I'm in love with a stripper

And not the Chippendale kind. Or the kind T-Pain sings about. Nope, I'm talking about the kind who made our linen closet door look like this:



We've literally been elbow-deep in bathroom painting this week, trying to finish the bathroom remodel we started several months ago (see Involuntary Bathroom Remodeling Part I and Part II and stay tuned for Part III). Last night, as I was painting around the linen closet, I asked Joe if he thought it would be easier to just take off the closet door so I could paint around it. He agreed that would work best, took the door off, and took it out to the garage to get it out of the way. I thought that was the end of it. Next thing I knew, in Joe's typical let's-take-this-to-the-next-level fashion, he was back inside explaining to me that the door really needed to be stripped, primed, and re-painted and telling me that he'd already scraped all the paint off the perimeter of the door. OK then. I guess we're stripping and re-painting the linen closet door. This is similar to the way he had to take off a little bathroom trim to put in the tiled shower, then decided that needed to be stripped, then decided that the rest of the trim also needed to be removed and stripped, and now has decided that the trim around the doors needs to be removed and stripped...you get the idea. Now, a huge part of this bathroom project involves removing, stripping, priming, reattaching, and repainting trim *insert huge sigh and "will this ever end?" facial expression here*.

So I'm officially in love with a stripper. And, no, he's not the Chippendale kind. But I think he's pretty cute, don't you?





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Home Improvement FAIL

After a bit of downtime on our home improvement, I figured tonight was a good time to continue work on our bathroom project.  In particular, we need to paint the ceiling.  I prepped the area, then went to the garage to get the big bucket o' paint.  I picked it up, and realized that there was a leak and that goopy white paint was now on my concrete garage floor.  Thanks a lot, Home Depot.

Undeterred, I figured that, instead of painting, I would continue removing the trim from the baseboard.  I went to go pry off a small piece in the corner, and in all the pulling, twisting, and bending, my 3" putty knife--probably my second-favorite home improvement tool behind my 1.5" putty knife--snapped in half.*

  *Yes, not only do I have a favorite home improvement tool, but a top 5 list regarding same.  The order: 5. Lineman's pliers, 4. Rotary sander, 3. Circular saw, 2. See above, 1. Ditto.  I love me a good putty knife.  I can't believe I'm actually saying (writing?) this out loud.

To top it all off, as I write this Kendra is outside trying to fix a leaking hose in our hand-pump sprayer-thingy to spray the weeds in our gravel driveway and patio.  This is one of those days when I think I should rename the blog, "F*ck This Old House."  Cocktail, anyone?

Follow-up to yesterday's post: our first tomato of the season

I discovered this little guy today.




Our first tomato of the year. A Cherokee Purple heirloom.

It's official. Summer is here.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

How does your garden grow?

This is my garden.





If you would have told Kendra from 4 years ago that she would have a garden, she would have laughed in your face. As I've mentioned before, Kendra from 4 years ago couldn't even keep a house plant alive and had never so much as dug a hole in the ground. Now she has a garden. With green things growing in it. I'll be damned.

It's not much - probably just about 6 by 12 feet or so - but it's enough for 3 tomato plants, 3 cherry tomato plants, 4 heads of lettuce, 4 heads of broccoli, 5 various pepper plants, and some spring onions this year. More than enough for our little family of four.

This is the third summer I've had a garden, and I've learned a little bit every year. The first year, I learned you can love your garden a little too much. I watered my tomato plants every 1-2 days, and ended up with huge, green, vine-y plants but very little fruit. Last year, I learned that little cages (and some putrid spray called "liquid fence") are necessary to keep rabbits and raccoons from snacking on young plants. The plants were salvageable, but I ended up with some plants that didn't produce any peppers until very late in the season.

This year is off to a great start. I've watered (but not too much), applied the liquid fence, and protected most of the plants with cages. The spring onions are almost ready, everything is growing, and we even have a tiny pepper growing on one of our jalapeño plants.

No it's not much, but I've grown pretty proud of this little sliver of our yard. And one of the best parts is that Max enjoys helping in the garden, so it's something we can do together. I hope Charlie will be able to start getting his tiny hands dirty next summer. It's perfect, really, because I've found that gardening is a lot like parenting: full of hope & frustration, surprise & disappointment, exhaustion & reward. You sow the seeds not knowing what you're gonna get, but you tend those little plants the best you can.  When you mess up, you hope the damage is reversible.  And you learn as you go.

Kendra from 4 years ago would be amazed at what it's all become.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

There's A Hole in the Ceiling Because I'm Fixing It...

...thanks for asking, Kendra. I did start out this project as simply covering an air return between the bathroom and the playroom. One I got on the ladder and started checking things out, though, I realized we had some old water damage to the bathroom ceiling. I got to removing the damaged plaster, and soon my 12"x10" hole was now about 3'x2'. So, in all, your typical old house project that starts out small and gets bigger and bigger.

In any event, the hole has been patched with drywall, taped, and has a coat of joint compound on it. By the weekend, it should be ready to paint, which is the whole reason I was up on the ladder in the first place.

With the ceiling painted, we can move to the walls, then the trim. Except I'm pretty sure I'm going to pop all that trim off the wall, strip it, and repaint it. Stay tuned.

Why is there a hole in my bathroom ceiling?

So sometime in the last 24 hours, Joe decided he needs to close up the unnecessary vent between the play room floor and the downstairs bathroom ceiling.  Perhaps he is tired of Max peeking down at him and saying, "DAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDDDY!  I SEEEEE YOOOOOU!" while he's getting into the shower.  Perhaps he is worried that same thing may happen to an unsuspecting guest.  Or perhaps he is truly hell-bent on NEVER finishing this bathroom project  Did I mention he's also taken off about half of the bathroom trim to try his hand at paint stripping? That's a post for another day...

Anyway, now there's a large hole in the bathroom ceiling where the vent used to be, pieces of plaster all over the floor, and some sort of horrible power tool screaming from behind the bathroom door.  I'm hoping it doesn't wake the boys.  I'm hoping he has enough drywall and/or whatever else he needs to get it patched tonight.  And I'm hoping Joe is documenting this to blog about later.

Good night, Peaches readers.

What we've been doing instead of working on the house (and blogging)

Life is moving fast.  Max wrapped up soccer last night and his last day of preschool (for this year) was yesterday morning.  All of the sudden, Charlie is seeming less like a baby and more like a little boy - eating table food with his 4 (almost 5) teeth, trying to crawl, and even pulling himself up to standing at the coffee table a couple of times.  I decide it's time to update the blog, and realize we haven't been on for almost a month.  Wait a minute - didn't I just post that bit about landscaping, like, yesterday?!?  Slow down, time!  Honestly, there's not been much to post as far as the house goes.  Our lives have been too busy for home improvement and blogging.  So here's all the non-house related stuff we've been up to (in no particular order):

1. Baseball-ing

The boys in blue are off to a good start.
Is this the Royals' year?

The now annual Gagnon-Bryant-Meyer
Easter backyard baseball game.

Max perfects his home run swing.

2. Easter-ing

Max carefully dyes his eggs.

The Easter bunny was generous this year.  The boys must
have been good!

All dressed up and ready for church.

Charlie "hunts" Easter eggs.

3. Swinging

A new back yard swing = hours of fun!

Max loves to push his little brother at the park.

4. Bike riding

Max with his new set of wheels.

5. Golfing

Charlie's first trip to the course.  I did not let him drive.

Is the next Tiger Woods in this picture?
Not if they take after their parents.

6. Camping

Max's first camping trip.  I've never seen him so excited.

Joe and his boys by the campfire.

7. Marching (for Babies)

With the help of our family and friends, we raised
over $1500 for the March of Dimes in memory of Lucy.

Me and my "angel Mom" friends.

8. Soccer-ing

Ready to take the field.

Goal!

9. Spending lots and lots of time with family.

Max and Charlie with their three cousins.

They love their Nanni!

Charlie and Paw-Paw share a smile.

Time may be flying by, but we wouldn't have it any other way.  Our lives are so full, and these boys just keep getting bigger and better every day.  

Lucky them.  

Lucky us.

Landscaping for dummies

Before we moved into this house, we never had a yard and I'd never tried to plant anything. Ever. I'd been given several houseplants over the years, and could never keep them alive. I figured I was hopeless.  A brown thumb.  The first year we lived here, our "landscaping" pretty much consisted of digging (ugly) stuff up and cutting (dead) stuff down. I wanted to plant something but didn't know where to start. So I hired a landscape designer to come up with a very simple beginning landscaping plan. The thought of planting something myself was overwhelming and intimidating. Then the local Garden Club had a sale and I bought a few hostas, dug some holes around the patio, put the plants in the holes, and waited. And guess what? They didn't die. So then I dug a few holes outside the back porch, put in some tomato and pepper plants, and waited. And they didn't die either. Those experiences gave me a bit of confidence, so I decided I'd try to at least get started with the landscape designer's plans. And so, for the past two years, I've slowly been adding simple elements to our landscape. With the exception of some mums and roses I planted in 2009 that didn't come back for 2010, everything is alive and - dare I say - thriving. And so, here I am, Kendra the Gardener. Who'd have thunk it? And the funniest thing about it is, I've found I actually like fooling with the green stuff.

Today, it's 75 degrees today in Northwest Missouri. The birds are singing, the trees are budding, and the grass is turning green. It's been a long, cold winter folks, and I'm itching to get my hands in some dirt and pretty up the exterior of this old house with a bit of landscaping. I'm ready to get more brave. Add a little excitement to the yard. Kick it up a notch. So, Peaches readers, I'm posting today to ask for your suggestions on how to make our landscape shine. Remember, we are a young family with a small business so we're definitely on a budget. Suggested plants should be native to our area and hard to kill.  I'd prefer perennials, but would consider planting some annuals in spots.  I've included some pictures and descriptions of the current landscaping for you to view and ponder.  Don't hold back. 

The front of the house, facing east.  We have 2 globe blue spruces (one on each side of the steps) and eight holly bushes out front.  On the northeast corner (the right side of the picture) we have a young red dogwood tree and three hydrangea bushes.  I'd really like to add some color and line the front walk.  

This is the side of the house, facing north, from the street.  We absolutely hate this side of the  house and have no idea what to do with it.  It is hard to see in this pictures, but we have 3 summer wine ninebark and 3 viburnum planted on this side of the house.  I also have some creeping phlox around the AC unit.  As you can see on the right side of the picture, we have a gravel rainbow drive and a fence line on this side of the house.  We also have a lot of yard to work with on this side of the house.  I'm thinking more shrubs, color, maybe some bushes or trees that will be pretty in the fall???

This is the south side of the house taken from the southeast corner of the front yard.  This side of the house isn't very visible from the street, so we'll probably keep it simple here.  There are some daffodils and some sort of lilies that I keep trying to dig up but just won't die.  The brown things are mums I planted last fall.  This is my second shot at planting mums.  Hoping they'll come back this time, but it isn't looking good.  You can't see them here, but there are 3 hydrangea bushes planted along the lattice on the south side of the porch.

Secret Window Repair?

Kendra is out of town at a conference for a couple days, leaving me home with the kids. Now that the kids are in bed, I have a bit of free time. Since Kendra's not around to say "no," I have an overwhelming urge to start a home improvement project that will sit, unfinished, for several months.  In particular, I think I should pull out this window's sashes and trim to refinish/repair it:

See the cracked window in the upper sash that the previos owner scotch-taped(!)? The broken sash cords? Missing putty? Peeling paint? Okay, you probably can't see that because it's a pretty crappy picture, but trust me that this window is a mess--and in a prominent location in our living room, to boot. This thing's got to be fixed, but it's likely to take a few months to find the time to do everything that needs to be done. So I'll put it to a vote; should I tear into the window while Kendra's gone?

Should I tear out this window?

Rub A Dub Dub!

The new tub is finished:

A mere 5 weeks after announcing we were almost finished, we finally got around to tiling the new tub surround.  This was my first tile project; I figured that I could figure it out on my own, but I had a better plan in mind.  I was able to convince good friend Steve Schaefer, owner of Steve Schaefer Flooring in Jefferson City, to make the drive to Lathrop to give me a hand.  

Yeah, this was a pretty simple job for Steve.

With Steve's help, "we" were able to get all the tile onto the wall in a few hours, including fixing the major hump that was in one of the walls.  Steve did most of the work, while I was the designated tile cutter.  

The next evening, I grouted the joints and applied a sealant recommended by Steve.  Next up was caulking the inside corners and the tile perimeter.  Once that was done, I did my best to texture the new, unfinished part of the wall to match the old.  Kendra and I are very pleased with the final* product:

*Ok, it's not quite final yet, since we need to paint the wall.  But it's close enough.

I think our end result looks good, and also blends well with the character of the house.  I think the color of the tile (dubbed "lemon chiffon" by American Olean, the tile manufacturer) has an arts and crafts touch, and the radius tile we used on the built-out wall (on the right side of the picture) adds to the traditional feel of the tile.  

Overall, we are very pleased at how the new tub turned out.  It wasn't fast--and it wasn't cheap, even though we did most of the work ourselves--but the "before" and "after" difference is enormous.  The only problem?  With the new tub/shower in place, it makes us want to continue with the remodel of the bathroom, including a new vanity, countertop, and custom-built linen closet.

You know you live in the country when...

...the only short-sleeved green shirts you can find for your little boys are sporting John Deere logos.

Happy St. Patrick's Day from two of the sweetest little Leprechauns in the Midwest!

Restoring Window Trim

With Kendra's cloth diaper post pulling in 300+ visitors, as opposed to our usual 50 visitors, I have a tough act to follow here.  I get it-- people are more interested in parenting than they are in two DYI-challenged folks futzing around with a (nearly) 100-year-old house.  So consider this my effort to simultaneously yank this blog back on-topic and lose hundreds of viewers who might otherwise become regular readers.

After my last update, I was working to get the bathroom in finished shape.  Now that our bathroom is completely rebuilt and retiled, it's time that we start . . . wait, hold on.  My mistake, the bathroom is NOT done yet.  The walls are built and the joints are all taped and mortared, but there is still no tile.  The projected completion date is end of month, but, of course, I said that last month.

Let's forget about the bathroom for now.  With spring approaching, Kendra and I are contemplating what exterior work should be accomplished this year.  We've done quite a bit to the east (front) and west (back) sides of the house, but relatively little to the north and south sides.  Here's a view of the north side of the Peaches estate:

This side of the house really annoys us.  This picture actually looks more appealing than the house looks in real life, I think.  This side faces a street (I'm standing near the street in taking this picture), and we've struggled coming up with something to enhance the curb appeal.  So far, we've done a few small things -- you can see the stone wall around the AC unit.  There are also three nine bark bushes and three vibernums we planted last year (they are just sticks right now, but hopefully will be nice and bushy once spring arrives).  Otherwise, this side is just a large expanse of grungy vinyl.  Long-term the plan is to reside the entire house with new wood clapboards, but our empty piggy bank prevents us from moving on that right now.  Another part of the plan is to plant some trees on this side and let them grow, but that does nothing to help in the short term.  

Given the lack of curb appeal on this side coupled with its prominence to the street, Kendra and I discussed what small touches we could do to dress it up a bit.  We had settled on a modest plan: repaint the windows to the basement, perhaps paint the stone foundation, and paint the vinyl window trim.  That's when I got to really looking at the windows:

We often lament the vinyl siding that's on the house.  But look at that window--to me, it sure looks like we have some pretty ornate wood window trim lurking underneath that damn plastic.  You can even see that the bottom sill is not cut flush with the side trim, which makes me think that the original trim is fully intact under the vinyl.  After all, if they wanted to make the vinyl job easier, they would have squared off the windows, wouldn't they?

Taking all this into account, I think the new plan is to remove the vinyl from the windows and repaint/restore the exterior wood window trim.  This is, no doubt, a much larger project than just slapping some vinyl-friendly paint on there, but I think the finished product--if we can pull it off--will be more impressive.  Plus, I have already undertaken to restore our original wood windows, one at a time, and this will dovetail nicely with that project (more details on the window restoration in a later post).  

So what do you think, Peaches readers?  Does this have a shot of working?  Have any of you done this type of thing before and have any tips for us?  One of my biggest worries is flashing/waterproofing, but I think the siding and some caulk should take care of that for us.  Or is there something I'm overlooking?

Cloth Love

First off, Peaches readers, I know this is supposed to be a "house blog."  But it is also the closest thing to we have to a family blog, and every once in a while I dream about being a professional Mommy blogger when I grow up.    So I hope you will indulge me today, as I Mommy-blog my reflections on 6 months of cloth-diapering little Charlie (and my apologies in advance if you clicked over from Houseblogs.net, but please read on if one of your upcoming DIY projects is to install a diaper sprayer on your toilet).

Charlie's first cloth diaper: an unbleached Chinese prefold with an extra-small Thirsties cover.

This is Charlie in his very first cloth diaper.  He was just 3 days old and weighed in at 7 pounds, 8 ounces.  Why did we decide to cloth diaper him?  I don't really know.  We talked about cloth diapering Max, but never took the plunge.  It just seemed so overwhelming at the time.  But, over the 2 1/2 years or so that Max wore disposable diapers, I grew to dislike them.  First of all, they were expensive.  Like all babies, Max went through diapers like crazy, and seemed like we were always out of diapers, running to the store to buy more for home or daycare.  We always had a diaper pail full of stinky diapers, waiting to be taken to the trash.  I couldn't even think about the cubic feet of landfill space we were filling up with Max's Pampers.  And all those chemicals up against his skin 24 hours a day?  Ick!  The chemical-y smell of a fresh disposable diaper wasn't much better than the smell of a dirty one if you asked me.  So, when we were expecting Charlie, I knew I wanted to give cloth diapering a try and I convinced Joe - who was understandably skeptical - to join me in my cloth diaper experiment.  Once I started researching and reading, I quickly realized that - while cloth diapering is certainly cheaper than disposable diapering - there is quite an up-front investment (especially if you want to use some of the new-fangled fancy-pants diapers).  So we committed to trying cloth diapers for at least 6 months, both to make sure we recouped our initial costs but also to make sure we gave it a fair shot.  And today, Peaches readers, I will share our cloth diaper experience with you.

So what did it take to cloth diaper for 6 months?

This is our entire cloth diaper "stash," including almost everything we've used to diaper Charlie for the last 6 months.  It includes items we've used almost every day from the beginning of cloth diapering, items we used at different stages, and things we haven't used at all.

The primary cloth diaper "system" we decided to use with Charlie was GroVia (more on that later).  But their one-size diapers were just too bulky to use during those first few weeks, when Charlie was still so very tiny.  Luckily, we also had 22 unbleached Chinese prefold diapers (infant size) and found those worked best for about the first month of cloth diapering.  These old-school prefolds are what usually come to mind when you hear "cloth diaper."  But don't worry, folks - these aren't your Momma's cloth diapers.  Plastic pants have been replaced by breathable waterproof covers and there are lots of styles and cute patterns to choose from.  During the newborn phase, we adored our 3 extra-small Thirsties covers.  Not only did they fit Charlie's tiny body, but the double-gusseted design contained all the wetness - including runny newborn poo.  I don't think we ever had a single leak using prefolds and Thirsties covers!  We also had 2 small Bummis covers, but because they were more bulky and plastic-y than the Thirsties covers, we really only used them when the Thirsties covers were dirty.  Using prefold diapers and covers is easy.  Most of the time, we just lay the diaper in the cover, like so...

Regular (premium) infant prefold with one-size Blueberry Coverall.

...then secure the diaper and cover around Charlie, like so.

It will be just as easy for you to use a prefold and cover, but - unfortunately - your baby won't be as cute.  Sorry.

If we ever want to fasten the diaper before securing the cover (which I like to do but Joe doesn't), we use one of our 4 Snappis.

Diaper pins are a thing of the past!  I just fold the diaper into thirds (see picture above), give it a twist to reduce bulkiness between the legs, and fasten it in front with a Snappi.

The covers were wipeable and reusable (unless they got poo on them, of course), so we usually just alternated between two covers every day.

Once Charlie was back up to his birth weight of 8 pounds (about 2-3 weeks old), we were able to start using our one-size GroVia all-in-two diapers.  These GroVia diapers are a two-piece system consisting of an outer shell (we have 9 of them) and snap-in insert (we have 15).

The inside of a GroVia shell

GroVia shell with snap-in organic cotton insert.

Like the Thirsties covers, the GroVia shells can be reused throughout the day (until they get dirty).  We typically use 2-3 shells per day.  Early on, we struggled with occasional leaks with our GroVia diapers, but I discovered that they need to be washed and dried REPEATEDLY before reaching full absorbency.  I also discovered that the tags would occasionally slip out of the shell and wick out the moisture, so I cut out all the tags.  Since then, we rarely have leaks and we LOVE our GroVia diapers!  They are trim, made of organic cotton, and the 3 rows of snaps make the shell "one-size" so they have grown with Charlie from 8 to almost 20 pounds now.

One week old, about 7 pounds.  The GroVia diaper was still a bit too big.

2 weeks old, 8 pounds.  The GroVia diaper was a bit bulky, was was workable.

2 1/2 months old and about 14-15 pounds.  He is pictured wearing a GroVia snap shell here.

6 months old, just shy of 20 pounds, and happy as a clam in his GroVia diaper!  Compare to the newborn shots and note that we are now on the second row of snaps.  There are 3 rows of snaps to grow the diaper covers from newborn to infant to toddler sizes.  Genius!

One thing I really appreciate about the GroVia system is the versatility.  We can use the shell and insert together, or can use the shell as a cover for a prefold diaper (which we did quite often early on, when prefolds seemed to do a better job containing the runny breastfed baby poo).  They also sell BioSoakers, which are biodegradable, disposable inserts you can use to make GroVia a "hybrid" diapering system.  We have a 50-pack of BioSoakers, but haven't really used them.  I imagine they would be great for traveling, sitters who are uncomfortable dealing with cloth, or if you were someone who wasn't ready to totally take the cloth diaper plunge.

2 months old.  Wearing a GroVia cover over an infant prefold fastened with a Snappi (take my word for it).

In addition to our GroVia diapers, we also have 9 regular (premium)-size prefold diapers in our current rotation with 2 Blueberry one-size covers.  The prefold/cover combo isn't as trim as GroVia, but they work very well and we probably use them every 2-3 days, when all the GroVia diapers are in the wash.

5 months old and about 17-18 pounds, wearing a regular size prefold with a one-size Blueberry Coverall.  

Although GroVia and prefolds with covers have been our "go-to" cloth diapers, we also dabbled in a variety of pocket diapers.  Pocket diapers are just as they sound - they are cloth diapers with a pocket that you stuff with inserts.  They allow you to customize your absorbancy by stuffing as much or little as you want, and cut down drying time because the inserts are separate from the rest of the diaper.  Charlie has always been a very heavy wetter, and the problem I had with pocket diapers, across the board, was that they seemed to leak after about an hour, no matter how much I stuffed them. So none of them worked well for us.  Luckily, Joe's cousin Tamera (who I refer to as the cloth diaper fairy) gave us a lot of hand-me-down pocket diapers the she used with her daughter, so we were able to try most of these risk-free.  I'm glad we did, because I would have been very disappointed if we would have purchased a bunch of these right off the bat.  Of the pocket diapers we tried, my favorite were Swaddlebees.

Small Swaddlebees stuffed with two inserts.  2 months old, approximately 14-15 pounds.

They were trim, soft, and usually didn't leak as long as I stuffed them with at least two inserts and made sure to change them every 2 hours or so.

Also included in our "stash" of pocket diapers were 5 extra small Fuzzibunz.

Wearing an x-small Fuzzibunz at 3 weeks old, approximately 9-10 pounds.

The Fuzzibunz were cute and very trim, but leaked every time.  Didn't matter how much I stuffed them (and I stuffed them as much as I could), Charlie would wear them an hour and then be covered in pee (but they did contain the poo).

We also had 6 Happy Heiny's (4 size small, 2 size x-small).  We absolutely hated these.  The legs weren't gusseted and did not contain runny newborn poo.  And it seemed like my breastfed baby was pooing about every 10 minutes, so that's exactly how long one of these diapers would last.  Maybe they would've worked better for an older baby.  We never used our two Very Baby pocket diapers, but they looked almost exactly like the Happy Heiny's so I imagine I would have hated them too.

In addition to the diapers themselves, there are several cloth diapering accessories that have made cloth diapering possible (and, dare I say, easy).  Here are all the extras we've used along the way:

Three rolls of liners.  We've used Imse Vimse and Kushies.  These flushable, biodegradable liners lay right on top of the cloth diaper and are great for catching poo so you don't have to dunk, scrape, or spray it off in the toilet.

GroVia shell and insert with a Kushies liner on top.

Incidentally, breastfed baby poo is totally water soluble, so you can just toss poopy breastfed diapers in the washing machine without any rinsing.  So these liners are only necessary when you have to start getting rid of the poo before you wash.  Since Charlie is an exclusively breastfed baby, we didn't start using liners until he started solid food at about 4 1/2 months.  And we don't use the liners all the time since we installed a diaper sprayer on our toilet, which is an easy and pretty clean way to wash the poo off the diapers and into the toilet.  Sure beats the old dunk-flush-repeat method our mothers used.

Our Bumgenius diaper sprayer mounts right to our toilet.

One diaper pail.  A cheapie Safety First model from Babies R Us.  It is the same one we used with Max's disposable diapers, and is basically just a glorified trash can.  You certainly don't need any special diaper pail for cloth diapers.  You do, however, need...

Two Planet Wise diaper pail liners.  Gone are the days of the "wet pail," where you throw dirty diapers in a solution of water and cleaners to soak until laundry day.  We use the "dry pail" method, and just throw our dirty diapers in the pail lined with these washable liners.  They make diaper laundry (which we do every other day) oh-so-easy - just throw the bag in the washer with the diapers and wash away!  Which brings me to...

Front-loader washing machine and Rockin Green laundry soap.  Cloth diapers and front-loader washing machines are both environmentally friendly, so you'd think they'd work well together.  The irony, however, is that a front-loader washer generally does a pretty crappy (no pun intended) job of washing cloth diapers.  You see, cloth diapers need water - lots and lots of water - to get really clean, and front-loader washers use less water.  This can lead to unclean, stinky diapers.  There is no "best" wash routine for cloth diapers.  It really depends on your washing machine and water quality.  It has taken a little bit of experimentation and problem-solving, but we seem to have figured out the best routine for washing our diapers ( cold short cycle with no soap & extra rinse + hot long cycle with soap & extra rinse).  Occasionally, if the diapers start to get that not-so-fresh smell, I run another cold short cycle with no soap & extra rinse and that takes care of it.  We've also experimented with soap.  I've had the best luck with Rockin' Green, regular Tide, and Charlie's Soap (in that order).  But the Rockin' Green is far and away my favorite.

Two medium-sized zip-top wet bags.  We have one made by Planet Wise and one made by Wahmies.  These waterproof bags are essential for keeping dirty diapers and all their wetness and smells contained while you're out-and-about or on days when baby is with Grandma or the sitter.  Wet bags are handy even if you don't cloth diaper - I've used them to keep wet/dirty clothes and bibs from floating around the diaper bag.

A few packages of Pampers.  Charlie is a heavy wetter and gets really upset when he's wearing a wet cloth diaper.  We just haven't quite figured out how to keep him cloth-diapered at night without leaks or fussiness.  There are special overnight cloth diapers out there, but I haven't explored them.  So he wears one disposable diaper overnight every night, and I think we've purchased about one package a month since his birth.  I'm only human.

So there you have it.  Am I glad we took the cloth diaper plunge?  Yep.  Do I plan to continue?  Absolutely.  My plan is to keep little Charlie in cloth diapers until he potty trains (which may not be long since research shows that cloth-diapered babies potty train earlier).  If (and that's a BIG IF) we have another child, they'll be cloth-diapered, too.  Cloth diapers are cheap.  All told, I think we've spent just under $300 on cloth diapers that will carry us through potty training, so they've been a very good economical choice.  They're good for the environment and - after I got over the initial shock of all the options and accessories - it has been surprisingly easy to cloth diaper, even as a working Mom (thanks to our sitter, Pam, for being open-minded and trying cloth diapers with us).

And, besides, what's cuter than a chubby baby in a cloth diaper?

Nothing!