate theme. We plan on painting a sun and some greenery on the wall and a pirate skull on top of the chalkboard pole.

We also changed it from having a cheapo ceiling fan to a nice light. A ceiling fan where kids are going to be playing, rough it not the wisest idea.

We brought in a play and slide structure from outside. It has a trampoline, another slide, toys, the carebear couch, the sit and spin, all that big stuff. The toys are in the closet, but we removed the doors.

Not quite finished with all of our plans but we love it so far and the kids can play in there!

BEFORE/DURING:

AFTER:

The playroom halt

We started painting the playroom today. Well, since it was painted bright/dark colors we decided to use a coat of tinted primer first. So that coat is down, we are crossing our fingers that it only takes one coat of paint to cover it now. So we taped and put on the primer. That was a job itself.

We were also planning on laying laminate down, we have 4 boxes from Costco, so over $100 in laminate, and they freaking discontinud that color and now the new stuff has padding attached and I don't think we can use it with it. Since it's the playroom even if it was a close match it would work. I am so irritated. So we might just put down some foam pads instead of laminate... decisions, decisions.

It's coming along great, but with this little interruption I am not sure when we will get it done, I WAS hoping by next weekend, I don't think it will happen that soon now.

Feeling Accomplished

but now the house is a MESS.

We started three projects today. One was finishing the playroom, or the room that will be the playroom. Doug actually had been working on it, tearing out the carpet (the only room that needed laminate still.) Today we painted the ceiling, it was nasty, apparently the people who lived under the stairs (our old roommate) threw food or something on it, because it was gross. So that is painted, then we will prime and paint the walls tomorrow. They are painted really dark/bright colors right now, we are going to do a theme in there, but that's a secret for now. On the way to getting done, but not completed.

The first completed project
A few months ago I had an idea, to build a shelf in the kitchen window, but we are really not that handy with tools -- we are learning, especially since we laid laminate in our entire house last summer. Anyway, I wanted a shelf in the window so I could have more plants (love my plants) and take down the nasty mini blinds. Then one day we decided to get rid of some box springs that were in the garage (we bought platform bed) they were torn up and not really donatable so we started to disassemble then, not an easy task. I saw that some of the wood could be reused and was the perfect size to build the shelf I wanted to build in the kitchen.So today Doug built me my shelf out of the wood from the box springs -- $0 The board taken apart from the box spring



The window before the shelf



The window after the shelf. We will probably paint the shelf or at least stain it, but for now it works and I LOVE IT. Thank You Doug!




The second completed project for today My clothes line -- $10

It’s nothing fancy, but I can dry the diapers on it and some clothes and save some energy while I am at it! We put it on the deck, because in order to get to the backyard we have to go out on the deck and down a flight of stairs. It was in the yard we would not use it as much, so it's on the deck.