My labor is taking place right now. In the Nursery.

I think this sums up how this nursery has made me feel at times.

Robert here, with a few things I learned and a couple of funny stories I thought I would share about decorating the nursery.

• You can buy tinted primer. Save yourself the agony of having to apply 4 coats of Planetarium blue to cover up the bright white primer.


• You know that really nice new sliding compound miter saw you just bought so you could do the chair rail and then use it when you install your laminate floors? Keep in mind that it probably wasn't handled with care in transit from Sear's warehouse to your house. So you'll probably need to check to ensure the blade and the guides are all still at proper right angles, etc. That way you won't make your first cut and realize it isn't straight.


• 4 coats of any color paint sucks.


• It's easy to tell which direction the original carpet installers stretched the carpet in the room when you're trying to tuck the carpet and tape under the baseboards to repaint the baseboards. Let's just say it's a much tighter fit along one wall and a lot of room to spare on the other.


• Figure out which color the foreman wants the window sill before you paint it Planetarium blue.


• You know the old adage: "measure twice, cut once." Well I violated it briefly and now I need to cut one more piece of chair rail or I will have about an eighth inch gap on one wall.


• Which leads me to a new adage I adapted from that one: "think twice, make a trip up the stairs once." If you're doing a project not on the same floor as all your tools and supplies are on, take an extra moment before you go upstairs each time to think if there is anything you might need that you could carry in your free hand on this trip. Although the rebuttal to this adage is that extra trips burn extra calories.


• Gravity is lame. So everything I have ever heard says that "the good painter paints the trim first." Can someone tell me why that is? I painted it first, then taped it so I could paint the wall and low and behold, gravity helps the paint soak under the tape (granted, not much) and then I end up touching up the trim anyway. Why not just paint the wall, then tape it and then paint the trim after?


• After hearing stories from others, I am so glad we didn't decide on a vertical stripe pattern.


• Using a nail gun is super-fun.


• The love seat I had in college seems much bigger when it is in our upstairs landing, pretty much obstructing every doorway.


• Someday, little Sudsie will be sitting with me and I will tell him the story about how I missed pretty much all of the BCS bowls the year before he was born so I could decorate his nursery. Oh well. I didn't need to watch them to know that Utah is the true national champion.

Thanks for listening. Next up, installing laminate floors.