Noah's Room Archives - The Pennington Point

My New N

by Lisa on October 17, 2011

I’m still messing around with some of the things I got at Round Top a couple of weeks ago. Jars and springs and other useless junk sits waiting for me to get inspired, which may take a while.

I immediately knew, however, what I would do with this baby. I found an old, metal letter for Noah’s room. Since everything but the walls is black and white, I KNEW this would be perfect.

So cool! But wait, I’m looking at that picture and wondering, did I hang it upside down?! Do y’all think that N is upside down? Good grief. I promise you, before I had kids I was as sharp as a tack.

Honestly, the chances are slim that I will actually go in there with a hammer and re-hang it. I am sure I will be sorry someday when Noah can’t get a job because he writes all of his capitol letters upside down, so he never leaves home and ends up developing a passion for Ramen. Or should I say Яamen? All because of my laziness to turn the N the right direction.

The Lego wall behind his bed has been a huge help in keeping the Legos organized and off the floor. The boys are great about sorting their Legos into the containers, although I need to get a few more buckets. Sounds like I need a trip to IKEA.

And the Giant Legos are one of my favorite useless things I ever made. And that’s saying something. I’ve made a lot of useless things.

VOTE FOR LISA!

by Lisa on October 4, 2010

It’s time!!!

I need for you to go on over to One Project Closer and vote for my Noah’s Room project!

I hope you don’t mind if I remind you every day. I don’t know if there’s a limit to how many times you can vote, but I’m counting on you all to sit by your computers for the next 144 hours and vote for me every minute or two. OK, OK, you can take a break to go to the bathroom, but that’s IT!

VOTE FOR LISA!

That’s my campaign slogan. Clever, huh?

I really would appreciate your vote. I know I don’t have a chance in H-E-double toothpicks to win.

My main goal here is not to be embarrassed by the fact that I only got three votes: mine, James’ and my aunt Jo Gail.

And I’m not even sure James will vote for me. Some of those other projects are pretty great.

VOTE FOR LISA!

Before & After Winner!

by Lisa on August 1, 2010

We are this week’s winner in the Before & After contest. I’m so excited!

After a hard week with my dad, this was such a boost. Thank you to the One Project Closer crew for choosing Noah’s room.

You can see our entry here, but I’ve got to show you the highlights….

We enclosed part of the front porch to make a room for Noah to sleep and keep his Legos. Those two things are pretty much his top priorities.

The front porch before:

and after:

The before pictures of the inside are the same….because it used to be the front porch. Does that sentence makes sense? I can’t seem to figure out how to word it.

Oh well, I’ll just show you the finished room inside:

If you want to read the whole series on how we built this room in 8 days, go here.

And be prepared for me to shamelessly promote myself at the end of the summer when they put all of the weekly winners up for votes. I will need for you to set aside a day or two to vote for me over and over and over.

For progress on my dad go to Dad’s Caring Bridge site.

How to Make Useless Giant Legos

by Lisa on April 11, 2010

For those of you that are interested in making extra-large, paper covered, useless Legos….here you go.

If you’re not interested in making these, keep reading. My goal is to inspire you to dare to try to make your imagination come to life.

I needed something to soften the look of our Lego storage shelves. I had cute containers and the vinyl shapes, but it needed a little something else. Usually I would use one of three things….plants, books or candles. But this is a room for an 11 year old boy. None of those would really work. So I got the idea, since it is a space for Legos, of making giant Legos and covering them with book pages. That adds the element of books and a touch of whimsy.

I started with leftover 2×4′s and a 1″ dowel rod.

I cut the 2×4′s to different lengths. I just had to be sure that there were two the same of each length. Then I cut the dowel into 3/4″ pieces.

I know this is hard to understand. That’s why I was never hired a a writer for instruction manuals. And let’s be honest….no one else is ever going to make these anyway.

I used wood glue and brad nails to attach the 2×4′s together and the dowel pieces to the top.

I dug out a pad of old math papers to use to cover the blocks.

Often people give me stuff out of their closets. They think that because I homeschool that surely I want any old children’s books or Sunday school materials. Usually I toss the stuff out, but in this case someone brought us two gallons of Elmer’s glue. SCORE! We use it for everything….including this project. We just watered it down 50-50.

Look how cute they are on the shelf.

I made three different sizes. I made blocks with six, four and two studs. Yes, they’re called studs. I had to look on the Lego website to find out what those bumps were called. Also, they’re called bricks and not blocks. My bad.

As long as we’re using the proper terms……I think my homemade Legos are super studs.

And best of all….Noah loves them.

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Try these linky parties…..

Metamorphasis Monday

Sunday Showcase Party

Sundae Scoop

The Mess

by Lisa on March 4, 2010

So many of you have been concerned about the pressure I am putting on myself to get the room finished.

I appreciate your concern. I am going to give myself a break. I listen to my advisors.

But there’s something you should see.

Brace yourself.

You must promise me that you will still come to visit if I show you.

Here’s why I’m in such a rush to finish…..

Welcome to the entrance to our lovely home.

Don’t step on the electrical cords on your way in.

Believe it or not, I have been trying to keep it neat.

I’m so glad I took the time to hang my Easter wreath on the door.

My beautiful front door decor.

So now you know. It’s a mess. We’ve already had company several times and they had to walk through that disaster.

I can’t put any of it away until we’re completely finished.

THAT’s why I’m so ready to get this job done.

Day Seven

by Lisa on March 3, 2010

Details, details, details! I’m ready to be finished with the details!

The new room seems soooooo cloooose to being finished.

I didn’t work on it yesterday. I needed a break.

Today when I woke up I just KNEW that with a little elbow grease and some bribery for my 18 year old son I could get it finished.

But NOOOOO. There are so many teeny-tiny, miniscule, seems-like-they-don’t-matter-but-they-do type of things that I didn’t make it. I am STILL not finished.

Before you start to throw tomatoes at me and boo and hiss and declare me a failure, never to read my blog again….let me remind you:

This is an 85 year old house and there is nothing straight, even or level about it. Every miter cut is different. You can’t nail or screw into the walls. I have so much liquid nail residue stuck to the tips of my fingers that I may never be able to do needlework again.

My sweet husband and son must have started to feel sorry for me. The crying may have helped. It’s sad, but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.

The two of them offered to finish putting up the exterior siding (don’t forget, we have to finish the exterior porch section as well as the inside) for me. So today they finished that and tomorrow the girls and I will paint it. Then we’ll trim the new window and paint the trim.

I am so close I can taste it.

But I can’t lick the taste of victory off of my fingers or I just might liquid nail my tongue to the roof of my mouth.

Pictures by Saturday….I promise!

Building a Bed

by Lisa on March 2, 2010

I sat on the living room floor putting the new bed frame together.

“I’ll help you Mommy!” says a little voice.

Eight years old and eager to use the tools.

I was in a rush. I had a lot to do and I needed to keep the pace going.

But he gave me the look. The you’ve-been-working-on-the-room-for-a-week-and-ignoring-me-too-much look.

“Here, you hold this part still while I screw these pieces together.”

“Mommy, I can screw those screws in for you.”

I’ll admit it. I wanted to get this job done. I didn’t want to wait for an eight year old to turn a dozen screws. I was about the task of getting this job done.

But, I thought, HE is about the task of becoming a man. And I need to stop and let him.

So I waited while he intently screwed in each and every screw.

I bragged on what a great job he did.

I thanked him for being such a big help.

He showed his accomplishment to each person that walked through the room.

I have to work hard every day to keep it all in perspective.

Day Six

by Lisa on February 28, 2010

I didn’t make my own personal deadline of finishing the new room in a week.

It was just too much. Today I felt like I was possibly losing my mind and nothing was going right.

I was the only person that could measure with reasonable accuracy and the only person that could use a saw. That meant I was in-out-in-out-in-out over and over and over. And, well, a cold front came through and I just got tired of the whole thing.

I am down to details now. I ran out of trim, even though I really thought I measured carefully. Isn’t that always how it goes?

So another run to the hardwork store tomorrow. Plus I have a little more sewing and embroidery to do. I can’t have a new room without monogramming something for it.

Here are a few teasers to make you want to come back in a couple of days and see the finished room.

Finished or not, the boy WILL be sleeping in a bed tonight.

No more girly light.

I can’t wait to show you what I’m doing with the shelves!

If you decide to come see it in person, bring a Diet Dr Pepper with extra ice and some Tylenol.

I’m gonna need it!

Day Five

by Lisa on February 26, 2010

Another long day of working on the new room. It’s going to be great!

I’m glad there’ll be a bed in there so I can fall upon it and sleep for three days after this is all over.

We got it primed (pe-yew!) and then started painting.

I decided to paint stripes on the short wall. I saw the idea here and I knew it was just what our tiny room needed.

Then my floor crew took over while I stayed outside with the power tools.

They’d hand me floor boards through the window and I’d cut ‘em. Between cutting their boards I worked on the shelves for the striped wall.

All I had to do was cut the boards to fit the space and attach the brackets where the studs are. I can build a whole room….but I tell you, building those shelves was a mess. I kept making mistakes. It got really frustrating.

I did finally manage.

And we got the floor done.

Tomorrow I have a lot of details to finish. Trim around the floor, ceiling, shelves and the opening between the rooms, touch up paint.

Plus I’ve been instructed that the light is too “girly” for a boys’ room. So I need to change that. Can’t have a girly-light.

Then it’s one more day after that. We still have the exterior to finish.

Next week I need to think about decor. That’s the best part.

It’s like the icing on the cake.

Day Four

by Lisa on February 26, 2010

Whew! I spent the day working on the new room.

I textured the walls, painted trim, cut, painted the ceiling and door (Painting doors is my LEAST favorite painting job).

I didn’t want to deal with renting a texture gun, so I decided to design my own texture pattern. This can be dangerous. Sometimes these ideas work great and sometimes (most times) they don’t. I say this because I want to stress that I mess this stuff up all of the time. But it’s no big deal. Just scrape it off and do something else. Don’t be afraid to try!

But I think my texture job is turning out great. I’ll post more on that later.

I just have a few pictures to post before I hit the sack. I’ve got to get those walls primed and painted tomorrow. Plus we’re hoping to get the floor in tomorrow afternoon.

It’s getting so close…..we’re very excited.

I still need to add a trim piece below the window sill. But I want to wait until I finish the walls.

Here’s something that made the whole job a little easier. The front porch had a bead board ceiling already on it. So I just scrubbed it and painted it. It’s perfect.

It seems so odd to me that for the past 85 years that bead board was outside and now…it’s part of the inside of the house. You just never know where something will end up, huh?

That’s my deep thought for the day. Free of charge and just for you.

Thanks for hanging in there with me.

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