Changing Table/ Dresser

My original plan for the changing table was to find a decent sized dresser for really cheap from either the DI, Yard sale, or off of craigslist or KSL.  Most of the dressers that I found on KSL or Craigslist were hours away and we would have to make a specific trip just to get one... and I could never find one that I felt was worth the trip.... so for the past month or so I would go yard sale hopping in Price hoping to find what I was looking for.  A lot of the time I would just drive up to the yard sale and see if they even had anything remotely close to what I was looking for.  Even the Price DI wasn't giving me any luck.  I would go there once a week on Mondays (because thats when all the best stuff shows up).  Every once in a while I would find something that "would work" but I would have to put a lot of work into making it actually nice.  Then by chance I was driving home to have lunch and there was a yard sale along the way.  Just as I was driving by I saw it.  A beautiful solid wood changing table.  I checked it out and told myself that if it was still here after I got off work then I would buy it.  Sure enough.. 4 hours later as I drove home it was still there.

If you view my pinterest account and look at my nursery pins you will notice several Yellow dressers.  I was planning on painting whatever I found for a changing table a bright yellow because I assumed there was no way I could find something that matched my crib and rocking chair and be in my price range.  However, when I started looking at this changing table I noticed how beautiful the solid wood piece was and I thought it would be a shame to cover all that up with paint.

So I convinced myself to refinish it to match.

Here is the original piece.

 Matt is starting to strip the old finish off with 40 grit sand paper.  Luckily it was really soft wood and it came off very easily.

 Matt kinda looks like he has gray hair in this picture with all the sawdust in his hair.

 Finished sanding the top surface

 Matt got all the easy areas with our sander while I went and sanded by hand all of the tiny little spaces that he couldn't get.

 Drawers are all finished and sanded.  After seeing how pretty the original wood was I almost just wanted to put a finish on that instead of staining it, but the original idea was to get the changing table to match everything else.

 Final brush down with 150 grit sandpaper to get a smoother surface.

 Finished sanding!  It took forever but now we have a clean slate for staining.

 The stain sitting on the surface before being wiped down.  We went with a mahogany and it turned out to match really well the with the crib and rocker.

The Finished Product!!!  I painted on several layers of polyurethane (which is why its so glossy) this sealed the finish and makes it a lot easier for clean up (which is important on something you are going to be changing a lot of dirty diapers on).

Oh and don't worry... I made sure the place was well ventilated and I wore a mask during the whole process.

What do you think?  Did you like the other color better?  Preferred the unstained version?  I am love with our finished product and it really pulls all of our furniture together.  So excited to start changing dirty diapers on this thing!  

Obsessing a Little

I am guessing that this is a completely normal part of Pregnancy and a really good animal instinct that is kicking in.... but I've started to obsess over everything baby.  I want to learn everything and anything to do with my baby... what way I feel is best... what way others feel is best.  What is safe, what isn't safe, how warm to keep my baby room at night, what kind of diaper system to use, the list goes on and on.  Most recently I've decided to research the whole diaper situation.  I hadn't really given any thought to the whole thing until this weekend when my dad asked Matt and I if we were doing disposables or cloth diapers.  I immediately answered with disposables as I pictured the wrapped rags with safety pins when I thought of cloth diapers.  Well... Luckily as I was reading one of my favorite blogs younghouselove.com I came across their cloth diapering post found here.  It opened my eyes a little.

Before you know it I was all over the web looking up anything and everything about cloth diapers.  I even had to learn a few things along the way.  I heard all sorts of new acronyms and terminology.  Who knew that diapers could be so complicated?
AIO
Prefolds
Pockets
Fitted
Doublers
Soakers
OS
All of this is new to me... but that just made it more fun (and easier to obsess about).

Part of me is like "this is awesome" and the other part is "how am I going to get Matt to go along with this?"  and a even BIGGER part of me is thinking "Can I find a day care place willing to do these?"

I am SOLD on cloth diapers after a lot of research into them.  I am only hesitating because I haven't chosen a day care provider for my little boy yet (and probably won't for a while).  I feel like it is too soon to look into that... almost 4 months till the baby is due... plus 3 months of maternity leave... is more than half a year away from actually needing a daycare.  I had to research it anyways (I did say I was obsessing wasn't I?)  and I looked up the Utah regulations for cloth diapering in day care.  According to that regulation cloth diapers are FINE in day care as long as they are not "sprayed out" at the day care facility and are put into a "Wetbag" to go home with the baby.  whew!  At least I know they can't say its against state regulations when I ask, and as far as I can tell.. with the way the state regulations make it... its really no different than disposables anyway (If I buy the AIO's).

So... its been decided... though I'll probably wait a little longer before actually investing in them... I think Matt and I are going to be cloth diapering parents.  I personally don't think it will be that bad... its really just one extra step (putting the bowel movements in the toilet).  After all my research, though, I have decided to go the most expensive route with them.  I plan on buying some All in one- One size diapers and some Pocket- One size diapers.  These diapers range from 17 bucks per diaper to 25 bucks per diaper... a baby goes through around 6-8 diapers a day... which means I'm going to forking out a big up front investment with these guys.  However, I've found that these are the only ones that most day care places will be willing to use because they are the closest to disposables in ease of use.

In addition to the diapers I plan on getting some wetbags for dirty diaper storage for both at home and at daycare.  Along with that I am going to get a diaper sprayer that attaches to the toilet plumbing and makes it easier to spray out the fecal matter into the toilet.

I will be using disposables.  I have no clue how big my little boy is going to be when he is born and most of these "One size" diapers start at the 8-10 pound mark.  Which means... until my baby is 8 pounds at least (which could be at birth... or could be much later) we will be using disposables.  They do make infant size cloth diapers.... but thats another investment of at least 12 bucks a pop for diapers that we may or may not need... plus the Meconium will be a lot harder to spray off... so it will be best to wait anyways.

Now that I have bored you with my la-di-da about something you probably didn't care to read.  I am glad that I at least said something about my cloth diaper obsession.