Sorry it took so long to get these pics sorted (good heavens between Paul and his dad, there were a lot to go through) but there’s finally a gallery of pictures to show the transformation of our house into a house with a nursery!

We (mostly Paul) cleared out our office/storage room so that it could be painted. We did the yellow and green painting in one weekend. The next weekend was carpet for the whole house, which basically meant we had to move out for the weekend. Paul and I busted our butts to pack up and clear everything out that week, but again – it was Paul who was up until 4:30am in advance of the carpet installer’s 8:00am arrival. The next two weeks (starting that afternoon) were a whirlwind of activity as Paul’s parents helped us immensely with putting our house back together and building a bunch of new furniture to make a nursery and to economize the storage space we have available to us now. The Guest Room is now Paul’s office/ManCave complete with an awesome new desk. He’s got room for projects and video editing now, which really makes me happy. (He’ll be spending a fair amount of time in there editing videos from the amazing camcorder Tom & Jeanne got us!) The guest beds are a lovely set of trundle beds from Nonny, which Oin and Cynthia have pronounced as extremely comfy.

The nursery is painted in shades of Honey Beige and Mother Nature. (No, I don’t know who makes this stuff up.) The switch plate and outlet covers alternate with the wall colors. The main decorations are a watercolor alphabet sampler that Paul’s Uncle Howie and Aunt Chris gave us as a wedding present, and a set of ten 1-2-3 mixed-media art prints I found on one of my deal-a-day websites. We weren’t really thinking about how things would go together when we picked out our layette, but everything ended up with a A-B-C, 1-2-3 motif. We’re thrilled with how everything looks. The distressed black crib (thanks again, Aunt Nita) looks good with the black-brown IKEA dressers and side table. The rocking chair doesn’t really match, but it’s something we’ve hauled around with us for 10 years now with the expectation of using it in a nursery. And if nothing else, it’s nice to have somewhere to sit in there – and Laurel seems to like it. The dressers will also serve as the changing table – as soon as I order the changing table pad thingie and install it. (It’s got straps that screw into the back of the dresser to keep it from coming off.)

We’re busy now, stocking the nursery with everything our little man will need. Diapers need washing, clothing needs sorting, diaper changing station needs to be set up. But there’s time, and all of this is something to be savored. Every step we take brings us one step closer to meeting our son (who has been kicking the crap out of my laptop the entire time I’ve been writing this!)