The half moon windows in the kids' rooms really threw me at first. The previous homeowners had left the top half uncovered, which I think is hard for little kid's sleep routines. Scotty did get used to it after a few weeks but I want all the help I can get sleep training the next one.

There was the regular faux wood white blinds on the lower half of the window, but the child strangulation blind cord stories make me nervous. Scotty already loved climbing up on the ledge and playing with the cord so blinds were a no-go for me. David prefers the unobstructed light as well.



I stalked all the houses in the neighborhood that had these windows and the most prominent solution were those outdated and sad looking paper fans in the moon and blinds below. The nicest looking solution was custom shutters in the half moon that matched the shutters in the rest of the house. Since I don't want change out all the windows in the house to shutters I was kind of stuck.

I looked online assuming everyone in the neighborhood was missing some brilliant, nicely designed half moon window solution but alas, nobody has really solved the half moon window problem. They're pretty windows really, but it's hard to leave windows uncovered in kid's rooms even though they aren't a privacy concern.

So I finally decided to just do a single panel curtain that would cover the entire window, from half moon down. The nice thing is there's a pocket on the side of the window where you can tuck the curtain when you want it open so the window looks nice and open from the front of the house during the day.

I used this tutorial from Blesser House. I'm obsessed with their first entire playroom makeover. They were trying to create these $63 Pottery Barn Teen pom pom curtains. I would say- if you want black out curtains like the PBTeen ones, this tutorial will be more expensive.



I don't really want to re-write the same tutorial but here's a couple tips that weren't included:



The adhesive takes forever!! Halfway through this project I realized I got suckered into a no-sew project for no reason, haha. I should have just sewed the dang pom poms on. If you don't have a sewing machine here are some tips for using the double-sided adhesive:

- The instructions say to turn off the steam and to turn your iron down. I finally couldn't handle it anymore and turned the temperature up and it was totally fine.


Costs:

Ikea Lenda Curtains: $13.35 per panel (the other room has the same window so I'm using the other panel in Scotty's room. Such an awesomely cheap solution!)
HeatnBond iron on adhesive $2.99 (I used a 50% off Joann's coupon)
4 Yards of Pom Poms  $11.92
Curtain Rod - $12-13 ish at Walmart. I forgot to keep the receipt.

Project Total: $41.26

I fall into this trap where I'm planning out rooms -from paint to decor- fully aware it's going to take us a long time get each room completed. The home improvement projects, paint, window treatments, rugs and furniture will be time consuming and cost money. But I get so excited because I figure out how I want a room to come together only to realize... I don't even have a timeline for it happening. It may be years.

I have approximately 5,438 things in line before my grand plan can happen. Some things are exciting, like buying and installing hardware for the built-ins. Some things are practical things, like getting a bigger squeegee for the glass shower enclosure and saving for retirement, which both rank higher on the list than a cute lamp. Eventually, I'll get to the lamp, but eventually makes me kind of sad because I see the final goal so clearly in my mind.

A bundled one year old who loved eating snow and being outside with her devoted dadda. Pink cheeked with mittens soon soaked through. A mama with a big belly full of brother waiting inside.




An inexpensive Walmart sled purchased for Christmas and deep silent snow falling in a blanketed yard. A cold baby-toddler on the cusp of sharing her undivided parental attention experiencing her first real winter.


 A dad committed to making memories with a tiny girl who won't remember them.






















A sad baby who doesn't have the words for cold and wet. A little girl who'll be able to articulate it next winter. Change is coming as surely as the snow is falling.

But first things first- a couple of the keys were sticking down after being played. After some Youtube research, David was hoping there was just a little something stuck under the keys. He carefully removed the keys and we were kind of shocked.
Look at all that dirt and those pebbles under there! David ended up removing all the keys and just vacuuming it out to get everything.

As he sanded and the wood lightened we both realized this guy looks great lighter. With the darker stain it's kind of massive but lightening it makes it much less visually heavy. We realized we want to strip it and restain it a more modern weathered color. We both loved this stain used by The Created Home.

Interestingly, as I was listening to my favorite podcast about DIY & Design (Young House Love Has a Podcast) they just talked about how obvious DIY projects, such as painting pianos are going out of style. People still want to DIY but they want it to look custom, not DIY. For example, stenciling walls, floors and rugs are trending out because they are obviously DIY. Non- DIY projects like shiplap, wall paper or built-ins or wainscoting are hot. You still do them yourself but they look like they could have been custom finish work.

I definitely felt like in 2013 a painted piano would have been amazing but in 2018 it felt outmoded. I'm glad we caught ourselves before putting in a bunch of work to make this pretty piano outdated in a new way.


The only reason we didn't follow through and finish the project right then is we value our brains too much. We didn't want to sacrifice all the brain cells it would require to use stripper indoors without cross ventilation. (I mean I guess we could have thrown open all our windows and put on our snow clothes for a few days straight but something didn't seem smart about that...haha).

So we'll restain the piano in the spring when we can throw everything open and Scotty, baby and I can go to the park/outside to escape the worst of the smell. Stay tuned for the finished piano coming Spring 2018- also I'm so punny bahaha.