Completed!

Finishing a project is a great way to end and/or begin a year, wouldn't you say? Getting anything out of the ordinary done around here can take me a long time. There are lots of little people who provide lots of distractions. And I'm a little lazy and so when I'm not wiping bottoms, sweeping, playing and doing endless amounts of laundry, I really like to do stuff like read and watch shows on hulu, and think up more projects to do.

From Dresser

Back in July, I found a bed and dresser on craisglist for $85. The bonus was when Randy brought them home, there were actually two beds included in that price! They had a great shape, but were covered in an ugly yellowed finish and had been pretty well used over the years. Oh, and they were kind of stinky. But the price was great and we saw the potential in those little beauties!

From Dresser

Can't you just imagine the heat and humidity of last summer? It's hard to remember how warm it gets here while we are having the first really cold weather of the year this week. Anyway, these beauties blended in nicely with the wood paneling in our garage, but we sanded them down and got to work on the bed first. It seemed like the best place to begin.

From Dresser

And we primed and painted it. No problem! Then came the crappy part: waxing the bed. I am not sure if we are just wax impaired, or if the extreme heat and humidity of the summer sabotaged our efforts, but we ended up doing a lot of waxing, seeing it bubble up all crappy, sanding it all off, adding more paint, waxing again, repeat. We ended up getting a good enough coat and called it good. Putting the bed together was super exciting and then we realized that it was too long for our regular twin mattress! There were four extra inches of bed frame we hadn't accounted for! Yahoo! (A bunch of searching found us a nice twin xl set, which Rand better appreciate by growing extra tall as a teenager.)

From Dresser

Meanwhile, we painted the bedroom that Rand and Clara now share. It is the smallest bedroom in our house, but comfy and functional. But the room was, perhaps, the ugliest shade of green you could ask for. And I like green. It went from minty green to a nice happy blue. Then school started, things got hectic around here, and I put off starting the dresser for a long time. More sanding, priming, painting, waxing... Why didn't I just buy a new set for them instead? But I got to work. (I need to explain here that Randy worked with me a bunch on painting the bed, but he let me fly solo for the most part when it came to the dresser - he's had a busy fall).

From Dresser

I had a long stalled time where I couldn't decide on drawer colors. Then I did decide on drawer colors, but I got stuck on the wax issue and was afraid to try it. Then we had visitors and then a birthday and Halloween and then a 2-week trip to Utah, then a whole month of Utah-trip recovery and Christmas prep, and Christmas.

From Dresser

And suddenly, I had a day where I just went ahead and finished it up. The dresser is complete and in place and working great!

From Dresser

Rand and Clara finally live in a complete, cute bedroom!

From Dresser

The end!

Until I get around to working on a few other things:

From Dresser

Painting the main living areas. Flat paint and children don't jive.

From Dresser

Trying out a DIY slipcover pattern I saw on Pinterest for a free, super comfy, cute chair our neighbor gave us.

From Dresser

For now, a pillow can cheer her up. (I think we'll paint the mantle behind said chair - 2 years of sizing up that fireplace wall and I think I'm ready to go for it!)