Each with a potty bag, all set to go!

  Today we went to the hardware store, where my two helpers aided me in choosing paint samples, a new toilet seat, and some door knobs.  The door knobs are needed because our intrepid gang can no longer be deterred with knob covers or other “childproofing” devices, and I have fished them out of my bed one too many times.  (Yeah, I hear you snickering.  YOU see how you feel about pulling a half dozen pairs of toddler shoes out of your bed two or three times a week.  You’ll be washing a lot of sheets.)

The smudges came at no extra charge.

So we installed some brandy-new door knobs with key holes.  I made sure they are all keyed alike so you can use one key to open them all.  I realized I need one more for the bathroom- in case they lock us out of it (again) it will be easier to open from the outside with the “master key” instead of the screwdriver. 

I’m sure some future resident of my home will be wondering exactly WHY I have exterior doorknobs on all of my interior doors, but as far as I’m concerned, that just adds to the fun.  Plus they’ll be no more bumfuzzled than we were when we realized you could only lock our bedroom door from the OUTSIDE when we moved in.  Naturally, Ian has already become adept at locking and unlocking them from the inside, which is good because I don’t want him stuck in there in a blind panic.

Home Grown Modern Art

Next, we went downstairs to put up our sample paint colors.  I liked the orangier color at the store and upstairs, but in the basement I was not completely surprised to discover I like the more yellow tone.  I think I may need to try a lighter blue, too.  The blue is going in the powder room and the yellow/orange is for the main part of the room.  We are getting ever closer to “playroom” status down there.

Ian and his adorable playmate used a couple of (un-loaded) paint rollers to “paint” the carpet while I put up the sample swatches.  I look forward to completing this project with their help.  Ian  also begged for and received permission to help with one of the sample swatches, then immediately rubbed paint on his pants.  Mommy confiscated the paint and the pants and that is all I have to say about that.

For those who are coming in late (since, ha ha, this is the first I’ve mentioned it here on the Blog) I’ve been working my metaphorical fingers to the bone on trying to clean, rearrange, and refurbish our until now un-used basement into a fun playroom space for the kids before autumn brings the deluge.  For the most part it involves a deep cleaning like nothing you’ve ever seen before, some child-proofing, and some upgrades to the bathroom.

Some of the mechanical systems needed some help, too, so we do have a new dehumidifier that has been working hard for the last week or so.  It took several days, but we have now progressed from the initial humidity reading of muggier than a Florida swamp to hovering around 50%, which is HUGE.  The humidity down there was creating a whole category of issues that I’ll leave to your imagination.  It took the better part of a week to get to this point, probably because we’re talking about a room nearly the size of the footprint of our whole house and because, if I’m honest, dumping huge amounts of water on the carpet to steam clean it is not the best way to reduce the relative humidity.