What is better than coming home from a relaxing weekend at the cabin having played extreme croquet, strolled around Leavenworth eating ice cream and shopped at Smallwoods for delicious homemade honey and apple butter? HOUSEWORK!
Today, on our nation's day of independence, The Husband and I worked our little tushes off. We went to Home Depot and Target. We tore apart the bathroom in the nursery in order to ensure it gets done before baby Beals arrives. New tile, new sink, new mirror, new cabinet and new adorable picture from Pier1 of an owl. Of course none of the new stuff is installed, but it's all purchased and waiting for installation. I think The Husband and my dad might get it all done the day of my baby shower. Good ole father-in-law/son-in-law bonding. I LOVE that they get along so well...even though sometimes my dad can be a little critical.
The Husband painted the walls of the garage white, which makes the whole space look cleaner and bright. He also moved the elliptical down there and it is slowly becoming the workout space he had envisioned. While he worked downstairs, I got all the laundry and vacuuming done AND made dinner. Oh, before dinner we did walk up to Ladro for some coffee and took a stroll down 44th to check out a house we want our friends to buy. It is SO STINKIN' CUTE!! Click here to see it. Did I mention it is literally one street behind ours?? Wouldn't that be so fun, Laura? hint hint! Wait, he also mowed and watered the lawn while I picked all the ripe strawberries from our garden.
Anyway, my point is that this was too much to pack into one day...I do not feel like I just had a 3-day weekend. Tomorrow...back to work to get ready for my crazy summer program where I will work with 120 incoming 9th graders. Awesome blossom!
Showing posts with label Home Improvement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Home Improvement. Show all posts
Monday, July 4, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
3 weeks
So, The Husband got a new job...yay for him...and with that came 3 weeks off. Oh Jesus...3 weeks is a lifetime to that man.
Today was his first day off and he was calling me at work by 9:15...bored. He had already finished his book, read the whole paper and walked to get coffee. It's a good thing the school year is almost over and my summer program doesn't start until July 11th because I'll be able to entertain him at least a little from time to time.
He did manage to clean out most of the garage because, surprise surprise, that is his new project! He is going to make it into a work-out room.
Up to the minute update: 8:10pm "hey, I'm going to stare at the garage for a little bit" - The Husband
OK, back to his day. There were a lot of misc building materials from the countless other projects he's done so he decided to take a huge load of trash to the transfer station. At the same time he's being all ambitious, I'm at work feeling like shit. I think it was a combination of the school being hot, worrying about the vague call I got from my doctor, and being so annoyed about my room being given to someone else, but I got super light-headed and clammy...so I went home for the day. I arrived home to an empty house...got a big glass of water and laid down on the couch. I'm not there for 5 minutes when I get a call from him. "Don't hate me" - oh shit...what now? "I'm at the transfer station and I forgot my wallet". I immediately channeled my non-existent New Jersey relatives and swore up a storm. Seriously? Today...of all days?? If this is any indication of what the next 3 weeks will be like than this blog will get better and better.
Sorry, no pictures today.
Oh, and if you're keeping up...I FAILED my first glucose test. Dammit! Now I have to go in on Wednesday for a 3 hour test and more of that yucky sugar drink. Awesome!
Today was his first day off and he was calling me at work by 9:15...bored. He had already finished his book, read the whole paper and walked to get coffee. It's a good thing the school year is almost over and my summer program doesn't start until July 11th because I'll be able to entertain him at least a little from time to time.
He did manage to clean out most of the garage because, surprise surprise, that is his new project! He is going to make it into a work-out room.
Up to the minute update: 8:10pm "hey, I'm going to stare at the garage for a little bit" - The Husband
OK, back to his day. There were a lot of misc building materials from the countless other projects he's done so he decided to take a huge load of trash to the transfer station. At the same time he's being all ambitious, I'm at work feeling like shit. I think it was a combination of the school being hot, worrying about the vague call I got from my doctor, and being so annoyed about my room being given to someone else, but I got super light-headed and clammy...so I went home for the day. I arrived home to an empty house...got a big glass of water and laid down on the couch. I'm not there for 5 minutes when I get a call from him. "Don't hate me" - oh shit...what now? "I'm at the transfer station and I forgot my wallet". I immediately channeled my non-existent New Jersey relatives and swore up a storm. Seriously? Today...of all days?? If this is any indication of what the next 3 weeks will be like than this blog will get better and better.
Sorry, no pictures today.
Oh, and if you're keeping up...I FAILED my first glucose test. Dammit! Now I have to go in on Wednesday for a 3 hour test and more of that yucky sugar drink. Awesome!
Sunday, June 12, 2011
third trimester...more house projects
So, today officially marks our 28th week and the beginning of our 3rd trimester. For those women who say pregnancy flies by and is the most wonderful time of your life...I'm calling your shit. We found out we were pregnant the day after Christmas, which feels like a year ago...at least. I'm not sure if that is because I love Christmas so much or it seriously felt like a year ago, but the combo is enough to say I've been pregnant forever.
My new goal is update everyday of my 3rd trimester...a little experiment. I got an email update welcoming me to, and I quote, "the trimester where you'll experience heartburn, indigestion, hemorrhoids, leg cramps, sleepless nights, stretchmarks, and varicose veins...but you'll finally get to meet your adorable baby!". To the person that wrote that, and I quote, "fuck you!". The only one of those I've experienced so far is sleepless nights, but that was my life before pregnancy so I'm used to it.
The Husband is in super house repair mode now...which is crazy if you've seen our cute little "cottage by the park" house. Some things do not need to be redone, torn out or completely changed. Paint on the other hand...is something we could do a lot more of and by "we" I mean him because 'I'm not supposed to'. = )
New projects/project updates:
The Nursery
It is almost done!! It's painted a nice, soothing green and I stenciled a birch tree on the wall between the crib and the changing table. We got a great white faux animal fur rug, framed some cute art, and bought one of those 9 cube storage units with canvas baskets for the closet. It's pretty stinkin' adorable if you ask me! Now the finishing touches are curtains for the closet and the window, which my mom has volunteered to make (thanks mama) and a quick one-day update on the half bath in the bedroom, which pretty much needs a new sink and some tile on the floor. My dad can help The Husband knock that out in a day.
Our Bedroom
There was nothing wrong with our bedroom before...other than the fact that our house is 104 years old so closet space is terrible and the actual dimensions of the room are small, but who needs a grandoise master suite? Is that where you're going to bring your guests during your Christmas party? Are you going to sleep in the living room and spend your waking hours admiring your huge bedroom? I don't think so. Who cares about a smaller bedroom? I HATE those people on House Hunters that claim to want an old craftsman, but bitch about a small room (and then I find out it's actually bigger than ours) and how their massive California king bed and ugly furniture just won't fit. Sorry, I kind of got off track. We bought our first real, adult bed frame and decided to repaint the room a cool blue. The bed is here and put together, but the painting just happened today! We also moved the bed to a different wall because I sleep better facing north to south and our bed was east to west. I know that sounds weird, but it makes a difference to me. There are articles if you don't believe me.
The Yard
This is totally The Husbands turf, but I'm proud of what he's done. We constantly have people walking down our street to get to Lincoln Park that stop in front of our house and stare. A lot of people have lived in the neighborhood for years and can't believe what we've done to it in 2 years, but some people have never seen it and just stop to say how sweet and cute it looks. The Husband ripped out all of the grass, brought in new dirt, and had the lawn hydro-seeded in the fall. Our grass is green, the lawn is flat and he keeps it mowed...with pretty diagonal lines. I'll admit, the grass is awesome. Even the neighbor, a 4 year old, prefers our yard to his. He is constantly climbing over the fence while announcing that he is "going over to Derek's yard". We also installed a fountain to block out the street noise on the back side of our house, The Hubs installed new electrical so we no longer have to run an extension cord to said fountain. We have a real garden where I've planted carrots, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, basil and strawberries! We have amazing wildflowers starting to sprout (thanks to my sisters wedding favors) and some beautiful plants and flowers that I make up names to because I'm not really a plant/flower person. We can't wait for summer barbecues!!
The Basement
We haven't touched it other than buying a new leather sectional. It still needs a bedroom door and the painting needs to be finished. The Husband only rolls. He refuses to "cut in". I have a ridiculously steady hand, which I think I get from my dad, but that doesn't help when I'm not supposed to paint. I'm not posting pictures of the basement until it's done...sorry!
I think that's good, right? But, will everything be ready before baby boy Beals' gets here??
My new goal is update everyday of my 3rd trimester...a little experiment. I got an email update welcoming me to, and I quote, "the trimester where you'll experience heartburn, indigestion, hemorrhoids, leg cramps, sleepless nights, stretchmarks, and varicose veins...but you'll finally get to meet your adorable baby!". To the person that wrote that, and I quote, "fuck you!". The only one of those I've experienced so far is sleepless nights, but that was my life before pregnancy so I'm used to it.
The Husband is in super house repair mode now...which is crazy if you've seen our cute little "cottage by the park" house. Some things do not need to be redone, torn out or completely changed. Paint on the other hand...is something we could do a lot more of and by "we" I mean him because 'I'm not supposed to'. = )
New projects/project updates:
The Nursery
It is almost done!! It's painted a nice, soothing green and I stenciled a birch tree on the wall between the crib and the changing table. We got a great white faux animal fur rug, framed some cute art, and bought one of those 9 cube storage units with canvas baskets for the closet. It's pretty stinkin' adorable if you ask me! Now the finishing touches are curtains for the closet and the window, which my mom has volunteered to make (thanks mama) and a quick one-day update on the half bath in the bedroom, which pretty much needs a new sink and some tile on the floor. My dad can help The Husband knock that out in a day.
Our Bedroom
There was nothing wrong with our bedroom before...other than the fact that our house is 104 years old so closet space is terrible and the actual dimensions of the room are small, but who needs a grandoise master suite? Is that where you're going to bring your guests during your Christmas party? Are you going to sleep in the living room and spend your waking hours admiring your huge bedroom? I don't think so. Who cares about a smaller bedroom? I HATE those people on House Hunters that claim to want an old craftsman, but bitch about a small room (and then I find out it's actually bigger than ours) and how their massive California king bed and ugly furniture just won't fit. Sorry, I kind of got off track. We bought our first real, adult bed frame and decided to repaint the room a cool blue. The bed is here and put together, but the painting just happened today! We also moved the bed to a different wall because I sleep better facing north to south and our bed was east to west. I know that sounds weird, but it makes a difference to me. There are articles if you don't believe me.
The Yard
This is totally The Husbands turf, but I'm proud of what he's done. We constantly have people walking down our street to get to Lincoln Park that stop in front of our house and stare. A lot of people have lived in the neighborhood for years and can't believe what we've done to it in 2 years, but some people have never seen it and just stop to say how sweet and cute it looks. The Husband ripped out all of the grass, brought in new dirt, and had the lawn hydro-seeded in the fall. Our grass is green, the lawn is flat and he keeps it mowed...with pretty diagonal lines. I'll admit, the grass is awesome. Even the neighbor, a 4 year old, prefers our yard to his. He is constantly climbing over the fence while announcing that he is "going over to Derek's yard". We also installed a fountain to block out the street noise on the back side of our house, The Hubs installed new electrical so we no longer have to run an extension cord to said fountain. We have a real garden where I've planted carrots, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, basil and strawberries! We have amazing wildflowers starting to sprout (thanks to my sisters wedding favors) and some beautiful plants and flowers that I make up names to because I'm not really a plant/flower person. We can't wait for summer barbecues!!
The Basement
We haven't touched it other than buying a new leather sectional. It still needs a bedroom door and the painting needs to be finished. The Husband only rolls. He refuses to "cut in". I have a ridiculously steady hand, which I think I get from my dad, but that doesn't help when I'm not supposed to paint. I'm not posting pictures of the basement until it's done...sorry!
I think that's good, right? But, will everything be ready before baby boy Beals' gets here??
Friday, March 4, 2011
one more new thing
So after what seems like a lifetime I'm happy to announce that The Husband and I are expecting our first baby in September!
We found out the day after Christmas, which was the best present ever. With this news comes more home improvement...shocking, right? Well, our third bedroom is perfect for a nursery, as it has a half bath. Well, I'm not sure that a bathroom makes a great nursery, but it makes it nice for handwashing after changing poo-filled diapers. I know you're thinking a little paint does not a home improvement project make (I'm tipping my hat to Laura on that sentence). Well, you're right, but this room needed more than just paint. This room had a floor that had been raised 4 inches for no apparent reason and a weird shelf around the upper portion of 3/4 of the room...not to mention paneling over the sheet-rock. The Husband immediately ripped out the floor and everything that made it 4 inches taller and ripped out 2 walls of sheet-rock (including the weird shelving) so he could insulate. It took a little longer than I thought it would, but the floor is redone, the walls are insulated and have new sheet-rock AND the room is painted a nice, soothing green. And in case you're wondering, yes, we will be finding out the sex so we can plan the rest of the room. = ) The bathroom needs to be redone, too, but we'll do that a little later.
Here are some before photos:
We'll wait to show you the final results when it's all done, but here are some work in progress photos and the finished floor. Notice the original bathroom door reinstalled...it will show you how high the floor was.
Wait, did you want to see Baby Beals, too? = )
Yay!!
We found out the day after Christmas, which was the best present ever. With this news comes more home improvement...shocking, right? Well, our third bedroom is perfect for a nursery, as it has a half bath. Well, I'm not sure that a bathroom makes a great nursery, but it makes it nice for handwashing after changing poo-filled diapers. I know you're thinking a little paint does not a home improvement project make (I'm tipping my hat to Laura on that sentence). Well, you're right, but this room needed more than just paint. This room had a floor that had been raised 4 inches for no apparent reason and a weird shelf around the upper portion of 3/4 of the room...not to mention paneling over the sheet-rock. The Husband immediately ripped out the floor and everything that made it 4 inches taller and ripped out 2 walls of sheet-rock (including the weird shelving) so he could insulate. It took a little longer than I thought it would, but the floor is redone, the walls are insulated and have new sheet-rock AND the room is painted a nice, soothing green. And in case you're wondering, yes, we will be finding out the sex so we can plan the rest of the room. = ) The bathroom needs to be redone, too, but we'll do that a little later.
Here are some before photos:
 |
| Notice the "step down" |
We'll wait to show you the final results when it's all done, but here are some work in progress photos and the finished floor. Notice the original bathroom door reinstalled...it will show you how high the floor was.
 |
| Before |
 |
| After |
Wait, did you want to see Baby Beals, too? = )
Yay!!
Friday, November 5, 2010
and so it begins...
The Husband and I haven't even owned our home for two years and it is a completely different house than when we bought it. He is a crazy Mr. Fix It...and it isn't like there was anything wrong with it, he just can't stop creating new projects. Don't get me wrong, I love his enthusiasm and his superhero ability to get things done pretty quickly...but can't we just enjoy our adorable home?
Isn't she pretty? I just assume she's a girl...because she's classy and loves to throw parties.
So far we've replaced all the windows, painted the entry way, living room and dining room, changed out most of the light fixtures, replaced all the electrical plugs (from painted over to new and white), insulated the attic, put in a small kitchen pantry, removed the second kitchen from the basement and made it into a master suite, removed the wall between the downstairs bedroom and living room to create a big rec room, built a laundry closet, painted and carpeted the downstairs rec room and master suite, painted the downstairs fireplace, installed a homemade mantle on the fireplace upstairs (thanks Jack), cut down the Laurel bushes between our house and the neighbors and built a new fence, built a picket fence out front, built a fence and gate in the back of the house, planted about 30 small flowers, removed the old grass, put in new soil and hydro-seeded the lawn. Holy shit, writing it all out makes it seem like we barely got to be newlyweds in our first year. Although it seems like there is always a project, I wouldn't change anything we've done. It's really a fantastic home and we can't wait to raise a family here!!
Oh yeah, if you need home improvement advice or a consult...ask The Husband...I will loan him out because I'm really nice (and proud of him).
Isn't she pretty? I just assume she's a girl...because she's classy and loves to throw parties.
So far we've replaced all the windows, painted the entry way, living room and dining room, changed out most of the light fixtures, replaced all the electrical plugs (from painted over to new and white), insulated the attic, put in a small kitchen pantry, removed the second kitchen from the basement and made it into a master suite, removed the wall between the downstairs bedroom and living room to create a big rec room, built a laundry closet, painted and carpeted the downstairs rec room and master suite, painted the downstairs fireplace, installed a homemade mantle on the fireplace upstairs (thanks Jack), cut down the Laurel bushes between our house and the neighbors and built a new fence, built a picket fence out front, built a fence and gate in the back of the house, planted about 30 small flowers, removed the old grass, put in new soil and hydro-seeded the lawn. Holy shit, writing it all out makes it seem like we barely got to be newlyweds in our first year. Although it seems like there is always a project, I wouldn't change anything we've done. It's really a fantastic home and we can't wait to raise a family here!!
Oh yeah, if you need home improvement advice or a consult...ask The Husband...I will loan him out because I'm really nice (and proud of him).
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