The Weekend of the Nursery

On New Year's Day, we began the initial steps of creating the Rookie's habitat, or, as some call it, a nursery. The goal: Finish the room with breathtaking results and, more importantly, our sanity intact. So, we brought up the selected paint (a light blue, a rust color, and something called "Aviary Nest"), moved the furniture to the basement (where the new "guest room" will be located), and taped-off the doors, window, trim and ceiling. What fun... The process was underway.

Day One. We go through the task of drawing perfect lines on the wall with a level and a yard stick to divide the walls into the blue/rust/Aviary Nest areas that we have decided on. This would be simple to do with: a. More adequate equipment other than a level and a yard stick; and b. walls and floors that were level to begin with. No matter-- we got the lines to where we want them.

At this point, I ushered Justine out of the process for the most part (this is something I wanted to do myself-- besides, she ultimately has the lion's share of the work, what with carrying the child, giving him nourishment, dealing with the stress on her body and mind that go along with carrying a baby, and, you know, the whole giving birth thing). The music went on-- mainly the odd assortment of crap that I like (Steve Winwood(!), Prince, The Gaslight Anthem, Bon Iver) and stuff that Justine and both like (the new Pink album-- quite good actually). The plastic drop cloth went down, which was not easy, considering every time the heat would kick-on, the floor vent would create a cloudlike surface of thin plastic. Fun to look at, not fun to paint on. The first coats of the blue and Aviary Nest went up. Not bad. They got another coat shortly thereafter. So far, so good.

And, we got a new picture of Justine in front of the Christmas tree.

Day Two. Stripe Day. The nice man at the paint counter at Home Depot said the rust was going to go on thin. Nobody will ever accuse him of being a liar. 4 coats. Four. Ah, but first, I had to find the thin pencil lines Justine and I made to denote the area where the rust stripe was going. Under 2 coats of paint. Not happening. New lines needed to be drawn, which, all things considered was pretty easy. So was the taping for the rust stripe, where I expertly recycled some tape from the ceiling. And, while the paint was thin, four coats did the trick. Once again, things went surprisingly un-Drew-like.

Day Three. Move that bus! But not until after the tape was removed, and, oh yeah-- the first two pieces of furniture were built.

First, the tape needed to come off. Sure enough, my sister-in-law's expert painter boyfriend came through with the tip that allowed the rust stripe to come out pretty darn perfect. We owe him a beer.

On to the crib. For being a convertible day-bed/crib, it was easier than I thought it was going to be. All the parts were included, the directions were thorough (and in English), and I didn't need any foreign tools to complete the task.

Finally, on to the dresser. Substantially more complicated. About 30 parts. About 160 various screws. Ugh. After a few hours of blood (not really), sweat (plenty of it), and tears (mostly sweat actually), the dresser was complete. Justine loved the room basically put together. Layla was confused. And I, in very un-Drew-like fashion, managed to do my part without screwing anything up. Mission (for the most part) Accomplished.

And the best is yet to come.