How do we DIY with a KID?

It's definitely been a completely different experience moving and starting to try to work on a house with a child. I've been reading some of my favorite blogs of parent DIY-ers..(Making It Lovely, Young House Love etc.) but still feel like we haven't quite figured it out.  Our 2.5 year old always wants to "help" and has strong opinions about what each of us should be doing at any given moment on the weekends.  Oh, she also doesn't like loud noises...as in the vacuum, ANY of daddy's tools etc. Do you see the cards stacking up against all of my glorious DIY plans?

Brent has taken some time off this week to dedicate some chunks of time to getting more settled and work on the house.  His priorities are all things that make me want to snore, though I know they are all super practical, important, and great ideas to do first:

1. Organize the basement/find and set up his tools - clearly this is important for every future project.

2. Go get the rest of our stuff out of storage - no need to throw more money away now that we have a giant basement and several currently-unused rooms on the third floor.

3. Something else boring that I can't remember.

4. Ready the butler's pantry for the marble countertop I insisted we buy before we even moved in (always planning ahead....). This involves building up the cabinet so that the counter will be higher than the original sink and removing a board on the wall.

5. Something about the TV's/cable thingies.

What did I want to work on this week? Only things with visible results, of course!

1. The Powder Room - Walls (bead board, paint, stencil perhaps?), find replacement sink and toilet. I will live with the floor for now.

How freeing to have more than one bathroom in this house...

2. Finish the first phase of the Master Bath - thorough cleaning, navy bath mats, patch, prime, paint, floating shelves/baskets for storage, possible medicine cabinet swap out. 

3. Keep scraping wallpaper in the living and dining rooms.

I was supposed to be off this week too...but that's not really the case any more, so we shall see what gets done.  I will say, the sound of him in the basement right now doing something with a power tool is making me feel nostalgic and excited about what's to come. I promise in the next post to cover what has already happened - it'll be a good reminder after making the giant to-do list.