Celebrating from afar (with a bucket of paint and some dirt)

We're in Buffalo Grove and all of the excitement is everywhere but!

Congratulations to Kathleen and Jeff! They got married today in North Carolina. Kathleen is Scott's cousin.

And, yahoo to the SENS!! The Ottawa Senators kicked some Buffalo Butt and are heading to the Stanley Cup Finals! Is it too early to say that Ottawa just might have the cup this time?!

And here we are, slaving away. Scott's painting the baby's room (former closet). The colour is the same as the light colour in our bedroom. He's working on the last coat right now. We're hoping to be finished so we can go to the movies--yay, date night! We're off to see Spiderman 3!

And here's Scott peeking out from the baby's room window down to me, where I have just finished glitzing up the garden with some pretty flowers!
Man, what a difference! Below you see our courtyard garden before I attacked it (I felt like I was in the jungle!) and pulled out all of the pachysandra and cut back the bushes (and rearranged the perennials).

And below is the final product! I pulled out everything (except the bush on the left--I forget its name-- and the whitestar clematis on the far left wall) and rearranged all of the ferns and hostas and astilbes, and moved the tree to the corner, a few weeks ago. Today I added some impatiens, pansies, poppies, butterfly scabiosa, phlox, petunitas and some pretty blue border flowers (I forget the name). I potted my black eyed susan vine with some pansies and some purple flowers (I forget the name...sense a trend here?)

Anyway, once it all fills in, it should look pretty colourful! Just above is my herb garden, too, with basil, oregano, chives and lavender.

At the front of the house, I trimmed back all of the leftover tulip and daffodil leaves, planted more impatiens, pansies, petunias and some blue morning glories along the fence to the left. The hostas are coming in nicely.

Scott and I are excited to be going to Ottawa for Memorial Day weekend next weekend--all of our friends and family up north are celebrating their long weekend this weekend. That's okay, we'll just take ours next weekend! :)

Well, I should go get ready for date night. There won't be a lot of those in our near future!

love,

b

Now that's what you call Storage!

The latest sub-project in the house renovating project was to buy and install IKEA wardrobes in our bedroom. Since our townhouse is a one bedroom townhome (with a loft, which can be converted to a second bedroom if needed, but we use it as an office) we needed to create a space for our newest family member!

Off of our bedroom and master bath, we have a huge walk-in closet (8' x 11') with a nice window which we are converting into the baby's room, so we need some storage solutions for our clothes! Hence the wardrobes!

(see first photo below--this is the view from our bedroom--you look through the master bath to the closet--except that we've changed the carpets since this photo was taken! The next photo down is a shot from inside the closet; the window is on the left and it looks out onto our private courtyard)






We wanted storage. We got storage. Here's Scott installing the "innards" and the doors. Each interior block has a hanging rail, baskets, storage bins and shelves for all of our clothes! Scott says it would only take him one block for all of his stuff (which leaves me 2 and the baby gets 1) :) Perfect!

As always, my hero.

The closets measure 2 feet deep, 7 feet high (right to our ceiling) and 13 feet long (the whole length of our bedroom--might as well use the space!) And here's the finished product!

And this is what our bedroom looks like now. It needs some accessories (and a new ceiling fan) to jazz it up with some colour, but it's functional and fabulous!

So, there we be. Another busy weekend, and another check beside something on our "NESTING LIST OF THINGS TO DO BEFORE THE BABY COMES". Our next sub-project is to transfer our clothes, then to start ripping out the "closety" stuff and then to patch and paint the baby's room.

And finish up the kitchen.

And replace the floors in the living and dining room.

And give birth.

Ahhh, the list never ends. :)

Happy Monday, all!

love

b

Building, Creating and Growing

Hi All!

A renovation update...things are progressing!

I threw in a few 'before' and 'after' pics for your enjoyment! An FYI that I found out about this house from the friendly neighbourhood neighbours is that the most previous owner took out some customized upgrades that were done by the owner before her, since she didn't like them. I wonder what they were and why she didn't like them... Well, not like her taste was any good, as you will see by the wallpaper choice in the bathroom and the pink carpeting. Anyhoo, we are making our way through the house and changing all of the "stuck in the 80s" decor.

Below is a pic of the bathroom with wallpaper and then one without the wallpaper (note the faux marble sink...oooooh). Below that is a pic of how things have progressed--new vanity and sink, new toilet, tiled flooring (buh-bye linoleum!), new baseboards and shoe and a spiffy new cafe au lait paint job! A little stark right now, but once we put up the mirror, decide which of two IKEA lights to install and then put in the towel/toilet paper holders and some accessories, then that room will be smokin'!

Before:

Progressing...

And so far:

Next is the kitchen--I've included two pictures of "what once was" when we bought the joint as well as some pics on where we are now. I'm still waiting on 2 cabinets ordered from H-Depot (note the gaps--yeah, that's where they go), but Ron and friend have come by to work on the cabinets a bit more, install the dishwasher and install the tall cabinets. There weren't cabinets in that one spot before (you can see them on the left of the 4th photo down), but we think they tie in well with the rest! The countertop is on order and the sink will come with it, so we can hook up the d-washer, insinkerator and faucet when that arrives. What is left to do is to install the toe-kick, the handles (nice long sleek stainless handles a la IKEA), maybe do a tiled backsplash, put all of the stuff back in the cabinets and then cook us up a nice meal in our brand new kitchen! Can't wait! (tonight for dinner I had a microwaved baked sweet potato, peas, and cottage cheese--I usually eat whatever I can combine without needing an oven or a sink or a dishwasher! I need a casserole or even a stir fry! Ah well, sometime soon!)

Before:

Before:

As we stand now! New Dishwasher (stainless--the white part is just the protective plastic) and nicely tiled floors with new cabinets!

The full view below--note the table/work bench/countertop/junk collector/catch all table. Oh yeah, see that white kind of nook-y looking cabinet by the doorway to the dining room? That WAS the plan for the 9-inch gaps where the H-Depot cabs are going by the stove (top and bottom). That would have looked dumb, hence the plan for the special ordered cabs. They look just like the IKEA cabs (but at 3 times the cost...interesting, hey?) IKEA really needs more options for that type of predicament... Oh, we're changing the lighting in the kitchen too...the fan is outta there! And the other light, too. The plan is to have one more cabinet installed on the wall between the window and the sliding door (there's space there, it doesn't look like it from this angle) and then install a wood valance over the window and have lighting come from underneath the valance. We also have a plan to put under cab lighting in the corner areas and then find a nice light fixture or two to replace these hideous ones. :)

A close up view of a sample of our countertop below. White with white and brown flecks. It's a corion type countertop.

And now the bedroom. This past weekend was devoted to patching, masking, priming, painting and trimming the bedroom. Below are some pics: a 'before' (Yellow and pink. Nice) and then 'progressing' and then 'after' pics. Our plan is to return the bedroom to a neutral colour and then spruce it up with some colourful accessories. It looks stark right now, but it's still airing out (I'm sleeping on the pull-out couch this week so I'm not inundated with paint fumes). All along the wall opposite the bed (you can see this wall best in the first picture where I stood to take the photo all the way to the black chair) we are going to install IKEA (love IKEA can't you tell?) wardrobes. That's next weekend's job.

Oh an FYI as you look at this first photo--through the bathroom (which is the doorway by the black chair) is our walk-in closet and soon-to-be baby's room! (...hence the wardrobes mentioned above--we need somewhere to put all of our clothes!) It's about 8' x 11' with a nice bright window over-looking our courtyard and will be a good size for baby and handy being so close to the bathroom--ha! We can just hose him/her down when needed! Anyway, there's lots of work to be done on that room. Stay tuned for THAT post...

Before:

Priming:

Painting the baseboards:

And the end result--there are actually two shades that we used. Three walls are light ("Muslin" from Martha Stewart's collection) and the one wall behind the bed is a darker shade ("Homespun").

The fan is also on its way out. We'll get something that looks funkier.

And there we be! Phew! I'm tired just going through the last couple of weeks in photos! I think it's time to post this puppy and kick back and watch some TV.

Before I go, here's a quick update on the rest of the familia--Scott is in Portland this week, testing and working hard as always--which leads to winning!, but he'll be back on Friday for a good few weeks (nice!) and baby (26 weeks today--about 2 pounds and 14 inches of baby!) is doing well--kicking up a storm. We have our check up on Wednesday this week, and our "Childbirth Preparation Class" on Mother's Day weekend--awwww! :) and we are almost in the third trimester! Fun times! I'm doing fine--belly is growing, stretching and gradually taking up more room, but it's fun and everyone smiles at a pregnant woman! It's great! I'm taking a new prenatal aquafit class and it's awesome!

Hope all is well with everyone!

love

b

Introducing...

The Belly

(23 weeks)

The old grind

Back to work today...and it actually was nice to be back! After a busy week off of cabinet building, patching, sanding, painting, shopping for cabinet accessories, and all of the other renovation-type stuff, it was nice to go into my nice, organized, neat office and get some other work done. The disaster-area that is our home was a bit of a relief to leave behind.
We measured the belly today and it grew by 4 inches since March 29! That's craziness. My wonderful colleagues Sheri and Nancy also felt the little munchiken kicking. They are the first ones besides Scott and I to feel movement. I'm completely comfortable having people touch my belly, but I know it drives some pregnant women crazy.
I went to my last prenatal pilates class tonight. Another session starts next week and I'm debating continuing with the pilates or signing up for a prenatal cardio and core...big decision.
Scott's in Phoenix now testing--actually working, they aren't testing since they have to fix up all of the broken bits of the car! The race in Vegas was yesterday, and unfortunately Sebastian didn't finish the race, but was outstanding in his efforts to go from 16th place to 3rd before brushing the wall and getting a flat, amongst other damage, causing him to bow out. The cool part was that Scott got his "2 minutes" of fame at the beginning of the broadcast when the reporter focused on him during his team strategy meeting. That was fun! I was over at Ron and Nancy's watching the race on their ultra cool hi-def massive flat screen tv in their 'screening room' (too cool...) and saw Scott larger than life right in front of me. It was neat.
After Phoenix, Scott is off to Long Beach for the next race this coming Sunday. Then he's home for a day and off again to Houston for a week for the race the next weekend. They are a busy group of guys. A cool thing is that the team is going to NASA to tour around and to play with the simulators. Scott's pumped about that.
I'm trying to decide on a paint colour for the bedroom. It's currently yellow and I didn't like it at first, but it grew on me and I have a few lighter shades that I'm considering...along with a couple of light blues and a couple of light beiges (of course, cafe o lait...). I might try tackling the bedroom in a few weekends from now. I think I'll do the kitchen next, before the countertops are installed. We'll see...I might be all talk and no action in a couple of weeks! :)
Well, bedtime for Becky. Baby's been loving waking mommy up at 3:30 a.m for the past few nights and somersaulting around for a good hour or so. (Guess it's a sign of things to come!) So, I usually have been sleeping from 9-3:30 and then I just give up and lie there being punched and kicked from the inside until I need to get out of bed. Ah well...what can you do?
G'night all!
love
b

in progress...

I have taken some photos of the cabinets to show you--we are half-way there! I'm on a mission for Saturday to get two 9-inch cabinets (we have two already, but they are white--IKEA didn't give us much choice, so we are scrapping that idea and looking for ones that actually match) and the guys are coming back on Saturday to finish up the base cabinets and install the appliances. The next step after that is to get measured for a countertop and sink and we should have a functional kitchen in about 2 weeks or less. Not bad. I've heard horror stories from friends who went months without a kitchen.

So, here are the latest and greatest pics:

The bare naked wall cabinets

Wall cabinets and high wall cabinets

Above and below: before and after the base cabinets were set

It's coming along! By the way, the green is going to go...I'm thinking a nice cafe o'lait, perhaps? (Scott is rolling his eyes as he reads this--that is my latest colour of choice...everything should be cafe o'lait; I just like the name :) Imagine white countertops, possibly a white tiled backsplash, and stainless appliances...hmm, I may have to do some colour investigation before settling on something...

How much would you pay for an old bathroom sink? Apparantly 2 big bottles of Margarita mix was fair for my neighbour! :) Sweet deal!

...and all in time for Grey's which starts in half an hour. Just enough time to dust off the couch and get cozy with a nice glass of ...water. (not margarita mix...not for a while, yet!)

Onwards and upwards...

love

b

Where does the time go?

Hi all,
It's Thursday and I only have one more day before break is officially over! (weekends don't count) This week just flew by--and it was definitely a working week, not so much a week off. Scott flew out to Vegas yesterday morning. I spent my day picking up more stuff at Home Depot and building another kitchen cabinet and the new bathroom vanity. I also rested a bit more since my body protested from too much shopping the day before--how sad is that? My body can't handle a full day of shopping. That's so wrong.
Anyway, today I got up early and taped off the half-bath and primed it to get it ready for painting. I also patched a decent sized hole where the toilet paper roll was installed. I didn't have any spare drywall kicking around (really now, does anyone??) so I concocted a cardboard box and filled it with foam insulation to give it some weight and fit that in there. Then I puttied over it. It's brilliant! Ron just shook his head. I think I have some under-appreciated mad constructing skills. :)
Ron and his co-workers are over here today installing cabinets and finishing up the tiling (all the little corner bits and half-tiles that take forever to cut and lay). I've done all of the work that I can do today without some baby of mine giving me a swift kick in the gut in protest. So, the good mommy that I am will spend the rest of the day with her feet up, unless I'm called upon to be a go-fer or advise on cabinet placement.
Scott just sent a text message...it's supposed to be 90 degrees in Vegas today! (that's 32 celsius) I'll be lucky if it goes up to 5 here. My poor flowers...
I just got called out for some emergency cabinet building! Whew I'm back...we left one unbuilt since we weren't sure if it would fit above the stove along with the microwave--but it does fit, so I got it all set for installation.
Well, it's getting to be close to lunch. I might venture out to pick up some food. Since the kitchen is out of commission, there's been more of that lately.
If I don't post again before Easter--Happy Easter everyone!
love
b