Before & after (finally)

Okay. I know these are late. Here are our before and after pictures from our bedroom project. (Sorry it took so long...technical difficulties as I'm trying to learn a new photo system and such...which I still haven't figured out; thus there's no formatting or anything fancy here, lol.)

 

One of our favorite things about our new room is this reading area and fabulous orange chair. :) The ottoman serves as a little bench when it's not being used as an ottoman. We think the orange goes quite nicely with the frosted jade paint on the walls. (I love that the color looks different depending on the light and time of day...varying from more green to more blue.)

We moved that dresser and are trying to find a new home for the tv. We're planning to get a flat screen tv to put atop that new corner unit, but are in no hurry. (Incidentally, in case you were wondering, between this dresser and the one in the first picture, we only actually were using two of the drawers. We rearranged things in the closet to accommodate that stuff so don't need any drawers in the bedroom.) (If I get really ambitious, I may actually take the drapes down and iron them one day. Probably not, though, lol.)

Here's a picture looking in from the doorway. Don't you love the new light fixture and floors and curtains and all?! The flooring is bamboo and, so far, is lovely.

And here's the view from the attached bathroom. Micah says our bedroom looks "royal" and I'm inclined to agree. :) The bed is a metal frame and a long story, but we love it. (The throw pillows are currently living mostly on the corner unit, btw. They're also nice on the orange chair.)

That teal-ish drape in the forefront is in the bathroom...more on that in a minute... ;)

While We're Waiting...

...for me to finish going through my photos so that I can post pictures of our bedroom (which is now almost completely DONE!), I thought I'd list some of the things I learned in the process...

• No matter how many trash receptacles I set out throughout the room, Nathan will drop his garbage on the ground for later. ;)
• Pillowcases are ridiculously expensive. (We have two sets of pillows, so I thought I'd just buy an extra set to match the sheet set that I'd already picked up. Just two standard pillowcases cost half as much as the entire set. Yeah. I couldn't handle that but fortunately finally found some that coordinated well enough at TJ Maxx for a fraction of the cost.)
• Home projects are best done when there's no snow...so that we can park in the driveway and use the garage for extra space and for any woodworking issues. (Yay for having a gargage and for the snow holding off!)
• If you're looking for bathroom curtains, be aware that curtains to fit bathroom windows are stupidly hard to find. I looked in soooooo many places and couldn't find any that weren't either too long or too short. (Yes, yes. I fully recognize that I could just hem the curtains. My sewing machine and I aren't on good terms and sheer material is difficult to sew anyhow.) In the end, I found a clearance curtain at Target that, given the design, I was able to simply cut below a fold at just the right length. Whew. 
• Also, if you're at Bed Bath & Beyond looking for above-mentioned bathroom curtains, the sales people likely won't know that there are actually bathroom curtains in the bathroom section, not the window coverings section. I know, I asked...and the sales person (who was actually quite knowledgeable and helpful) couldn't find anything. I happened to chance upon the bathroom curtains (which are still slightly too long for my window but considerably better than anything else I found) a week or so after I solved my own problem. Just so you know...
• Tackling a project like this just before spring break and spring cleaning is good timing. We took a big load of stuff to Goodwill yesterday, have another load for Habitat, already gave away a few pieces and have a few pieces to list on Craigslist. Feels great!
• It sucks to paint bathrooms. Enough said.
• It's nice to have both Home Depot and Lowe's (and Ace Hardware) so close. We discovered that, though they stock mostly the same things, each has its strengths. (For us, Home Depot was our go-to for paint and electrical stuff but Lowe's ended up providing the light and bathroom fixtures that we preferred.)
• Always double check that power is "off"...even after flipping the circuit breaker. Ours is labeled incorrectly, fyi. (Fortunately, Nathan remembered this from a previous encounter with our breaker box.)

Whew. :) Hang tight now while I edit photos...

An investment

Aside from a brief stint at piano lessons as a kid (cut short by the realization that, hey, it's darn difficult to actually progress at piano lessons when you don't have a piano at home, lol), I truly have no music experience. I can't read music and rarely even listen to it, and I'm okay with that. ;)

It makes me happy, though, despite my own lackings in interest and ability, to be able to foster music appreciation in my boys. (Not that I'm pushing it...just happy to be able to provide it when asked for.) Since Noah was two, we've had some sort of music class or lesson in our lives. We've done little kid music appreciation, group piano lessons, quasi-school lessons in piano, recorder, chimes, handbells, drums, and guitar, and now private clarinet lessons. This year, specifically, Noah's doing his own thing by continuing to practice guitar on his own (no structure, just enjoys learning new songs)...Asher's learning clarinet with regular lessons with a private instructor (and is talking about wanting to try trumpet next, heaven help us)...and Micah's taking piano lessons at Options. 

It's that last one that prompted this post.

You see, we don't technically have a piano either. Years ago (when Noah was about four) we purchased a portable keyboard...nothing fancy...just one of those cheap electronic keyboards for the boys to practice their piano lessons at home. It held up amazingly well. But. As Micah started using it this year, he began pointing out that a number of the keys simply didn't work any more. That, apparently, makes practicing more difficult. :) 

So. We took it as a sign when we received a flyer about the neighboring school district's annual musical instrument sale in conjunction with a foundation dedicated to promoting music education through things like donating instruments and raising money through the sale of those instruments (such that a good portion of any purchase is tax deductible). Though we'd thought to merely replace our keyboard, we figured it was worth a look. 

And then Micah fell in love with the pianos. 

They had gorgeous pianos of varying shapes and sizes. Gorgeous. The boys walked around trying them all out and enjoying the actual piano key feel. Micah started insisting that he was going to learn how to play the piano really well...that the piano was going to be "his" instrument. And, somehow, we went home with a digital piano and the hope that we were making an investment in the boys' musical future (especially as the piano is one of the instruments that they all play).

It's not a "real" piano that needs tuning and all. But it has all the keys and an acoustic piano key feel. It has a pedal and prompted the purchase of an actual piano bench (to date, the boys had just stood when playing).

Getting it set up caused the older two boys to rediscover old song books and begin playing...such a lovely thing to hear! It also caused Micah to re-declare his intention to learn piano...and then proceed (all on his own) to go find online videos and all of his brothers' past lesson books to help him, as apparently his class at Options is moving too slowly for his liking.

Can't really argue with those results... ;)

Bunny, carrot, gun

Just realized I hadn't documented it...

After our last JOAD tournament, as we were waiting (and waiting and waiting) for the awards ceremony, Micah decided to combat boredom by inventing a new game. Okay. It's not really new. But I've gotta give him points for boyness.

Yup. He took rock, paper, scissors to a new...somewhat more violent...level. Bunny eats carrot. Carrot clogs gun. Gun kills bunny. Of course.

So. If you see my boys playing a modified version, you'll know. ;)

Stuffie Olympics

For the record, a couple weeks ago at JOAD practice the kids all played a game. The "winners" received cheesy plastic gold medals. Noah got one. Micah did not. All good. ;) The funny thing is that Noah's winning wasn't what bothered Micah. It was the fact that Noah refused to donate his plastic medal to Koaly, as Micah pointed out that it would obviously fit Koaly better.

A few days later, I happened to see some of these medals in the store and bought a pack for Micah just for fun. He was stinkin' delighted! (It's nice when you can make a kid happy for so little, lol.)

But. Then Micah turned sad. I asked why. His response? He was sad at the thought of having to determine which of his stuffies would win the medals and which would not.

In the end, though, we decided that this was the Winter Olympics...so he could just select the Winter Olympians (polar bears and penguins, for example) and the others could all be coaches and support crew. Whew.

(Micah told me which stuffie participated in which event, but I've forgotten. Shame on me.)

(And, yes, I know folks are wanting to see "after" pictures of our bedroom. Believe me. You don't want them nearly as much as I do, lol. Almost...almost. The bedroom is coming along, definitely...but this is still what my bathroom (which adjoins the bedroom) looked like this morning...)