Well, we finally made it through painting the nursery.  Geez, I thought scraping the wall took forever.  This paint job seemed to take twice as long.  You see with Derek currently in Grad School, taking 3…count them 3 classes this semester, on top of his full time job he doesn’t have much spare time right now.  This is why I have made it my responsibility to prepare Grayson’s room before his arrival.   My poor husband already has his hands full with class, work, projects, AND a pregnant wife.  I must admit he does help out from time to time.  I personally think he rather enjoys the time away from his studies, and painting almost seems like fun compared to studying, and working on projects.

Derek’s mom came and helped us paint the room, because we had to prime the room like 57 times…okay more like 2, but it totally felt like 57 coats.  We finished with the room looking like this…BARE!

It took a few test samples to come to a decision, but we finally decided upon a color called Online.  I think it fits our geek lifestyle perfectly. If you didn’t realize the magnitude of our geekiness you can read about it here, here, and here.  I’m sure I left out like a zillion other geek posts, but in an effort not to totally bore you I will not link to those. We purchased samples from Sherwin Williams and thew some test squares up on the wall.

They look a bit bluer in the photo than they do in the room.  The top color is Online, the bottom left is called Uncertain Gray, and the bottom right is Network Gray.  We were uncertain about the Uncertain Gray (hardy har har!), and the Network Gray was just a bit too dark for us.  We wanted something that would give the room some character, but also act as a nice neutral back drop to any art we put on the walls.  I didn’t want a color that was too overwhelming.  I also didn’t want to go with the traditional blue for a boy.  So we decided on a nice gray with a tiny hint of blue.  I absolutely love it!  Oh and don’t worry…since I was the one doing the bulk of the painting, and to protect our little guy in the future we only used No VOC paint from Sherwin Williams called Harmony paint.  The only harmful fumes in this house occur when Derek takes a visit to the porcelain throne.

Since little bit L O V E S going into Gray’s room to smell the outlet, and I now begin to drip with sweat trying to get off the couch; I can use every ounce of fresh cool air I can get my sweaty little skin on.  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention….the windows in this room are painted shut. So no fresh air that way either.  Thank you previous owners!

To prevent Wrigley from furring up the room while I was painting I made a lazer barrier on the door.  Okay, so it was made out of painter’s tape, but it did the job.  She never figured out how to get though. The dog who can break her way out of a steel crate couldn’t figure out how to bust though tape.  Hmmmm.   Instead, she just watched me like this the entire time.  So cute.

First coat on the walls.  One more coat to go!  Whoopie!

Once everything was dry I had a little help with the tape removal.  Did you know dogs that are preoccupied with raccoons that live under your house make an excellent used tape collector?  They do!

Once all the tape was carefully scored and removed the room looked like this.  I had to score the tape on the floor because it had been down there so long.  Typically you remove painters tape when the paint is still tacky, but I didn’t want to tape, un-tape, and re-tape for EVERY SINGLE COAT, ya know!

I think the blueish gray looks great with the brown floors.  I never dreamed those two would complement each other so well, but they really to play nice together.  The green piece of furniture is a buffet that we picked up at our local Pottery Barn Outlet last Christmas and we had been using it for storage in what use to be know as the guest room, but now it has been re-purposed into Grayson’s changing table.

Just slap on a changing pad and a basket for some diapers and other baby booty necessities and voila a changing table for FREE!  I think traditional changing tables are kind of pointless.  You can only use them for so long, and then you have to find some place in your attic to store the dang thing once the kid grows up.  Using a multifunctional piece of furniture like a buffet or a dresser works just fine for me.

What’s your take on the color?  We didn’t intend to name our child GRAYson and then paint his room GRAY.  It just kind of happened.  The crib just arrived too.  Pictures coming of the assembly soon.  Grayson’s grandpa and daddy assemble the crib…it was so sweet.

When we first adopted our dog Wrigley over 2 years ago she had severe separation anxiety issues.

Wrigley

For example….

She would freak out when we would leave her in a crate during the day (or any time of day for that matter).  The 1st crate she broke free from was a metal crate that she somehow bent and crawled out of the bottom, but not before she managed to PULL one of our carpets INTO the crate with her.  I have no clue how she did this with the rug.  It was on the other side of the room when we left the house that morning.  This dog is like Houdini.

Crate #1

Paper Towels

Oh yeah, she also opened the pantry doors and attacked an innocent package of paper towels.  Oh the horror!!!

Then, we purchased a SECOND $100.00 crate, but this time it was made of plastic.  We hoped the limited amount of holes in the new crate would lessen her ability to pry her way through it.  WRONG-O!  This one she managed not only to escape by chewing her way out of it, but flip it over in the process.

Crate #2

After that we had no choice, but to leave her out in the house during the day.  There was no way we could afford to keep buying crates.  Not to mention, she was doing everything in her power to escape and I felt she would eventually hurt herself.  So, we would hid everything we though would tempt her except the couch, and then we came home to one of these scenes.

Couch Cushions

THEN, we learned not to leave the cushions on the couch during the day, because they obviously made her a bit too angry.  So, each time we left the house we would not only move everything out of her reach, but put the couch cushions in the guest room too.  Look where that got us….

1/2 Eaten Couch

Yup, that’s right, she began eating the couch.  After that little snack we finally broke down and put Wrigley on the puppy version of Prozac. (Per the vets orders) The med is called Reconcile and it is Prozac. I think the vet said it is just a smaller dosage than what humans take. The “stuff” doesn’t work right away, of course! The vet gave us a DVD to watch explaining a behavior modification program called BOND. (It was horribly cheesy!) However, if you can get past the dairy portion of the DVD; the program they are explaining seems like a good idea. It seems to be working for the Wriggles & Coco.

Reconcile

* Side Note: Thru the life of this blog you will see me call Wrigley many nicknames. It’s an illness really. The nicknames I use, change from day to day, hour to hour, & minute to minute.

Okay, back to the story. So, we have been trying this BOND method and there are some tactics involved in it that I think more work on the owners separation anxiety from the dogs. When you enter the house you are not allowed to acknowledge the dogs for @ least 5 minutes or until they calm down and no longer want to smother you with puppy kisses. (I love those wet nosed kisses!) When you leave the house you are not allowed to say goodbye, give them hugs, or kisses. They call it “NO MORE DRAMA.”

Reconcile & BOND

Little Bit (a.k.a.- Wrigley) has laid off eating the couch, and no longer moves the front door rug. Just after our wedding we began weening Wriggs off her meds since she was doing so well.  She is now completely off Reconcile and we couldn’t be happier.  Those pills are like $50.00 a bottle/per month.  Yikes! After a full year of no “incidents” and living with a 1/2 eaten couch; we broke down and purchased a new couch.  So far, so good.  I am extremely thankful for everyday I walk in that door and nothing sends me into a state of shock.

Our dog Wrigley has begun an obsession with a wall outlet in the baby’s room.  This obsession 1st started along with the room’s remodel; in preparation for our new little bundle.  This all began when an animal, I think it’s a raccoon, moved in under our tub.  The dogs began hearing the animal move around and rubbing against the porcelain.  This made them loose it.  I mean loose it.

Wrigley HATES the bathroom, because that’s where baths happen, right?  She refuses to go in the bathroom if one of us is in there.  She will walk all the way around the house just to avoid passing by the bathroom door.  Since the discovery of the animal the dogs are constantly running in there to listen to the noises and sniff the tub.

Wrigley is now so invested in this mystery that she will walk into the bathroom while one of us is in there, but you have to be sitting on the toilet.  She knows I’m not gonna grab her in mid pee.

The reason she has now moved into the baby’s room, or her room….she seems to think, is that the outlet shares the same wall as the bathtub and she thinks she can smell the animal through the outlet.   She can also hear this mystery animal from the baby’s room so she has taken up residence right in front of this outlet.  This child will not move for hours…seriously.  When I’m in there  painting, she’s in there staring at the wall.  This new hobby she has taken up sounds about as fun as watching grass grow!

We’ve noticed that she doesn’t like anyone to get near the outlet.  As a matter of fact, I have to lock her out of the room if I plan to paint anywhere near the outlet.  We discovered that if you try to get near the outlet without her permission she will shove you out of the way.   I guess this is her protective instinct.  Who knows.  Derek decided to demonstrate Wrigley’s guard she keeps over this stupid outlet.

Listen for her breathing around :15 seconds.

This is what Wrigley does when she wants your attention.  Isn’t is precious?

Week 49

This picture is of my dog Wrigley as my husband desperately attempts to put her Yoda ears on.  For Halloween I decided to buy a doggy Yoda costume and have a little photo shoot with our dogs.  Although this is more of a candid shot it is one of my favorites.

Wrigley just found her ball under the couch, and was clinging to the thing like it was her security blanket.  So freakin’ cute!

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Thursday evening Derek and I came home to a shredded papery mess.  It seems that our little fur ball of terror, Wrigley, just couldn’t wait another day to open Christmas presents….so she tore into two freshly wrapped packages under the tree.  Thing is, neither one were for her.  DANG DOG!

Thankfully, she only shredded the wrapping and boxes.  The contents inside remained mostly unscathed.  There were some teeth marks here and there, but nothing to cry over.

This was a big scare since we have a BRAND NEW couch coming in the next few weeks.  See, we had to buy a new couch since SOMEONE ate the last one.  Hahmmm! Hahmmm!  Remember this post?  It’s been about a year since she has destroyed anything but a dog toy, and we thought it was time to go ahead and buy a new non-nasty couch.  Wrigley, please don’t prove us wrong.  Pretty Please!

One of the presents she tore into contained perfume.  I really hope it was her nose that led her to this trail of terror, and not her overactive puppy brain.