Jumping in the Deep End

[This post is part of the January Cure project. Read more here: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8 | Day 9 | Day 10 | Day 11 | Day 12 | Day 13 | Day 14]

Man, things are starting to get kind of intense up in here. Yesterday all I had to do was sit in a corner and do nothing for 10 minutes and these next two days have me declaring/starting a major project and framing art. Sheesh.

DAY 5: Select One Project from Your List to Complete This Month

Tuesday, February 5th

Select a good project from your list to complete this month AND take a few "before" photos.

Okay... project time. This is the scary one because projects are (usually) big and involved and a major commitment, which leaves a lot of room for dropping the ball. But the good news is for the project I'm choosing - building and installing Harrison's bookshelves - I already have all of the materials. I just have to set aside a couple of hours and build/paint them and then tack 'em up on the wall (or use screws...you know. something stable-ish).

Now when I say I'm going to build some bookshelves, I don't mean I'm going to hammer together a gigantic son-of-a-gun. They're more like book ledges. For a tot's room I feel like it's infinitely more fun to be able to see all of the books rather than wedging them in next to each other so you can only see the spines. And this way a certain someone (me?) won't get all OCD up in there and attempt to arrange the books by descending height, color, and/or alphabetically. No need to get crazy.

I'm basing my project off of (and by that I mean copying exactly) Ana White's Ten Dollar Ledges plan. It's a very popular trend at the moment, as you can see almost everywhere on Pinterest and every other blog on the great world wide web. People use these ledges to hold anything from photos, toys, weird figurines, and yes - books. I'm all about conformity.

So let's take a look at where we're starting, shall we? Behold, a large, blank wall:

The swing Harrison's way too big for (sadface), the boppy I used to use constantly but never do anymore, and a random box of stuff.

This is what I stare at from the rocking chair every night as I feed Harrison before he goes to bed, so it will be refreshing to finally see my vision for the wall come together. To the left is the door to his closet-of-doom and to the right is his lamp & crib. I can already see us throwing down some comfy pillows or poufs (DIY project, anyone??) on the floor in front of the shelves when he's older to read together.

DAY 6: Choose a Piece of Artwork & Get Going on Framing It

Wednesday, February 6th

Choose a piece of artwork to frame & get the process started for framing it (...preeeetty much like the title suggests)

I'm doing this one a little backwards. Rather than having loads of fabulous art lying around just waiting to adorn my walls, I have a bunch of random frames that need stuff in them. And seeing how I'm still a little - nope, definitely a lot - unsure of which direction I want the decor of the rest of the apartment to take, I'm once again focusing on the wee one's room. I have one 4x6 cheap IKEA frame left to use and two stocky, black 8 x 10 frames (with mats) that have been hanging out in his closet-of-doom, just waiting to be utilized.

With the 3 frames in mind, today I went "shopping" online for free art. And by free, I don't mean stolen. Have respect for the arts, people. Even the cheap stuff out there is out of my budget, so I decided to see if there were any available freebies that fit my style. I ended up discovering a whole host of good-lookin' art. Here are a few I made note of:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

The link for the 6th one unfortunately seems to be broken (I found it on Pinterest). I love that the initial art (#2) is completely customizable without the use of an editing program. On their site you simply choose the color you want for the background, pick the right letter, and type in the name and it generates the image for you. Super easy, fun, and completely F-R-E-E.

So I decided on three of these beauties, took a trip to Office Max, and $2.62 later I have some new artwork to hang. You'll have to wait to find out which ones.... :-)

The Long Awaited Dresser Post - Part 2

(Click here to read part 1)

So where were we? Oh yes, I believe we left off somewhere around here:

A hunk of burning dresser love

The dresser had been sanded and stained, leaving us with a gorgeous grain (seriously, look at it) and thismuch closer to a finished product.

The next step was to put on the top coat - the one part of the process that I was actually able to do myself. Cue the giddyness.Who has two thumbs and gets excited about applying sealer? This girl. The product I used is called Safecoat Acrylacq and it looks a little something like this:

At nearly $30 including shipping, it's not exactly a bargain but it had my vote for a couple of reasons. The first is that it's non toxic, low odor and low voc, which meant that I could apply it without worrying that my unborn child would sprout a last minute third arm (mission accomplished!). Secondly, it seals in any offgassing that might arise from the wood and stain, which makes me feel okay about putting it in the nursery. And thirdly, it comes highly recommended from Young House Love, my oft-referred to DIY blog resource. Also note my stylish respirator mask, left over from painting the nursery, which, combined with applying it in a well ventilated area, further protected my little man from any unwanted extra limbs. Yeah you're welcome, Harrison.

I ended up putting on three coats of the sealer, sanding lightly with fine steel wool in between each coat. The steel wool was able to sand down the tiny rough spots that popped up without taking off the sealer (it just dulled it down a bit), so it worked perfectly. After rubbing the surfaces quickly with the wool, I ran a damp cloth over everything to get rid of the dust and then applied my next coat of acrylacq, letting it cure overnight. Rinse and repeat.

Oooo shiny

Once the final coat cured, my step-dad loaded the bad boy up in his truck, hauled it up to our second floor apartment and now it sits all pretty-like in the nursery!

I have plans for the wall behind the dresser, hence the "in progress" label. While the dresser itself is finished the nursery isn't quite there yet. Here's the previous list I posted:

• Set up the crib (my wonderful mother and step-dad got it for us and it should be in this week!)
• Fix up the dresser (I finally found one...more on that soon!)
• Finish the mobile
• Possibly find a twin bed for guests/those late night visits to the nursery - however this might be a "Phase 2" project
• Make/buy curtains

For now we're shelving the bed idea, but I also need to add:

• Build book shelves (my next big project)
• Hang up wall art

And now for more photos of the dresser, including a proper before and after:

It's hard to get across the exact coloration of the dresser, but the photo on the left below the "before" picture is probably the most accurate. It's a nice rich golden color and I love it.

Total cost breakdown:

Dresser: $43.30
Stain: Free (on hand)
Steel Wool: Free (on hand)
Paintbrush: Free (on hand)
Mask: Free (on hand)
Safecoat Acrylacq: $29.48

Total: $72.78

The Long Awaited Dresser Post - Part 1

I'm a big fat liar... I believe it was in my March 6th post when I said that I'd be back later in the week with a dresser update. Admittedly things have been a little crazy, what with delivering a baby and what not. But let's put all of that behind us...and onto the dresser update reveal!

Well...not quite the reveal. That will be in Part 2. Liar again, I know. I'm workin' on it. In the meantime I'll be over here hanging with Jim Carrey.

So the dresser that we ended up buying was one that I had seen early on but at $60 was a little more than I was willing to pay at the time. Then after spending two weekends striking out at garage sales and Goodwills (not to mention the previous months of combing CraigsList all stalker-like), I decided to revisit the resale shop. It was closed. Sonofagun. Well not closed per se. The owner of that space was relocating to another part of the property and was supposed to be open again by the next weekend. He wasn't. But in a stroke of luck, another man on the property let us into the space because we were looking for a particular piece and were ready to buy. The best part was that I offered $40 and he agreed (this, friends, is what we refer to as a "steal"). So $43.30 later (yay tax), we had a dresser! Holy bananas I thought we'd never get there.

May I present to you: the before shot, even though we had already begun the sanding process.

The dresser was pretty scratched up, especially around the edges, and the finish on it was really dull, but I was drawn to the shape of it (I continually drool over the legs) and you can't beat that storage - currently every single drawer is full. It's a mid-century piece and I wish I knew its history, but we couldn't find a manufacturer/brand label, just this on the back:

Owosso is apparently a town in Michigan, but other than that I've got nothin'.

Luckily they stamped the word "dresser" on there, you know, in case we forget.

I was really excited about refinishing this dresser because I had never made over a piece of furniture before. One hiccup: I was pregnant. And even though I was ready to jump in (with protective face mask in hand), my parentals voiced their concerns, particularly with the sanding process. In the end we struck a compromise: I wouldn't take part in the sanding or staining, but I would get to finish things up by applying the top coat (which was non toxic & low VOC, but more on that later).

So in one afternoon my stepdad knocked out the sanding step and we were left with this bad boy (minus the feet, which he tackled later):

Poor thing is naked and here I am parading him on the internet. Tsk tsk.

I then had to decide on a stain. My original plan upon getting a dresser was going to be painting it stark white to go with the crib and the deep blue walls. However, because of the quality of this piece (dovetail joints!) and the detailed grain that was exposed after we sanded it down, I reversed my plan and decided to keep it au naturel.

I was initially drawn to the dark walnut (I'm not a fan of the blond stains or anything too light), but I was worried that it would be too dark. In the end I went with Early American, which ended up looking far and away better on the dresser than it did in the brochure. My stepdad had buckets of the stuff on hand, which was another bonus, so on went the Early American. Side note: who names these things?

We did one coat to start, which I thought would be too light, but ended up being perfect. Once the stain was on it was really easy to see just how beautiful the grain of the wood was. I'll save most of that for the next post, but here's a sneak peek...

Ooo la  la!

What a Bum(mer)

Our crib came in this week and I was super psyched about getting it set up. It's Charles' first big daddy-to-be task and I was armed with my camera to document the whole thing. We opened the gigantic box, started unloading all of the parts, and that's when we came across this:

That lovely beauty mark is not only on one of the main, large side pieces...it's also on the top. I could totally deal if it was on the bottom of the crib and it would never be seen again. But it's pretty much front and center and not only does it look bad, but it creates a jagged, unfinished edge that our little boy would inevitably be in contact with at some point. No can doosville, babydoll. 5 super cool points to you if you watch that show.

So I'll be calling customer support today to see what can be done about the damaged goods and in the meantime waiting impatiently to get the thing put together.

In other news, look what else came in the mail this week:

Diapers! Yep, we crazy kids are going the cloth route. My insane idea entirely, of course, but my husband being the wonderful man he is didn't even blink when I told him "so I was thinking..."

But these aren't your grandmother's cloth diapers. Gone are the days of the plain white cloth rag that you tediously pinned and sent off to a diaper service. These days cloth diapers are offered by a huge number of different companies, come in a crazy assortment of colors and patterns, and - most importantly - are much more intuitive. These diapers, for instance, have a series of snaps that allow the diaper to "graduate" with the growth of the baby, essentially lasting until they move onto big-boy/girl underwear. Here's a diagram on the package:

I love their "How To Use" method!
1. Adjust Size
2. Put on Baby

Those cheeky buggers... hey I'm allowed one butt joke in this post.

I did a lot of research before buying these diapers and heard really good things about the Bum Genius brand. They offer a bunch of different types and in the end we opted for the Elemental One-Size All-in-Ones made with organic cotton. I like these because they have the graduated snaps instead of velcro (which should last longer after so many washes), I <3 organic, and mostly because they're all-in-ones, which means no stuffing inserts separately...it's all one unit.

The cleanest they'll ever be....

So why cloth? I'll admit, the thought never crossed my mind before I got married/pregnant. I'm not exactly someone who's "one with nature" in the hygiene department. I need running water, a clean toilet, and a good amount of soap. (Yeah, and I'm having a boy...) So while the thought of getting more up close and personal to my little man's business doesn't exactly excite me, these three main things are what sold me.

1. Cost - this is a biggie. Diapers may not seem expensive when you're buying them one box at a time, but they certainly do add up. BabyCenter.com estimates that disposable diapers cost about $72/month, or $864/year. Assuming three years of diaper use, the total cost for one child comes out to $2592 (obviously this is just an estimate). Our set of 12 cloth diapers cost $265 (there are cheaper options). We'll probably be buying another 6 so we don't end up running out and having to run to the store to supplement with disposable, which at $135 brings our total cost to $400. Steep upfront cost? You bet. But even with the cost of doing an extra load of laundry every other day, we still come out ahead. The same website estimates roughly $19/month for washing cloth diapers (I think that's a little steep but we'll go with it), which is $228/year. Again, assuming three years of diaper use & wash, the total cost is $684 + the $400 upfront for a grand total of  $1084. That's a savings of $1500...just for the first kid! Since cloth diapers can be reused, each child after the first will only have the maintenance cost associated with washing the diapers since we'll already own the hardware. Pretty sweet if you ask me.
2. Convenience - Boxes of diapers are big and bulky. And I'm lazy. We don't even buy soda during our weekly grocery trips mainly because I don't want to haul them up to our apartment. Also because part of me is convinced Charles is going to get diabetes/lose all of his teeth if he keeps downing Coke the way he does. But mostly the lazy thing. I'd much rather do an extra load of laundry every other day than buy a huge box to lug home every month. We also live in an apartment with a dumpster down the road, so any time we can lessen the amount of trash we generate means the longer we can put off taking out the trash.
3. The Environment - I don't usually make a habit of hugging trees, but I am conscious about the waste and energy I generate. It probably comes from my education in architecture. Either way, I try to recycle as much as possible, turn off lights when we're not using them, and limit our water use. So far our bills have been nicely reflective of this (as well as our bank accounts!). The thought of throwing out 8-12 diapers a day gives me great pause. 8-12 diapers a day becomes 56-84 diapers a week, 224-336 per month, and 2688-4032 per year. It will make me feel better knowing that we're keeping them out of the landfill. 

I've also heard that using cloth reduces the frequency of diaper rash and other irritations and that it's just overall less harsh on that sweet baby skin. With all this having been said, I don't think less of anyone who uses disposable diapers - I think it's purely a personal choice and this just happens to be my jam. Maybe I'll post a (much shorter) update in 6 months and we'll see if I'm still singing their praises!

What are your thoughts on cloth vs disposable? Also have you ever been excited to get a new piece of furniture only to find out it was damaged?

Let There Be Paint

We finally finished painting in the nursery. Can I hear a hallelujah?!

A special thanks to my lovely husband who primed the two blue walls and to my (also lovely) friend Heather who came over on her day off and helped me slap on the paint and stay motivated to finish. I love the way it turned out and was excited to discover that using a dark color didn't suddenly make the room look like the Batcave; in a way it actually makes it look a little brighter, go figure. I am glad that we chose to pair it with a light gray...I'm really liking how the two play off of each other.

Of course like any decent project, this one didn't go down without its hiccups, despite our best intentions. There was a little of this:

I won't name names, but this was caused by a certain male in the house.

And a little lot of that:

It turns out that, even when using frog tape, it's important to take the time and crease the seal with your nail or another firm object so that the paint doesn't bleed through. Duh. Once I discovered my oversight (which of course happened to the [dark] blue walls first), I made sure to take the extra time when taping for the gray walls, which paid off - I had no bleed through on those baseboards. So...user error, big time. And note to self: test things with the lighter paint next time!

Due to the fact that 1. I forgot to ask Charles to tape the ceiling on the two gray walls and 2. Heather and I were both far shorter than we needed to be to do the job ourselves, the gray walls looked like this for about a week:

...until I was able to borrow a step ladder from my parents and finish 'er up.

Also, a word about paint quantity. I undershot a bit lot on how much paint we would need. A full gallon of each color would have been great to have (remember, I only bought 2 quarts of each...), though it would have made things a little less interesting as there would have been a lot less nail biting and silent rants in my head. In the end, two quarts was just enough to do one coat plus touch-ups. Not exactly ideal. It actually worked out better for the blue walls (even though they were solid walls not broken up by doors or windows) because the primer didn't allow the walls to soak up as much paint, so we had more to play with. The gray walls, despite having one window and two large doors, used far more paint for the first coat and I was scraping the barrel to finish painting the "bald" spots. They're not perfect, but I got most of the obvious ones (and ignored some in the corner behind the door). My normally perfectionistic self is actually okay with it. Bring on parenthood! Ha.

One last tip that ended up being a quick and easy way to bring some freshness to the the room - the outlet plates. I took most of them off (except for the ones for the phone jack and cable) before we painted the walls and noticed how gross they were. Observe:

My camera does not adequately capture their grossness

They had paint caked on around the edges, who knows how many years of grime and were just overall lackluster. And against my crisp blue and gray walls, I wanted them to pop! So I washed them. It's amazing how easy paint comes off of plastic, especially with some soap, hot water and a rough sponge. And afterwards they were looking much better:

To the left: Grody McGroderson; To the right: Mr. Clean!

A quick and super easy fix...though be sure to let them dry completely before putting them back on so there's no accidental shock action.

So now that the painting is done we have to:

• Set up the crib (my wonderful mother and step-dad got it for us and it should be in this week!)
• Fix up the dresser (I finally found one...more on that soon!)
• Finish the mobile
• Possibly find a twin bed for guests/those late night visits to the nursery - however this might be a "Phase 2" project
• Make/buy curtains

And a bunch of other little things that are escaping me. And we only have 5 1/2 weeks to go! Assuming the little guy doesn't decide to come early, which I'm starting to think he might just to throw a wrench into things :)

Painting Day!

Today is the day we try not to get paint on the carpet get to paint the nursery! We're primed and taped and ready to roll. Here's a peek into what the room looks like currently:

The primer turned out to be pretty dark, which is good for us since we're painting the walls a fairly dark color. This will help with better coverage and will hopefully (fingers crossed) allow us to cover both walls with only half a gallon of paint. Since the other two walls are being painted a light grey, we opted not to prime them.

A few things I learned while taping the room:

• Run a dust rag quickly over the base boards, window sills and anything else you're taping onto. This helps the tape stick better and won't create any gaps that might allow paint to come through.
• It's easiest to work with smaller strips rather than keeping it on the roll. I tore off sections between 12 and 18 inches long and found it easier to keep a consistent straight line.
• Tape over the outlets when you remove the plates...I'm guessing trying to clean paint out of those tiny holes isn't a party.
• Don't bother trying to remove the plates from a phone jack outlet - the wires are connected to the plate (duh) and therefore it cannot be removed. I opted to OCD tape around the outlet cover, but you could probably free hand it pretty easily.
• If you're 5'8" standing on a chair that's only 18" off the ground, you won't be able to tape the ceiling line of a room with 9' ceilings. Your husband will have to do this for you.

Charles only has one tip for priming/painting:

• Regardless of your best intentions, you will inevitably come away covered in paint. So wear old clothes. Especially socks. And then take a shower :)

I'll hopefully be sharing finished pictures the next time I post! Then there are only about eight thousand other small projects to finish before the baby gets here. Happy Friday!

When DIY Plans Go Awry

This past week I had a short and purely hypothetical relationship with a dresser. I saw it for $25 on Craigslist and at first glance it wasn't anything to write home about, but it looked to be solid wood and in good condition. And after having stalked Craigslist for the past few months looking for something suitable to fix up for the nursery and not coming up with much, I sent off an email. This was around 10:00 at night, so I figured I wouldn't hear back until the next morning.

I was a little worried about the height of the dresser (31") but figured I'd make it work for $25. Then as the night went on, as I went to bed, as I woke up at 3:30 in the morning and couldn't get back to sleep, I started making big plans for this dresser. In fact we became great friends.

I already knew I'd paint it white, and then to save even more money I had the thought that instead of buying new pulls - like I always figured I would when I got around to this particular project - I'd spray paint the original ones black. Ooo. I liked that. Black classic pulls on a crisp white dresser.

And then I made my way back to the height issue. And the fact that I wasn't a total fan of the bit of scroll ornamentation at the bottom of the dresser. So at 3:30 in the morning I had a stroke of complete brilliance (because what thought at 3:30 in the morning isn't brilliant?). I could solve both problems at once with one simple solution: new legs. I realized that recently I had been drawn to pieces sporting tapered wooden legs/feet.

So in the middle of the night I sat in front of my computer, squinting (I had forgotten my glasses in the bedroom) and researched where I could buy individual feet for my new, beautiful, white-with-fresh-black-pulls dresser. And I found these beauties:

They came in a variety of different heights and I thought the six inch feet would work quite nicely - or, if needed, the eight inch feet. At around $7 per leg, they were affordable and deliciously modern.

By this point, since I was on a roll, I started brainstorming about that top drawer (it looks like 3 drawers, but it's really just one). I liked the little curve at the top in the middle and thought - what if I took that drawer out completely, installed a flat piece of wood on the bottom and instead used it as a shelf/cubby to hold a few shallow baskets or easy-to-reach diaper changing necessities? Brilliant! My vision was complete:

I went back to bed, finally able to shut up my brain, and woke up to this email:

"Thank you Jessica for your message, dresser sold yesterday"

Of course.

So now I'm back to stalking Craigslist.

I'm a Fan

So I have a confession to make. I'm not entirely sure that I'm allowed to paint in my apartment. Did that stop me from buying $70 worth of paint this weekend? Nope.

I say not entirely sure because I've never actually even asked, just on the off chance that the answer is no. I figure I'm in a better situation if complications arise and I can say "Oh really? I had no idea..." quite truthfully.

The way I justify it is this: I'm going to paint it back. And because I'm a perfectionist, it will probably look better than it did before. Just sayin'. I did ask if the apartment provides touch up paint, and they do, which means all I'll have to do is bring it to the store, color match it, and buy a couple of gallons. But that could be years down the road, so onward!

Garage sale-ing with my mom this weekend didn't reward us with a dresser (though there is a candidate at a resale shop in town, so stay tuned), but I did walk away with this:

We hit up four garage sales in the area and then on our way back home caught sight of a church having one as well, so we made a quick stop. It was easy to see once we got inside that they didn't have the type of furniture we were looking for, but we walked around for a minute anyway and I happened to pick up the fan deck. Lo and behold, it was for Mythic paint - the exact paint brand that we're using for the nursery. Why yes, I think I'll take you home with me.

According to the tag on the back, it was originally $26.00 (and the ones on the website now are $30.00) so I feel pretty good about picking this one up for 2 buckeroos. Even though I already had our color picked out for the nursery (Plumage, by Martha Stewart), I figured it was good to have because 1. In case they had trouble color matching in the store (they didn't), I would be able to find the closest match via swatches, 2. I could pick out a complementary gray in Mythic's own colors and not have to color match, and 3. For future painting endeavors, I'd have it on hand.

The next day Charles and I set out to get the rest of the supplies to start the nursery painting process. First off was the primer:

Low odor & Zero VOC

We went with the Olympic primer that Young House Love used when they painted their guest room the same dark blue color. The nice thing about tinted primer is that you don't need as many final coats of the actual paint. And since this stuff is only $16 a gallon (vs $44 for the paint), I'm happy to add it to the materials list.

Next up was the actual paint:

Like I said in the last post, we went with Mythic paint because it's non-toxic and zero VOC - even when they add in the color. So while it's about twice as expensive as regular paint, I'm happy with the choice since it's going in the nursery. Also, don't you just love their retro-esque branding?

We ended up getting two quarts of the Plumage accent color and two quarts of the gray - each one will be on two of the four walls in the room. We're leaving the ceiling alone, even though it's the same beige/off-white color the rest of the walls currently are. I don't think I have the stamina or the arm strength to mess with it...we just won't look up :)

We also picked up a few other supplies:

I was initially just going to ask around my various family members to borrow rollers, brushes and the like, but I figured if I'm going to be a real DIY-er, I need my own equipment. And at $9.97 for the ("$25 Value!") set, it wasn't exactly breaking the bank. Also added to the ranks: frog tape (so much better than blue painter's tape) and a "valved respirator" mask. Even though the paint is zero VOC and we'll be keeping the windows open for ventilation, I'll still feel better about wearing one of these bad boys.

The plan for this week is to clear out the remainder of the room, tape and prime and then early next week we'll tackle the painting.

Current cost breakdown:

• Primer: $18
• Painter set, frog tape & mask: $26
• 4 Quarts of Mythic paint: $70

TOTAL: $114

So I'll be sure to post updates on our first major painting adventure...Any painting tips you'd like to share? :)

Nursery Idea Board

So I thought I'd end my month+ long sabbatical with something fun! We finally moved and got settled in and then my nesting instincts took over and I'm itching to get started on decorating the nursery (we're actually going to have a nursery!). Being in a two bedroom apartment? Super awesome, by the way.

I've been Pinning nursery ideas over on Pinterest like a madwoman for the past few months and I finally got around to making an idea board. Before we found out what we were having I was being drawn to more feminine touches, so when we found out we were having a boy, I was a little worried that I wouldn't know what direction to take. But one afternoon on Pinterest and suddenly I had a completely different vision. I love old maps and globes, and I decided that with a traveler theme I could incorporate a bunch of different topics (trains, hot air balloons, etc) without getting too match-y. If there's one thing I knew I wanted to stay away from, it was a room that looked like a catalog. I also didn't want to go with something that screamed "baby", so that we could adapt it as he grows a little older.

The wall color is bold, but it's my favorite aspect. I first saw it over on Pinterest, but then it turned out to link to one of my favorite blogs, Young House Love. The color is called Plumage, by Martha Stewart, and I plan on having the color matched to a no VOC paint called Mythic Paint. This means it will be safer for me to use while pregnant (while taking frequent breaks, wearing a mask and keeping the windows open), but it will also be safer for our little guy, since it doesn't produce the fumes that normal paint can off-gas up to 30 days after painting. It's a little pricier than standard paint, but well worth the cost.

I can't wait to get started and share the progress!