Kennedi's dresser and night stand was a hand me down from us, which was a hand me down from my grandmother. I decided that it could use an update. I forgot to snap a picture of the before, but here is it after I sanded it down. It was made out a solid wood, but is had this slick plasticy finish on it, so I found some primer that says it sticks to any slick surface. Bulls-eye 123 Primer. The primer said it didn't need to sand, but I did any way for good measure. I let it dry for 24 hours and then painted the base coat a shade of lilac.
I then glazed the dresser and nightstand with a dark coffee brown. If you haven't used a glaze, try it! It's so easy! Just paint on, and rub off with a dry cloth. Rub off how much you want until you get the look you're going for. Leave extra in the creases and cracks!
Lilac painted night stand. I won't talk about the dust I found when I removed the drawers.
Finished product! Much better, don't you think?
Found these awesome knobs and pulls at Knob Deals. If you haven't shopped for hardware, beware, it's very expensive--especially cute kids' hardware. We're talking $8-20 bucks a knob or pull. I got the butterfly (and it's large=2 inches in diameter!) for less than $2.00 a knob. The pull is glass--less than $4 a pull.
The primer says for full cure takes 7 days. I didn't wait for the 7 days before I put it back into her room. I noticed a chip on Kennedi's nightstand afterwards, so I went ahead and put three coats of polycrylic on everything a few days later. Six weeks later and so far, so good! It's holding up well to my 6 year old!
We finally put in our flooring in the living room, halls, and Andrei's room over spring break. We used laminate flooring, mainly because it's what our budget would afford and because it does better with water than engineered or real hardwood. And when you have 3 children under the age of 8, that's a biggie! Laminate floors have come a LONG, LONG way since the last time we installed them nearly 7 years ago. They actually look like real hand scraped wood! I ordered these from Floors To Your Home and we LOVE them! They gave us free shipping since we ordered so much. Whoo Hoo on that since it was over 2000 pounds! They already came with underlayment attachment, but noise reduction was a major for me, so we put down Floor Muffler as an additional underlayment.
I don't like quarter round, so I pulled off every baseboard by my little bitty ole self. We really needed to reuse the baseboard as it would be difficult to match the stain with everything else in the house. The last time Doug pulled off baseboard, he had to buy a lot to replace all the damages (remember, he's a quicker and faster sort of guy), so I told him hands off this project. With my trusty crow bar, hammer, and dry wall spatula and lots and lots of patience, I removed 54 pieces of baseboard with only one slight casualty that was easily glued. I need a sticker on my sticker chart! (Of course, it was my handy dandy husband who nailed them back!!) By the way, in case this is on your own to do list in the future, it is IMPERATIVE that you number each piece of baseboard and number the wall where it came from. Otherwise, you're going to have a frustrating puzzle ahead of you when you go to putting it all back.
Yes! I have BEFORE pictures!
Living Room before. Those are dusty, nasty lace curtains heaped on the carpet. (Our home had been vacant for nearly 3 years...) This picture was taken the day after the pest control guys came. You can't see them, but there are about 100 dead spiders. It was pure carnage...)
Andrei's room before. You can see the reminant of hunter green window blinds I had already torn off the windows.
Annsley's room is finally finished (minus the carpet...) Again, no before photos, but it was a replica of Kennedi's room...beige walls, broken plastic faded venetian blinds...
A wall of giant paisley stencils! Cutting Edge Stencils has great stencils! (Gee, how many times can I use the word stencil???)
Crackled her laminate dresser. Valspar Crackle is a wonderful product! I took her old knobs and glued over 500 little jewels over them. (And then I spent 2 hours peeling the glue off my fingers thank you!) I think it turned out awesome for a little girl!
We're on Day 3 of Potty Training. It would do me good to have a margarita at breakfast--actually I could use one when my alarm goes off. A margarita fairy! Just like the tooth fairy only this fair maiden gives you the power to potty train your 3 year old BOY. She'd deliver another about 10:00 AM, noon, 2:00, 5:00 Happy Hour (and by now it's really, really happy), and then 8:00 to sooth the pee out of your mind while you wipe it off your shoes. You could go to bed and have a dream without urine in it.
Is it wrong that I'm thinking about a tequila IV belted to my hip???
My boy is sooooo different to train than my girls. They got "it" on Day 1, and they had only one accident between the both of them. It was fun.
Sort of--in a potty training sort of way...
But they both really got into drinking a ton of special juice (which provided lots of practice); flushing the toilet was a big, big deal. And they couldn't wait to wash their hands. Two Skittles was simply a just reward for a job well done--icing on the cake--if you will.
As you can tell from my first sentence, we've made it considerably farther than we did 6 months ago. If you are just joining this most ambitious and entertaining blog, you can read that post HERE.
In all reality, he's doing quite well by his own standards. If you go by our experience 6 months ago, I could go on tour as a potty training phenomenon.
But by a potty training girl's experience, we're way behind the 8 ball. Way behind.
Day One: We started off by watching Potty Power again. This time Andrei was thrusting his little fist in the air and shouting "Potty Power!" with the kids on the DVD.
"That's progress," I'm thinking. "This time it's going to be a breeze."
I gave him straight grape juice (which is something he never gets) to drink and a new cup to drink it out of. He loved the cup--not the juice. "Water," he requests after drinking about 2 oz. of Welch's deliciousness.
"OK, fine," I think, "but you're going to drink the fire out of the water so we can practice, practice, practice."
We practice sitting on the potty seat. By the way, this new potty chair I bought is CRAP! Clearly the designer did not have a penis nor did he/she have a son. If he/she had either of the before mentioned, he would know that this wimpy urine deflector in no way shape or form deflects anything shooting out of a toddler's penis.
Yes, I said the "P" word. I've said it a lot lately. Forgive me.
Anyway, he sits on the Pourty potty seat, stays for no more than 5 seconds, and says, "Finished!!" He's done nothing. I try to coax him to sit back down. "Don't make it a power struggle," I keep repeating to myself. He pulls up his underwear (I have to keep correcting myself as I call them panties--much to my husband's dismay), and I plead with him that TowMater will be sad if he gets wet.
Yes, I'm bribing my child with the possible guilt he will wear should any of the Cars cast members become rained with 3 year old urine.
One hour later Andrei tells me that TowMater is sad.
Yeah, accident #1. 10 minutes later, Lighting McQueen is sad too. Off to the car wash they go!
Finally, we meet success with attempt #3. But you've got to be fast. When the boy looks at you and says, "I gotta go," he's got about 2 seconds of holding power in him.
We started carrying the potty chair with us wherever we go in the house.
When his daddy got home from school, I announce that Andrei has not done any pooping business all day long. Ah, the Lone Ranger is at last home. "Come with me, Andrei. We'll go do business together." And he and Andrei and the purple Pourty potty chair head to our bathroom.
Five minutes later they emerge with Andrei carrying his potty seat and Doug is on his cell phone. Really? You can't be double minded when you are potty training, my Dear! Andrei tells me that TowMater is sad.
I take off his underwear; Doug sees me and says, "What are you doing? He peed in the potty chair."
Well, Deary, he either didn't shake the dew off his lily or he's not finished, because Tow Mater's left fender is wet.
Doug shrugs and continues talking. Big huge help. Two minutes later, Niagara Falls hits our new floors.
Before he goes to bed, I have him sit on the potty chair again. All of a sudden I hear my two daughters in a knock down drag out fight in Kennedi's room. I go to referee.
Bad mistake.
Andrei shows up carrying his potty chair. "Mommy, I tee-teed!!" he says. "Are you proud of me???"
Yes, but there is no urine in the potty chair. Where'd it go? He's decided to dump it in the toilet himself. Do you know the dexterity a three year must have to dump urine from a funny looking potty chair and hit the hole of the big toilet?
Yeah, a lot.
Andrei doesn't have that much.
When my alarm goes off the next morning, Doug asks me, "So, are you ready for Day 2?????" and he laughs.
Day 2 starts off with a temper tantrum on the potty chair. Andrei is mad because I won't give him his Tag while he is sitting on the potty chair. No way on a day like today am I going to have him screaming for 2 hours while I wash and dry Tag as a result of urine that doesn't get caught on this almighty urine deflector. I'm sitting on the floor in front of him while this temper tantrum of epic proportions ensues, and before I know it, I'm being sprayed with urine from this rogue penis poking out of this potty chair that is not built for boys.
Day 3 starts off with a screaming child when I take him to the potty chair as soon as he wakes up. "I'm hungry! I want oatmeal!" Big tears are running down his face and he is getting mad all over again. This time I take action.
"Andrei, what does Daniel Tiger say to do the first thing when you wake up?" (The boy LOVES Daniel Tiger; it's take off Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.)
"Go to the bathroom," he sobs.
"Andrei, what do you think Kennedi does the first thing when she wakes up?"
"Go potty."
"What do you think Annsley does as soon as she wakes up?"
"Go potty."
"What does Grandpa do as soon as he wakes up?"
"If he's upstairs, he goes to the potty." (Apparently, Grandpa holds it if he wakes up on the first floor...)
By now he's quit crying, and what do you know, a TON of pee is in the potty chair.
He's getting the jist of this whole potty thing, I think. He's actually had a bowel movement in the chair. That got him 5 Skittles. I'll pay 10 if I don't have to clean THAT mess out of underwear any day. He's probably 50-50 on making it to the potty chair right now. We'll see what Day 4 brings...in the mean time, enjoy Jimmy Buffet and Alan Jackson. Drop any judgements you may have about my margarita obsession and simply smile in the fact that poop and pee and TowMater getting showered with urine are not the center of YOUR 44 year old universe today!
He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper.
Remake of Ken's dresser
