This is how we started off on Saturday. Pulling down the old ceiling which was water damaged from a roof leak and a couple of tiles were actually falling down.

Inspired by Abbey's ability to get stuff done, I set a goal to finish the room this weekend. So what if it was totally unrealistic? By 7 PM Saturday the room looked like this. (We're waiting to see how much/if the bead board will settle before trying to pull it flat around the edges.)

Then on Sunday morning I woke up at 6:30 while the other 2 2-leggers in the house slept for.another.2.hours. and touched up the paint, moved the orange rug back in and did a little bit of laundry purging.

When we demoed the closets to make the laundry area we saved the wood from the shelving. My granddad built the shelving from construction scraps and old army crate wood. I liked the idea of reintegrating them into the house somehow--you know, keep his industrious spirit a part of the place. The legs to this low table came from some of those shelves. I asked Charlie to make me a 56" long x 22" wide shelf in different types of wood so we wouldn't feel obligated to make it all matchy matchy.I like how it's rustic. Add a few houseplants on it and then we're really talking!

So maybe it's not totally finished, but it's so much better than this, right?

Still to do: Add ornamental trim around the door area to the washer/dryer to keep the look of woodwork uniform with the rest of the house;
hang bi-fold doors to hide the washer/dryer area;
paint trim white;
add sewing table top;
replace blinds with something (anything!) more attractive;
change the rug - I don't want to keep the orange rug, but since we already have it (no more money to spend on this project), for now it stays.

We're doing a little bit of homework these days. M is getting a "big girl" room since she never really took to the nursery. It's given me a good excuse to do some crafting, too! Most of the furnishings are things we already had and thought they'd work better in her space than how we were using them. The light fixture was a Craigslist find, the curtains were made from an Alfred Shaheen vintage floral pattern reissued that I found at Hancock Fabrics, and we did buy a new comforter/sheet set from Target. We also have a pale salmon Milk Paint for the walls, but that might be a ways down the road.
There are still a few messes in the room--things that need a proper place; the toy shelves actually look bare thanks to a post-Christmas purge. Anyone with kids knows that won't last for long.