Five days left: Lucy's room chronology

This has been a chaotic, crazy process building a bedroom for our little girl in such short time on a very tight budget. We couldn't have done it without the help of our friends and family. 

I am happy to say that our tight budget days are soon to be over; after nearly three years of struggling after not one but two layoffs, Justin has a solid, well-paid full time job starting the week after Lucy is born. Things are looking up for us.

Anyway, the first step in getting Lucy's ready was moving our bed into the "closet," the little sideroom next to our bedroom, so that we could store Lucy's baby gear in our bedroom. 

Next, we addressed the ceiling problem in Lucy's room. This room had been added on to the back of the house and the ceiling was badly damaged, so several years ago, Justin and I took a hatchet to it and removed it, exposing the rafters.

The first step in installing a ceiling was adding insulation.

He then had to finish the drywall.

Before painting the bedroom, Justin decided to paint a chalkboard for the little girl to play with.

The next step was finding willing workers. Thank goodness for all of our helpers, especially Carole, Taeh, Justin's dad John, and Craig. And of course, I can't forget Arthur.

We painted the room colors inspired by the Flaming Lips album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.

I believe this shade of orange is called "burnt pumpkin."

Justin created a textured ceiling using a comb and then painted it this lovely golden yellow. He also installed a ceiling fan, seen below, and a light for a hanging lantern, not pictured.

The next step was to paint the floor, which he then coated with two coats of polyurethane.

Finally, we were able to add curtains and move her belongings in. Arthur was very happy to help.

 The curtain rods are made from galvanized steel conduit and cost approximately 4 dollars to make.

Justin added some shelving for the baby's belongings.

Pictured below, directly behind the tent toy, is where the door will be.

Next, Justin added some shelving and rods in the closet that had formerly held our camping gear in a disastrous cluster**** of a pile. These are all clothes for newborns, to give an idea of how many clothing items she's been given. The shelves are quite deep as well.

Next, having emancipated our bedroom from the chaotic stacks of rubbermaid boxes that held Lucy's things, Taeh and I moved our bed back into the bedroom. Hurray!

That massive lump in the bed is my pregnancy setup: memory foam and a full body pillow.

More destruction; Justin took to the wall with a saw.

In the process, he discovered a window on what had been the original back of the house.

Tonight and tomorrow, he will be finishing the door. We're down to the wire here, but looks like we'll make it,  god willing and the water don't break!