Third and final room switch

But first, a little visit from Layton and Hadley, Ann Marie made their headbands.

Layton loves to hang on to hair.  Oh how I love ruffle butts.

Now the third and final room switch.

The red bedroom became the blue bedroom.  But, I still call it Melissa's room.  She was the one that spent the most time with this as her room.  When she lived here it had red walls.  Yes, red and glazed.  I was crazy nuts, and don't ask how many coats of paint it took to cover the red.  

Bedroom before....

Bedroom during.... remember this was a one woman job.  Which means my daughters have all moved out and hubby was watching a "most important golf tournament".  (they all are, or so he says)

Now after and so much better...

About the only thing that stayed in this room was the family pictures and the monogram on the wall.

Still need new custom curtains, they are on the list.  Along with painting kitchen cabinets and welcoming our newest family member, Raylyn.  AND you know what takes precedent!  There probably won't be new curtains for a while.  I'll be helping the new family get settled. 

Room two of the three room switch.

The old office space had become the office/grands nursery/dumping ground for everything else.  ie: see hubbies golf clubs.  

Before... 

After....

I moved the third generation bedroom furniture we have to this room.  This bedroom set was my husband's grand-mothers furniture.  Thanks, Fannie Nichols. We have three pieces, the vanity, bed and a chest of drawers.

Funny, side story.  When Melissa was first married she told Sean they needed a Chester Drawer.  He was stumped and kept asking her what she meant.  "You know, a thing with drawers that you put all you clothes in!"  He said with a smile, "Do you mean a chest of drawers?".  I just had to smile too when I heard the story, because Melissa always was our child that could turn words around.  When she was young she pointed to her elbow and called it her kneebow.  Same child who also looked at a cemetery as we drove by and said "look they just planted somebody", when she saw a tent and flowers around the new mound of dirt.  To this day we can't pass a cemetery without seeing if there are "new plantings".   

I moved the curtain placement to above the transom windows and it made all the difference.  Really shows off the height of the ceilings.  (see first before picture to compare)  They were puddled on the floor before, so there was a generous amount of fabric to move them up higher.

I moved baby girl's interior design drawings into the room, and used the lamp and clock she left behind when she moved to her apartment.  So this corner is dedicated to Lynley.

Love, love this bedroom set.  

Big improvement to this guest room.  Still left to do...could use a fresh coat of paint. 

Next up... the final guest bedroom.

Crazy world.

My world has gotten a little out of joint lately.  Nickie, my mother-in-law reminded me that I never did show pictures of all the finished room switch-r-roos.  I guess Grand sitting and kitchen remodel and floral jobs and my regular 40 hour a week job made me think super woman had already posted about those changes. 

Whew, I have been busier than I thought.

Here you go Nickie...

Bedroom before...

Office/grand nursery after...

The baby bed from my babies 29 years ago being repurposed now.  And their changing table too.  Now, used for Hadley, Layton and here soon Raylyn. 

The hubbies "precious stuff".  He has his own side of the room.

My blogging view has greatly improved.  The desk used to face a wall only.  

Next up the new front bedroom.  

Demolition and tips

Demolition day and tips.

I asked three people if I should empty every cabinet before the demolition of the old counters began.  Two said yes, everything and one friend said no.  So, I went in between and just emptied all top drawers, under the sink and cook top area.  Then in the underneath cabinets I placed towels on top of everything.  I figured if dust made it down that far I could just remove the towels later.  I also closed every bedroom door.

A view of the old tile, grout and wood trim counters.

The two guys that demolished the old counters seemed very aware of cleaning up.  They swept and wiped everything down before they left.  

I did read a blog post about a horror granite story.  Where they cut granite inside her house and they had to hire ventilation cleaners and dust was in every room of the house.  So, I was a bit concerned when they had to cut the opening for the cook top inside the house.  But, one guy used the shop vac while the other cut.   I opened both front and back door and lot of the dust went out the back door.  So, mine was not a horror story.  

Another tip, have a little cash on hand.  If you need to ask the crew to do things like cut wood sections of the underneath cabinet wall to make the cook top fit  (They are not supposed to do certain things) a little cash on the side will be accepted.  At least that is how it worked for us.

The only damage at this point is a few chips in the grout around where they yanked out the old counter.  I have to add a pencil trim around the bottom anyway, so I will re-grout when I do that.

Final tip.  If you want to save the demo fee, this loooked like a pretty easy job.  Rubber hammer under each cabinet until they are start to come off and then lift and discard.   Our crew did it all for $150.00 and hauled everything away too!  

Do you have demolition tips?  Oh and the towels did catch some of the dust, but not all.  I still have to rinse out items from the below shelves as I use them.  

Kitchen counters leads to... cabinets leads to...

The search...

This was kind of fun at first, but then after three granite warehouses, not so much.

I narrowed it down to three slabs that I thought might work and my decorator, Lynley, said no to all three.

I wanted light colored granite, with browns or greys.  The island was easy I wanted absolute black.  The granite warehouse people said that everyone wants light colored granite now and it is hard to find. (translation "we can charge you more, if you really want it")  

See fun! Ooooh, awww, wow.  The below is considered "exotic".  (translation "you won the lottery and you don't care how much, you just want it")

Getting close.... 

Second warehouse, are you kidding me!  There were four more rows just like this one.

Third warehouse, getting closer, call in the second opinion.  Lynley help!

We have a winner!  Colonial Cream.  

OK - take a deep breath and get ready for demolition. 

My Pinterest Inspirations

Notice the black and light colored granite combinations. 

Colonial Cream example below. 

I also noticed that most kitchens had the square edge on the granite.  Guess what I ended up with? Do you have a great kitchen countertop story?

A stroll

While grand babysitting yesterday, we gave the twins their morning bottle, left them in their pj's and took them for a stroll.  The double stroller brought back a memory.  When we had our twins 28 years ago, we had a double stroller.  We used it for about three years before they outgrew it.  Their seats faced each other.  When we were selling it to another family with twins, Ann Marie and Melissa threw a fit.  Cried and cried.  I tried to explain that another family with babies needed it, but no way.  They were not happy about it all.  

Hadley obviously was still hungry.

Layton was very interested in inspecting the side impact sign on her car seat.

Or maybe Hadley is just at that stage where EVERYTHING ends up being tasted.   

Happy Mother's Day today too.  I am spending today with my three daughter's at The W spa and poolside for lunch.  Sweet!  The best part, all of them and just me! 

Baby Bumper Pads for Raylyn

Gorgeous fabrics, plus girly trim, plus Lala sewing  ~ equals lovely bedding for a grand-daughter.

Raylyn's Mom and Dad picked out the fabric.  I picked out the petal trim.  

I cut apart a bumper pad from Buy, Buy Baby to make four pieces. I also cut off the ties and saved them to use on the outside of the newly covered bumpers.  Two short ends and two long for the inside of the bed.  I used those as a template to cut the sections of fabric.  Below are the long side pieces. One full segment and three to piece together to make the other side.   

Here is all you will need for one long side.  Fabric for two sides, bumper padding to stuff and trim.  The long sides have one long print piece and three block grey pieces on the other side.  Melissa took one of the middle grey pieces to be monogrammed.  You will get to see that in the finished room.

Pin and sew your pieces to form the two long sides and two short sides.   Below are the short side pieces.  One side will be the print and the other will have just two grey blocks.  

Next, I added the trim.  Took forever, this was the hardest part.  I had to push each petal inside and pin them in place,  before I could sew anything together.  But, oh baby was it worth this tedious stage. 

I sewed three sides of one bumper case and left one short end open to stuff.  

Turn everything right side out and stuff.  This bumper was really thick, so I did not add any additional stuffing.  I then machine stitched the end closed.  

I had three out of the four sides finished and headed out to Mel and Sean's house for a test run.  We used velcro squares to attach the box pleated dust ruffle.  (Melissa had her nails ready for St. Patty's weekend.)  As Raylyn grows and they lower the mattress the dust ruffle will puddle underneath the bed.  

No mattress yet.  It is on their shopping list.  But, we had to see what the final results will look like.  

The bed is a white washed grey.  Collette, by Restoration Hardware Baby.  Yes, even Restoration Hardware has gotten into the Baby biz.   

Dreamy.  (yes, that is paint cans on the window sill)  It is coming together.  I told you the trim was worth it.

This is not my first rodeo.  Remember Layton and Hadley bedding.  I'm getting a little lot of experience at this grand-baby thing.

Source
Fabric - Cutting Corners - Dallas
Trim - Joanne's Fabric
Bumper - Buy, Buy Baby
(I used an IKEA insert on Hadley and Layton's, it was very thin so we added stuffing to puff. )

Since I totally forgot to hit publish and found this post in draft mode.  I can show you the finished bed now.  I think I was waiting for Melissa to put the bedding on the baby bed and I forgot about the tutorial.

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My Romantic Home
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Savvy Southern Style
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