Mia

I've been keeping busy with my little lady, who is now almost 6 weeks old...

Photo taken when she was 2 weeks old

We are over the moon in love with our little Mia. She has completely taken over our lives in the best way possible.

So I swear I haven't abandoned this blog... her nursery is finished and I've finally managed to take some photos, which will be posted soon.

Nursery Sneak Peek / Where have I been?

Right now I'm at 31 weeks and although we still have time, we've been working HARD the past few weeks trying to get the nursery together.

What we've done so far:
- finished painting the closet (thanks to Mom!) and now all surfaces are painted, yes!
- crib, dresser, chair, nightstand and lamp, all assembled/painted/delivered and in place
- acquired lots of baby stuff, unpacked and sorted into loose piles
- washed, sorted, and put away all baby clothes

What we need to do, yesterday:
- call electrician to install ceiling light
- acquire and hang window shades
- acquire and hang closet curtains
- acquire rug
- acquire toss pillows and comfy pouf ottoman thing
- organize shelves
- frame and hang artwork

What we need to do soon:
- pick out a name for this little one
- pack a hospital bag
- wait and freak out

Here is a sneak peek of the nursery: 

puppy rocker courtesy of my lil sis

Ok, so apparently I only post once every 3 months or so? What happened to me? I think I have a pregnancy-induced reluctance to sit on the blog. While we've been prepping and making the house cozy, I've just been meh about blogging. It's weird because it started almost exactly when I became pregnant. 

I've gone so far as to take a bunch of blogs off my reader. I have a really strong aversion to "crafting" and any mention of someone making custom labels for their leftover paint supply or anyone referring to themselves as a "maker" - it's just like ughhhhhhhh. Can't take myself that seriously. 

Also - I have, like, no time? What's up with that? I'm still going to sleep after midnight, waking up at 6:30am and running what feels like a marathon all day (big belly and all). Chores, errands, paperwork these things are, like, never-ending, in addition to my job. Thankfully the work load is lightening up and I will spend the next couple of weeks at work doing the "nesting" equivalent of office work. Organizing, throwing old stuff out, planning for the time I'm not there.

Now it's Christmas-time and I'm in overdrive getting presents wrapped and together. I think next year I'm going to cut back on presents. It's getting to be too much work. (Yes, I'm a Scrooge).

John told me he would be working late tonight, so when I got home I managed to get a bunch of Christmas lights up in the front window and even hung a wreath on the front stoop. I can't wait to surprise him. (I already made a big deal that I was too tired and busy to deal with Christmas decorations.) Well, 4 days before Christmas - not too bad, right?

Basement

Since we've had the driveway replaced, John pointed out that we haven't had any leaks or water in the basement when it rains. A minor victory!

I cleaned out the basement yesterday - 6 hours and 4 large construction bags later, we are almost all cleaned out. I still have to make a donation of some old items and we have to drag some old sheet rock and doors to the curb.

---

I don't anticipate ever having a completely "finished" basement. We're looking for a cheap and quick update. We're both schkeeved every time we walk downstairs, and I hate feeling that way.

So we're thinking of having someone paint the space - ceiling, walls, and floor.

The basement is now used for:
- working out - we have a treadmill and weight bench
- laundry - right now we set it and forget it
- storage - the back corner is walled-off and we use it to store hardware, paint, etc

Ideally we would add the following function:
- Storage shelving for larger excess kitchen items, Christmas decoration, etc
- Storage area for toys and excess baby items
- Empty area for kids to play

The main goal is to keep it neat and simple, but it would be awesome to add some rugs and have cohesive shelving to prevent things from looking sloppy.

This shelving from IKEA might work out nicely:

I would also like to add some nicer track lighting. We currently have those flourescent tubes that are really harsh. 

Below are some examples of unfinished basements that have been painted - I would love a white ceiling, but I fear that it might take more coats of paint and get expensive, so I'm thinking a medium grey color.

Crazy how the ceiling paint immediately pulls it together:
 

I like the curtain the installed to the left of this photo, something like that might come in handy:
 

All white - looks nice, but might be too "neat" for the basement anyway?
 

Hopefully we can get this thing painted within the next few months - have to call up some people for estimates!

Nursery

The day we closed on our house, the third bedroom looked like this:

This room went through many stages over the past 2 and a half years. 

First weekend we owned the house, we tore out the purple carpet. 

6 months later we had the floor refinished (along with the rest of the second floor). Click here for the cruddy before photo.

Then we replaced the door to match the rest of the house, and added the missing quarter-round molding.

Last winter I painted all the trim white and painted the walls soft aqua blue - Benjamin Moore matched to Valspar Pianissimo:

Last winter I painted the dresser and mirror soft grey:

We just got around to hanging the mirror. 

The dresser was a little musty smelling. I had tried cleaning with Murphy's oil, spraying with vinegar water, and then I left sprinkles of baking soda in the drawers for a long time. I left the drawers open for a year just to air out, but none of these remedies worked! So last week my mother and I gave the inside of the drawers a quick coat of polyurethane. It is airing out right now and so far so good. 

The ceiling fan has to go. I ordered a new light from Overstock. I really hope it works out because the price was almost too good to be true. Crossing my fingers and will be sure to write it up when we're done with that.

I'm just so glad we are this far along at this point! I still have some touch ups to do on the built in closet shelves. Then I'll tackle the window treatments. I already have a crib and comfy chair picked out. Also I need to shop for some lamps, pillows and fun stuff. There is a new Home Goods opening up nearby in a couple weeks. Just saying.

Big news!

Just dusting off the cobwebs in here. Wow. My longest hiatus by far, it's been over 3 months since my last post.

What the what???

I've been busy doing a million things, traveling, and - you know - making a baby.

barefoot and pregnant at 13 weeks

I just haven't had the desire to do much of anything the past few months. It's weird. I think there are many psychological side effects of this craziness.

But now I am a woman on a mission. 

I have a long to-do list that I won't bore you with. But basically it's like:

Part A: Do all this stuff before baby is born

Part B: Forget about accomplishing anything from Part A after baby is born

I'm due February 20th. Just under 6 months from now. Can I get it all done? Will I drive myself crazy trying? Is anybody even reading this anymore? Besides my mom?

Check that box off...

Remember this post a few weeks back? 

Oh yeah...

I am disproportionately excited about this driveway

Just to remind you again, here's the before...

And the view from the backyard...

 before and after

Not too shabby, not too shabby at all...

Just for fun, here's a photo taken in March, 2010 - 2 years ago...

And here's the same view now...

Over the next couple of weeks we have to work on that front bed - do some trimming, weeding, and mulching. We need to rearrange some of the plantings too.

Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend everyone!

TV cabinet

How our tv cabinet went...

 

from this... to that...

This cabinet (like many other things in our house!) came from one of our grandparents (specifically Grandma Millie!). It has been with us for at least 5 or 6 years. It is something from about 40 years ago? I don't know.

It is a great size and pretty solid piece of furniture. But... the top is veneered and the center quatrefoil panels are plastic. The back is masonite board. In other words, it isn't an exceptional piece of woodworking. So no guilty wood-empathetic feelings, please!

 

We always intended to replace this piece with a new TV console. I've looked around a little bit but have not really seen anything I loved. The main problem with this piece is that all our components are stashed in the cabinets, but with the doors closed we couldn't use the remote. Whenever we watched tv, the cabinet was open and stuff was spilling out onto the floor. I know there are ways to add a remote control "eye" or whatever, but then realized I can re-purpose this cabinet to be a little more multitasking and leave room for future devices and future technology. Also, as much as I love quatrefoil, I was growing weary of the 3 solid panels.

So we detached the side doors and popped the center panel right out of the frame... 

I searched high and low for some kind of metal mesh the insert into the empty space. There are many places that sell beautiful decorative metal mesh and will even cut it to size... for a price. I highly recommend this website if you want someone else to take care of this part for you. But, just warning you - it is not cheap and you can probably find a new cabinet for the price of two small mesh panels...

So I took a trip to Lowes for some brainstorming. Brainstorming at Lowes means I walk up and down every aisle looking for something to repurpose. I found rolls and rolls of soft mesh for window screens, which really would not work well.

But in one area I found this:

A "Screen and Storm Door Grill" - It's a hard mesh inside a metal frame. People use it to prevent toddlers and dogs from tearing through their screen doors. I bought two panels for $20 each.

The next issue was - how do we cut this thing to size? First I tried our mini power saw with a metal-cutting blade. 

"Hahahahaha" the universe said as I struggled to even put a dent in the edge of the frame.

Next trip to Lowes we bought a bolt-cutter. It cut through the mesh like butter.

BUT! You can only make one or two cuts before the thing gets in the way of itself. Kind of like a metaphor for DIY!

I almost gave up but remembered these wire cutters:

I was able to trim 2 pieces to size and pop them into the cabinet door frames. I didn't take pictures of this stage, but I glued the edges down with wood glue and it stuck...

Next came the paint - "Wrought Iron" Benjamin Moore Aura in Satin finish, which I already had left over from this project.

Everything was painted - both inside and outside the cabinet. The hardware was sprayed with a fresh coat of Rustoleum "Oil Rubbed Bronze." Then we put everything back together.

Next we re-wired everything. I'm not kidding when I say it took about 3 hours to sort through this mess: 

We zip-tied most of the excess wires into loops and even stashed some things inside a bin in the cabinet. The surge protector was screwed onto the back of the cabinet and everything went in and out of that. All the wires are now off the floor and the only wire going from the cabinet to the wall is the power strip plug and the cable cord... If you are interested, I think this website has some good tips on basic wire organization.

So this is the final result. It's much much more usable than before and looks updated too.