This week we’ve been working on priming Claire’s room, the master bedroom, the master bathroom and the bathroom. Claire’s room has definitely been the hardest. The walls were a light shade of blue but there were bright red hand prints all over the walls and ceilings. Oh, and the trim was bright red. BRIGHT RED. We used a half a 5-gallon jug of primer in there alone, but now everything is pretty and completely white and totally worth it. I’ve been working this week and Andrew has been home priming while the kids are in daycare, but I’ve been going over in the evenings before picking the kids up to try to help. Andrew left last night to go get his car from our old place and should be back tonight, so this whole weekend we can work on knocking out the bedrooms and bathrooms. We still need to put a second coat of primer on in both bathrooms and do a coat of tinted primer in Claire’s room and the master bedroom, then prime Logan’s room and start painting. Once all of that is done we can move the furniture out of our living room and into the bedrooms, then move all of the dining room furniture into the living room so we can prime and paint the dining room/kitchen. Once that is done we need to move all of the dining room and living room furniture into the dining room so we can prime and paint the living room/hallway.

Hopefully by next weekend we will be completely done with all of the painting and our house will have some semblance of order. Sort of. We took down all of the blinds and curtains that were in here and are going to be installing new Levolor cordless blinds and drapery rods. Also, we have an old dresser and nightstand that were Andrew’s when he was a kid that I want to refinish white and put some cute hardware on for Claire’s room. We’re going to put the really-ugly-but-super-comfy-wingback chair in Logan’s room, and I’m just going to pick up a white slipcover from Bed Bath & Beyond and use Rit dye to make it a bright blue. I think that would look awesome with his yellow/green walls. After that I’m seriously taking a break, because come Spring we’re going to be doing a lot of work on the yard.

1. Which took two days because we did a massive amount of cleaning, the property manager told us it was that cleanest apartment on move out she’s ever been in. I don’t like to give anyone any reason to not return my whole deposit.

I didn’t get any pictures of the house because my SD card in my phone decided to die, but next Wednesday we’ll be getting some painting done and I’ll make sure to take some before-and-afters. The owner of the house is super awesome and has already told us any work we put into the house will come directly off of our rent. I would love to replace the carpets. There is currently some super soft carpet in there, but it’s this hideous brown color the owner described as “able to go with anything”. Umm, right. I’d like to go with an easy to install, easy to maintain laminate flooring, like Pear Tree Bruna from Home Depot, throughout the whole house except the bathrooms (hello gorgeous Marazzi Montagna Lugano tile for the bathrooms). But floors and all of that will come at a later date, next week we’re just concerned with painting and possibly moulding so we can get moved in quickly. Though now that I think of it it would make sense to wait on replacing/installing baseboard moulding until we do the floors. Hmm. I would like chair rail moulding in the dining room and crown moulding throughout the house, but I suppose if we’re not going to do the baseboards we should just wait and do all of it together. Okay so next week we’re just painting.

I’m still contemplating on whether to give the kids their own rooms or make them share a room, it really all depends on whether we can find places to fit our desks. I think we can fit at least one desk in the living room, but the bedrooms are pretty small and we have a king size bed so I’m not sure if we’d be able to get a desk in the master bedroom with all of our other furniture. Unless we stash the dresser in the closet… Anyways, you can tell this is all new and we’re still working things out. Let’s just look at some pretty colors!

If we do separate rooms for the kids Claire will get the lovely and soft Dark Lilac. Logan’s would be a bit more bright, Carolina Parakeet.

For the living room I wanted something relaxing and muted, but still interesting. I have completely fallen for Solitude. For the dining room and kitchen I was looking for something more neutral but not an abrupt change as you flow from the living room, which is why I chose Camel.

In the bathrooms I picked something to match the pretty tile flooring I’d like to have, Desert Shadow. In the master bedroom I was looking for something intimate and cozy and landed on Semi Sweet.

I’m sure I’ve bored some people to tears, but I could go on and on about lighting fixtures and appliances and faucets and shrubbery. It’s exciting, y’all. I’ve finally found a place I can improve and tweak like my very own house without having to make a big huge commitment and financial undertaking. Excitement!

I doubt it comes as a shock that I was a real tomboy growing up, as were my two sisters. Legos were a big part of our childhood, along with video games, sports, climbing trees and wading in creeks to catch crawdads. We enjoyed a lot activities usually expected of boys, and yet our mother still bought us Barbies and we watched Disney princess movies and wore pink clothes. We did both, and our mom stood back and let us, and when we grew up we did so with varied interests and the knowledge that our lady bits didn’t stop us from doing whatever the hell we wanted.

I understand that as parents we have this awesome responsibility of creating a future adult who will hopefully be a well adjusted, productive member of society, but sometimes I think that responsibility pushes us to micromanage things a bit. Don’t get me wrong, from what I’ve read of Ornstein she doesn’t suggest forcing your child to do anything, but I just don’t like the idea of removing a child’s choices. Some kids, girls and boys, like pastel colors and pretty Lego figurines – called “ladyfigs” – that can be played with in cafe’s and pools and invention workshops. Though I do disagree with toys that place emphasis on physical beauty and consumerism, not all girl toys will turn little girls into brain dead women obsessed with their looks, and if we’re telling our daughters this – maybe not explicitly, but with our reactions – how do you think the ones who enjoy playing with Barbies and pink Legos will feel?

In the end I believe that if we want to raise children who are happy, confident and have a healthy amount of self worth we should allow them to be themselves. Let girls, and boys, choose how they play (safely), and make sure they know no matter what their choice is not wrong or bad.

1. Ornstein says they are, citing a list called “10 characteristics for Lego” by a son of the founder, “for girls and for boys”.

I didn’t get a cake, and that’s because I completely forgot about a cake until Dez mentioned it on Facebook. My bad. I did eat an insane amount of those little donuts at the buffet, and that’s all I really need.