Hannah's Room - Finally!

It ended two days later than anticipated. I had planned for us to be done this project by Thursday, and we did not complete it until Saturday evening. Literally. Poor Hannah had to wait until then to see her room. She and her brother spent every day since Monday at grandma's house, coming home to go only to bed. She has also slept on the floor in Seth's room since last Saturday - one full week.

Here is the ribbon-cutting ceremony. We had to do something to make it seem special, so we had her do this when she finally got to see her room.

I must say that I was a little concerned at her reaction when she first went inside her room. She went in slowly, went straight to her bed and sat on the bed and looked around, uttering not one single word. For several minutes. I wasn't sure whether that meant she was in awe or not. Dave asked her if she liked it and she didn't answer right away. I knew, however, when she went back into her room in between bites to eat that she very likely approved.

These are various pictures at different angles of the room. Overall, I am very pleased with the outcome, although there are things I would like to change if I had the time. It is very difficult to know what colors to buy things in when you have no idea on which wall it's going to go on at the time, depending on how the furniture had to be arranged. This is the biggest problem we ran into. We had intended to centre the bed, but realized very quickly the impossibility of this with having such a big, bulky (stupid, ugly) desk.

I also realized that the very easiest part of the renovations was the painting, believe me. It's all the nitpicky things like putting back together, cleaning up and the tons of things you don't think about at the time, making a kazillion trips to Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Canadian Tire, Michaels, etc.

Honestly though, it was not until just today that I became unglued. And Dave. And the "D" word was contemplated. And clawing of the eyeballs. When I think about it now, that's pretty good seeing that we've spent six days in that room for a good portion of the day. It was because we were so near the end and were running into frustrating little problems, like finding out my curtain rod for the blue curtains was too long, of all things! It was easy enough to fix, because thankfully Dave was calm at the time, so he easily just cut some off (imagine that?). I thought it was the end of the world. His spaz came later when the door wouldn't shut, the closet door wouldn't go in, etc., you get the picture. Then I was calm. Thankfully.

We could not have undertaken this project without the help of a few people. My mom for starters, who had the kids all week and was pretty good natured about it. My sister, Laura, who not only sewed curtains, but basically used her creative talent for pretty much everything on the walls. I helped her a tiny, little bit, (or should I say I was the foreman and pretty much got in the way) so I have to give her a great, big, hearty thank you. And last but not least, my other sister, Lana, who spent several hours with me Friday finishing running around for last minute things and then back at the house helping me figure out where to hang things. I can be creative at times like these, but usually I need time - that being the operative word. Which I did not have. So I could not have done it without her as well.

And so it ends. And now I have a house to try to clean in just a few short hours after church Sunday morning to get ready for Hannah's party Sunday night. I'm tired, needless to say.

These are just some close-ups of some of the things on Hannah's wall. I really wanted to put some of these in to show off the creativity of my sister, Laura.

I loved this saying. Laura had a book of quotes, so I picked out my favorite ones. I thought this was applicable.

I wonder if Mindy, if she sees this, will recognize her kids. Umm, maybe she would even DARE to comment. ???

I think I love this saying best of all. It is so much Hannah's personality. If you click on it, you'll be able to read it.

We cut this dress out of a gift bag and made a shadow box out of it. Again, thanks mostly to Laura.

And last but not least, this was painted by my niece, Rachel. It is not a very good picture of it because you can see the reflection of the window in it. The butterfly is really all just in the blues, whites and blacks. At least you can have a general idea of how beautiful it is.

And so that ends our adventure. The crowning glory of it was tonight when I was kissing Hannah goodnight, she hugged me and said, "thank you for my room, mom". That makes it worth it all.