Zoo and Remodeling

This has been a busy week. We started off going to the zoo with some of our new friends from the ward, the Dryes. We had such a great time. For those who know of Braden's love for animals, it was probably the highlight of his time here so far. So, we had to buy a membership of course. You can guess where we will be once a week!!

The snow tiger behind us. The tigers are always a fav.

Natalie with her new friend Claire, cruising the zoo in the strollers.

And, now for the remodeling. I am not a fan of the wood rails thingies, such as these that go from the half wall up to the ceiling. The stairs that go down to the basement are on the other side of these- and they just had to go!

Pounding out the rails. It was actually harder work than we bargained for. We ended up sawing them in half and ripping them out from each end.

Ah! Much better. It opens up the room a ton. Now to patch, sand and paint!

We finally finished both kids rooms. This is Braden's room before we attacked it. The wallpaper had to go. Which also meant a lot of patching, sanding, priming and painting.
In the process......
And the finished product. So fun! Of course the heart-shaped day bed is temporary, but everything else is how we want it. I painted the back of his canoe shaped bookshelf blue- it used to be green. The window is on the wall to the left of the bed.

Braden really likes his "new" room. He says it makes him happy. What a cute kid!
And, Natalie's room. We had a border along the top to take down and we ripped out the chair rail. It just didn't go with the plans I had for the room. We still need to hang decorations on the wall, but you get the idea of the painting we did. Talk about a lot of painter's tape and measuring!
Sorry, bad lighting. But you get the idea....
And, Natalie is finally out of the crib. Braden is in a twin bed and so we moved Natalie to the toddler bed. She loves it, and the crib is being stored in our storage room. Weird, we've been using the crib continually for the last 4 1/2 years. Nice to have a break for a bit. So, I am sick of painting and ripping out wallpaper. Anyone want to fly out to Indiana to help?????