The nursery is painted. There’s a sentence I never thought I’d write.

We worked on clearing out the office on Friday night and finished on Saturday morning. We taped the room in record time and managed to get the lighter of the two colors painted on Saturday. Then today we finished with the darker green paint. Paul did the upper trim, while I did the lower trim. We make a great team – working together. We got the room painted in record time! (Thumbs up for that new Behr Primer & Paint stuff. It’s crazy thick, so it was a little work to get it into the nooks and crannies of our slightly textured walls – but one coat coverage that covered mars and blemishes on deep colors was GREAT! Oh, and NO smell! Thanks for the recommendation, Mikey!)

That said, MAN, it was hard work. The carpel tunnel syndrome I’ve been dealing with is in overdrive. I’m hoping that trying to take it easy on my wrists will ease some of the swelling – my right wrist and forearm are noticeably swollen. I pushed myself to the limit today after the painting, while we were applying a frosted window film. I had to go lay down for what I thought was just a minute, and woke up 45 minutes later.

But it’s totally worth it. I feel fine this evening, if a little tired. Our little guy’s room is painted, with alternate colors on the switch plates. Paul re-wired the light switch to work with a dimmer. We’ll be getting some sort of floor lamp for the room. The curtains have been bought by my girlfriend in Arizona and will be mailed this week. (Every IKEA in California is sold out, but hers had two sets left!) We’ll install the curtain rod and curtains on Sunday after the carpet get installed. We have a fantastic piece of art that was given to us as a wedding gift by Paul’s aunt and uncle – and it has a perfect place in the room. I’ve ordered some other art prints that compliment our bedding and ABC-123 theme perfectly. I need to find some skinny black frames for the 10 5×7″ prints, which hopefully will be here before the shower.

I can’t wait for friends and family to see the completed room. Tom, Jeanne, Nonny & Cassie came over this evening to see the paint job – but I want to get the full room put together soon.

So next weekend is carpet. That’s gonna be a heckuva lot of work to get the house ready, but I’m looking forward to it. It feels great to be taking these concrete steps in preparation for our baby.

(Yes, pictures have been taken – before and during. After pictures will follow when there’s better light, and after the carpet is installed.)

Oh, and as a total aside – the baby has been kicking like mad while I’ve been writing this post with my netbook on my lap. He’s knocked the laptop askew three times so far. It has become routine to feel him kick, but it’s still incredibly reassuring every time he does. I’m not gonna say that pregnancy has been fun, but I’m still fascinated by the experience and so grateful to be going through it. I feel so much more connected to my son now that I can feel him kick.