Still not over it

I'm back on the white trim thing. I can't get it out of my mind. And seeing as how it would be a huge undertaking, the prospect has me thinking about how you go about home improvements with a baby in the house. It has been hard enough for me to abstain from doing things with toxic chemicals as a pregnant person. I've probably not been the best at fully avoiding things I shouldn't be doing just because I am that kind of person. Even when I am sick, I can't bring myself to just lie around the house. There are laundry and dishes and things to clean, etc. Cleaning wood with TSP and sanding and painting may be fine for me to do once I'm not pregnant, but then again, there will be a baby in the house and I can't imagine those things are good to have floating around in the air. What gives? Even opening all the windows or taking the baby out for the day don't seem to be solutions for ongoing projects that take longer than an afternoon. Is there a way to clean and sand and paint that isn't nasty for little lungs and eyes?

Stained vs. painted wood

I have read all sorts of articles and blogs about the debate between painting over wood that is stained. Depending on who you ask it's either the greatest sin you can commit in a old house with any historic character, or the best thing you can do to brighten and clean up a room. Of course there's a lot going on in between these two extremes. When we moved into this house, the trim upstairs had already been painted white. The doors upstairs were still unpainted wood but had been stained super dark. Everything downstairs except the kitchen had been left as stained wood, sort of a deep rusted hue. It's pretty, but also pretty beat up. Chips out of the wood, nails randomly in the wood, etc.
Andy belongs to the camp of don't ever paint the original wood. When I proposed we paint the upstairs doors to match the trim that was white and to brighten things up he protested but reluctantly agreed. That turned out to be quite a project, but we have most of the doors at least primed white and even with that I think it already looks better. He does too. Sometimes I wish the downstairs had been already painted white before we got here too. I can't bring myself to paint over it. It really is sort of charming, but damn if I don't like me some white trim. It makes picking paint colors so much easier. It makes everything brighter and feel more open. Andy says he likes the cave feel. While I sit here and try and think of paint colors that can brighten up a dark wood stain, he talks about making it feel darker. See, he's a "Rustic/Lodge" decorating style, while I am a "Nantucket Beach" style. The quiz we took made it clear that my bright, light colored fantasies are exactly what he is NOT looking for. I guess we'll have to make up for it in other ways. But in all seriousness, has anyone ever really regretted painting wood trim white?

We are SO close to finishing the hallway. One more coat of paint and some touch ups and it will be done. You can see what it looks like below. I think some people were a little skeptical about the idea of color on the ceiling, but i love it and think it looks awesome.
This weekend Andy caulked and spackled the baby's room, and our goal is to start painting in there next week. Who knew that if you ever needed motivation to speed up any type of home improvement plans, all you had to do was get pregnant. Seriously. As we continue on our quest to finish the upstairs before October, I realized that if we are successful we will have painted or resurfaced in some way nearly every inch of wall/floor or ceiling in the 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, and hall that exist up there, within 1 year. No wonder my back hurts. Did I mention it's also 90 degrees?
Speaking of heat, our tomato plants have some sort of fungus. We've been reading about various remedies, but given the heat and other things we are up to, I can't bring myself to get outside and try them out.