Basement Overflow.....

So this is what we started with. A mess on a table ;-)

Some of it moved around the corner with the 4-drawer file cabinet. 

Mostly art supplies.

My desk moved to the far wall and 

I took over some of the bookshelves for storage.

Matt's desk is now on the opposite wall instead of behind the sofa.

He's still hard at work on Grad school - but he's just about halfway through!!

I'm now at 36 weeks and can't wait to meet our little guy!

Nursery Update

Matt was able to take a week off in between grad school semesters which allowed us to finally get all the study furniture out (to the basement) and the nursery furniture put together! We are still working on getting everything set up but it's looking more and more like a nursery :-)

 The Pack n Play will most likely end up elsewhere in the house, 

but for now we are keeping all baby stuff in the nursery.

 Windows will have new curtains - fabric has been found and curtains are in progress! The pile of laundry on the floor is your dose of reality (LOL) it will be washed soon and put away in the dresser.

 Crib and 3-in-1 rocker! 

The rocker will also probably end up elsewhere in the house...

Dresser! Changing table set-up on top :-)

We still need to spackle and touch up the walls where pictures were hung before and then put up some new artwork. Stars will go on the ceiling as well as the hot air balloon mobile over the crib :-)

The last piece of big furniture is being delivered next week and I'm so excited to get it into the room and put all the final pieces together.

32 days and counting down until our little man's arrival!

Cleaning Out to make way for the Nursery

While we are waiting for the snow to melt, I've begun working on cleaning out my study on the second floor. It will be the Nursery come June :-)

Once again, I forgot to take before pictures, but here are some from it's current state and also the basements current state since that is where my study will be - the second floor will keep the guest room in preparation for grandparents and visitors.

 One of the bookcases will be staying but it's been cleaned out in prep for baby books, a few pictures and storage in the new white bins on th lower 3 shelves.

 That empty corner once held a 4-drawer file cabinet that has been moved out. I have to say that was one of the bigger projects as I had no idea how much stuff/junk/files it was holding! The cabinet is now in the basement with only the relevant items kept.

 The closet has been cleaned out and re-organized. The top shelf still holds some non-baby items but I'm trying to see if I can find a place for those too. The clothes in there are of all sizes and will most likely be gone through again to keep out only those that fit the little one when he arrives.... yes! we are having a boy! :-)

What happened to the second bookcase and all my books? Well, it moved to the guestroom behind the door! It was a perfect fit and thank goodness because I'm not sure where else it would have gone!

So this is the corner of the basement that is currently a holding area for my stuff until we get my study space set-up down there. Not all that pretty to look at, but I'm glad it's only 1 table and not 2 or 3!!

My current goal is to get everything moved to the correct floor (baby stuff to the Nursery, my study stuff to the basement) before I get too much bigger. Then items can move around to find their spots/homes from there.

What have you all been up to? :-)

To Do List 2015

Let's begin with a summary of items that have rolled over from year to year. Some of these we have decided we are not going to do, but here's the full list:

outdoor patio around bottom of deck stairs (moves grill off deck) - no longer happening
walkway from driveway around the lilacs to outdoor patio - no longer happening
living hedge border along far-side of the yard and down the driveway - started but incomplete
flowering shrubs on the inside of yard edge - no longer happening
backup generator for whole house - still a possibility but we are leaning towards no
air exchange unit for the house
new bulkhead for the basement exterior stairs
backyard shed - no longer happening
figure out garage storage
re-paint guestroom
continue clearing edges of yard
1 or 2 bonfires to clean-up yard waste and deadwood

If we take the above list and remove the items that are no longer going to happen, we have:

living hedge border along far-side of the yard and down the driveway - started but incomplete
air exchange unit for the house
new bulkhead for the basement exterior stairs
figure out garage storage
re-paint study which is now the guestroom
continue clearing edges of yard
1 or 2 bonfires to clean-up yard waste and deadwood

Now let's add a new project to the mix.... a nursery :-)

Needless to say, the list needs a bit of re-arranging! I'll fill you in more as we figure things out, but a lot of my absence over the past few months has been due to the ill-named morning sickness. I'm getting better but some days it's all I can do to get up, go to work, come home and eat dinner, so please pardon the sporadic posts!

House Hunting

Not sure if I should really call this house hunting since we aren't technically looking very seriously.... We know we want to move within the next couple years and it took us 7 months to find our current place and we were looking at houses almost every weekend of that time. Now that we know the area, the schools, the roads, this house hunt is defined in a way the last one wasn't. Also, we've learned a few lessons with this house (some hard, some funny) and so we have a list of things our next house absolutely must have, and a list of what would be awesome. It's evolving over time, but to give you an idea here is what it currently looks like:

Must Have	Would Like to Have
4 bedrooms, 3 ½ bathrooms	5 bedrooms, 3 full baths, 2 half baths
2 car garage	3 car garage
mudroom off garage entrance	back deck off back to yard
1st open floor plan: eat-in kitchen, breakfast area, large family room	butler’s pantry between kitchen and formal dining room
separate formal dining and office	formal dining, formal living and office
separate laundry room	1st floor laundry room
heating and cooling systems	Geo-thermal and solar
walk-out daylight basement w/high ceilings	finished basement
walk-up attic space	finished attic space
good sized yard - mostly level	private yard - ie end of a cul-de-sac or rd
room to expand - either within the house or add on if needed.	mature trees/ landscaping
wood burning fireplace(s)
hardwood first floor, tile in baths	heated tile in baths
double sink in master bath, sep shower/tub

Here are some pictures of houses we've looked at lately:

Which one do you like best?

I'm Calling IT!

DONE! stick a fork in it - DONE! FINITO!
Yes, the basement has a few more tiny projects - putting up shelves, adding some storage behind Matt's desk, but let's face it, that stuff is kinda boring anyway ;-) What's more exciting are before and after pics - WAHOO! especially when they are almost 6 months in the making!!  Can you believe it's been 6 months?!

I apparently didn't take any good photos of the stairwell before
so here's partway thru construction

AFTER :-)

bottom of the stairs before

part-way thru construction

AFTER :-)

Before

AFTER :-)
Isn't my double pantry beautiful?

Before, but cleaned for construction with none of our mess!

AFTER :-)

Before
(Is it wrong that throwing out those carpets
made me incredibly, unbelievably happy?)

AFTER :-)

Before 

AFTER :-)
LOVE that Matt can work on grad school and work from home
without being wrapped up like a mummy in blankets to stay warm!

pardon the messy desk!
I don't touch it or he'll never find anything again - LOL

This was an amazing project for us in so many ways: learning how to juggle work, holidays, family, Reese and all those workmen in our home (communication with all those workmen too!), not to mention all the shoveling and the freezing weather we had this winter. Some stuff we did ourselves and I think we made good choices on what we could handle vs paying professionals to do the work which saved us money! We both agree that trying to live in an unfinished space and then move everything to finish it and then put everything back is a huge pain. We should have left the basement as dead space until we were ready to renovate because over the years it became our dumping ground for all kinds of stuff. Stuff that had to be cleaned out/organized/given away/sold/donated before only the items we truly wanted went into storage during the reno and then moved back into the finished space.
All of that aside, this was our first construction project, in our first home and we ended up with all these experiences to put towards future projects and a BEAUTIFUL new space that we both absolutely LOVE!

Patching & Painting

Last time I posted pics of the basement stairs they looked like this:

Top half all white aside from the splotches of test color swatches

the lower half started but not finished

I worked on this project for 3 nights after work this week.

I started by filling in all the holes

and patching the corner where furniture and boxes had taken their toll.

to be honest, at first I wasn't happy about the unfinished stairwell,

but it ended up being a smart move because I would have had to repaint

large sections of it anyway!

After sanding down the dry patches (conclusion of night 1)

I finished sanding, took off the railings and started cutting in/edging (night 2)

by the way, that little corner on the upper right hand side of the picture where the wooden shelf ends in the wall? That tiny little space? What a pain to paint! I used a craft brush to give me better control :-)

the shelf made for a lot more cutting in/edging work

and the funky ceilings :-)

see the swatches on the wall? that's with spray paint KILZ over them.

consequently, I'll never buy spray paint KILZ again :(

the door frame. super awkward. I'm tall, but not that tall!

I ended up doing it all with a brush, standing on a stool in the doorway.

This does show you how the color pulls the hallway and floors together. 

The majority of the house is this color now: 

the basement, first floor, hallways, stairs to the second floor and second floor hallway.

my variety of paint supplies. The card worked better on the shelf than tape

Reese wasn't super happy with the situation, but the low/no VOC

made it comfy enough that he hung around

painted wall

painted upper corner of landing

painted wall at the top of the stairs - I took a ton of pictures

because the color doesn't really photograph well - it just doesn't look white.

looking down from the top of the stairs (conclusion of night 3)

The finished color is called Cream Puff - hilarious I know!

I love that it takes the edge of the harsh white and makes the stairway

kinda glow a happy pale yellow. Gives the molding an extra umph too!

it took me SO long to finish that Reese fell asleep (all of 2 hrs to roll)

it kills me when he does this :-) I think it's so funny!!

his head and nose are super squished - he snores like crazy! 

It was great to split up the project as it meant I could work on it during the week and it also gave spackle/paint time to dry in between :-)

I hope to have a few more updates concerning the basement shortly!