Co-Nesting

Well, I think I'm (we're) officially nesting. Dave and I spent the past week repainting our kitchen walls and cabinets, replacing the contact paper lining the shelves and drawers and organizing their contents, and repairing the non-existent grout on our tiled counter tops. I seem to be summoning that superhuman energy characterized by the end of pregnancy days. I'm not sure this is the nesting, but I'll take it. It's nice to get things done around here.

I nested with Moses two days before I went into labor. Despite being on bed rest, I had the uncontrollable need to organize all the drawers and closets in our house and no power on Earth could stop me. Of course, when he arrived three days later, the rest of our house wasn't clean because I'd focused only on those drawers and closets. This time, I'm hoping it's a different story.

In the pictures, you really can't see the night-and-day transformation that resulted from our repainting and regrouting, but it's a brand new kitchen. We used the paints leftover from our move-in painting so our house flows together nicely now, sans the kitchen's previous zebra motif. We still have a few ends to wrap up, but I already look forward to cooking for my boys in my new kitchen.

Here's a brief before and after look:

Before


After



Now we just have our den, bedroom, and sun room to finish up in the coming weeks!

-Lindsey

Mulligan

If it's a woman's prerogative to change her mind, then I'm doing my gender proud. I started in the boys' room with a certain "look" in mind and have since completely changed direction. The back wall was lime green, now it's a brown called Cathedral Gray. The curtains were also green and now they, too, are brown. I'm much, much happier with the room since making the changes and feel like it fits this house and our family better. Moses seems to enjoy it, too--especially his big boy bed.

Here's the finished product:

View from the doorway

Moses' big-boy bed

The silhouette art work

The baby's crib is ready to go

The nesting dolls are my favorite knick-knack

Brown curtains and invaluable storage

The closet and play areas

More fun wall art

Moses is completely out of the crib now, which frees up the crib for his brother. His new bed is currently a trundle bed frame so he won't have far to fall during this big-bed learning period. Eventually, we'll get him a bed that isn't on wheels, unless it's shaped like a race car. Sigh.

The bunting flags were a project I worked on while at a hotel for my Mother's Day gift. I'd been wanting to make them for awhile but it was too labor intensive for my typical night at home. Cutting the flags took forever (I cut 35). Pinking shears would have helped prevent fraying, but since I don't own a pair, I settled for a zig-zag hem. I'm really pleased with the end result and Moses loves to stand beneath them while looking up and exclaim, "whoa, whoa."

There's now a large, free space under the windows where the trundle bed used to be. It's nice to have that space to play in and its size makes it possible to set up his circus tent without cursing its existence every time you pass. I'm planning on adding a small table and chairs in that area soon, too. Hooray for lots of space!

I had hoped to void his room of a theme when we moved to this house, but there's still a travel motif to the room. Considering Moses' current love for all things wheeled though, I think it's appropriate. Plus, we're open to change as his (and his brother's) interests develop.

One room down, 2 more to go.

-Lindsey

The Boys' Room, Part I

I've been wanting to work on the boys' (plural!) room for awhile, but for one reason or another, I haven't--until this past week. I've seen some great productivity in fellow (or recently) preggo bloggers and their projects inspired me to get off my duff. I've also been touring nurseries on Ohdeedoh for room ideas, which has done nothing but increase my "to-do" list exponentially.

This was the room before Sally, Maegan, and I used 5 gallons of white paint to freshen up the walls and change the maroon walls to a lime green that I've since grown tired of (it must be my hormones because I usually love anything painted green) and have pledged to repaint a taupish-grey color in the near future. I love how large the room is, but I miss the wood floors in our old place. These walls are also a bit too textured for my taste, but it's something we can live with in a rental.

I haven't completed the room yet (sigh). I'm still working on Moses' soon-to-be big-boy bed situation since we currently have a nice trundle bed in there, but I think it's too much bed for Moses and too large for the space so I'm rethinking that arrangement. Then, there's the wall that I need to repaint. I'd also like to organize the walk-in closet, too. After those three tasks, I should be done with the room and be free to move on to other (more important but less fun) tasks, pending a cooperative baby!

When you walk into the room, there's a storage space on the wall for Moses' often used shoes and jackets. I have all the supplies (except a letter--what will we name this baby?) so that Moses' little brother will have one, too. The wooden crate is meant to hold cds, not shoes, but a little repurposing can go a long way and, with a little training, hopefully save me from the daily shoe search.

Here's Moses' current crib and dresser that will soon become baby #2s. I loved this train idea and had been wanting to change the previous artwork for awhile so I used two pieces of fabric and Heat N' Bond to appliqué the plane. I was hoping to get away from the travel theme in the room, but I loved the idea of a biplane too much. This was a nice, lazy way to redo that large canvas and I'm pretty pleased. Plus, if I get tired of it, I can just do something else.

I took down the dirty mini-blinds and hung some cotton tab-top curtains which I dyed green and added a fun ball-fringe trim to. The green is a little darker than I intended as I've learned that cloth dying is a very delicate process with little room for error (that test strip really is important). I'm still pleased with the results and think they add more color and whimsy to the room. For the record, I'm now obsessed with ball fringe!

For storage, I found some great cloth bins at Dollar Tree and mini-suitcases at Hobby Lobby. They are wonderful for storing random toys and small books. I also bought a toy organizer from Target--it's so nice to be able to access the toys and put them away easily. Since we have a lot of white wall to contend with in that room, I hung up an old dart board I scored from an estate sale and two other pieces of art I've found in the last year.

There's a large part of the room that I haven't shown, but that will come with Part II, once I've figured out the bed situation and painted that darn wall. I'm running out of steam more easily these days (hello, third trimester) but I'm planning to have the other things done in the next month. We'll see.

-Lindsey

A Long Weekend

We are officially out of our old house (except for extracting Ninja, our stealthy black cat who's been hiding under the house since the moving mayhem started). Before we could leave that house, there were a lot (read: TONS) of things in the garage we had to get rid of since we had no interest bringing them with us to the new house--a garage sale seemed like the perfect answer. We'd wanted to do one earlier in the moving process, but Dave and I were too tired to get everything together before this past weekend.

Our garage sale was both Saturday and Sunday from 9-3, and I don't think we've ever been so tired following a day's work, even Moses crashed at 7 p.m. both evenings (very uncharacteristic of him since the time change). The weather on Saturday was projected in the mid 70s but instead was in the cool 60s so we didn't have as much traffic as we'd expected. It finally warmed up around 2, but it was too late to energize our sad sales. I ended up get burned on the forehead and nose in the few hours of sunlight I saw, but strangely (and fortunately), Moses escaped sans redness. Sunday was a much prettier, warmer day, but it wasn't great for sales either since we had to compete with church hours and lazy Sunday activities. I applied sunscreen on Moses numerous times because I was sure Saturday's unscathed skin was a fluke but then forgot subsequent applications for myself and now my arms look like a lobster's. Oh, the sacrifices a parent makes! All in all, it wasn't too bad an experience, and we did make some money for our cast off belongings. What we didn't sell we happily dropped off at Good Will (thanks, Phil, for your help).

Moses had a great time perusing our old junk and enjoyed dragging it out and "helping" us at times. When he wasn't playing with golf balls and hiding them in various objects (like an old mailbox), he patiently sat along side us in his own little chair and chatted with us using mostly nonsensical words.





We're now completely in our new place, but it's a wreck since all of our belongings are finally inside. I liked it much better when it was just our furniture and essentials. I need another week of nothing in order to get this place organized, but that's a tall order considering school is starting back for me this week and I have projects galore awaiting me. I have one month of classes left, and then I'll have four whole weeks free to get this place under control. I'm already counting down.

-Lindsey

Killing Time

I should be working on my paper (or, really, selecting a topic for that paper), but I can't concentrate on much of anything at the moment--I'm too excited about our appointment this afternoon. To distract my mind, I decided to post some pictures of our living and dining rooms--before and after. It's a bit of a tease, I know, but those two rooms are the only ones I'd consider camera ready. Moses' room is nearly done, but I'm waiting to hang his curtains before taking a picture because his windows are currently covered with newspaper and as much as we'd like to promote our daily rag, I'd rather not introduce his new room to the world while it's covered in the classifieds.

These before pictures are courtesy of Dave's parents. I'm glad they thought to take pictures; I didn't.




And after:



I really do love this house. It's such a great space and has wonderful character. I was sad to give up our wooden floors in the old house, but this one has more to offer in other places. The work we've put into the house so far has transformed its energy and potential tremendously, and it feels more like home now. The bathrooms and kitchen still need some TLC (paint mainly), and I hope to make those summer projects if Dave will commit to being my handyman-extraordinaire since he'll be free all summer.

Well, thanks for the distraction. I'll post more house pictures as I complete rooms--it's much more difficult to get work done with a curious toddler roaming around and a growing baby inhibiting my workload. Case in point, Moses drug out each shelf liner I painstakingly cut to size and placed in each of the kitchen drawers--I later stumbled across a veritable shelf-liner graveyard in the kitchen. I'm hoping the newness and excitement will wear off soon so I can stop re-doing things.

I'll be back this afternoon to post the results of our "big" ultrasound. Pray for healthy baby news!

T-minus 2 hours...

-Lindsey