Girls dorm part 3

I only a few minutes before I need to start school with the kids so this will have to be a quick update on our progress.

We have the walls and floor painted but I forgot to take a good picture of the floor before we started the beds.  Oops.  It looked beautiful though.

We used zero VOC Olympic brand paint in Garlic Clove (my preferred shade of white that I've used in all our houses.)  I've never used zero VOC before and didn't know how well it would cover but I'm happy to announce it covered excellent with two coats.  The floor will get a third but only because we left marks during the bed building process.  I'm sure extra coats there will be a good idea anyway.  I don't know for sure what I want to do on the floor permanently...carpet, wood, rugs, leave it as it is.  I really like the white paint, which with four girls in one room, I'm sure will be covered in make up, nail polish and markers before too long, but it's paint.  Who cares, right?  Just slap on another coat of paint.

Paint scuffs terribly, but the scuffs have always come right off with a mop and they don't wear shoes past the front door anyway.  (We have free range chickens.  Ahem.)

So for now, that's as far as I want to go with the floor and I'm loving the way it looks so much that I'm thinking I'll paint my bedroom floor white too!

Once it was all painted and dry, Jeff and Gracie set up shop and built four beds together.

Jeff hates to work alone (even if he doesn't need help) and Gracie has really been wanting to participate so he handed her some power tools, and I'm sure, made her do most of the work.  He excels in delegation.

I was happy to have the day off and only be on camera duty.  That's my favorite part anyway.

Bed number one. 

Good work Grace!

Bed's number two, three and four.

Outstanding craftsmanship, Grace.  I'm really impressed.

They screwed them to the wall on two sides so we only used one leg per bed.  It might look a little funny right now, but we plan to have built in bedside tables and desks which would prevent you from seeing any of the other legs anyway.  We're going with "built-in" furniture because it's an oddly shaped room that would be difficult to furnish otherwise.  And if it isn't extremely sturdy and nailed to the floor it wouldn't last around here for long. 

Now, guess who has to to clean up this mess and paint the beds?

If you said me, you're probably right.

Next (once our bank account recovers) we'll be adding two large custom built (Jeff built) drawers under each bed.  We're also tossing around the idea of incorporating some book shelves into the trim work around the door and window.  I'd really like to get this room completed before we move on upstairs, but we'll see how that goes.

I think I'll link up with Sarah today at A Beach Cottage.  Sounds fun!

Girls dorm part 2

It's the middle of the night and I'm ailing a bit so I figured I'd post an update on the girls room.  I always hate to read on someone's blog that they're sick.  It causes me to hold my breath and read as quickly as I can or even only scan the pictures if it's an extra long post.  I occasionally have sympathy illness symptoms. 

Having said that, I don't know why I then feel compelled to share with you how I'm feeling at the moment.

Possibly because I hate to keep secrets.

I'm sorry if any of you struggle with hypochondria, which I feel is an underrated disorder worthy of a foundation.  Let's start one, shall we?  Hypochondriacs unite!

Don't worry though, I won't tell you any of the symptoms of what I may or may not have so that you can't get it.

Let's move on, mkay?

Once we covered the ceiling with pine boards it was time to build some doorways and short walls.

Jeff is doing the hokey pokey in what will be the girls bedroom door.  Directly behind him is the doorway to what will be their walk-in closet.

Once that was done, it was time to move on to the short walls.

Before we could build them, however, Jeff decided to add some chalk to his chalk line thing which became clogged or something because he then began pulling out all 3,000 feet of string which dumped a significant amount of bright blue chalk on the floor, then he rewound the string, then he repeated the entire process several more times. 

Here, let me show you...

OCD much, Jeff? 

They have medication for that you know.

(You know I love you anyway, Jeff,  right?)

(RIGHT???)

Once I finished the collage and went back upstairs only to find him still messing with it, I ripped the dadgummed thing from his hands and tossed it out the window...not really, but I wanted too.

He did finally give it up when I suggested that we use the other fully functional chalk line thing sitting in the tote behind him.

I have, in the past, diagnosed him with child induced dementia so I'll just assume he forgot he had the other one and move on with this post.

Finally, the short walls. 

Did you know you build the wall on the ground first and then raise it into place and nail it in?

You would think I'd have known that being married to a man who used to build houses for a living.

Yep, easy peasy. 

The short walls are about three feet tall.

Then it was time to cover all the walls in pine.

It's apparently a good idea to put as many nails in a board as it will hold.  Otherwise, it just might POP right off the wall.

Because OCD is not one of the disorders I suffer from, I will not be filling the nail holes. 

 NO.WAY.

Nope, I just paint right over them and call it character because we could all use a little more character, couldn't we?

And there you have it.

More later...I'm feeling much better so I'm going to bed now!

P.S.
I've been popping vitamin C's during this entire post and I'm already beginning to feel tip top again.
You should google vitamin C therapy sometime, it's pretty effective.

P.P.S.  or is it P.S.S?  I forget.
Anyway, funny thing...as soon as I finished this post, google flashed me an "anti-anxiety" ad. Ha!
What are you trying to tell me, google?  Hmmm?
Just spit it out, for goodness sake!
☺

Girls dorm

 We finally got started with the girls room upstairs.

We started by by adding another layer of insulation over the bats of insulation.  There's also a layer of the blue styrofoam under the bats so that we have three layers total.  Hopefully this will keep the kids toasty in the winter and cool in the summer.

Next came the fun part...the pine boards.  We've used number four pine boards all over the house so there are a lot of knots and variations in the wood.  I don't necessarily love the knots but I do love saving money any time I can. 

(We didn't add extra insulation on the straight wall where draftiness is not an issue.)

Their room is approximately 16' X 11' so it took us a while to get to this point.

I have more to show you later but that's it for now.

Short and sweet.