Projects

Recently, we've had a few really big projects going on. The kids got a new Pergo floor. I saved up money for about 2 years and saved up about $1000 cash. In order to save money, I opted to put in the floor myself. Arnez cut the pieces (and did a wonderful job!) and helped me lay the floor. Here are some pictures to document our project. The floor cost about $550, after everything. I ended up returning two boxes of flooring.

The carpeting starts to come off.

Carpeting removed.

Noe helped me remove squares of carpeting from beneath heavy furniture.

Kai helped me take the rolls of carpeting downstairs.

11 boxes of Pergo laminate flooring. Cost: $622. I returned two, which gave me back $112.

An entire room of carpet fits into two garbage cans.


One side of the room done. We shifted furniture around. There are squares of felt underneath the legs of all the heavy furniture until I figure out something better.

Arnez in our 'workshop'.

A cool, refreshing iced coffee drink to help us through the day.

Our room, with most of the kids' stuff in it.


Laying down the tongue and groove boards is not as easy as people would have you believe!

A tricky cut around the heating vent.

And it's done. Arnez did a great job with this.

Around the door.

Around the closet.


Sophia worked so hard and got so tired! She took it upon herself to appropriate Noe's bed and take a nap.

THE BED
The next project was the bed. I went out and purchased the material while we were still laying the floor. All told, after going back to the store a few times (thanks, Honey!), we spent around $150. This is the price we would have spent on a cheapo, made-in-China bed from Walmart. I wanted to custom make a bed because of the unusual sloping of the wall where the bed will be located. A store bought bed would have been too tall. I found instructions online at this site. I had to tweak the directions (kind of like tweaking a recipe, actually!) to make it shorter. And I didn't like the way their ladder jutted out, so I tweaked it again and made my own version of a ladder that was attached to the bed. You'll see. The cutting started on Tuesday and the sanding was on Tuesday to Wednesday. I did all of that myself. Construction began Thursday morning. Pretty much, I worked all day on that bed. I did most of the work myself, except for having an occasional hand holding a board while I cut or drilled. Arnez helped me cut notches in the plywood that holds the mattresses up and carving the inscription. I applied the first coat of stain last night before dinner.

The potential, waiting to become something.


First up, the boxes for the mattresses need to be made. This took me pretty much all morning.


Then, putting in the upright posts. This was not actually as hard as making the mattress boxes.

Two more side guard rails to put in.

Now for the ladder. This was surprisingly easy to make. It was almost ridiculously easy.


Noe, trying out her new bed. She'll be sleeping on top.

Arnez, cutting the inscription in.

The first coat of stain. It's an oil-based stain. VERY sticky! And I had to work FAST! Slap, slap, slap the stain on as fast as I could, really.

The inscription, after the stain.

There is still at least one more coat of stain to go, and I'll have to buy a new can for that. The first coat took up almost the whole first can. I also need to buy two mattresses, and then it will get disassembled and moved upstairs to the kids' room, reassembled and bedding put on. For today, though, I am going to rest from my labors! We're going to mom's house to hang out! Sunday, we're going to my aunt's house to celebrate the 4th (Arnez has to work today), then hopefully, the second coat of stain will go on Monday.