Returning to a new sense of normal...

Chloe's now 2 and a half months old. She's growing so quickly -- everyday it seems there's another outfit that doesn't fit, or she's trying to do something she couldn't do before. She's so attentive and interactive now. Last week, my mama was able to get her belly laughing. I wished I was there for it.

I returned to work on November 3, 2010, after about 7 and a half weeks on maternity leave. I'm only working from 9am to 1pm, and it seems to be working out extremely well. My mama is able to watch her for that period of time and she loves it! Work has been going well. November was a good month to come back in. It was busy enough that we were able to get a good idea of how this schedule would work, but it wasn't overwhelming.

In other news: our living room now has a floor (and furniture, and a Christmas tree!!). We hosted Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday and it was SO nice to be able to use that room now! My wonderful husband did a very nice job! Once we get the baseboards done in there (which is definitely a few months away from now), I'll be able to truly relax and not work on the other two bedrooms or bathrooms for a while yet. We've got some finishing details to do in a few of the "finished" rooms, and in the hallway, but it feels more like a real home now. And, I love it!

I'm still kind of struggling with maintaining my priorities -- like accepting that my home is never going to be kept as clean and neat as I'd like it to be, and accepting that I cannot do everything anymore, and learning to really be present in each moment with Chloe, especially when I have to spend the day just sitting in my rocking chair when I'd rather get some project done. It's an adjustment, a huge adjustment, for me. But, when she snuggles up against me and falls asleep on my chest, that makes it all worth while.

New Re-Visioning for the house

Since baby girl has been making me extremely uncomfortable lately, I've had a lot of time to think, and study, our kitchen/dining room area.

Part of me is thinking that I'm going to open up more of the upper kitchen cabinets, like paint the insides that red color and take off the doors.

I'm also thinking that I'm going to start using blue/turquoise as an accent. I think I have recovered sufficiently enough that I can reintroduce the color in small doses in the parts of the house that have shed their old, dated layer.

I think. We'll see how I feel about this idea tomorrow. I was online looking at curtains tonight and I think I've got a good idea of the direction I want to go with it.

I'm also re-thinking our master bedroom color selection. In order to keep my marriage intact, I think I'm just going to change the accessories, and wait a few years before I introduce the idea of repainting up there. But, again, I think I'll be introducing a blue accent color in the bedding, artwork and possibly the window treatments.

Also, I've decided that I will start collecting Fiestaware a whole lot sooner than I originally led Michael to believe. I just love the colors and the uniqueness of the pieces. BEAUTIFUL!

OH! And, fantastic news!

THE ROOF PROJECT HAS BEEN FINISHED!!!!

I'll post some pictures soon. The clean up is still in progress, but fortunately my AWESOME brother Sam is here and loves to have projects to work on. So, come Monday we'll get the dumpster emptied on Monday and moved to the back of the house so he can continue working on the back yard.

And, AND! Our bathroom project has officially begun! I'll post some of those pictures soon too.

Horray for PROGRESS!

P.S. Sorry for the completely random post. This is where my mind wanders in the middle of the night.

Thirty-Two weeks down...

Only eight or so more to go. (Which equates to about 53 days now. YES!!!)

I can't wait.

I'm really over this whole pregnancy thing. I just want our baby girl to be here, in the flesh, and not inside my belly anymore. I'm ready to have my body back.

These past few weeks have been extremely busy. I've been working on her nursery, getting that all painted and preparing it for the new carpet. There's still a lot of little things that need to be worked on. I feel like this list just never ends...

I need to take some pictures of the roof project's progress this weekend. It's still pretty overwhelming.

But, excitingly enough, we have electricity in our bathroom! YES!!!! Now, we just need to get a plumber in here and the floor put down. Maybe I can do some "encouraging" this weekend since it's supposed to rain and Thrifty Man won't be able to work on the roof.

I'll post the updates after the weekend!

Remodeling with a Bun in the Oven

We bought our home at the end of last November with grandiose plans to remodel it over the course of the next several years. So, I made my To-Do lists for several different time periods (3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years...), and kept them stored away neatly in the back of my head.

Then we found out we were expecting. Surprise!

So, among all the worrying, praying, hoping and loving that has gone on since January 14th, I somehow found time to re-evaluate my to-do lists and come up with what I believed to be a very reasonable list of requests. Essentially, all I wanted was a complete master suite, kitchen, living room, and dining room.

But, getting there has proved to be very, very difficult.

So, here's a recap of what has been accomplished in the first 7 months that we've owned our home.

1. We have stripped the wallpaper from the master bedroom, the dining room, living room, part of the kitchen, and the stairwell and hallway:

We're really good at destruction. Apparently.

2. We have ripped the carpet out from the master bedroom and bathroom, stairwell, living room and dining room. And have torn down a shelving unit in the kitchen.

3. We have repainted the master bedroom and bathroom, living room, dining room, the kitchen cabinets and half of the hallway.

4. We have put down the wood floor in the master bedroom and tiled the dining room. (Yes. That leaves the master bathroom and living room floor-less, as of now).

5. I have installed new hardware on all the kitchen cabinet doors.

With an exception for our almost complete inability to totally finish the projects that we start, I would say that I'm fairly pleased with our progress. In a matter of a few short months, we've transformed this ugly house into our home by giving it the face lift it desperately needed.

Buuutttttt... old homes come with many, many surprises. So, here's the list of projects that have been added to the To-Do lists since we started renovations:

1. As of the end of January: baseboards/door trim for the master bedroom.

2. As of the end of March: fix the plumbing in master bathroom so we can have a working bath/shower. Also, repair the waste line so *hopefully* our toilet will flush better.

3. As of the end of March: fix the plumbing under the kitchen sinks so they will drain properly, and set up and install the dishwasher. (This is becoming increasingly more important with my ever-growing belly: standing there, against the counter, to do the dishes is extremely uncomfortable and painful).

4. As of the end of May: fix the electrical wiring in the master bathroom so we can actually have overhead lights. WOW! (This is actually HIGHLY essential due to the many midnight trips to the bathroom).

5. As of the end of May: fully repair the hall bathroom's door. It was broken over Memorial Day weekend, and has been fixed temporarily. But, will eventually break again. (Hopefully not when we have company over.)

6. Get an overhead light for the counter between the kitchen and dining room. It's a very dark space.

7. Paint, decorate, and furnish the nursery. (This is a BIGGIE!!!) I have not started this project at all, yet.

So, really, the only room that is COMPLETELY done at this point is the dining room.

Roof Update and a Question

So, the entire second floor roof is shingled! Now, it just needs to be capped.

Oh, and the skylight needs to be sealed -- preferably before it rains again, because I'm really not excited about the puddles that accumulated on the floor a couple of nights ago when it stormed. I'm just saying...

I guess that's really all the progress that I have to report. It always sounds so much more monumental in my head than it seems to me on here. Maybe I'm just being to analytical. Who knows.

Now, for my question:

Does anyone know anything about couch and love seat slipcovers? See, my sister-in-law and I went garage sale shopping last weekend, and I bought a couch and a love seat. They came with these two slipcovers which I thought was really great... at the time.

Buuuutttttt.... they are a pain in the behind to keep in place. As soon as someone sits down on them, the elastic around the seat cushions comes off. It doesn't matter how I try to put it around the seat cushion, or how far I stuff it down in the cracks, it will come off.

Now, what I need to know is if this is just a problem with all slip covers? Or, particularly with the elastic one-piece slip covers? Would I have this problem with elastic two-piece covers?

Or is it just me? Am I the problem? Do I need to be less anal/perfectionistic? Or, do I need to just suck it up and realize that part of my time every day will now be consumed with making the slip covers right? since Lord knows, I won't be able to live with them all funky for any significant length of time.

My father-in-law just told me that they look like old people's skin. I definitely need to replace them now.

Ew.

Progress on the Roof Interruption? Possible.

So, is there an end in sight? No.

Will our attic get wet tonight when these "terrible storms worthy of a severe thunderstorm warning" blow through? Yes.

Is there progress being made? I think so.

Saturday was a fairly successful day. Thrifty Man and Curtis got the neighbor-side of the house torn off, wooded and papered. AND! They even put some of the garbage dump where it belongs! In the 15 ton dumpster!

Sunday, he conned Jared and Mark into coming over to help him unload the trailer. I, of course, assumed that when you unload a trailer, said trailer would vacate the premises soon-after.

Apparently, that isn't the way it works around here though because it's still sitting in the driveway.

And, since they were already here, Thrifty Man kindly asked if they would help him clean up some of the messy things inside our house as well. Thank goodness! I was not aware that our living room would become the storage area for all sorts of roofing gear/materials during this long, drawn-out process.

So, even though the roof project is only about 48% completed, progress has been made!

A Year of Stories and Pictures

So, thrifty-man and I celebrated our one year anniversary this past weekend.

I can't believe how quickly the past year has gone by. So, so much has changed since we took our vows on a Friday afternoon in June.

 

On that afternoon, we gathered with a large group of our

closest family and friends to celebrate the gifts God has

given us and to join ourselves in marriage.

Of course, weddings are not complete without their own goof-ups. And, ours had plenty. I can't wait to get the video! (ROSS!)

It was hot and stuffy. And, I cried, a lot. But it was a beautiful evening.

A few days later, we traversed the world and landed at the Herbert Estate, in Killarney, Ireland. And the Cliffs of Moher, among many other beautiful and enchanting destinations.

I didn't want to leave. And, I definitely want to go back someday soon.

Of course, by soon, I really mean sometime in the next 50 years since that is probably the next time we'll be able to go back. Humph.

After arriving back in the states (and getting slapped back to the not-so-green and lovely reality), we moved 1000 miles away from the only place I had ever called home to Texas. From there, things quieted down a bit. But, in November, we finally were able to buy our home!

We started moving in over Thanksgiving weekend.

And, nothing has been the same ever since! But, that is an entirely different topic, for another post, someday.

(Incidentally, Michael's birthday also happened to fall on that weekend. He will probably hold it against me -- jokingly, of course -- that I made him work like a slave on his birthday).

For Christmas time, we traveled back to Indiana to visit family.

On December 29, 2009 (with what felt like sub-zero temperatures), we decided it would be a great idea to go to an awesome Chicago Bears game!

We had fun. And Michael even made friends with a big fellow, who was kind enough to share his blanket with Michael. :)

Shortly after returning from Chicago, Michael told me that I was allowed to have either a puppy or a baby. Well...

                    (Our beautiful daughter on May 11, 2010 at 22 weeks)

I got both.

Since January, we have been busy fixing up our home (an enormous, never-ending project), planning for when our little one finally makes her debut in September, and living -- continuously growing closer together as God blesses us.

New roof!

My loving husband decided a few weeks ago that we needed to put a new roof on our house. This year.

So, he called the insurance company because he was just sure that they would pitch in quite a bit towards having it redone. Buuuuuttttttttt..... they decided they would only pay for the replacement of the garage roof.

Good thing I have a thrifty husband! He figured out a way for us to get all the materials for a little over what the insurance company was willing to pay.

Too bad laborers weren't included in this plan.

Here's the new garage roof. It took a little more than a week for it to get to this point.

The caps still need to be put on and the trash picked up...

I hope he remembered to pick up the neighbor's yard! Yikes!

As much as my husband loves to be a one-man-show, he decided that he might need a little help. So, he conned his dad, brother, brother-in-law and coworker to forgo sleep and come over just after sun up this past Saturday morning. Most of them stayed until 10pm that night.

Here's the front of the house during the tear off. It still looks pretty much like this, except there's no one working on it....

Look at all that tough work! Here's Bradley, Ryan and Curtis on the portion of the roof over the front bedroom.

Oh! Oh! And, here's the MASSIVE TRAILER that has made it's home in my front driveway.

We are not friends.

One thing that was not planned for was the massive amounts of garbage that would accumulate on our property.

Dumpster? What dumpster? That's what a backyard patio and a driveway are for, right?

Fortunately, one of our neighbors took pity on us last night. He runs a dumpster business, and will be bringing over 2 fifteen ton dumpsters sometime this week. Horray!!

Maybe I'll actually be able to park in the driveway? Maybe?

Probably not...

Half Way There!

Today marks my twentieth week of pregnancy... and I'm beginning to realize that the struggle has only begun...

Over the course of the next few weeks:
I will (attempt) to gain 15-20 more pounds
Experience the joy and pain of carrying around an ever growing organism in my belly (and pray that we avoid those bladder kicks as much as possible!)
Continue to run until it becomes total futile
Lose my ability to breath as our little peanut takes up more and more room
And, eventually give birth to a baby much larger than I feel is physically possible

To top that all off, we still have a good chunk of our list of to-do's on the house left:

Dining Room:
Paint
Tile the floor

Kitchen:
Texture the walls
Paint the walls and cabinets and doors and drawers
Install the dishwasher

Living Room:
Level the floor
Install new wood floor
Finish painting/edging

Nursery:
Clean up and organize
Decide on color scheme and paint
Possibly re-carpet...
Purchase some furniture -- i.e. crib, changing table, shelves, dresser, rocker...


In exactly two weeks, the hubby and I will know whether our little cantaloupe -- yes, already that big -- is a little girl or a little boy!

Edit: I've updated what's left of this list! Horray for accomplishing some things!

English Country Dining Rooms from Lori Dennis : Designers' Portfolio 1143 : Home & Garden Television

I just really like this dining room.

A whole lot.

The wall color, the rug, the chairs, the chest, the chandelier.

Pretty much everything but the sconces overflowing with (probably) fake flowers. And the semi-weird looking picture hanging on the wall.

Not really a fan of those accents.

But I could totally just take everything else off of this picture.

Dining Room Decor - Goodhousekeeping.com

So, even though our chair railing is not nearly as high, I can see something simple like this working in our dining room.

We could take that same light trim/wall color and put it on the upper cabinets in the kitchen, and take a little darker shade of the brown and put it on the lower cabinets.

I love the simplicity of the room against the ornateness of the chandelier.

Home Decor Photos from The Nest

I really like the dual cabinet colors here. (And the huge range stove with the massive hood :D).

I don't think we'd necessarily go with the black and white that they went with here.

I'm thinking more of a dark brown and cream combination.

And, I've also decided that I'm not really a fan of the stainless steel counter top. (At least, that's what I think it is). Can you imagine trying to keep that clean!? UGH.

Home Decor Photos from The Nest

I'm not really a huge fan of the color on the walls. It's way too dark for our kitchen area.

But, I really like the island, and the counter tops. I also really like the handles on the cabinet doors -- very clean and simple.

And, the breakfast bar is pretty cool too. :)

Home Decor Photos from The Nest

I really like the contrasting orange of the inside of the cabinets against the stark white. It's very bold. And, I really like that.

I also really like that those are glass cabinet doors. So, they can showcase the stuff like that.

I'd love to have glass cabinet doors someday.

I like the color of the counter tops, but, I don't think they're granite, or a granite composite.

And, there's a part of me that's being drawn towards the white cabinets.

Definitely not ideal for a toddler.

Home Decor Photos from The Nest

I really like the look of THIS ceramic counter top. And, the general color scheme of this kitchen.

It's very... southwestern.

I really like the little bookshelf detail, and the big vase.

Really, just about all of the detail stuff. I'm in love.

Home Decor Photos from The Nest

I really like the breakfast bar area, and the stools. Those stools are fabulous.

I really wish we could do something almost exactly like this in our kitchen area.

But, we'll see. We shall see. :)