The not so rad rad(iator)

In my last post I mentioned how incredibly motivated DH has been with our “everything” upstairs room–he did about 90% of the painting himself:

and has since proceeded to rip out the dusty, old faded yellow carpet:

in order to make way for new carpet in this lovely shade of beige (boring, I know, but sometimes neutrals are the way to go):

Things were all going along swimmingly until he went to tear out the last strip of carpet–that’s when we realized just how weirdly this attic conversion was done 30+ years ago.  Apparently the previous owners installed the carpet first and then the baseboard radiator.  You can sort of see what I mean in this picture:

And even better in this close up (you can also see how yucky the carpet looks):

DH and tried everything we could but we couldn’t figure out a way to remove the carpet in that area!  Luckily, we had pushed back the carpet installation by a week due to some of the other kitchen-related work that was going on down on the main floor.  We’ve called a contractor that we’ve worked with several times at our condo (he installed our laundry closet, opened up our master bedroom closet, and did the built-ins in the nursery). He’s going to have someone come by and either remove it or at least trim the carpet right up to the radiator so that the carpet can be installed next week.

This is a minor set back of course, but definitely one of those things that makes me want to ask the previous owners what on earth they were thinking!  Soon after we get the carpet installed we’re planning to have a carpenter build a long, low radiator cover for the rad since unlike the ones on the main floor, this one gets really hot.   Since this is going to be a family room and play room we want to make it as safe as possible for our dear little girl and any friends, cousins, etc. that visit!

More soon!

Cheers,

G

And with a little paint…

Our nursery is really starting to come along and we couldn’t be more excited–in part because we are so tired with living with all our stuff in boxes strewn about the house–but more because that due date just keeps getting closer and closer…

My last post about this room left off with the built-ins painted, but the room was still the old office color.  Enter (once again) my DH–and, with a special shout-out, our friend Candice!  Now we have a nursery that is actually starting to look like its inspiration .ppt slide!  To recap, this is where the blog left off:

Don’t they look fabulous?  But of course we were anxious to get some of the georgous light green and aqua colors that we’d picked out up onto the walls as well.  Remember the inrpiation .ppt slide?  I feel like the room is really starting to look like it…in a much more real-life kind of way.  Here’s the slide:

And after a Sunday afternoon of painting (again, that was DH and Candice) and a few days of touch-ups by DH, we had a nursery that was really starting to look like a nursery (ignore the fact that this pic was snapped on a very dreary day):

Isn’t it yummy?  Of course, you’ll have to look beyond the painting mess.  There wasn’t much time between finishing the painting and having to get the room ready for our (probably last) inhabitants of our guest room, so we didn’t get any pics of the built-ins post-painting but pre-putting stuff back in the room.  But by the end of the week, we were able to cobble together a make-shift guest room for my brother, sister-in-law, and adorable niece.  Here’s a pic of the “after”–with guest upgrades:

Of course it wasn’t perfect (see the miscellaneous/currently homeless items shoved unceremoniously behind the pull-out bed??), but it was sure nice to have the room looking like a real room!  The window seat actually turned out to be quite comfy with the addition of a folded bedspread and some pillows.  I think we’ll keep it like that until we can get a proper cushion for the seat.  I’ve always wanted a window seat and this one has not disappointed.  It is a really nice sunny spot to sit on the rare occasion that I have time to sit…

I also snapped a picture of paint samples along with the fabric I ordered to make pillows with (the same fabric will be used for crib sheets and a changing pad cover) so you can get a sneak peak of what is to come: