Did you say DIY?

Now that we have this new house, and it needs oh so many improvements, and I am losing my job, and have no money I have resorted to doing things myself.  I'm not trying to sound snooty about it.  I am just bad at everything.

I vowed that at the new house we wouldn't do anything cheap and crappy, but as it turns out, that's exactly what I've been doing...but with flare!

I've been pouring over design blogs and DIY blogs for ideas of things to do myself.  Currently on the list are faux board and batten in our laundry room, A pelmet for Eden's room, and perhaps for the uglier than ugly semi circle window in our family room, and lastly, night stands for our bedroom.  I saw this Bungalow 5 side table in a bedroom spread in Elle Decor (I think), and fell in love.  Problem?  $720 each.  Bah to that.

In researching better pricing, I came across several DIY posts making night stands that looked a lot like the B5 ones.  I decided I would undertake one of my first real DIY jobs (other than painting).  This was scary.  The only other thing I ever tried to do was crackling a bookcase back in '96, and that resulted in re-painting it lavender, then trashing it after six months. 

However, the to postings I read about 15 times, made it sound somewhat doable for even an amateur such as myself.  I love a spoiler, so I will show you the DIYs and "After" shots of the two blogs I used to help me do this myself.

The first one is here but she lives in Canada, and some of the stuff wasn't available at our Home Depot (neither was the hardware), so I used this post instead, and she did a more in depth tutorial with lots of pics for a dummy like me.

So, we ventured to IKEA for the second time in a month.  It's one of Lyla's favorite places, so we tend to go just for fun and a few glasses sometimes.  I also adore the fur throws, so I end up picking them up fairly often since they get Filo-ized over time. Lyla will now go into the playroom by herself since visiting with her cousins Noah and Piper, so that gives us some time to bust the place up before we have to sleep in all the beds and visit the "toy section" with Lyla.  Yes, we get meatballs, were you going to ask that?

We picked up two Rast night stands.  The look like this, and are $34.99 each.  Anything from IKEA scares me, as do paper directions for anything since my brain does not allow me to comprehend any directions given to me in this way.  Trent is always in charge of paper directions or anything that comes with a bag of hardware.

So, last night at almost 10, I guilted Trent into building the tables for me.  I think I even threatened "hating" him if he didn't help in our pursuit of making crap ourselves.  The good man that he is, he went upstairs while I watched the Rachel Zoe Project, and built the night stands.  Yay!  It took him an hour to build both.  He is a total whiz with them, so I knew he was the man for the job, and I was the woman to ensure Rach didn't have her baby this episode.

In between working in the morning (because I forgot Lyla's ballet stuff and had to make an additional trip home), I decided to start the process.

I will share a few pics with you now, and then let you know how the final phases come together.  I have to wait for the drawer fronts to dry, and the stain to dry before doing the lacquer, and having Trent finish the construction of the drawer slides.  Oh shit.  I just though of this...
Trent left the wood for the sides of the drawers upstairs because he couldn't build it until the white fronts were dry.  Which means, I have to stain the side boards!  Blast.  I thought I was done with stain.

Anyway, here are the shots from today's job.

The painted pieces in Royal's high gloss white

The unfinished frames ready for their fate

The wood filler for the silver bolts with holes

My hand full of paint and sticky stain.

One done, one on deck

Close-up of side

Close-up of top

Both done-zo...for now

No One Pees More Than Eden

We all know kids pee a lot.  However, I really think that my kid pees more.  It's not that she pees so often, I think that when she does pee, she takes the kind of pee husbands take when they've held it at a football game until half time and break the seal.  It's a forever pee. 

When E goes down at 8-8:30 her diaper is of course changed, and pajamas put on.  She either wakes up at 3-ish because she is soaked, or manages to make it until we feed her at 5:30 when she is most certainly soaked.  When I say soaked, I mean 20 pound diaper, pajamas drenched, crib sheet and crib totally wet.  Maybe it's the Seventh Generation diapers?  Maybe they don't hold as much?  Although, in pinches we've had to get other brands, and I believe she has soaked those as well.  She's just a soaker.  I think I'm going to have to research overnight diapers or something that hold more pee.  The thing is, she's also wet all the way up to her chest.  It's like she's been dipped it a glass of water.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind changing the kid, but to have to change all the garb and the crib sheet at such an hour is painstaking.  For those of you who saw my Facebook post about changing a crib sheet, you can relate.  It's so damn tight, and never stretches enough.  I never buy the cotton ones any more, only the cheap knit ones.  At least they have some stretch to them.  The fancy sheet that came with my Dwell bedding must have been the size of a bassinet sheet.  I had to use super human strength to put it out.  I would break out in a sweat, and my fingers would be red with abrasions.  I sense an invention by Leslie Wagner brewing.  Please make sheets made out of neoprene or something. 

Every morning, the scene in E's room is two sets of wet-ass pajamas, usually a crib sheet all hanging to dry until they go to the wash, and then her smiling face, happy as a clam to be on the scene.  That's the other thing, she really never fusses about the whole thing.  Even with poop.  The kid can have a total explosion in there, and never gives you any indication she's any worse for the wear. 

It's not just at night either.  I could change her, and an hour later, I see she soaked through jeans!  Yes, jeans.  Like I said, it's not like she pees a million times.  I think she just lets loose like a faucet when she does go, because it happens so quickly.  You'll check and she's fine.  Two minutes later you're changing her out of some complicated get-up.  I should really just dress her in onesies. 

Speaking of which, Laura, our nanny didn't have a change of clothes one day over the summer, so she cut the bottom of a onesie off and the bottom half of the outfit ended up just being a diaper.  She was such a white trash baby that day.  The way she cut it was all off, and it became a half shirt like a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader. 

Lyla wore the same diapers, and she never had this issue.  We really hace a hefty number oner on our hands.  That's for sure.