The past month and a half have been so, so busy. My husband and I are in total nesting mode and are trying to accomplish every last project in our house that has been hanging over our heads. Hours upon hours have been spent prepping, painting, and cleaning up the messes that contractors and plumbers have left for us. I am so happy to say that we are almost done. We have remodeled our kitchen, our downstairs bath, painted each and every oak door, closet, and cabinet in our upstairs, cleaned out the garage, as well as documented (for taxes) and delivered tons of used goods to Salvation Army. Next on the list will be the upstairs baseboards and our baby girl’s walls. We have wanted to get all these other projects done before moving on to her room. I want to be able to focus on her space alone.
We are getting excited and I feel like time is flying. I can hardly believe I only have a few more weeks of my 2nd trimester left. Already, our schedule is pretty packed up until her due date April 2nd. Hard to believe but between a few trips, birth classes on the weekends and baby showers, so many weekends are dotted with activities, leaving little time to finish up getting ready for her arrival.
I have been busy working on my registry. I have been so thankful for the great advice of friends and helpful blogs/articles/columns on the important items any new mom will need for her baby. It is just so hard to sift through all the thousands of baby items, carriers, pumps, feeding utensils, etc…you just hope you are picking out the right ones! Oh well, you live and learn I guess. Over all, we are not feeling stressed. It has been a very joyful season. I honestly cannot even imagine a more blessed time in my life.
*** Boring for many, but just a few notes on our project below ***
I thought I would post a few before/after pix of a few of our projects. A few more words on our project too. We found the fridge on Craigslist and were able to sell our oven on Craigslist too. We sold our oven for the same price we bought this fridge for. I wish I could detail the crazy trip my husband and his friend took to get this fridge out of 2 story walk up house. It was CRAZY. …and stressful…somehow they managed to get it home unscathed. He says it was worth every saved penny. Also, our contractor gave us a great deal on labor and our kitchen bid turned out to be more than $2k less then a bid we had gotten with a firm in Portland. It was just steal after steal after steal. We also went with huge 24×24 porcelain tiles for our counter tops which saved thousands of dollars versus installing granite. We are SO happy about that decision! Also, instead of replacing our dishwasher, we just bought a new stainless steal front panel for it. …and whalah…you have a brand new looking dishwasher. It was FABULOUS! Our bathroom was less then $500 to do the whole thing – a new toilet, sink, faucet, and all new tile included. You can’t beat that sort of thing. We are so thankful. We will have now either painted, replaced, or remodeled almost every surface of our entire house except for the upstairs bathroom counter tops and showers/tubs. It has been SO much fun! …and it is SO great to get a deal!
Sorry, some of the pix are huge. iPhone versus big camera pix.
Our kitchen…we had already painted the cabinets white last year. They used to be oak like the upstairs cabinets. The kitchen has always been so dark and uninviting.
The Hopeful Pink Lady... 