Adventures in Home Improvement: Painting the Exterior

When DH and I refinanced our house last year the assessment specifically dinged the house on it's exterior paint. The right side of the house gets full sun exposure and large swaths of paint had chipped or peeled off over the years. It was definitely time for a new paint job.

I've never been crazy about the color of the house. Grey with black shutters just seems so boring, you know? DH did all the due diligence and got 5 estimates. The one we decided to go with was the cheapest but also someone who had done work on our library three years ago.

It took about a week, start to finish and the guys were fantastic! If you live in the Charlotte area, we highly recommend Carolina’s Premier Painting Co. Our neighbors were so impressed with the transformation that one of them has already contracted to have her house painted next week.

DH actually had a week of vacation he had to use up so he took this past week off. That gave us the benefit of detailed oversight of the work. Plus, DH decided to wash and repair all of the storm windows. He also washed the interior windows and we paid the workers $50 to clean the exterior windows. 50 bucks for all those windows...it was a no brainer! My windows will probably never be this clean again. And the best part? I didn't lift a finger.

We also had the workers power wash the driveway, walkway and patio. It cost a little extra but it made such a huge difference. The driveway actually looks white now instead of a dingy gray. We plan on renting a power washer and doing it every few years.

Take a look at the before and after pictures and let me know what you think about our paint choices. It took us reviewing 5 paint samples before we decided on the final colors. I can't remember the names but if you want to paint your house the same colors let me know and I'll send you an email.

We had a large black awning over the door that was essentially crumbling when we took it down. Plus now we get extra light into the foyer which is always a good thing. Here you can see the holes that the bolts left when we took the awning down.

The painters did about 3 days of prep before they even started painting. We had 5 or 6 sofits that needed to be repaired (no, I didn't know what a sofit was before this started) and miscellaneous carpentry work. We also had them paint the storm window frames so everything was the same nice white color.

New job, new Cameron adventures, house painting, oh my!

I have been woefully remiss in posting lately and I apologize. The craziness of my life has resulted in a complete shutdown of functions in the evening. Wine also helps that.

About a week ago I started a new job at BigFinance. Unlike my past 3 roles (4 if you count my internship) this one is directly related to my most recent job. What that means is I have hit the ground running with no ramp up time and a crazy amount of deliverables due in a short amount of time. It’s nice to already know the key players and the priorities of the organization but expectations are high for me which is a lot of pressure. My commute time is up about 20 minutes a day (because of when I leave and how much farther my parking spot is) and my work hours are also creeping up. It’s making me feel a bit frazzled but I’m sure it will be the “new normal” soon enough.

We have eliminated the high chair from our kitchen. Yay! It was a monstrosity and a pain in the butt to clean. Cameron loves sitting at the table but keeps telling me “sit down” and patting the chair next to her while she’s eating. Usually I use her dinner time to pack my lunch or get ready for the next day. But it highlights my thinking that we are just a few weeks away from pushing back her bedtime and having a family dinner. The biggest hurdle to family dinner is that sometimes DH and I just punt and make our own meals (frozen for me, pizza for him). Plus, we usually don’t eat until 7 PM so it would be a bit of a scramble to get dinner on the table at 6:30 PM. But, the benefits of getting Cameron to try new foods and have family time should far outweigh the drawbacks. Plus it means buying a new kitchen set which makes me happy. Any recommendations for a round table that you love? Must seat up to 6, please!

Cameron is still afraid of the bath but it’s SLOWLY improving. I bought an Elmo bathmat and bath crayons and markers to try and minimize her adverse reactions. I can’t wait until she goes back to wallowing in the water and refusing to come out of the bath. As opposed to her current 3 minute soap her up, wash her off and get out routine. Any other bribery items you can recommend?

We are painting our house. DH really took the lead on this by getting 5 quotes and calling references. We ended up going with a smaller firm and supposedly they will be done early next week. Craziness! It was a good time (price wise) to get our house painted because it’s still early in the season and painters are hungry for work. The biggest pressure was picking new colors. Don’t worry, I’ll post before and after pictures once it’s complete.

The list

DH is keeping a list. No, it's not of my sterling qualities. But I'm sure he has that somewhere. Instead he's keeping a list documenting the number of chipmunks he's killed. Yup, my husband is a proud animal killer.

We have a big infestation of chipmunks in our neighborhood. Many of our neighbors have complained about the holes, the tunnels and the dying plants that result from having multiple nests of chipmunks running around.

DH decided to take things into his own hands and researched how to get rid of chipmunks. Suggestions ranged from shotguns to explosives to poison. I put my foot down on live ammo and poison could kill other animals like birds. So instead DH discovered an effective solution that only required purchasing one item.

The solution requires a 3 gallon bucket, 1.5 gallons of water, a piece of wood and sun flower seeds. Here are the steps:

1. Fill the bucket with water
2. Sprinkle sunflower seeds on top
3. Put the piece of wood up to the lip of the bucket (as a ramp)
4. Sprinkle sunflower seeds on the ramp
5. Wait
6. Fish out dead chipmunks and repeat

DH set it up in the backyard first and managed to get 7 of the critters. Today he moved it to the front yard and has fished out two more dead chipmunks. Cruel? Perhaps. But DH is taking childish glee in counting the number of dead animals. Of course I let him deal with disposal. It's better for everyone that way.

Given how little success we've had with getting rid of ant infestations (stupid sugar ants that find every nook and cranny), the dead chipmunks do give a sense of satisfaction. Personally I don't mind them. But if it makes DH feel like a hunter without the gun or orange vest, I'm all for it. Has anyone else had successes or failures in battling pests?

Friday Frustrations

Writing a blog is supposed to be cathartic, right? Well, let's give it a shot and see if I feel any better after I lay my current woes out on the blog-o-sphere, shall we?

Work is kicking my ass right now. It's a combination of things but mostly that I'm dealing with an unreasonable set of people that delight in micromanaging and belittling me. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? I routinely walk away from meetings with metaphorical bruises. I can't say I enjoy listening to the diatribes of people who don't understand the processes that BigFinance Technology has in place. They want what they want, and they want it now. And if I say even one thing that doesn't kowtow to their expectations then I get to listen to f-bombs being dropped left and right. Should I read something into it that most of these people are New Yorkers? No one I work with in Charlotte swears like a truck driver. And of course, if it isn't obvious, they are all men.

In general I like my job but lately I am feeling completely worn down and demoralized. I can't fall asleep at night. I lie awake thinking about the shit I'm going to have to deal with the next day and the day after that. I'm fairly low level in BigFinance. How can I not be with 250,000 other associates? I know that there is crap going on at a much higher level than me that I'm not clued in on. But I'm the "face" of this portion of the project. I know it more intimately than anyone else. But when I go to senior management for direction it is of no help. I'm also struggling because I'm a bit of a poseur. I'm not a technologist. I'm not a network engineer. There are a lot of smart people I work with but I never claim I'm a subject matter expert. I've picked up a fair bit but I pull in the engineers when I need to validate or justify a technology decision. I'm excellent at program management and problem resolution. But somehow with this project I feel like I don't have a leg to stand on because I'm not an engineer. The clients that I'm working with are bullies and I'm struggling with how to tame them.

I've been actively looking for a new position but given some major organizational changes there haven't been many openings. I guess I just have to suck it up for a couple of more months. There is always the weekend, right?

Last week a house went up for sale on my street. It's the first time a sale has happened since we bought our house 3 years ago. At the peak of the market. This house is fairly comparable to ours. Same number of bedrooms, baths, and about the same square feet. Unlike our house it doesn't have a garage, it's landscaping sucks and it is much closer to the end of the street, hence close to the busy crossroad. I haven't been inside yet (waiting to be a looky-loo at the open house) but according to the listing it needs TLC. Read: carpets over hardwoods and no updates.

The problem? It is listed for 33% less than what we bought our house for. 33% is such a big number. Even if you account for the factors I listed above, there is no way that we will see an appreciation for our house in the next 10+ years. It's not that we plan on moving anytime soon. It's just that so much of our income goes into the house. I guess we are living the new American dream of an over/under real estate situation. And my dream of house in a few years with an open floor plan is on hold. Can anyone else commiserate?

OK, I do feel a bit better after writing all that. But warm and fuzzy thoughts from my readers would still help!

Adventures in home improvement: the master bedroom

Our staycation was a huge success and will definitely be repeated in the future. With Cameron in daycare it gave DH and me time to get lots of things done around the house, including re-designing, re-painting and re-decorating the master bedroom. DH is very meticulous about the work he does on the house. So the first thing is to remove everything from the room. And I do mean everything. All the hardware came off and even the ceiling fan blades.

DH surveys the room to make sure he hasn't missed removing anything.

We ended up getting 5 paint samples and decided to go with the same dark blue from the accent wall in the library and a light blue/gray. I can't say enough about how much I like getting paint samples. A color looks completely different on the walls than the paint chip.

Like with the nursery all woodwork had to be sanded and repainted. Given the two closet doors, the bathroom door, the hallway door and the two windows that was a lot of woodwork. You can see from the open hall door that DH did not paint the outside of the doors. Otherwise he would have had to repaint all of the doors in the hallway. We'll save that for another project :-)

Continuing with the meticulous theme DH painted the ceiling. Yes, he is that dedicated. Making things a bit easier was the fact that crown moulding would be put up so DH didn't have to cut in the walls along the ceiling. We've done crown moulding in one other room in the house: the half bath. And the level of frustration we experienced trying to get the edges to fit was something we've swore to never repeat. Instead we decided to go with corner pieces. Here you can see the interior corner piece on the left and the exterior corner piece on the right. It made DH's job much easier to make the cuts correctly.

A trip to Lowe's and we had replacement hardware for the doors, hinges, windows and sconce. The original hardware (and I do mean original since it was probably the same hardware as when the house was built) had a brassy color that wasn't going to work for the blue/gray theme we had going.

Neither one of us are particularly enamored with headboards so DH came up with the idea of creating a faux headboard out of paint and trim. As you can see we used the darker blue on the interior of the frame to make it standout from the rest of the walls. the painting was a stellar purchase from Home Goods. If you need large pieces of artwork or mirrors to round out a room I can't say enough about Home Goods' selection and price. I got this huge picture including the frame for $60!

Up next for us? Hopefully the master bath that needs a complete gut. But that is one tax return and another long vacation in the future. So, what do you all think about the master bedroom?

First swim lesson

This past weekend saw wonderful weather. What did that mean? DH made me rake. After about 30 minutes I was ready to stop. Guess a 30 Day Rake would be just as good as a 30 Day Shred!

Before the raking commenced we took an hour out of our Saturday and went to the pool for Cameron's first swim lesson. There were 3 other kids in the class and I was very impressed to see another seven month old getting fully submerged for a count of three. Because it was Cameron's first lesson she didn't go under water. Instead we focused on linking "Ready, set" followed by a deep breath with the idea of submersion. And for the babies farther along you could see them take a deep breath and close their eyes before they went under water. Very cool!

DH took photos and I apologize for the quality. He was in the "viewing room" which had a big plexiglass window so he couldn't use the flash. I had my own cheering section comprised of DH but we were far outnumbered by the other families there. Two of the other babies there had grandparents in addition to parents. And they had been taking lessons for weeks. I guess I'm just a little jealous since our families live so far away.

When we got home Cameron took her second two hour nap. Yes, my baby has been consistently taking 2 two hour naps every day on the weekend. Woo hoo! Of course that just meant I had to spend more time outside raking. Curses!

Cameron prefers to chew on the fish that blows bubbles rather than learn how to blow them herself.

Just like in Hilton Head Cameron loved the water.
Floating around in a "motor boat." Cameron was a slippery little bugger and kept trying to twist her body around which would cause her to fall through the hole.

Daylight savings success

I haven't decided yet if Fall Back is going to be easier than Spring Forward for Cameron. I know when I was a kid I used to love Daylight Savings in the Fall. Simply put, it allowed me to gain an extra hour of sleep. That made getting to Sunday School a lot easier. Conversely, I hated Spring Forward. Loosing and extra hour of sleep? It took me days to get my equilibrium back. For babies I think that the opposite would be true. Fall Back is harder because they wake up and have to deal with grumpy parents who keep saying, "You know it's only 5 AM, right?" Spring Forward just means parents either have to wake their kids up earlier to keep the same timing or deal with a "later" morning. I guess I'll know for sure in 5 months when it's time to turn the clocks ahead.

Cameron did wonderfully this weekend. I've still been getting up far too early (5 AM) to get her a bottle but she falls right back asleep until 7ish. So on Sunday after her 4 AM bottle I managed to stretch her to 6:30 AM (mentally considering it to be 7:30 AM). Cameron's bed time was a bit earlier than usual but no more than 15 minutes. And to top it all off, she had 2 two hour naps each day over the weekend. Isn't that awesome!?! I love nap consolidation. Of course I kept thinking she would wake up so I wasn't nearly as productive around the house as I could have been. But now that we know, DH is already planning to buy a second rake so I can help him next weekend. I hate raking leaves. It just seems so futile. Especially because only 25% of the leaves are down. Can't we be "that" house that waits until all of the leaves are down and then rake?

In other news Cameron continues to battle a cold. I'm starting to get concerned because it has been weeks and she doesn't seem that much better. She coughs infrequently and has some wheezing in her lungs and a slight runny nose. No fever and she seems to sleep fine at night. Am I crazy? Should I go ahead and bring her in? Figures that our co-pay just went up from $20 to $35. Stupid health insurance.

Adventures in home improvement: the raised bed

My friend, Amanda showed me her raised bed a few months ago and I immediately came home and mentioned how awesome it was to my husband. We have about an acre of land with the majority of it in the backyard. Unfortunately the backyard is a hodgepodge of sun, shade, clay soil, sandy soil and to top it off, it slopes. So we have slowly been making improvements over the past two years. This year we decided to focus on creating more definition to the space. I decided that a big, raised bed was the way to go. The best spot for it was in a shady corner of the yard on top of clay-like soil. This would give us the benefit of filling an otherwise dead space and amending the soil so that it becomes more fertile.

My parents came to visit in July and my dad is the type of person who always needs a project. With landscaping logs on sale at $.97 each a plan was created to load up the SUV and start the raised bed. First DH and my dad mapped out the space assuming the logs were 8 feet each.

Doesn't all that digging look like fun? At least DH didn't get as dirty as he did with his last project.

This was one of two loads of landscaping logs that ended up being used. I think about 50 went into the building of the bed.
DH doesn't do things by half. So he dug down to place the first layer of logs and made sure that the structure was level all around.

The cinder blocks and using rebar was a suggestion of my dad's to reinforce the structure. This thing isn't going anywhere! Plus using cinder blocks meant less digging and fussing with the logs in the inner section to get them level. The rebar was placed by drilling holes through the layers. DH even put in metal joins when more than one log was required on each side.

DH was inspired to create a two level structure. Doesn't it look great?

We used the remainder of our compost pile and many, many bags of soil to fill in the raised bed. The edges are lined with landscaping fabric to help with weed control and any erosion issues.

Our next step is to figure out what additional hardscape to put in (stones or fountain, etc.) and identify perennials to be planted in the fall. I've already tried to get a few plants but the middle of the summer isn't the best time for purchasing or planting. If anyone has recommendations for bulbs or perennials to be planted (mostly shade, Zone 7), please let me know! Also, if anyone knows where the HGTV show "Yard Crashers" films, tell me so I can stalk them and have them come over and do more work for us.

Adventures in home improvement: the French drain

Ever since we moved into our house we have had some leaking in the garage when we get a lot of rain. Nothing crazy but definitely some cause for concern. It doesn't help that our house is at the lowest point in the neighborhood. You can actually see the water streaming down to our yard from our neighbors. Good times. Why our home inspector didn't catch it is beyond me...this could have been the previous home owners' problem instead of ours!

DH was getting frustrated with seeing moisture in the garage and decided to investigate the problem. Isn't that how it always starts? First you look into the problem and the next thing you know there is a huge hole and you are in over your head. Fortunately DH is very, very handy so once he starts a project he will finish it, regardless of how much time or effort it takes. This project took approximately 25 hours and a massive amount of effort. But it cost about $300 in materials vs. the quote of almost $10K we got from the drainage experts. Granted, that $10K involved a lot more work than DH ended up doing but it would have been at least $2K for what he ended up doing so we saved about $1700. I say we but really I contributed negligibly in terms of ideas and physical labor.

Our garage backs up into a hill. That meant DH was digging out a trench about a foot below the pitch of the roof and had to be careful on top of moving thousands of pounds of dirt and gravel. When the house was built a French drain was originally put in but DH determined there was some kind of blockage. First DH made sure the drainage was fine beyond the garage. It turns out that the drainage runs about 150 yards beyond the garage to end in a city sewer. Good thing he didn't need to replace the whole thing! I can't even imagine...

Once the area had been excavated sufficiently DH was going to wash all the old gravel and replace it. Apparently the drainage is better when the gravel is clean to start with. But he quickly realized that wasn't going to work and was able to have a yard of gravel (#5 - did you know there are numbers to tell the type of gravel? I sure didn't.) delivered. That is 2835 pounds of gravel. That needed to be shoveled into barrels, run up the hill to the garage (no access from the driveway because of the hill) and then dumped into the hole. So basically DH moved 2 tons of gravel. Pretty impressive!

This is a yard of gravel. Doesn't look to big does it? Go ahead and tell DH that!

DH tried to shovel directly into the wheel barrow but because of the slope of the land the first load spilled everywhere. So he switched to filling two buckets instead.Doesn't this look fun?

The steps to laying a French drain aren't that hard, just physically demanding. Dig out the trench, lay down gravel graded away from the house, put down new pipe, cover pipe with more gravel. We used the new and then old gravel to cover the pipe back up. The pipe was also covered with a cloth that I immediately dubbed the condom. DH had the brilliant idea of putting on some additional piping as "access points" to stick up through the gravel.

This is stage 1: DH removed all gravel from the top, exposing the old French drain.

After filling the trench with new gravel DH lays down the new (and improved!) French drain.

Heh, heh, heh. Yes, I have a dirty mind.

With new gravel on top of the French drain, the new access point is still exposed. Aren't you exhausted just reading about this project? Imagine how DH felt!

The worst part about this project is that when it's done, it looks like nothing happened!!

I am writing this blog post for a couple of reasons. First of all, it is a warning about home ownership. Be prepared for laborious or expensive project like this! Secondly it is to lavish praise on DH for all his hard work. So join me in telling him how fabulous he is!

Adventures in gardening: the kitchen bed

This Memorial Day weekend I tackled adding color to the bed outside the kitchen window which is the bed with the bird bath. The plants already in the bed include:

• A couple of gardenia bushes (front) that produce fragile and fragrant blooms in the summer. I haven't done anything to them and despite needing a lot of care they have bloomed each year. My mother-in-law is very jealous.
• Two bushes that I have no idea what they are (back)
• A wisteria vine that I had DH cut back because it hasn't bloomed in the two years we've lived here (right). If it doesn't bloom next year I'm ripping it out and replacing it with a Clematis.
• Some lambs' ear
• A mum plant
• Some bearded irises around the bird bath
• A hosta (will probably be moved because of the sun)

Before photos

The bed gets a lot of afternoon sun so I knew I was safe in getting sun plants. DH had to go to Home Depot for his French drain project so Cameron and I tagged along to look at plants. Home Depot was having a big perennial sale for all the plants that weren't looking so good. 4 for $12! What a deal. The plants were fine, just not as covered in blossoms as you normally see. I focused on picking up plants that will propagate themselves. I've had a lot of luck with primrose in the front bed so I picked up a bunch of those.

I also spotted Yarrow which is similar to primrose in how it spreads. Both Yarrow and primrose spread out with new shoots about 3 feet and grow about 2 feet tall. I recommend primrose in particular if you want to cover a wide area in a garden. It isn't a selfish plant and can co-habitat with many others. DH made me get two Swamp Milkweeds to round out the bed. We probably wouldn't have gotten it if we knew the common name but there was no tag on the plants aside from its Latin name and really who can tell what Asclepias Incarnata is? It really stinks when there is no tag to tell you what to expect from a plant and the type of environment it needs. Apparently even with the "swamp" in it's name, the swamp milkweed should still do well in our bed.

To round out the plant selection I added two Fleabanes. I found out through my research that they can be short-lived perennials. I have to remember to split them in the early Spring so I can keep them growing. It's annoying when a plant is called a perennial when it's really a two year annual. I am attempting to plant mostly perennials to make maintenance easier down the road.

After planting everything I cleaned out the leaves and added some cedar mulch. Why cedar mulch? No reason in particular aside from the fact that it was on sale for 97 cents a bag at Home Depot one weekend. I made DH make two trips to get 40 bags of it. Much cheaper than the normal $2.97 a bag. That's my savings tip of the day: buy whatever mulch is on sale and as much of it as you can carry and store. Mulch really makes a bed look better and is decent at weed suppressing. If you have flooding issues then we have found that pine straw mulch is the best at staying put and not floating away.

After photos

Oh, and for those looking for a bird update I am pleased to report that the 3 baby birds in the next outside our kitchen are doing really well. I can hear them crying for their mom quite a bit during the day. At least I don't have to catch worms and regurgitate them for Cameron. Breastfeeding is a piece of cake in comparison!

Just a few days after hatching
And I thought Cameron is growing quickly! This is probably two weeks after hatching and they already have feathers.

Growing a green thumb, one spring at a time

DH and I have been attempting to spruce up our "curb appeal" since we moved into our house two years ago. The former home owners focused on the inside of the house (stripping wallpaper, installing hardwood floors, etc.) but neglected the exterior of the home. We have about a half acre so there is a lot that can be and needs to be done. The front of the house is very different from the back. We've done a bit more in the front so this post will focus on that. I will attempt to include the names of all plantings for any other gardeners in the southeast.

The Home Depot Expo was going out of business in Charlotte so I picked up two containers for less than $40 each for the front door. My mom planted the annuals in here and they all take lots of sun. The plants are Red Fountain Grass, Purple Queen, Petunias and Blue Lobelia.

My main goal in selecting plants for the front yard is to find plants that bloom primarily in the spring and summer. I haven't focused yet on adding autumn color but I'm sure that will come in time. I also tend to select perennials for their lower maintenance. My mother is a big believer in adding pops of color through annuals and I will do that as well once the perennials are more established. The biggest challenge is that a significant portion of our yard has clay soil. For anyone who hasn't had to deal with clay soil, you are very lucky. The only way to get rid of it is slowly amend it with peat moss and compost as plantings are placed. Even then more plants die than they should because of the thickness of the clay. I lost about 12 perennials last year because of it. And FYI, Home Depot does not always refund your money. So keep that in mind!

This bed is to the left of our driveway and because it is a raised bed it is a great spot for plantings. The back border features bearded irises. They are actually irises that my mom gave me that she got from her grandmother. Pretty cool, no? A few bloomed last year but it usually takes until the second year for them to bloom. I've seen yellow and purple blooms so far. There are some marigolds tucked in along with creeping jenny, echinacea flowers, a blooming bush and some other bulbs. The back bushes are rhododendrons and they flowered amazingly this year. We actually got a lot of rain this winter which explains why the blooms were so great.

This small area is to the right of the house and gets a lot of sun. As a result it has some liriope (make sure and cut that almost all the way back every February), balloon flowers and a clematis. We are particularly excited about the clematis because it will grow up the bird house and can be 4 feet high and wide.

The first project we did was to line the end of the big bed in the front yard with stones. It really helped add definition to the space and keep the mulch from running off (it's a small hill) during rain storms. It was a huge project for us and took an entire weekend in 80+ degree weather. I sweat my ass off but it was a great bonding experience for me and DH. Except when we kept running into old tree roots. Very big old tree roots. Thank goodness for the reciprocating saw!

There is a Japenese maple in the center of the bed. Also featured is an eldeberry bush and some liriope around the edges. Last year I planted some dianthus which is still doing well and primrose which is really starting to spread. New spreading plantings this season include creeping jenny (in the back) and creeping phlox.

This last area is just to the right of the big bed and we planted some guara in the back and tickseed in the front. I'm a bit worried that this area may not get enough sun for these plants so I'll have to keep an eye on them and move them if needed.

What other plants should I be considering? We also get a ton of shade in the backyard so suggestions about shade plants are also welcome.

Bathroom improvements for pregnant ladies

Now that I'm in my third trimester, the call of the wild, so to speak, has been happening with more frequency. I am fortunate that we have a master bedroom with an "en suite" bathroom. So it's probably 20 feet from me to relief every night, about 5 times a night. Poor A. has to climb stairs to get to her bathroom. I think that would make me sleep on the floor of the bathroom instead. Of course, then there's the whole, trying to get up from a prone position, that would be even more difficult.

But I digress. Since I have spent so much time in bathrooms recently I have decided that there is a simple fix to make things easier on pregnant women. A handicap bar in every bathroom. Yup, I shamelessly use the handicap bathroom at work now so I have something to help me get back up. If Michael Bloomberg can approve more stalls for women's rest rooms, how about adding in a bar to every stall too?

I wonder if it's too late in my pregnancy to have DH tackle some bathroom renovations...

Nursery complete, except for baby...

I wrote about two months ago about the great job DH did with decorating the nursery. Well, he did the heavy lifting and I did the actual decorating. This past weekend we put the finishing touches on it and I wanted to share it with you all.

We received a bunch of books to start the baby's very own library. The pictures on the wall are Flower Fairy prints.

The changing table is all set up and diapers are in the basket just waiting for the first diaper change! Place your bets, will I or DH be the first to use the changing table?

DH's sister-in-law generously donated her glider and ottoman for all the night-time feedings. My mom sewed the curtains.

We also made a big trip to Babies 'R Us for all the remaining items from our registry. Plus a few more "must haves" that caught my eye while we were shopping :-) DH was a trooper but it only took about 2 hours door to door so it wasn't that much of a strain. Then when we got home he had fun putting together all the baby gear. My house now has a lot more "stuff" than we did a few weeks ago!

I did 4 loads of laundry for this baby that still has 5 weeks to percolate. I was motivated and wanted to finish off the nursery with all the cute clothes we received from the baby shower. I can already sense that the itty bitty socks are going to cause me the most headaches when it comes to doing laundry! Another annoying baby clothes discovery is the clothes that are not labeled consistently. For example, a onesie says, "3 months." I assume that means 3-6 months but what if I'm wrong and it should be in the 0-3 month pile? And what about those onesies that say M? They look like the 3-6 month clothes so I put them there. Am I way off base? A first time mom needs to know.

The closet built ins are filling up quickly! Right now there is room for everything but I'm sure it won't last long once our daughter arrives.

Currently I have the closet organized into 0-3 months, 3-6 months and 6+ months for the 3 racks. Does anyone know where I can find the round plastic size indicators to hang? Department stores use them but I can't find them to buy. And getting arrested for shoplifting is probably not a good idea at this stage in my pregnancy. I found some adult sized ones but not for infant/baby sizes.

The finishing touch for our nursery is still to come! Right now we are t-minus 5 weeks for my due date. I am more than happy to go early but family history indicates this may not be the case. Either way, I am feeling like I am ready for her, at least from an organizational standpoint. I can't wait for the hardest and most wonderful part to start but she needs to arrive first!

Adventures in Home Improvement: The Library

When DH and I moved into our house we starting making a list of everything we wanted to change about the place. The former home owners had done a good job with a few things (installed hardwood floors on the second floor, removed the wallpaper and popcorn ceilings) but the house was lacking in design aesthetic.

The biggest room in the house is the front room which would usually be designated as the formal living room. The only problem is that we don't exactly entertain frequently so dressing up a room that we would never use wasn't an economical use of our time or money. That's what the dining room was for :-)

As I have mentioned previously, I am a big reader. We knew we needed more storage for the massive amounts of books I currently have and plan to have. What can I say, if you are an avid reader of fantasy books the series can be very numerous. We also knew that eventually we would start a family so additional storage for that would be ideal as well as a room that could be versatile. The result? Our library.

The first step was paint. I picked out two colors: True Blue for the accent wall/built ins and Loft from Ralph Lauren. Here's a tip: name brands really do cost more. But for the darker colors, it is important to have high quality paint. I'm very happy with the colors I chose. DH, of course, did the painting.

We got an excellent recommendation for a contractor who built 17 feet of built ins for us out of red oak. It took him about 2 weeks because he was working on a few other jobs as well. It's the first time I've seen DH with total tool envy. DH also peaked in periodically to shoot the shit with Adam and picked up a few tricks of the trade that helped him immensely when he was rebuilding the nursery closet built ins.

The built ins at 75% complete

The trickiest part of the whole project was staining. DH decided that to save money, he was going to stain the wood and poly it himself. I was skeptical. But we got one quote that was for $2200 just to stain the built ins. That was more than we spent to build them (including materials)! So DH spent several weeks staining the wood. The problem? Apparently the wood filler used to cover the nail holes does not accept stain, regardless of what the directions say. So we had beautiful built ins with lots of light colored spots. It did not look good.

We managed to get another quote that was much more reasonable for someone to come in, sand down all the hard work DH did and re-stain it along with a couple of coats of poly. I think the revised quote was $600. Needless to say, the previous painter was trying to rip us off, no?

Built ins, complete. The left side is a cabinet, the middle a desk and the far right are drawers for additional storage.

Once the built ins were complete, it was time to get decorating. I searched for weeks for the perfect accessories and furniture. In fact, it may have been months! The most important piece of furniture was the chaise I knew needed to be included. I wanted a two armed chaise for reading. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a two armed chaise? And I live in NC, the furniture capital of the country! I finally found a floor model from a furniture outlet. I wasn't thrilled with the pattern (green with light blue dots) but figured I can always get it re-upholstered. Turns out I just integrated it with other things and I think it works. DH was very happy to save that money :-)

The chaise that I now have some issues getting in and out of because of the burgeoning belly.

I always knew I wanted to integrate my college and MBA chairs (thanks for the graduation presents Mom and Dad!) into the room with a "library table". Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a round pedestal table that isn't dining room table size!?! It was a beast, to say the least. DH and I were using up some left over gift cards from Crate and Barrel when we saw the perfect table. It was the final missing piece of furniture. When I work from home I find myself working from this table. It will be great once the baby gets older and wants to color, etc. Now if only the high gloss of the table was forgiving for children's play...

Library table and college chairs. We also put up our diplomas around the room to give it the additional "library" feel. I still have to get my Darden diploma framed but it's gigantic so it can wait.

My mom stopped by during the several months it took to finish up the room and helped me buy knickknacks and style the bookshelves. Thanks, Mom!

Another shot of the library from the doorway. This one of only three rooms in the house with curtains. Sad, but true. Why are curtains always the last to get put up?

I hope you all like the adventures in home improvement. If you do, let me know and I'll post more. DH and I love improving our first home together. Well, I love designing and he is great at doing. Perfect combination!