2012 Punch List

2011 was full of some major basic room re-do's.  This year I want to focus on the little things that make our house a home and more us.  I'm so excited to tackle everything on this list - here it goes.

- Finish re-finishing our staircase.
- Get lamps for the living room, play area, kids' rooms.
- Re-organize basement - PURGE, PURGE, PURGE!
- Paint ceiling in dining room.
- Fix ceiling in kitchen.
- Replace window pane in kitchen window.
- Find a dresser and re-do it for living room.
- Wall mount tv.
- Create canvas art for living room.
- Revamp living room curtains or sew new ones.
- Paint bookcase for B's room.
- Create gallery wall in B's room.
- Hang blackout curtains in B's room.
- Make custom headboard for our room.
- Make embroidery family tree for our room.
- Make new throw pillows for the couch and our bed.
- Make/thrift new accessories to decorate tabletops and shelving.
- Update photos in living room gallery wall.
- Re-paint shutters.
- Fix roof over addition.
- Paint the exterior of the house.
- Make our first vegetable/herb garden.
- Create storage area outside for kids' toys.

I will of course be updating as we check things off of this wonderful semi-long list! :o)  What do you have planned for around your casa this year?

Nursery *Update*

To remember how this room started and some of the progress we already made on the room, click on this link. 

The next step to do in the room was to sand the hardwoods (thankfully they just needed lightly re-done) and put down finish.  The Hubs and his Dad spent Sunday morning over labor day weekend doing the sanding.  Two coats of a water based floor finish (love that this had no smell!!!)  later and we were ready to re-load the room with furniture. 





Now for how it looks currently. *Sorry for the wonky lighting – it was either too bright from the sun or things turned more green because of the sheers.*







Things to complete:





Want to highlight some of the deals we got in this room.
- The rug is from RugsUSA, it’s almost a 5x7, was 40% off and FREE shipping for a grand total of $59!  The colors are perfect with the fabric we picked for the bedding, only wish it were a little thicker.
- The curtains were a doorbuster deal, cost – $5.99 for 1 pack which had 2 panels, total cost $18 for 3 windows.
- Thank you Target.com for having website issues with their registeries, so I got an extra 20% code, was able to use on the mattress.
- All furniture is from the previous 2 – minus the crib and mattress.

I’m so glad that everything is set-up, dressers organized.  I look forward to adding in the final touches over the next few months and making the room more personalized.  We are officially ready for Baby B’s arrival in 1 week!!

I’m linking to:
Blue Cricket Design
House of Hepworths

Master Bedroom *Update*

 Couple weeks ago I shared, here, the before & progress pictures of turning Miss A’s nursery into our new master bedroom.  Last week, the Hubs and I sans kids, were able to finally get to Ikea, after a few failed attempts previously.  Here’s where our room stands now and I’ll share what we still plan to do, but am ok with the rest of the room coming together when it will, now that the major things are D-O-N-E!

This first picture is what you see standing in the doorway of our room.




Am loving these pendant lights - total cost less than $10 a piece that the Hubs put together.


Things to come.




This room has been lots of fun to do.  I had a main vision of the look of the room, but the Hubs definitely added his touch when helping pick out everything.  Now Baby B just needs to make her appearance so I can actually sleep in here and really enjoy it, instead of the recliner in the living room. ;o)

I'm linking up to:
Blue Cricket Design
House of Hepworths

Master Bedroom *Progress*

Thought I’d do a little re-cap over the progress we’ve, I mean mostly the Hubs, has accomplished in the past couple weeks.

Here’s two pictures post Avalynn moving up to her new room.  But you get an idea of the horrible closet that some previous owner installed.




Demo time.




Room emptied out completely, ceiling and trim had been painted at this point. 


I helped cut in the room and the Hubs did all of the rolling.  I just can not roll paint.  The color we used was Valspar’s Gravity, we got their Signature Collection, primer/paint in one.  The Hubs and I were so happy with the coverage on this.  We did have to touch up some spots where we had cut in, more difficult to get that one coat coverage with a brush. 


Shot of the room the next morning.  The Hubs was up until 1:30 scrubbing drywall and some paint drops off the floors.  He used Goof Off and some soapy water along with a sponge.  Then he put a coat of polish on everything. 


Only thing that has changed from this picture to now is that our bed is in there.  We’ll be heading out soon to get the finishing touches on the room.  Also, probably after B’s arrival we plan on DIY’ing an upholstered headboard. 

I'm linking up to:

DIY - Picture Wall

We live in an old house where there aren't many any long spacious walls, most of them are broken up by arches, doors, windows, or wall bump outs.  Ever since moving into this house, 4 1/2 yrs ago, I wanted big picture wall.  I'd tossed around the possibilities of having it go up the main stairwell but I just wasn't in love.  We have this middle room area before you get to the actual living room, and ever since the oldest's arrival this has been her domain for toys.  But the toys stay at one end of the room and the other end has just not been getting used for anything.  Then it hit me, I could make a big picture wall area when you walk into that room and  re-furb a chair I already have and make it a nice little corner for me.  

We had groupings of pictures and mirrors literally on every wall between the two rooms.  So first off I went around and took them all down and went down to my basement and brought up any picture frames I had down there, as I've been collecting them from family members who no longer wanted them, waiting for the time when I would do this picture wall. 

Here they all are grouped together. 

Next I wanted them all to look the same color wise as I had a mixture of woods and blacks and some gold/brass ones that were passed down.  I opted for a black with silver dust in it.  We just did a light coating of that over the actual black frames, and bought regular black spray paint to spray the wood frames and then a light coating of the black with silver dust. 

Picture of the done pile. 

Next up, I grabbed a roll of wrapping paper and we traced out the frames.  

Then we cut them all out, here's the pile of them. Notice the pack n play - we barricaded the girls off to the front living room area so they wouldn't get in the way. 

Next up, we grabbed some tape and went about hanging all of our mock frames.  Then we'd step back and adjust some.  Also, after we were set on the layout we wanted, we had to tweak it some more as I had forgotten about some canvases and our wedding plate that I knew I wanted on the wall.  So, make sure you have everything you want up on the wall around when you are doing the templates.  

I painted all, but 3 photo mats the same color as our bathroom, because it was paint I had on hand and it's a nice neutral green/gray/blue.  

And actually, the walls ended up having to be re-painted (this will be coming up later this week) and I need to order some new prints as most of mine were just of the oldest and I need to meld both girls' plus extended family photos.  It's all a work in progress.

One thing I do know, is that I couldn't be more pleased with how this turned out.  Total cost: less than $20.  I'll have a better after picture, still no updated photo's in the picture frames yet, later this week.

*New* house gone bad...but not SAD!

Whew - what a very draining week this has turned out to be!  Between house drama, sister drama, and gramma drama - I'm beyond ready for next week to start!

So, Monday night after the Hubs called his Uncle to clarify something & his Uncle flipped out on us, we decided to back out of the deal.  We don't need things to keep changing and really do not want to do business with someone who reacts the way he did.  Especially Tuesday, very nasty messages on our machine and the in-laws, plus stopping at the family members houses and just going off screaming and hollering.  Really it was NUTS!!!

I was more than happy to call our crappy realtor and tell her we were taking our house off the market. Felt so good to pull that For Sale sign out of our yard!  I really do love our home, we were just moving as it was a great opportunity with a bigger house for a great price. 

So, needless to say, I dug right into unpacking our stuff, I can say finally that the 1st floor is completely cleaned, unpacked, re-organized, and decorated.  And it feels GOOD not to be living with boxes all over my house.  Although it's definitely taken me 3 x's as long as I need to take several breaks throughout, especially when moving the extra boxes to the basement or 2nd floor.  But I can say it's all done as of about 2 hours ago. 

Next weeks agenda entails tackling the 2nd floor.  Switching little one's baby furniture for her big girl furniture, emptying out the spare room for the baby's furniture, and packing away spring/summer clothes for the Hubs and me, as we've been using the spare room as our extra clothing space. 

Later next week I'll be having a review & giveaway so make sure to check back.  And will also be posting some pictures of the fall decor we have going on here.  I enjoy decorating for fall almost as much as for Christmas!

And I'm so glad to announce that my Gramma had her last cancer treatment this past Friday.  It's been a very long & tough 4 months of treatments, but she's been amazing through it all.  She will not be going for the tests to see how the treatments helped her until after the holidays as she wants to enjoy them.  So, we still have a long 3 months ahead of waiting for that tidbit, but I'm so glad she is done with treatments.

Now to end with a pregnacy update and little survey thing I've been seeing pop-up on a couple other mom's who are expecting blogs.

Friday I had my 6 month check-up.  Which I must say went remarkably better than last months.  Actually down 2 lbs, woo-hoo!  They dropped my glucose testings from 4 times a day, to only 2 times a day, and will not have to be put on insulin since my #'s are great. Avalynn's HB was about 150, although it took the Dr a few times to get it, as she is very active and wouldn't stay still long enough for him to cont.  He didn't have to tell me she's active, I definitely feel her all the time.  And I'm measuring approx. 2 weeks ahead, but I measured bigger with E's pregnancy too, so I guess it just means am meant to have bigger babies.

How far along: 1 day away from being 24 weeks - woohoo!

Total weight gain/loss: 3 lbs

Maternity clothes?:Yes please!  I only have a few pieces, as the Hubs just went back to work a month ago, they are/were not in the budget.  Once he starts OT the end of this month, I'll def. be picking up a few more, a girl can only live off of 2 pairs of pants for so long, can we say laundry every day!

Strech marks?: No new ones.

Sleep: This week, I'm just exhausted and sleep straight through the night without ever moving.  I will say though that I've found I need pillows all around, sleep with one behind my back, inbetween my legs, and my regular pillow, plus even though we're in the 50's poor Hubby has to suffer through me wanting the fan on, b/c I'm so warm.

Best moment this week: Hearing her HB at the Dr's appt.

 

Movement: Yes, several times throughout the day and she must think my bladder is a soccer ball or something, b/c she loves kicking on it constantly.

 

Food cravings: Thanksgiving dinner - the next month can't come fast enough! Otherwise, homemade mac 'n' cheese and hush puppies.

Gender: 110% GIRL

 

What I miss: sleeping on my stomach completely

 

Milestones: Hmmm...can't really think of anything right now. 

I officially have some SWANK & other good news.

The Fabulous Bitch awarded me with this lovely "Your Blog is so SWANK" award this past weekend.  I forget where or how I stumbled across her blog but it is such a great & funny read!  Go ahead and check her out, you won't regret it!

She said this about my little blog:  measuring my life in l-o-v-e (Kat)
I just love the name of this blog! And Kat is doing her blog’s name justice. If you expected a sweet loving blogger, then you won’t be disappointed.
Let's just say it was a great way to end the weekend reading these words.  Thank you again!!!




Now to pass on this lovely gem to two ladies blogs I love to visit and read.  In no particular order:

Michaela over at Mama Michie's Musings
Trudy over at Third Time's a Charm



Have some good news to share -

I am 19 weeks along in this pregnancy today.  :: sigh ::  I can't believe that this pregnancy is half over!!!!  We go this Friday 9.11.09 for the BIG u/s!  I'm nervous and excited, personally I just hope that this baby shows us the money shot since our daughter never gave us a 100% clear shot. Below are a few shots I took today.

Also, not sure if I blogged about it, but the Hubs did get the job he was going for testing for last week!  Well he didn't get the job he tested for but he got another job at that place.  And personally am, A'OK with that, since the job is at Three Mile Island, aka TMI, and that job was dealing with radiation, this new position will be working on the cooling towers.  And we knew there'd be overtime hours but he got the word today.  End of October until at least the New Year he'll be working 7 days a week 10-12 hour days.  Am just trying to prep myself for all of that extra work that will be on me without his help, but if he can do those hours and work then I know I'll be able to do what needs to be done.

Also - we have an official MOVING DAY!  Damn it's taken a long ass while - considering we were supposed to be in there this past July 4th.  But, his uncle will be out of there by the 12th of October, so that gives us a couple weeks to clean/paint and get all moved in before the Hubs overtime hours start.  Yeah - life is definitely going to be crazy the next few months.

And my last bit of good news, that will hopefully turn into AMAZING news is that we have a repeat showing scheduled for tomorrow.  We lowered our house price a week in a half ago and this couple had looked at the house before the price drop and were interested but not for that price.  Fingers and toes are crossed - this will be such a stress reliever when the house is sold and not having to deal with any of it anymore!!!

I just need to say that after months of a down time in the roller coaster of life, I'm so glad to be climbing back up that big hill and for these better times that are coming. 

I never...

want to go through selling a house again in my life! It's so stressful. Why does no one really share this tid bit? I mean really - perhaps it's me but I'm getting annoyed at some of the buyers and our realtor.

Examples:

• Our agents office calls yesterday morning @ 10:20 to see if someone can look at our house @ 10:30. Um - that gives me exactly 10 minutes, I have a toddler and hubs (who is still laid off) and me are both home, the house is not "show" ready. Not only that but it specifically says in our file for 24 hrs notice. I had them push it to 11, because honestly I just needed time to straighten up the house, and then the people decided to re-schedule for later in the week.
• Buyers who give a 2 hour frame for the showing, and then don't even show up until the end of those 2 hours and are still there afterwards, I only know this b/c we stopped by the house after an hour hoping they would have come already. It's hard trying to find things that can be entertaining for a toddler and cost no money for that length of time, especially over dinnertime, again have I mentioned the hubs is laid off = no money.
• Perhaps it's just pregnancy hormones but I just feel like people do not think about the seller at all. When we looked we showed up promptly at the time we asked/scheduled for. And I just really don't feel like continuing to bend over backwards.
  
• Our realtor is a total dunce! I can't wait until the beginning of October when our contract runs out and we can find someone new if the house isn't sold by then. She's so forgetful, and has forgotten to tell us about showings. Last time it happened I had company over and everything!

I also know that you want the house to look as big as possible, show off it's better aspects - we were supposed to move in July,which has unfortunately been post-poned until I have no clue! So majority of our house is in boxes stacked against the walls, under the dining room table, our basement only has a small pathway. Perhaps, if we could just get out of this house then I wouldn't be feeling like this. I just hate having disarray in my life, and miss my "home", we are only living in a house at this moment. And to top it off - I freak out more as the pregnacy progresses - this fall is going to fly by and then it will be baby time!

Sorry to be a debbie downer but I do feel a little better now.