Project Nursery: Crib Notes

There's something about actually putting a crib in room it's intended for that made me giddy with excitement. But lets back up a bit and talk about our very quick crib hunt. When we found out we where pregnant, I pretty much already knew I wanted a Jenny Lind Crib. Our oldest son also had a Jenny Lind crib, I loved it then and I love the crib now. I knew wanted, just had to convince Mr. CLH the crib in white wouldn't look to girly, lucky for me he agreed. I was all set to buy the crib online via Amazon.com less hassle. 

One day way back in January, while out Shopping with my husband and I our son I stopped in Sears to check out baby items. I stopped dead on my tracks when I saw the exact white Jenny Lind crib in white and on clearance! For 1/2 the price the Amazon one was, so our crib only cost us $ 99.99!! Remember how I said, buying online would be less hassle, well only two of us could ride home in the car, since the crib took up our backseat. So I stayed behind while my husband and son took our crib home, while waiting on them I hit up the food court. Here's Mr. CLH putting the crib together last weekend. 

After we out we were expecting a little baby boy, my hunt begun for bedding and would work well with the Artichoke Pear Curtains, I fell in love with here. At first I was leaning towards buying a bedding set on Esty, but when you want a certain color it can be so HARD to find what you want. One day whiling strolling thought Target's baby section, I saw Dwell studio's new baby line. I was overjoyed when I say the exact color Artichoke Pear that I've been looking for. I also liked the cute modern animals  (giraffe, hippo, and camel ) pattern. Of course I bought the bedding and coordinating sheet. 

I wanted to bring in a bit more color in and pattern into the bedding with a fun print. I don't know if its just where we live in Northern California, but finding cute fabric can be a chore. So I looked online and came across this darling print for the crib skit. Like several ladies in blogland, I decide to sew my own crib skirt pants (my husband prefers saying pants since its for a little boy!), but skipped the sewing part and used iron on hem tape. It made the task of DIY a Crib skirt pants even faster. I attached the crib skirt to the bed using Velcro. As he gets older and we move the crib down, the skirt pants will be able to keep adjusting.


Here's the pretty fabric I used, I bought 2 yards and end up using most of it, the rest will be truned into some cute for his nuseryt. In person the fabric is less sprout green and more artichoke pear.  

Making the crib skirt pants, after each side was hemmed I used trusty blue painters tape to hold in pace to check the length. 

Even before placing the remaing beding on the crib, was already smitten with how the geometric pattern look against the classic lines of the Jenny Lind Crib. Again my iron pretty much sucks and wouldnt actaully iron the cirb skirt pants. Oh well.

 Last week after sharing the curtains for our baby's nusery I promised better pictures, of course I missed great sunlight momments, boo! But here's how our son's nursery looks right now. I love how all the patterns work so well together, and the chevron baby blanket, made looks cute laying on the crib.

I'm going to plant some pretty flowers in black hanging pots outside the sliding glass door and also a cute bird feeder to attrach birds in the summer.

The room is fianlly coming together, and our little one is set to arrive within the next 7 weeks. I'm hoping to have the nursery finished in the next 3 - 4 weeks, pray for me! lol 

What do you think so far?

Follow Along: As we create a nursery for our baby boy due in June 2011. From the beginning; Nursery Bare Bones, Paint Makes the Difference, Bye Bye Boob Light  & Hemming & Hawing

How We Refinished Our Hardwood Floors

Hey Blogland

I'm Hasani aka Mr.CLH this is my first official post so go easy on me lol .

We decided to re-do the floors because they looked every bit of their 50 + years. At one time there was carpet on the floor so in some areas you could see where someone had a hard time removing it and the color of the wood was a huge distraction at times. It didn't feel like us. Our hardwood floors before:

Prepping Our Floors

At first we both had our hearts set on a really dark brown for the new floors but then decided to go with a more natural color Minwax's Early American. After moving all the furniture into the garage and kitchen the first thing my Father and Law and I did was sweep all the floors and used a dry vacuum to remove any dust. Before sanding we taped off all the vents so that the dust wouldn't get stuck in them, we even put a large plastic bag around our bedroom chandelier. I tired really hard not use news paper with good coupons on them but some had to be sacrificed for the good of the house lol.

The Sanding Process

Next we sanded the floors using a drum belt sander and a edge sander (a heavy duty hand held sander for the edges and corners) we rented from HD HOME SUPPLY way cheaper than any other place we looked, and the had a 20% off rental special that weekend, bonus. We used 36 grit sandpaper to start the process. We did a test area in a closet to see how well the old stain was coming up. It's always good to test in an area like the closet.

When sanding the floors you want to so back and forth in the directions of the wood grain, don't stop in one place or you good leave gauges in your wood. My Father in Law used the drum belt sander, we started in the nursery first.

After he finished a room, I used the edge sander for the corners and edges of the floor its really good for the hard to reach areas and around the base boards and corners. It get really tiring since your on knees the entire time (I wore knee pads which really helped) But its the only way to get those hard to reach areas and make your DIY project look professional.

It took us about 12 hours split up between two days to get all the floors completely sanded. I really liked how the bare floors looked. We did one last lap on the floors using a 100 girt sandpaper, gives the wood a nice smooth finish. After the floors were completely sanded we still had to remove dust from the floors (even though there was a bag attached to both sanders) we used a small amount of water and 'damp mopped the areas.' Next we waited for the floors to completely dry before applying the stain.

(The Nursery)

( Tabari's Room )

(Living Room Floor)

We chose the color Early American after a quick trip to Home Depot right after the floors were bare of old stain, we test, new oak wood right in the store, Katrina and I agreed we liked how the color look instantly. Again we used a closet to test the color of the stain making sure the color looked good on our old floors.

We got a GOOD price on 2.5 gallons of Poly, on clearence.

Applying Stain

We used small water container to pour the stain on the floors. We used a lambs wool applicator and lint free towel to apply the stain on the floors. Make sure you apply the stain following the direction of wood grain. Then we wiped the excess stain off using the lint free towel waiting only a few minutes between wiping. We only had to wait a five minutes because the floor was soaking up the stain quick and we didn't want the color to be too dark. After wiping away the first section, I got excited. I could tell the floors where going to look really nice.

The hardest part about working with the stain for me was keeping my hands from touching the walls. I had to touch up paint many parts of our the walls!

Once the entire floor is covered in stain you have to wait 24 hours before applying the second coat thank god we only needed one coat. I think two coats of stain would have been to much. We used almost 2 gallons of the stain we bought.

Applying the Poly

The next day we applied the poly. We did a light sanding using a 120 grit sandpaper and then removed dust. This time we used a floor orbital sander my father brought with him. Before applying the poly, my Father in Law thinned out the poly with paint thinner. By thinning out the paint thinner the poly was easy to pour on the floors. Make sure you talk with your local paint store before before thinning out poly. My Father in Law has lots experience thinning out paint and ploy and knows the ratio (poly & paint thinner). He worked well under my supervision, lol.

Again we used a thin nosed watering can to pour the poly on the floors. My Father in Law applied the poly on the floors, since he is experienced at at. He used a weighted pole, again he followed the grain of the wood floors and was very careful not to leave lap marks. Which can happen easy with poly. We waited another 24 hours before applying the second coat of poly. After the last coat of poly was applied we wait 72 + hours before returning home.

Budget Breakdown:

Floor Sander Rental: $ 32 (after 20% off discount) 24 hr Rental
Edge Sander: $ 21.75 (after 20% off discount) 24 hr Rental
Sand Paper - Gift from Father in Law
2 Gallons of Minwax Early American Stain: $ 43.88 - Used a Lowes $ 10off Coupon at Home Depot! Gotta Love Price Matching
2.5 Gallon of Minwax High Build Poly: $ 26.79 (on clearance! at Lowes)
Oil Varnish Applicator: $ 6.78
Labor for Father in Law's Help: Dinner at Sizzlers, his favorite restaurant: Priceless

Total Cost $ 131.20 to refinished our Living Room, Hallway and Three Bedrooms

While we where at Home Depot looking for stain we noticed an ad for refinishing hardwood floors, the cost $ 4.00 a sq foot. We estimate having our wood floors done though them would have cost us around $ 4000-

Savings, just a measly $ 3800- give or take a few bucks

I love the new floors its dark like we originally wanted and still has natural earth tones. I also like how our wood floors have charactor and like the various shades of color. Here's our floors now (we'll share more picutres of the after, once Katrina and I finish up a few changes in the rooms)

( The Nursery)

(Our Bedroom)

Thanks for reading if you have any questions feel free to ask .Good luck if you decide to take on this project its a lot of work but well worth it.

*Remember to do your the research 1st before taking on this project, prices may vary in your area the stain make take different on your floors.

Mr. CLH