Assembly: nearing completion

This could refer to Chicklet, of course, but it refers instead to the house.  We are nearing the point where we can sit back and chill out for a bit.  The baseboards and quarter round molding are painted and ready to be installed (I opted out on the installation myself - after discovering that our floors were less level than we believed, I decided to forgo spending loads of time on it in order to spend time w/ Cindy, and instead will outsource it to the guys who quickly and cheaply finished installing our wood floors.).  The thresholds / t-molding that bridge the doorways between rooms or materials (wood/tile) are sanded and sealed.  The rooms are painted.  The shelves are installed.  We're pretty much just waiting on the baseboard/threshold installation (which will all happen in the matter of a few hours) and the carpet (we are still choosing samples, but are ok w/ the fact that the carpet will come post-Chicklet).

We are weeks or days away from Chicklet's arrival - there's no way to know.  We're getting more and more excited, and it's getting more difficult to wait.  We don't really have the choice, but we hope she'll get here a bit early.  She's due in 2 weeks and 5 days, but we're not counting.  The end of this week would be nice - Chicklet: if you're reading this in your intra-uterine pad, get the lead out.

Cindy mentioned in an earlier post that she didn't believe that the crib would be set up quickly.  She'd heard horror stories of how cribs are so difficult to assemble, and take forever to set up.  Whoever has those problems apparently has never lifted a screwdriver.  Granted, Cindy and I assembled the crib together, but I'd say 15-20 minutes was about right.  It was pretty much connecting A to B.  Maybe it's that whole modern mentality about ease-of-assembly in the modern furniture, who knows.  ;)

Speaking of modern furniture, today we discovered that we bought an incorrect piece of furniture.  We bought the Argington Picchu Dresser, thinking that we could use the top for a changing table instead of buying the more expensive Argington Delphi Changing Table.  The Picchu Dresser has a lip around the edge just like the Delphi Changing Table does - a feature designed to hold in the changing pad.  Both pieces of furniture are designed for a baby's room, so common sense dictates that the lip on the Picchu Dresser would serve the same purpose.  Unfortunately, we didn't compare dimensions, and discovered today when trying to fit the new changing pad that Cindy bought that the Picchu Dresser is too small and is, in fact, not designed to hold the changing pad.  I will cut the pad down to size and we'll use the Dresser as a changing table, but everyone should make sure that what you're buying functions as you think it is supposed to be before laying out the cash.  So what exactly is the point of the lip around the edge of the Dresser if not for holding in a changing pad?  My guess is mostly to maintain a similar aesthetic as the Changing Table - a datum that runs across the room through all the furniture.  They've made it work, though, as a method for stacking multiple dressers - one over the other (the base of the Dresser fits inside the lip of the one below it).  Whatever.

There's a mattress in Chicklet's crib now.  Cindy grabbed an organic cotton stuffed Serta Baby Mattress.  Rock on - we had a huge credit from a bunch of double gifts we'd gotten, and those organic mattresses are expensive.  

Oh - I didn't mention the final touches on Chicklet's room!  Last week I went to Ikea to pick up some more shelves for the office, but they were out of stock (I had called specifically to make sure they were in stock so that I wouldn't have to waste a 25 minute drive to Round Rock, but apparently spoke to a moron).  Instead, I walked out w/ several shelves in white, pink, and red that Cindy and I installed on one wall of Chicklet's room in a staggered pattern.  I also got two lamps that are somewhat amorphouse in shape and made of blown frosted glass -  the interior of one is red and the other is white.  You stick a low watt bulb in there and the whole thing gives a soft red or white glow to the room, so that right there is Chicklet's rockin nightlight.

So that is my dry matter of fact post on recent events.  I've been working a lot, but tomorrow's our final deadline for this project.  We'll all be moving on to other projects this week - anything else for the current project will be bits and pieces, but it will no longer be full time.  Thank god.