Prior to bringing Selina home, I redid our den and the girls bedrooms. I finished most of it a few days before I left for Africa so I never posted the finished product...
I love decorating and feel I am especially gifted at getting nice things at good prices. It helps because I love nice things but cannot afford them but have found that if I am patient, all good things are at least 75% off at some point! LOL
THE DEN:
Right before getting our referral for Selina, I started going a little crazy with the wait and had to do something so that it felt more real to me that we were adopting. I posted about it
here at the time.
So in preparation at the time for what I thought might be two older siblings because we were open to two children up to age eight, we redid the den. As TR was painting the den, we got the referral call for Selina. We had to laugh as we thought that a two year old probably won't get the full benefit of the remodeled den.
This gives you a feel for the den before- this is just a pic I took of the desk for when I sold it on Craigslist.
We wanted a new desk that had a lot of storage and space to put the kids games and such. I really lucked out as I called
my favorite wood furniture company to get a quote on buiding a custom desk. When it was way out of my budget, I asked if they had any desks they were trying to get rid of that might work for us. Sure enough, this was a desk that an employee used for three years and then it sat in pieces for another five years or so. It had water damage on the top. So they offered us this desk at about one seventh the cost of a custom desk and that included them fixing the top of it. It was the deal of the century, I still get excited thinking about it. This desk also has room for two kids to sit if they are doing something together on the computer.
So we ended up painting the room, putting down laminate wood floors and getting a new desk. An example of my bargaining skills are with the wood floor. I fell in love with a floor that was more than I wanted to spend. I did some research and got it for $2 less a square foot, then when getting quotes on installation, I found someone with a good reputation that was dollars less a square foot to install than the flooring stores charge.
I wanted to do a cornice board over the window to add some texture and color and fell in love with this tapestry.
Here you can see the fabric a little better although the light is making it look a little weird. Can you see my multicultural people on there? I think this fabric is so fun!
We still are not done with the den but we have the kids table and an easel out and the kids play kitchen is in the closet. I still need to finish arranging things in the desk, (it has only been five months!), putting decorations and art on the walls and paint the closet door with chalkbard paint so they can use it as a chalkboard and I will be done! I never can quite finish a project before moving on to the next...
THE GIRL'S ROOM:
With the addition of Selina, Cater and her were to share a room. It has been important for me to have the kids room ready before they come home. I did this with Kman and Cater and so I also wanted to make sure that when Selina came home, she had a pretty room and a comfortable bed.
This was Cater's room before...
The girls have their own bathroom in their bedroom. I kept the bathroom the same but we (or should I say TR- thank you honey) painted it a fun yellow (the second picture)
Their room is a nice size for a room here in Arizona (for some reason secondary bedrooms tend to be smaller that other parts of the country) but it has only about a wall and a half of space for furniture because of the closet, bathroom door and a large window looking out front. I only had one wall for both girls bed and wanted a lot of storage yet needed both beds on one wall. I had this unit done (by the same nice man that sold me the desk) and it worked out perfectly as it has nice big drawers below the beds for their clothes- saving me from having to get a dresser.
I had it all set to take Cater's comforter and have it cut in half and finished off so the girls would each have half of it at the end of their beds. Unfortunately when I took it in to get dry cleaned per the instructions, it was destroyed as apparantly the colors were not ever locked. You can see below, whe difference between the pillow that was not washed and the comforter. The solid patches in the comforter that look off white were supposed to be a bright coral. The company that sold me the bedding had no sympathy for me and did not stand behind their bedding at all (bad, very bad Davenport Home Furnishings) and so I ended having to get different bedding because I had bedding that I could never wash. (thank you mom and dad for doing that as a gift for the girls!:-))
I also wanted to repaint this room. TR wasn't excited about that but when the new bedding did not have purple, we ended up deciding to do green as it is Cater's favorite color and I think it is more calming. My neighbor was getting crown molding done in her home and since the crown molding guy was across the street I had him stop by for a quick quote. Since he was already in the hood, he gave me a smoking deal to just do the girl's room and bathroom. I thought it would look good with their white shutters and bed unit. We painted the walls green and then the ceiling the same green but two shades lighter.
So there you have it! I finished their rooms with a few days to spare before leaving to meet Selina and bring her home. I can tell you that after the 14 month process and a month in Ghana, how wonderful it was to see our new daughter sleeping in her own bed. I pictured her at home and sleeping peacefully in her bed for weeks and it was so much better than I ever imagined!...
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