Home Sweet Home

We have done a lot to our house (I need to update our house tour page...it looks different)

Care for a list of what we have done?

Inside:

Hardwoods

Tile floors in entry and guest bath

Full kitchen remodel including all appliances (but fridge), cabinets, counters, sink, faucet ect. 

Full guest bath remodel including sheetrock, bath, fixtures, toilet, floor, sink, hardware, paint, electrical

Paint on all walls in the house

A ton of demolition of old stuff

Back wood french doors

Conversion to gas stove in fireplace

All new outlets and switches in the house

Outside

Level and change slope of backyard

Build gate, arbor

Build Garden

Change out front light fixtures

Demolish front yard (still demolished)

Remove most landscaping plants

Plant some new landscaping plants

Get rid of tons and tons and tons and tons (and tons) of blackberries

Prepare pad in the back of the property for a shop

-----------

There are probably more projects that I cant think of at the moment, but is is safe to say, we have done a ton of stuff to our house. 

Then I was thinking about the things that I would like to complete before I would consider our house "done"

Inside

Finish Baseboard trim, new door trim

Change all interior doors to wood and get a wood door for the front door

Wool carpets in bedrooms

New linoleum for the laundry room, stacked Washer and dryer, floor to ceiling storage system

Backsplash in kitchen

Wine fridge/small sink/coffee area in kitchen

Hide wires for the TV

Complete master bath redo

Double french door to deck in master

Tankless hot water heater

Exterior

New siding (ours is recalled), new exterior paint

Carriage style garage doors

Repaved driveway

Blacktop asphalt anywhere we currently have gravel

Paver path around front of house to paver patio in back

Larger deck with covered screened in area

Landscaping trees and plants

So basically, there is still a lot to do. 

But that really wasn't the point of this post, I let the list get away from me. The point of this post is this. 

I always kind of had my eyes on this being a "starter home" - granted, it really isn't a starter home in the true sense of the word - it's in a great neighborhood, most of the people who live here are middle aged and well established, it is really a nice house and was even before we pretty much demolished and re-did everything and it is on acreage which is super nice. But again, I found myself always dreaming about our "future house." I would even look on the internet for it. And here's the thing - we may well end up moving someday if we end up moving to a different city like say Bend or McCall in the future. 

But here is the realization I had the other day. I really love our house. I love how much like home it has become. I love how "us" it is becoming. I love all the memories we have here from living in it without a kitchen, living on subfloor, one bathroom, being newlyweds, professionals, being pregnant, getting a dog, having a baby. This house really holds so many memories.

In addition, if you notice the list of things we have done and will do, many of them are kind of specialty things. Things that are less about increasing the value of the house for resale and more about making the house a great house for us. Things like wood doors inside and out, wool carpets, tankless hot water heater. These are things that we value but may or may not be viewed of a a value item for potential buyers even though they are "premium" items. 

And for the first time the other day I realized

I can't imagine moving away from here. I really love this house and what is has become and is becoming. 

Organization

Beyond stuffing ourselves, going to the Duck game and spending time with family this weekend, we got down and dirty and did some organizing.

All this started with wanting a king sized bed. We have a log bed frame, queen sized. So we took it apart and put it in the guest room sans mattress for now and put our queen on the floor until we get our king size. I know people say beds on the floor isn't good, but our room got huge.  We like it.

We moved our armoire from the guest room to our room which prompted me to move some hanging clothes into it and made me decide to organize the whole closet and purge unused stuff.

I should have taken a before of the closet, it was a mess!!

New Camera and Back Yard

I FINALLY got a new camera! Nick's dad bought us a Canon Rebel T2i SLR camera for the impending arrival of the baby and I have been busy trying to learn how to use the camera really quickly before little bear arrives!

Trooper has been a really good subject because he moves around a lot and I have a feeling our child will move around a lot too! I am not really that great at taking pictures yet and I have not ventured into using any of the fully automatic features and have not tried out the second lens an EFS 55-250mm but I am learning and trying new things. Here are a few pictures (no editing yet) of Trooper:

So hopeful...

Um, hello? The dog would like to be outside!

Ah, this is the life!

Yes, I know I am handsome...

We have been working on all kinds of projects and have ourselves stretched thin on them - with the summer winding down, we really needed to finish out the smoothing of the backyard so that once it starts to rain, we don't have a huge mud hole in our yard - so we had to smooth, rake, and plant new grass. This is what our backyard looks like at the moment:

Looking from the house toward the back of the property. 

Looking from halfway back on the property and to the side. 

Standing at the back of the property looking back toward the house. 

Looking at the house from about mid-way back. 

So now we are watering the newly seeded lawn to try and get it to grow over the next few weeks while we still have sunshine to help it along!

In pregnancy news - no changes that I can tell. Baby Bear is just hanging out all comfy and warm. I keep telling him that he would have more room if he just came out - but he has chosen to stay in. 

More House Progress

We are making progress! We have blinds up on all the windows with the exception of 3. The babies room, the guest room and the laundry room window, which I just painted the trim on:

Painted white - pretty!

We have all the blinds, we just have to put them up!

In the family room! (I plan on having a rocking chair on the other side of the room from this which will serve as my feeding chair and I don't really want to give the neighbors a peep show!)

The large front window that never did have blinds, even when we bought the house. 

The guest bathroom is progressing too. The false wall where the shower piping will go and the plumbing to the spout are in:

It is hard to get a good picture because the space is not all that huge. I am standing where the toilet will go. 

-------

In other news, I downloaded some Nidra Yoga CD's - If you have ever done a yoga class, Nidra is the part where you lie on your back in the dark and they get you to super relax. I am going to try to use these guided meditation CD's to help me through labor. That, and a hefty dose of whatever they put in an epidural! I am not even going to pretend to be a hero - bring on the modern anesthesia!!

Projects and Playtime

Nick hanging the mirror trim

Getting it just right

Trooper doesn't like house projects. They make him feel insecure. 

We got our project on this morning - hanging some mirror trim, baseboard trim and working on the bathroom (the guest bathroom that is). 

Then Trooper got some Daddy time - 

I want the ball!

Hey, where did you go?

Ok fine, I will share my ball with you. 

In other great news, I feel good again. Backache gone! So much better!! If I keep feeling like this, pregnancy continuation isn't such a horrible idea - more sleep, more "us" time, etc. I am crossing my fingers that I keep feeling this good!!

Bye bye extra stuff!

Remember the dresser that I re-did? As a refresher, here it is.

It came from a garage sale at a rather seedy house but was $10.00. Score! Then it smelled like smoke :-( So I painted the inside of the drawers:

It went to live in the closet since the baby's room is small and I want to have a bed in there for me to lie down on if he is fussy and Nick needs to get some sleep. (Speaking of sleep, I seriously just woke up an hour ago after getting 9 hours of sleep and I could curl up and go back to sleep again). I came home the other day and I noticed it smelled kind of funny in the house. I had noticed an increasingly funny smell in the area where the baby's room was over the past few days too. I opened the drawer and confirmed my suspicion, the clothes etc smelled "smoky" - Now Nick thinks I am crazy and have some sort of uber pregnant smelling ability, but I don't really trust his allergy nose either. Anywhoo, if I can smell it, pregnant sniffer or not, it is there - and I certainly don't want the kiddo to be stuck in clothes that even remotely smell, whether it is smoke, mildew, or whatever - babies are so sensitive and the last thing he needs is smokey clothing. 

All the clothes got washed. Again. The dresser made its way over to our friends Neal and Jessica's house to be painted black and become a tool chest. The curtains I hung in the closet got replaced (again) by the original doors, which are now painted. The closet was fitted with some wire shelving from Home Depot and now all I have to do is make my way to IKEA to pick up some of their fabric bins which will be drawers for the time being. 

Sadly, the Nursery went from almost finished, to complete disaster with clothes and stuff sitting out all over the place. 

-----

In other news:

• My business is taking off and I have been very fortunate to have enough work to keep me busy and making a good living at it at the same time. 
• My business income has been a welcome way to pay things down. Happily, I will be paying off my car this weekend! (Sadly, the car has 164,000 miles so I am hoping that it lasts as long as Honda's are supposed to last - can we hope for another 100,000 miles with no major problems?? so that I don't have to add a new car payment anytime soon)
• We sold our old bathroom "appliances" - So long bathtub and sink and toilet. Hello New Canon Rebel T2i (when I get around to actually buying it) I didn't quite make the amount needed for the Canon which is $849 - but I got close. The tub sold for $375 and the sink and toilet sold for $125 so I am only $345 short. I think that my hard work with my business can make up the remaining. 

• I found a Pediatrician! I am so thankful that I have lucked out with Doctors. I love love love my "women's doctor" and I met with a pediatrician close to my house that I found by searching the internet (because all my friends go to a place in Tualatin which is kind of far for me) and just love her. She is 1 year out of residency so she is super young, building her practice and has so much energy! I am very excited for little bear to meet her!
• We are "narrowing" down names. The remain the bane of my existence. Like I said, he wont have a name until he is born because we have to meet him - but the good news is, we are getting better and better at knowing what we do and don't like. 
• We still have a ton left to do on the house before the baby comes. I looked at the ticker and realized that we have 44 days until our due date! That means that the baby could come in 23 days or 54 days and be full term for any of the time in between! So insane!! I feel like it sounds like longer if we go by weeks, anywhere between 3 and 7 weeks. Ok, maybe not. Yikes!!!

Baby Infiltration

Signs that our lives are about the change forever are starting to pop up all over our house. Here are a few sneak peak pics of the babies room and other pictures of baby things that seem to be infiltrating our house.

Baby backpack hiding next to the couches in the living room. 

Bob Stroller trying to blend in in the living room.

Pack n' Play in our bedroom. 

Sneak Peak: Futon Couch in Baby's room. 

Curtain for the closet.

Rocking chair next to curtain. 

Some of the crib

Sneaky swing, hiding by the chair and stereo in the family room. 

Not baby, but I realized I haven't shared the guest room sink. Here she is. The string, of course, gets removed. I can't wait to share pictures of this beauty when she is in use and installed. The bottom shelf will get baskets which will hold baby bear's cloth diapers and other diapering supplies. 

And Trooper - He doesn't know what to think about the whole baby thing. He just wants us to remember that our bed belongs to him - and he doesn't have to share if he doesn't want to. Hm Trooper, we will see about that. Just because you are 2 doesn't mean you won't have to share with your little brother. But don't worry, it goes two ways, he has to share with you too. Trust me, you will like him when he starts eating and discovers the "drop food on the floor for the doggy" game. 

Ok ok, and a belly shot - I am the world's worst first time pregnant person because honestly, I have not only not shared pictures, but have not taken them either. PS. not the greatest picture. PPS, um- I am measuring big - as in, I have to get an ultrasound to see if it is me or if it is the kid. I would like to think it is because I am narrow and the baby had nowhere else to go, however, perhaps it is just that I have *gulp* gained a little more weight than I should have...nervous laugh nervous laugh. 

Vegging Out

I realized I have not shared my garden in a while (that is what working+trips to Bend and Eugene+Busy 32 week pregnant girl will do). Anywhoo - the garden is thriving, much to my surprise given the weather (cool and rainy). Without futher Ado - here she is, my beautiful organic garden and some of her delicious spoils:

Beautiful, delicious Raspberries

Sweet Blueberries

Future Zucchini!

Purple Bush Beans

Tasty Orange Cherry Tomatos (not Orange yet, obviously)

Zucchini, bush beans, cucumber, squash

Tomatos, Onions, Carrots

Spoils! Yellow wax bush beans and purple bush beans

Peas!

All the above plus the 3rd tomato of the year. Yum!

----------------------

And because I feel like you may be wondering about the bathroom - here is where we stand:

Tub is sitting in its future place

Ah, progress. This tub is 6 feet long - normal tubs are only 5 feet. It is also wider and deeper than a normal tub and I am so excited to soak in this baby when the bathroom is all done! 

On that note, we were planning on getting all the prep work for the tile done this coming weekend - then Nick found out he had to work. Poor guy. He works so hard for us - I feel bad that he has to work so much and then come home and do projects. It will be super nice when we just have all our projects completed and he can come home and relax!

Banana's

Me: Hey Nick, will you grab a bunch of banana's? They are right over there.
Nick: No. You are way to picky about banana's, go get your own bunch.

Does anyone else have a food item that they are ridiculously picky about? For me, it is Banana's. They have to be slightly green, small, no brown spots, no drop marks, not mushy.

A Dastardly Confession

I have a confession. 

It is a dastardly confession. 

I probably shouldn't even make this confession public. 

Please refrain from kicking, punching, stoning, etc me - Remember, i'm pregnant :-)

I am, ehem, enjoying this weather. 

It's cool and cloudy. 

Below 75

Raining

Make that pouring

I am not swollen (heat = swollen pregnant lady)

My grass is still green

My electric bill is still low

My limited wardrobe still works because I can still wear my jeans!

I love the sound of rain

My dog hates the heat

So there you go, this unseasonably cool, fall like weather is suiting this pregnant girl quite well thankyouverymuch!

Forty days or seventy days?

The whole "end to pregnancy" thing drives me a little nuts. We are busy gathering the things we will need, the things we want, and the things you end up with that you thought you needed but actually didn't. Our house is slowly becoming more and more filled with baby things (which by the way are currently stuffed in the once clean "finished" nursery which now looks like the storage room it started out as because yesterday I was just too damn tired to even think about putting things away).

But we still have a minor problem. Ok, several minor problems. Our guest bathroom still looks like, well, like sub floor and studs. The entryway is still subfloor as well. This really wouldn't be a problem under normal circumstances, in fact, I am very ok with not having the second bathroom (when we don't have guests over) - the problem is this -

The baby could be full term in 40 days or 70 days - um, that's a big span of time! 40 days would be 37 weeks, 70 days would be 10 days over 40 weeks, and all are viable options. What the ?@#$! That kind of changes my opinion on whether it is ok or not ok that we don't have a second bathroom.

Add to that our schedules, which by the way don't leave much time to sit around and daydream about the newest addition to the family. Trips to Bend, Trips to Eugene for wedding, family reunion, babysitting my sisters kids, bridal shower (all on different weekends mind you) and that doesn't leave much time to turn a bathroom from studs and subfloor to a baby friendly haven with operational plumbing, etc.

Can you say YIKES?!?!? Let me re-itterate - anytime from 40 - 70 days. Baby bear might just have to use our bathroom in the beginning :-(

Random Tuesday

Some of you were probably scratching your heads when I posted yet another "help, I'm indecisive" post about the tile. The back and forth stemmed from several things:

1. I was concerned that the white would look sterile, maybe a little stark and hospital-like compared to the warm flooring and vanity

2. Concern over keeping it looking clean with white grout lines (we always intend on cleaning our showers, toilets, floors consistently, but then life happens)

3. Concern over it matching the house - we have done a lot of work to our house and want to make sure that the more permanent elements tie together because one of the big issues with this house to begin with was the lady that owned it before us did a bunch of her own handy work and nothing seemed to go with anything else - so we are definitely concerned with keeping things tied together. It was for this reason that the clawfoot got the ol' heave-ho in the first place, totally didn't go with the house, at all. 

4. Desire to keep the house classic and un-dateable. I don't want people to walk in 10 years from now and be able to tell exactly when we re-modeled..."Ah, this is a late 2000's house for sure!" We are definitely going with classic lines overall, cherry shaker cabinets, white oak floors, classic wide white wood blinds, warm tone ceramic tiles, etc. 

------------

Someone is going to want to strangle me for saying this...but I am thankful or a mild (so far) summer. These cool days + pregnancy = perfect. I love warmth as much as the next person, but when pregnant, warm means swelling. Not cute or comfortable.

Little bear is getting strong and bumping around a lot in there these days. I think he has some hand weights and sometimes, I think he is having a party all by his lonesome in there. 

I have acid reflux for the first time in my life - I guess we will see if this means that the old wives tale is true- reflux = hair. 

Tile Decisions

Holy cow, this whole tile thing has just been a very difficult road for us! Between trying to figure out what type of tile to go with (ceramic, natural stone, etc) and then what actual tile once decision 1 was made, this has just been a really long process.

As general "do it yourselfers" - we have decided to hire out the actual tile setting. While this is certainly something we can do ourselves, there are certain things that are just easier and better to hire out. Tile kinda has to be perfect and straight and, well, perfect - or it looks really bad and will ruin an otherwise good project. Not that I doubt we could get it to be perfect...Nick is definitely good at being a perfectionist - it is just faster and more efficient for us to hire out.

Plus- poor Nick's to-do list is long and it is time for me to help out where I can to make that list shorter. The guest bath needs to be done before the baby comes so I am doing everything I can to help him out.

So here are the 2 examples of tiles that I have been looking at over, and over and over and over....

Oh man - tile decisions. I think...we are going with the white....good decision??