You're Putting a Baby Where?!?

In all of those baby magazines and emails they send expecting parents, there are pictures of what a baby's nursery is supposed to look like. Gleaming hardwood floors, bright and cheery paint, and stately furniture.

And then there is the second bedroom of our Cape-style house, which used to be a cow barn. To say it "needs work" would be polite. Three years ago, when Jen and I moved in, we did not choose this room for our own sleeping quarters. Now we are going to put a infant in it.

Allow us to give you a tour.

This is the view, from the hallway, of what will soon be Gaius's bedroom. Note the cans of paint beneath the window. We picked a nice, bright color for the walls called "bicycle yellow". If we want to get this paint on the walls, we need to start soon. Once it starts warming-up, the temperature upstairs can reach 90 degrees on a hot day-- too hot for painting. Not even the air-condition will help. Time is ticking.

The next picture is the left side of the nursery. If you look closely, you can see giant nails on the 3rd beam from the left. We should probably remove these. And that metal stove-pipe-looking thing? It's an old metal stove pipe, no longer attached to anything. Just the right size for a baby to crawl into and fall through. Since my plasma T.V. is right below this pipe, we cannot allow this to happen.

You will also note a crib and a high chair. These were graciously donated by my good friend Paul. His daughters are grown and no longer need them, so Jen and I are thankful to be able use them for Gaius and save ourselves a couple hundred dollars. Thanks, Pablo!

Our cat Filbert, also sends his thanks. One of his favorite games to play is, "Who's the Baby?". It goes like this. I say to Filbert, "Who's the baby?!?!" Filbert's tail fluffs-up, he runs into the nursery, and jumps into the crib. I keep saying "Who's the baby?", Filbert purrs, roles around, and drools on the mattress. So much fun, this game, although a little disturbing. What's going to happen when the real baby shows up? Are we going to have a man-vs.-beast style show-down in the crib? My money would have to be on Filbert, at least for the first 6 months.

This next, and last, picture is the right side of the nursery. Needs a lot of work, folks. Giant hole to patch, old water-damaged dry wall to cut out and replace, and more nails to remove. Did I mention that all 8 of the 12-foot wood beams need to be taped-off with painter's tape? By my calculations that's 192 feet of tape. Oh man. I hope Jen can balance on a ladder 10 feet up in the air.

Yes, that's a pack-n-play on the floor. Another too-generous gift from my friend Paul. We are planning to use this as a bassinet/co-sleeper at first, then as a baby-cage when Gaius starts crawling around and he needs to be contained.

As you can see, we have our work cut out for us. Fear not. We have developed a 5-step plan for turning this hazardous old hay-loft into a cozy little nursery:

1. Patch holes in the wall.

2. Prime holes.

3. Tape-off all wood that is not to become bicycle-yellow.

4. Paint.

5. Argue throughout.


Just kidding about Step #3, That's way to much tape.

Well, there you have it. A tour of our nursery-to-be. We will post updates on the ongoing improvements to this room as they occur.