From pumpkin to carriage - part one: executive decisions are made

In April our first born is expected to make her way into this world. Since neither of us have made deals with Rumpelstiltskin in the past, we are going to end up keeping her and are tasked with creating room for her in our home. After careful deliberation we picked the bedroom that is to be her nursery (For those of you, like me, who are curious about where that word came from: c.1400, "breeding, nursing," from Old French norture, norreture "food, nourishment; education, training," from Late Latin nutritia "a nursing, suckling," from Latin nutrire "to nourish, suckle").

Here it is:

It is ugly. It has a carpet the colour of phlegm. The walls are a grey-blue colour intended to encourage one to seriously consider slitting one's wrists. But look beyond that. See the potential. The room overlooks our back yard, which is very pretty. It is a nice size. Oh, and it has a Harry Potter closet (top left photo - the door behind the entrance to the room is the closet. The door to the right of that is the Harry Potter closet. It is this weird little room in the wall, about 3.5 feet deep, 3 feet wide and about 5 feet high. The door to this little room has no handle. The reason for it's existence remains a mystery).

We needed a plan of action. A grand vision. We were the fairy godmothers and with or without a wand (well, to be realistic, without a wand and with a lot of sweaty labour) we were going to convert this room from a pumpkin to a carriage of the bejeweled variety.

Here is the high level plan we came up with

• We will paint the walls. One wall shall be painted an accent colour.
• Chalkboard paint shall make an appearance somewhere in the room.
• We will have new non-bodily fluid coloured carpet put down.
• There shall, of course, be curtains.
• There shall, and now we start to get truly ambitious, be a mural.
• We could do with some switch plates. Plates that don't look older than my grandparents would be nice.
• The closet would need more than one rod. An organization system of some sort would need to be procured.

 I leave you here for now. In my imagination you are seated at the edge of your couch, biting on your fingernails, agog with anticipation, waiting, wanting to know how it all turned out. I'll keep you posted.