Last summer, just prior to Ginger’s birth, we posted some photos of Chloe’s room just as Julio was wrapping up construction of her bed. The hot pink paint on the walls was Chloe’s idea. I thought it was a touch toxic, but figured, if you can’t have a hot pink room at age 4, when can you?
Chloe's bed
The room is still bare as we’ve let other projects get in the way of finishing it, but the bed itself is functional, and Chloe loves it!
Just posting a few pics to show what’s changed lately. I was supposed to be going back to work today, but I asked for another day off to try to wrap up some of the loose ends. Pic 1 is Chloe posing in Ginger’s room. Pic 2 is an example of the pain of some of the compound cuts required for trim in this sloped upstairs. If everything were perfectly square, it’d be easy, but there seems to always be just enough variation to make it tricky. Although, they are definitely easier than the cuts in Chloe’s room, because those had to be notched out to accommodate other sections of the ceiling that sloped into them. Sometimes it feels more like sculpting than sawing. Pic 3 is of the new shelves I finally constructed to fill the built-in bookcase in the playroom.
Over the last couple of days, I started and pretty much finished Chloe’s built-in bed/windowseat. All such projects are inspired and/or degraded by my “seat of the pants” design method, which is further affected by issues such as sloping floors and non-square walls. I’ve never been good at having the patience to sketch out all the detail work ahead of time, although I know that it’s a great thing to do. Regardless, I’m pretty happy with the way it came out, and once a few more pieces of trim and a lot of white paint are added, it should look pretty decent. And even though it’s “made for a girl, it’s strong enough for a boy.” I made it super-sturdy, so any jumping around shouldn’t be a problem.
This weekend saw some exciting progress, even if the work days were on the shorter side. Stephanie was instructed by her midwife and the emergency room doctor (when she went into early contractions) to take it very easy, so I am only going up for 3 or 4 hours instead of 8 or 9. That way I can come back downstairs and help out with Chloe.
I hung the 2nd (and final) pocket door, which closes off Chloe’s room. I found a cool little offset wrench in the pocket door hardware bag that allows you to adjust the door with it in place. Sure wish I had noticed that last weekend, when I had to take the door off and put it back on 3 or 4 times to get it aligned right. I also built the bookshelf box out of plywood and trimmed it out…all it needs now is some paint and shelves. Also, I finished up all of the hallway trim, so it and the main room are completely trimmed out, with the exception of the base shoe.
