I've Prepared A Place For You
One of the questions I get about fostering is how I prepared my home. I previously blogged about some of the safety requirements I had to do to get licensed. You can find that post here, with links to the safety equipment I purchased. Today, I’m sharing specifically how I prepared a room for baby.
Choosing Preferences
Maybe I get this question often because unlike knowing you'll be delivering a newborn, there are children of all ages who need foster homes. Foster parents do get to narrow down the age range they prefer. By the time I had my second home inspection at about Week 8 in the 10-week training process, I had to decide on my preferred age range and gender. My licensing worker asked me to complete a checklist of “preferences” – yes or no questions related to medical and behavioral issues that I’d be willing to take on in a potential child who would be placed in my home. You get to decide all of that ahead of time, so that when the Placement Unit calls you, they can match your preferences. Filling out the checklist also helped me to know exactly what questions to ask later when I started getting calls on children to consider bringing home. I decided that the 0 – 5 years age range was my desired age and I was open to a boy or a girl.
Shopping Lists
Now, 0 – 5 years is a wide range considering what a newborn baby needs in a home is much different than what a 5-year old needs. I created several different shopping lists based on age group, and just had them saved on my computer and phone, ready for when it was going to be needed. I had separate shopping lists saved for ages 0 to 1 year, 1 to 2 years, 3 years, and 4 – 5 years. When I made the lists, I also marked what I could buy ahead of time, what I’d have to buy the day I got the call to bring baby home, and what could wait to be purchased and delivered after baby was already with me. The shopping lists were focused on necessities: car seat, bedding, bottles, and baby furniture, etc. Then I found the items on my lists on Amazon and created Amazon Wish Lists for each list, so that I could just click to order when it came time to buy, once I knew who I was shopping for.
Painting Baby’s Room
Two weeks prior to completing my classes was when I began renovating a room in my home to be the baby’s room. I cleared out my upstairs guest room and I chose a color scheme for the room. Because I was open to either a boy or a girl, I decided on gender neutral base colors, grey (my favorite color) and white. I planned to add different color accessories and accents after baby came home. I would add green and blue accents if it was a boy, and pink accents if it was a girl. I figured it would be easy enough to buy things like sheets, storage bins, curtains and artwork in those colors later.
One trip to Home Depot to pick out paints, and then my mom, dad, cousin and I were painting three light grey walls in the room. Then I got ambitious and decided to do a grey striped accent wall. I knew that stripes weren’t easy – I mean, if you’ve ever tried to paint a straight line just at the ceiling and baseboards, you know that is never precise and I cringed thinking about a crooked stripe and those dreaded paint bleeds! But we went for it, and thanks to my very precise engineer Dad, and what I call “the magic caulking tip” to get straight painted lines, I loved how the stripe wall turned out!
Magic Caulking Tip: After laying painter’s tape on the wall, press bathroom caulk along the edge of the tape with your finger, then paint over that same edge in your desired color (with a very dry brush with just a small amount of paint – no drips) and then lift the tape immediately (don’t let the caulk dry) and you’ll have a much straighter line than just relying on the tape alone. Walls are textured, so the caulk fills in some of those grooves on the wall so that the paint lays flat rather than bleeding. It makes a world of a difference when trying to paint a super straight line.
Picking A Theme
“You are Loved” was the theme I chose. Of all things, that’s what I wanted baby to know from the start. I painted wood letters to be hung on the wall, and from there decided that signs with different sayings were what I wanted to decorate the room. I picked a few different sayings that spoke love and empowerment, and used the free website Canva.com to make my own prints and designs in the colors I chose if it were to be a boy, or a girl. I enlarged them and framed them in white Ikea frames.
Furniture
I was lucky enough to have my nephew’s crib which is convertible from newborn to toddler, which was necessary because of my wide age range preference. I also got a toy chest and dresser from Amazon that we built ourselves and that would work for any age, and a fun grey and white shaggy rug in chevron pattern. I waited on a diaper changing table until I knew that I needed one and thanks to Amazon, that would come 2 days after baby came home and that worked just fine.
Wall Hangings
These book or frame ledges from Ikea have been a longtime favorite. I hung those and bought some books. Love that it’s functional and decorative.
Before I knew it, I had a nursery ready to go and a special place prepared for baby. The basics were covered so when I got the call, I just needed one Target run for things I needed immediately. The rest was ready to go, or could be delivered (in 1 – 2 days, thanks to good ol’ Amazon Prime) after I went clicking away in my pre-made Amazon shopping lists. It was such a whirlwind of emotion and excitement, so I was glad I already had shopping lists made.
Preparing the nursery with my family is one of my fondest memories, and such special memories have been made in the nursery already, which is such a place of joy and love with baby enjoying it!
Choosing Preferences
Maybe I get this question often because unlike knowing you'll be delivering a newborn, there are children of all ages who need foster homes. Foster parents do get to narrow down the age range they prefer. By the time I had my second home inspection at about Week 8 in the 10-week training process, I had to decide on my preferred age range and gender. My licensing worker asked me to complete a checklist of “preferences” – yes or no questions related to medical and behavioral issues that I’d be willing to take on in a potential child who would be placed in my home. You get to decide all of that ahead of time, so that when the Placement Unit calls you, they can match your preferences. Filling out the checklist also helped me to know exactly what questions to ask later when I started getting calls on children to consider bringing home. I decided that the 0 – 5 years age range was my desired age and I was open to a boy or a girl.
Shopping Lists
Now, 0 – 5 years is a wide range considering what a newborn baby needs in a home is much different than what a 5-year old needs. I created several different shopping lists based on age group, and just had them saved on my computer and phone, ready for when it was going to be needed. I had separate shopping lists saved for ages 0 to 1 year, 1 to 2 years, 3 years, and 4 – 5 years. When I made the lists, I also marked what I could buy ahead of time, what I’d have to buy the day I got the call to bring baby home, and what could wait to be purchased and delivered after baby was already with me. The shopping lists were focused on necessities: car seat, bedding, bottles, and baby furniture, etc. Then I found the items on my lists on Amazon and created Amazon Wish Lists for each list, so that I could just click to order when it came time to buy, once I knew who I was shopping for.
Painting Baby’s Room
Two weeks prior to completing my classes was when I began renovating a room in my home to be the baby’s room. I cleared out my upstairs guest room and I chose a color scheme for the room. Because I was open to either a boy or a girl, I decided on gender neutral base colors, grey (my favorite color) and white. I planned to add different color accessories and accents after baby came home. I would add green and blue accents if it was a boy, and pink accents if it was a girl. I figured it would be easy enough to buy things like sheets, storage bins, curtains and artwork in those colors later.
One trip to Home Depot to pick out paints, and then my mom, dad, cousin and I were painting three light grey walls in the room. Then I got ambitious and decided to do a grey striped accent wall. I knew that stripes weren’t easy – I mean, if you’ve ever tried to paint a straight line just at the ceiling and baseboards, you know that is never precise and I cringed thinking about a crooked stripe and those dreaded paint bleeds! But we went for it, and thanks to my very precise engineer Dad, and what I call “the magic caulking tip” to get straight painted lines, I loved how the stripe wall turned out!
Magic Caulking Tip: After laying painter’s tape on the wall, press bathroom caulk along the edge of the tape with your finger, then paint over that same edge in your desired color (with a very dry brush with just a small amount of paint – no drips) and then lift the tape immediately (don’t let the caulk dry) and you’ll have a much straighter line than just relying on the tape alone. Walls are textured, so the caulk fills in some of those grooves on the wall so that the paint lays flat rather than bleeding. It makes a world of a difference when trying to paint a super straight line.
Picking A Theme
“You are Loved” was the theme I chose. Of all things, that’s what I wanted baby to know from the start. I painted wood letters to be hung on the wall, and from there decided that signs with different sayings were what I wanted to decorate the room. I picked a few different sayings that spoke love and empowerment, and used the free website Canva.com to make my own prints and designs in the colors I chose if it were to be a boy, or a girl. I enlarged them and framed them in white Ikea frames.
Furniture
I was lucky enough to have my nephew’s crib which is convertible from newborn to toddler, which was necessary because of my wide age range preference. I also got a toy chest and dresser from Amazon that we built ourselves and that would work for any age, and a fun grey and white shaggy rug in chevron pattern. I waited on a diaper changing table until I knew that I needed one and thanks to Amazon, that would come 2 days after baby came home and that worked just fine.
Wall Hangings
These book or frame ledges from Ikea have been a longtime favorite. I hung those and bought some books. Love that it’s functional and decorative.
Before I knew it, I had a nursery ready to go and a special place prepared for baby. The basics were covered so when I got the call, I just needed one Target run for things I needed immediately. The rest was ready to go, or could be delivered (in 1 – 2 days, thanks to good ol’ Amazon Prime) after I went clicking away in my pre-made Amazon shopping lists. It was such a whirlwind of emotion and excitement, so I was glad I already had shopping lists made.
Preparing the nursery with my family is one of my fondest memories, and such special memories have been made in the nursery already, which is such a place of joy and love with baby enjoying it!
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