zygotic habitat restoration: check.

Ok. Thanks to the diligent efforts of d.w.'s and my various sets of parents (oh, those wacky modern families, you know), we finally have one room finished in our little experiment in perpetual home remodeling. And our little hatchling will be happy to know that his room was the first to cross the finish line, his impending arrival adding that sense of urgency critical to getting over that little wall you hit at about 93% completion. So let's take a little tour, shall we?


OK, for a little context we'll start with the big picture. Here is our house. One of the benefits of living in a place like Iowa, besides the creepily friendly populace, is that a cute little house with all the original woodwork (the flipside being all the original wiring) costs less than a college education. In case you're wondering, yes, that is a sea kayak. And yes, the nearest ocean is a couple of thousand miles away. And yes, it's just a little pathetic that I take it out on old quarries and reservoirs. But I'm getting off topic. Let's look at the hatchling's room.

    

Both d.w. and I agreed very early on that there would be a few ground rules for the baby's room. No teddy bear wallpaper border. No frilly furniture. No pastel colors. And for god's sake, no plastic crap. It was a long, hard slog, but I think we came out ok. I will admit we became a little bit obsessive about the whole thing, but with the fervor of true believers we stuck to our principles, even when descending into the design-god-forsaken bowels of Babies-R-Us.

So there you have it. Our quest completed, we can now sit back and patiently await the hatchling's arrival, confident in the power of clean lines and primary colors to soothe and succor an infant's ills.

Yeah, not too convincing, am I...

With only a few weeks left, "patient" and "confident" are probably not the first words I would choose to describe myself. "Deer in the headlights" is probably more appropriate:                  

Comments

[Kaz]

You have some time, but, dude - you gotta do something about all those wires!

[zygote daddy]

Man, I can't believe you caught that...it's the next thing on the to-do list. I just figured that I could post the pictures and no one would notice, but I guess as a parent you develop radar for that sort of thing!

[dear wife]

Yeah it is like only 98% complete. You are not showing the closet with lack of door. But sure does look good.

[Papa Bradstein]

It's beautiful. You're way ahead of us, and we've already had the little guy for 10 weeks or so. Nice work.

[BookGirl]

You guys did a great job! I love the colors. And as an occupant of a one-bedroom apartment in Boston, I envy your cute little house in Iowa.

We've begun formulating plans for our nursery "area," (at least we have that, I suppose) and actually went to the hardware store today to pick up a huge stack of paint samples. After spending about two hours taking turns holding tiny, brightly colored squares up to the wall for each other to look at from all different angles and distances, I think we've made a decision. Now we just need to start doing the actual work.

[Kaz]

You'll be amazed the things you'll pick up on once you're a parent!

And reading my comment, I realized I forgot to mention how awesome I think it looks! (aside from the exposed wires, of course)

[andrea]

Your house is so cool! And as for the wee zygote, he will have the coolest room in town! Wires, schmires...

[Kaz]

Here's something I just thought of while looking at the pics again - we intended to do this, but never did.. I read that if you have shelf over the changing table, to glue a little mirror to the bottom of it. apparently, babies like this. just a thought.

[zygote daddy]

That's not a bad idea. I was thinking scary clown faces, but your way is probably better... :)

[granny-to-be]

His room looks fabulous! And I will take credit for the crib bedding and quilt, but you guys did the rest, What a great job. But I always hated that doll that my great-aunt made. Hope the zygote likes it better than I did.

[catching it all]

Good luck with the "no plastic crap" vow. It lasts right up until the first toy some well-meaning friend/relative/busybody bestows upon the new arrival, or at least until hatchling is old enough to want to chew on and never let go of said toy. :-)

Room looks great! and bright primary colors are supposed to be much better for vision development than that silly pastel stuff. You rock, dad!

[Henitsirk]

You guys did a lot of work! Very nice, not foofy at all.

The wires can wait, that baby won't be mobile enough to get to them for months.

As for plastic crap, we've always kept it in mind as a general rule...but let's be real. Sometimes nothing goes over so well as a Schleich plastic dinosaur from Target. For new babies of course, plastic is pretty ick. (Speaking to you from Waldorf land, where all toys must be hand-made in Germany out of wood or wool!) :)

[Jenny & Josh]

Love it!

[samantha Jo Campen]

I. Love. The. Nursery!

It is so awesome! I love the colors--totally perfect. And for the record, I'm not a parent yet but I, too, noticed the wires. Do I get extra credit for that?

[Lauren]

Ooooh, pretty! I mean, manly, and masculine, and very ecologically sound. But mostly pretty :)

[miah]

I thought you all had gone into labor early...glad it was just decorating. Hey, did you paint those excellent circles on the wall or something else?

[the weirdgirl]

I LOVE your room! Awesome! I bought storage boxes from IKEA that are in those same polka dots. Plus, in general I love circus-ish themes. We did green and yellow circus stripes, but alas pastels and plastic still abound.