Nursery Anticipation

I'm so excited about our nursery. We have everything picked out. In fact, we picked out most of what we wanted for the nursery (bedding, furniture, paint colors, etc) within a couple weeks of finding out the sex of the baby!

And yet our guest bedroom (the future nursery) has not been touched. Not for lack of motivation, either! We (especially Brad) have been itching to dive into this particular project. Brad is so excited about the nursery and has been even before we were pregnant. It was his project. Of course, he expected me to be a big part of the decision-making but when it came time to do the work, he has always talked about how much he was going to enjoy putting the nursery together. Everything from painting to building the furniture to doing the all manly things that he can do in preparation for the baby. You know, while I grow her. ;-)

And I think that's mostly because in every way, it really is his thing. Not only is there not much else can he do during his stint of the pregnancy (except for make me comfortable and help out around the house, which he has been amazing at!) . . . but also this project is perfect for him! While I love decorating and putting a room together in my head, he actually has the patience required to do the job the right way. For example, whenever we've painted a room together, I take the rolling and he does the cutting in. Why? Because I need to feel productive and like I'm blowing through a task and he actually has the patience to sit and paint the tiny, detailed areas meticulously, all the while not spilling a drop and not getting frustrated. In this way (and because he has to deal with me day in and day out), my husband has the patience of Job.

Oh! And he's also much more artistic than me. I, for one, can't draw a stick man with a ruler and he can pretty much copy whatever he sees through painting, drawing, whatever! How lucky am I?!?

And for me this is great because it means that he is not only willing but eager to let me choose anything for the nursery (paint, furniture, projects, etc) and he'd happily be up for the task! Not to say that he isn't interested in being involved in the design part of the process. Instead it's just to say that because he's so artistic and patient, that inability or unwillingness on his part wouldn't be something that narrowed our options for what we could do with the room! Even things that I was sure he'd need help with, he would insist he could do on his own!! Woo hoo!

So why on Earth haven't we even started on the nursery? Ugh. Well, since it's our only guest room we've had some trouble letting go of it. We'd still really like a room for our guests. So we've been trying to think of a way to preserve our hosting abilities (combine the office and the guestroom, get a sleeper sofa, etc). And until we figured out how (or even if) we can do this, we couldn't very well start on the nursery. (Where would we put all the guest room stuff?) But I've definitely tried to do as much as possible without keeping it from being a guest room in the meantime. We cleaned out the closet in that room, threw out a bunch of unnecessary stuff, re-organized and re-shuffled and found a home for everything in there that was non-baby . . . except for the furniture.

So finally, about a month ago, we just decided to let it go. We don't have overnight guests often (maybe a couple of times a year) and it just wasn't practical to shove a bed into our office, a room we use every day of the year. In the end, it's our home and we have to be comfortable in it and make it work for us, not guests. We may get a sofabed in the future if it seems reasonable. But part of me doesn't even want to do that because I can't think of anyone who would visit who would rather sleep on a sofabed in our den rather than have their own hotel room. I guess we'll see.

BUT my brother and sister-in-law were visiting at the end of October and it seemed like a perfect final farewell to our guestroom. I mean, what a shame to convert the room into a nursery right before we knew they were visiting. So we held out a little longer.

And this is the first weekend that we've been FREE to officially start on the nursery. It seems like everyone I know who is pregnant (online and off) whether they are due about the same time as me or not as far along, has started on their nursery. I feel like such a slacker! Plus I'm so envious of all the adorable nursery pics I'm seeing. I just can't wait to get started. I helped Brad clear out the room today and Habitat for Humanity will be picking up all of the guest room furniture from that room. I'm working tomorrow but he'll be spackling nail holes, prepping and painting while I'm out of the house. (Have I mentioned that I think he's awesome?)

I can't wait to come home Sunday morning to a cleared out, cleaned up, PINK room! We are planning on waiting for our shower to see if we get any of our nursery furniture before we go out and buy it. Until then, we'll still have a little more painting to do over the base color and some shelves and decorations to hang. Eeeeek!! It's like she's actually coming!! :-D

~Layne

PS: Sorry for the convoluted ramble. Can you tell I tend to WAY over-think things?