The big push (on house renovations)

We're making progress.

Why the big push to get stuff done, besides the obvious "I'm tired of living in half a home"?  Because my whole family will be here at the end of the month to throw us a baby party, which means we need a functioning upstairs to manage all of us as they stay and our party guests!  The timeline is shortened a bit because Todd leaves for elk camp the week before everyone's arrival.  So, we effectively have about 1.5 weeks left to get 'er dun.  

Let's do a walk through!

Here is the front entry.  Looking pretty good!  Todd and I came up with the tile pattern and then he cut and laid all that tile himself.  I'm so proud of him!  Don't mind the dusty footprints on it though.  It's just the way things are around here until we get the drywall dust up.  Let's see what's behind that door...

That would be our back hall.  That first room there will be Little Kittel's...

Here we are looking in her room!  Very soon (hopefully) it will not look like this.  Currently, it is being used as construction storage and until this last weekend was a guest room.  That furniture has mostly been carted downstairs to one of the two pending guest rooms that will be down there...

Unfortunately, we won't have time to reno her room before she arrives.  Technically, what is happening in the master bedroom should happen in here.  But we figure we'll wait until she wants pink or rainbow painted walls and attack this room then.  Until then, we'll just grind out the cracks in the plaster, fill them, and then simply paint.  And we'll all have to live with the horrid ceiling tiles with glitter flecks...

That turquoise paint sample on the right is the color her room will be!

Ok, let's keep movin' down the hall.  That's the bathroom on the left, then the master at the end...

The bathroom.  As expected, this room is taking us the longest.  We're getting so close!  But still lots left to do.  The mudding and sanding on the drywall will be done in here tonight/tomorrow (fingers crossed).  Then it's on to texturing, priming and painting with our new fabulous paint sprayer! Todd's friend Ken scraped the thinset out of the cracks in the tile over the weekend, to prepare it for grouting and sealing.  The toilet needs moved in, Todd needs to finish his vanity project, and I need to figure out how to keep the claw foot tub project chugging along.  The wainscoting also needs painted (with that awesome sprayer) and installed.  We will likely not have a working shower in here by the time my family arrives, but toilet and sink should be a go!

This blue will be the color of the bathroom, but probably knocked down about 25-50 percent to lighten it up  just a tad...

And the master bedroom.  Not much to sand in here!  Just the seams on the walls and ceiling and the closet. Then it's texture, prime and paint and we're IN!   

Here is the tub project.  I have gotten all the paint off the inside and now am working on the outside, which is a CHORE.  There isn't just one layer of paint.  There is a layer of paint and some kind of adhesive under it which nearly refuses to budge.  I have been coating it with paint stripper, scraping and blasting it with the pressure sprayer and...nothing.  At least precious little to show for it anyway.  Ugh.    

Keep checking things off my three-mile long to do list!  

Labor Day indeed

We are working our butts off around here trying desperately to get our big house projects done before the end of the month.

No rest for us this holiday weekend!

Here is what our Labor Day weekend has looked like:

Let's take a peek in the upstairs bathroom!  Here is Todd mudding the seams of the drywall.  I have already sanded the mud on the seams and screwheads and here Todd was going over it a second time.  Now, it has to be sanded once more and it's ready for texture, prime and paint!    

Another look at our new walls.  This entire room we have gutted and rearranged - meaning Todd moved all the plumbing so it made sense and the electrical followed.  What's left for the bathroom before we can make that first celebratory flush?  The walls need textured, primed and painted.  The wainscoting needs painted (it's already primed) and installed.  The vanity, which Todd made himself, must be finished with putty, sanding, and varnish.  The clawfoot tub (see below) must be finished.  The tile must still be sealed and grouted.  And there is still a strip of tile in the doorway that needs set.  These jobs will make the room FUNCTIONAL.  There will still need to be some finishing touches.  (Don't mind that blue sample in the pic. The room will be painted blue, but that sample turned out horrible!  On to option no. 2.)

Here we are entering the master bedroom.  That wall in particular has had spray foam insulation AND batting put behind it.  Why both?  The spray foam was to help insulate, yes, but to also help stabilize the 90+ year old plaster wall on the other side that is in the living room.  The batting was to provide an additional sound barrier...

A view across the room toward the closet.  We got that mostly drywalled today also.  Only a few more boards and it will have complete walls!  Tomorrow evening I will mud all the screwheads.  That window there?  Before that wall where the window is was spray foamed for insulation (there was none, not a lick, in that room), Todd had to re-mortar brick in around the window to fix a shoddy job done who knows when.

So, what else needs done in here?  I have sanded all the seams (minus the ceiling, which Todd will do) and screw heads.  The seams and corners all need one more coat of mud and to be sanded one last time.  Obviously, texture, prime and paint.  We have to reinstall the heat.  We are going to put crown moulding in here and the baseboards need attached.  The closet needs finished.  But, we are not worrying about the moulding or baseboards before the end of the month...

This is looking back down the hall from the master.  The bathroom is the next room to the right and that room at the end will be the nursery.  I share more on the nursery another time...

Here is Todd cutting a chunk of drywall...

What else have we done this weekend?  

Well, we spray painted the frame we will be using for the bathroom mirror.  And we started removing the old paint from the clawfoot tub we are using for the bathroom.

Todd has a power washer that we started with...

A lot of the paint flew right off, but there are still some stubborn pieces that refuse to budge.  So, we'll have to find a way to scrape that off without damaging the enamel on the tub.

What's left here?  Finish scraping the paint.  Then we will turn the tub over, lightly sand the outside of the basin and prime and paint the tub gray.  We are going to remove the feet and either have them chromed or, most likely for the time being, we'll just remove the white paint leaving them the bare metal.  They will have to be sealed, however, so we have a can of clear coat we will use to protect them.  We already have the fixtures, so that just needs installed.

And now, after a long weekend of working on the house, we are watching a movie and trying not to pass out!  

Registry rationale

Putting together a baby registry is HARD WORK.

After talking to a few girlfriends who have recently had babies, I feel better that I am not alone in thinking this.  It's funny how smart gals with common sense can be overwhelmed by putting together something as seemingly simple as a baby registry.  

There are so many silly and unnecessary products out there and it's hard to cut through the noise to figure out what you really need and when.  

I have spent hours reading baby product books and researching, comparing features, and reading product reviews until I've narrowed down the items I think we'll like best.  I've kept by my side the sample registry list I found in a magazine and slowly - very slowly - I have either checked an item off as "registered for" or scratched it off as "not necessary."  

Some items have been saved after being written off as not worth it once I consulted with others who have kids.  Like the Boppy pillow, for example.  It seems like a gimmick to make you spend money on yet another baby "supply."  Why can't you just use a pillow if you need support?  One friend did just that, but she was outnumbered by four others who absolutely insisted that the Boppy was a lifesaver.  One girlfriend told me last week they have three, I believe - one for each floor of their house.  My youngest sister went so far as to just buy me one out of fear, I think, that I wouldn't register for it.  So, the initially silly Boppy was saved and arrived last night on our front porch.  

I find I have to really think through even little things like sleep sacks.  Little Kittel will be a winter baby, so she'll obviously need something on the warmer side.  Ok...a fleece sack it is.  In fact, two fleece sacks in case an accident in the middle of the night warrants a change.  But which size?  How long are babies, particularly newborns, in those sizes?  What if she's like another girlfriend's baby who, I just learned, runs hot.  On to the list went a cotton one, which then required another round of deciding on colors.   

And so it has gone for the last month.  Read, review, compare, list.  

I am happy to say the list is almost done!  Just a few more items to decide on and the registry will be good to go!  Now which stroller system should we use...?  

Questionable investment?

At 22 weeks pregnant most couples invest their money in baby things.  Dropping big bucks on nursery furniture and baby necessities is likely where a lot of their cash is going.

Not us!

We bought ourselves an airless paint sprayer!

It's all in the name of baby though.  You see, we still don't have a master bedroom...an upstairs main bathroom...or a nursery that's even on the road to being ready for Little Kittel.  And almost every one of these projects requires a LOT of painting.  Todd putting together the new (amazing) tool.  Yes, that concrete jungle is our backyard.  One day, there will be many posts on it as we rip it out and start over with awesome landscaping.  Anyway...painting...

Lulu just has to check everything out.  Kind of looks like she's about to do karaoke, doesn't it?

Never mind, she probably thought it was the hose, which she loves to drink from...

Here comes Rigby!  A duet...

Back to the important stuff...This new sprayer is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!  Over the weekend I primed and painted 1/4 round for the dining room by hand.  It took awhile.  Todd had an old sprayer, nothing like this one, that we tried using to paint the wainscoting for the bathroom, but it went caput (hence the new sprayer).  With all the clogging of the nozzle, the small amount of paint it held, etc., we covered the backs of about four boards in an hour.

The NEW sprayer??  We covered one side of six boards almost all at once in under a minute!  Talk about production improvement!  We blew through all the boards of wainscoting!  They are now sitting patiently waiting for their quick coats of paint and then...voila!...on the wall they go!

If the new sprayer means we have a completed upstairs by the time we a) have a baby shower here, and b) actually have a baby, then I think this was an excellent investment indeed!

Big, life-changing news

If you didn't already know, or you missed the "public" announcement on facebook...

We're expecting!

And we're expecting a baby girl!  Todd and I found out last Tuesday at our first ultrasound that the little bun in the oven is indeed a girl; and from the ultrasound photos below you'll see there is very little question.

Being pregnant hasn't been too much of a secret, especially since at 22 weeks you can tell just by looking at me (or if you follow me on pinterest you've probably noticed a lot of baby-centric pins).  But I hesitated making any big announcements until after we were assured everything was A-ok from the ultrasound and previous blood tests.

We actually found out there was a Little Kittel on the way right after Easter.  At that point I was about eight weeks and had no idea until I started calculating time tables while making Easter dinner.  I told Todd my thoughts and decided to take a test the next morning.

I read the directions a few times, then did as instructed.  When I came back to check, there it was, a faint + staring back at me.

Though we had decided to start rolling the dice I don't think I was truly prepared for the reality looking me in the face.  I was excited, happy, scared, and rather in disbelief.  Being my first baby, I had absolutely no idea what to expect, so, I immediately ran to the local bookstore to pick up that famous book that answers that question.

And so we've boarded the baby train!

Check out our Little Kittel on the way...

If you look carefully at the top right photo you'll see the word "girl" typed between her legs.  The doctor described that photo as, "it's like the baby is sitting on a glass table and you are underneath looking up," to which I replied, "She better not be behaving like that!"  The doctor then came up with another analogy about sitting on a Xerox machine.  It didn't exactly right the image in our heads...  :)

A few more snapshots of her...

And my favorite...the very clear profile of our baby...

It's crazy to think that's INSIDE me...that I'm PREGNANT...and I'm going to be a MAMA!  A lot of times it still doesn't seem real.  But then I look at this photo and think of how this is just the beginning.