Getting Ready

Tomorrow, my boy starts middle school. How did we get here????

We've kind of ignored the inevitable all summer long, but when the Florida Back to School Tax Holiday rolled around, we realized that we couldn't ignore school starting up again much longer. I took the boy out to buy new pants and a belt so he could conform to the school dress code. He still has shirts he can wear, so I'm not spending any money on that for now. We also hit up Staples for a few notebooks and pencils and mulled over the idea of getting a computer for the boy. Decided against a store-bought computer, but a friend of mine is building him one so ZBoy will be able to do homework and research and when he has a little spare time, play games.

Doing the homework at the diningroom table or in the kitchen isn't going to work this year... THIS year, Z needed his own desk in his own room. I looked through a few yard sales and perused classifieds and even looked at new desks - but none of them was what we really needed. Finally, I called Mom and asked if she had a student desk hidden somewhere out at the farm. Turns out, she did!!!

One hot afternoon, ZBoy and I drove out to the farm and Mom led us to her shed, where we dug under boxes and moved chairs and a claw-footed bathtub to unearth the perfect student desk! Well, the size and configuration were perfect, but it was old paint that was probably a french provencial white with rather flowery brass drawer pulls. It was, in all honesty, kind of girly looking.

I could work with that, though! We loaded it up and took it home, where I sanded it down on Saturday morning.

I was going to paint it on Saturday too, but got sidetracked by yard work, pool work and a visiting kid. Desk painting got put off until Sunday.

Sunday morning, Z and I went to Lowe's and I let him pick out a color. It's not what I would have picked, but it's his desk! We bought a quart and some new drawer pulls and went home to tackle the paint job.

Usually, when I have a project like this, somewhere along the line, I ask myself WHY DID I THINK THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA? The first coat of paint had me asking that question. It was so uneven and streaky in spite of the thorough sanding. However, the second coat settled my fears that we had made a huge mistake. The coverage was solid and even and I even liked the color. Adding the manly knobs just completed it.

I really like how it turned out! And more importantly, Z loves it too!