Leif's room

So awhile back I declared that my July goal was to get Leif's room painted. For some reason I said that not really expecting I would get to it. Summer is always WAY too busy. Last year I took the summer mostly off from my goals.

Then we didn't know what to get Leif for his birthday. Actually I had picked something out and placed it on his wish list early. My plan was to order it after getting back from the trip to the cabin, before anyone would possibly be shopping for birthday presents for him. I got back and it was missing off the Wish List and sitting on our porch instead! Oh well - someone else thought it was a perfect gift for him and jumped on it.

Leaving us less then enthused about the remaining options. Leif is a hard kid to buy for. We did Legos - lots of them - for Christmas last year and so even though there are a number of sets he wants, we didn't really want to do Legos from us again. He has a bike. He isn't big into "toys". We have games and puzzles. AB and I went through the list and I continued to balk and say "no" everytime he mentioned a Wii. See we had agreed we would get a Wii for the family after the house sold (which it did this past weekend... another post for later). I did NOT want it to be a birthday gift for Leif.

Finally I suggested we decorate his room for his birthday in addition to getting him a few little things. AB jumped on this.

We picked out paint. That caused angst.

I had my notions on what colors we would use and then AB had to go and state that we really needed to have Leif pick the colors. I sighed and agreed... Leif could pick the colors of his new room.

This seemed like an acceptable idea until we went to Home Depot and he selected "yellow for one wall, blue for another wall, red for another wall, green for another wall and brown for the ceiling". Or something like that.

At which point I rolled my eyes WAY up in my head for AB's benefit.

Finally AB pulled out the blues and the greys in the Disney and Nickelodeon section and put them in front of Leif. He picked two.

Then for good measure we grabbed cans of high gloss red, green and black to paint lightsabers on his wall.

We got home and I slapped up samples.

Gag.

The grey looked like baby blue. The blue looked like... well it looked like blue. Bright blue. But I plodded on knowing it was what "Leif wanted". Not what *I* wanted, but *I* don't have to live in the room, right?

We tested the quarts and I admitted I could deal. Until AB gave me an out - "maybe that grey is too blue'ish".

I latched onto another grey and didn't look back. And I don't think Leif is any the wiser. And the new grey is a REAL grey.

Last weekend we painted two walls blue - the bright blue - the bright blue I can live with now that I got a real grey. Two other walls are painted grey. And the ceiling will be a deep navy/black color.

Leif likes it.

Skadi is downright thrilled.

Every morning she comes to get me and leads me by the hand to Leif's room where she declares, "it's SOOOO BEEEEEEAUUUUUTIFUL!" Then she leads me by the hand to her room and says, "paint my room now".

I hadn't planned on actually painting her room until she was a little older. Leif had a "toddler" room at the other house (the elephant on the wall), but by the time he was about 4.5 years old he was ready for something else. But I think I can finagle something that might have staying power... somthing that will latch her on now and still be "neat" when she is 5. Skadi has requested "green" and so I am thinking a pretty green with flowers painted on the walls. She loves flowers. And it would look good with her Dora accent stuff. Anyways... August/September goal? That would be Skadi's room.

We still need to finish the room off... the blue needs a second coat in spots despite having primer in it. The ceiling needs to be done. (AB needs to do the paint, I am a klutz, if you wonder why there is a strip of blue paint across the carpet it's because I was a klutz.) Then we need to hang up the characters - Ahsoka Tano, Obi Wan and then grandma Charlene bought Leif Yoda as well. I need to paint the lightsabers. We need to hang his moon light and move the stars on the ceiling from the old bedroom in the other house to the new bedroom.

We should finish a good portion of this this weekend. But given that we also have a birthday party to throw, and I am dying to get a pedicure (I WILL get a pedicure) - we may not finish until the 2nd weekend in August. Pictures when it is complete!

Then we will start planning Skadi's room.

Then hopefully our house will close on August 28th and I can think about tackling a room for me... painting it the colors *I* want and actually spending money to buy stuff for said room. Hopefully it isn't just a dream!