Room Makeover Goal

It’s the time of year where I’m suppose to make some resolutions and set some goals for the new year.

The control freak in me objects to this January system. I prefer to make a plan in a random month of my choosing. Preferably sprinkled with a little spontaneity.

A perfect example of this is a tiny goal I set the week before Christmas right after we cleaned up the kitchen from our little baking tradition.

First, I want to make it clear that PhilBillPaul was the catalyst for this great idea. He spends way too much time perusing Craigslist and looking mostly for girlfriend parts. But after his bargain refrigerator find, he has been expanding his search.

He found 350 square feet of laminate flooring for $100. Once he secured this and wasn’t killed at the pre-arranged meeting place (a hotel in a seedy area near the Atlanta airport) and brought it home, I had the brilliant idea that he should put it in Scary Baby’s room BEFORE Christmas.

On the Saturday before Christmas, I suggested that since the darling twins were home with their friend Jordan that he should use the extra hands to help him get the flooring installed.

I’m excellent at delegating.

Did I mention that we bought paint two years ago for her room that still has 20 year-old disgusting carpet in it and the painting should ideally happen before the flooring goes in?

PhilBillPaul loves a challenge and Roger Leroy and Jordan said they’d be glad to help.

I was assigned to go to Walmart to buy paint supplies and get the 2 year-old paint shaken. I almost hate shopping on the Saturday before Christmas more than home improvement projects but felt like I had to do this since I put the whole project in motion.

I also had convinced Scary Baby to not go with one blue and one hot pink wall. Why had we bought hot pink paint 2 years ago? A weak moment for sure.

Anyone need a gallon of hot pink paint?

New room design plan:

“Wouldn’t you love a chalkboard wall instead of a hot pink wall?”

The project began…

We didn’t take a lot of before pictures but her room was a lavender pigpen.

Blurry picture compliments of Roger Leroy.

They got the painting done on Saturday.

Well, mostly PhilBillPaul got the painting done. Seems the big girls needed to take a break and go to a movie.

Flooring installation on Sunday.

Blurry picture compliments of Scary Baby.

Special thanks to Jordan who may have helped with manual labor more than any of the Humpfreeze children. Definitely more than Wizzy and The Grunter in that category!

This is apparently an important part of floor installation.

The Grunter’s main contribution was to complain that all her stuff was in his room.

The paint and flooring obviously wasn’t a surprise.

The end goal was to add some fun surprises to her room for Christmas morning.

For the first time ever, I couldn’t get all the Christmas Eve things I usually do after the kids go to bed. Instead, Wizzy finished wrapping and The Grunter filled his sisters’ stockings while Roger Leroy and I finished hanging everything in her room. And PhilBillPaul put another coat of paint on the chalkboard wall.

We finished at 3:00 a.m. like the crazy people we are. Right after I put up this threatening sign.

After a short nap and thank goodness Scary Baby slept until 9:00 a.m. we enjoyed a lovely Christmas morning with the very last thing being her opening her room for the big reveal.

Side note: The Grunter informed us the white dresser is out of place in the room. We appreciate his decorating tips but she’s eleven and it was my dresser when I was little and is actually the nicest piece of furniture in the room. (Big Lots bed, Ikea table, Walmart desk…we’re big spenders.)

Inside the photo box is a hidden jewelry box where she discovered some more surprises.

Thanks Grandma!

She had to test out her bed because there were two surprises in the bed. She had been begging for a memory foam mattress cover which cracked us up. And Granny sent a new electric blanket!

We even did the closet.

Wizzy helped me pick out pictures and send them to Walgreen’s to print on Christmas Eve.

$7.00 Walmart frame collection that PhilBillPaul painted silver the day before was the best investment in the room. She said the pictures were her most favorite thing.

And the sequined curtains. And the chalkboard wall.

Later in the day, she spun around on her desk chair and said,

“It is better than anything I could have dreamed.”

We’re not going to try to outdo ourselves next year.

And I have no specific goals for 2011 so far.