Thursday, February 27, 2014

Snuggle bunny

Somebunny was very interested this morning in the unveiling and cleaning of the bouncy chair. (And that same bunny is suddenly six feet tall. What the heck happened??). February 2014:

May 2012:

July 2012:

Sniffle sniffle.

Just sitting in it won't do anymore. One must investigate the buttons,
do a little swinging,
and complete minor maintenance.

Can't believe we'll have another teeny punkin to play in this chair in just a matter of days. Can't wait.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Finishing touches

Organizing and enjoying. Name of our game the last couple days.

Relishing in the finished nature of the upstairs, in the small "fun" tasks that remain like installing doors and towel bars and vanity pulls and closet rods. Enjoying the slow emptying of the dining room and office and basement with each armload up the stairs. Embracing the fact that we no longer have to wear work clothes in order to step foot upstairs, or throw socks directly from our feet into the trash because they got too dirty to even consider washing. Feeling relieved to have given our daughter her room back. And a clean one, at that.

Loving the finishing touches. Even if there still remain an unpacked box or two.
We'll lounge against them. No problem.

Loving the finishing touches, even if all the doors aren't yet on their hinges and annoyingly loud dogs can wander up and wake up napping children by sprawling out on the cushy new carpet.

Loving the finishing touches, especially when they are all being so sweetly investigated by our in-house inspector.
She slings a mean flashlight, that one.

Working on finishing up the door installation. Organizing like crazy. Deep cleaning furniture. Washing every linen that was sitting within a five mile radius of the project. Finalizing little details.

Oh, and grateful as all heck for a properly-positioned baby. :)

Every extra day we have now is a bonus. Bring on the rest of the week!

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Carpet!

Our weekend kicked off with the final few swishes of our paintbrushes along the trim and walls; taking care of every last touch-up we possibly could. Someone might have done a little jig in celebration.
Once that was done, N took care of removing the carpet on the stairs. We had left it until the last minute as we were going to leave those tack strips in place, and tiptoeing over them for days on end would have been a pain in the rear, err, foot.
Peace out, 30 year-old carpet.
Remember the paint-tastrophe from the balcony area? It looks like it was so big that it travelled down the entire staircase.
Funny.

After a final sweep of the second floor, we were ready for carpet. A took advantage of her temporary jungle gym first thing Saturday morning.

Six hours and several "it feels so weird to be sitting on our butts and not working"
comments to each other later, we had beautiful, cushy carpet.
The stair carpet is such a huge difference. Remember this?
The color was one we chose with the knowledge that all of this dark trim and paneling will soon be creamy white. For now, it looks a little dark. But it's a tighter install (the old carpet was double padded and waterfall'ed to the point that the steps were really thick and weird and actually kind of slip-inducing.) I'll have to get better photos of it, but it looks fantastic. This carpet was one of our final design decisions, and one I quickly made during my back-sciatic-nerve-freak-out weekend, so it's a relief that we actually like it! It has a slight vertical pattern to the threads, too, which translated well to full scale.

The upstairs carpet is light and fresh and awwwwwwesome. It's a basic frieze.
(I have a husband who vacuums. Don't be jealy.)
(This is the attic closet.)
It's hard to take photos of carpet that won't bore your face off, but it is exactly what we wanted: something light but comfortable, basic yet somewhat upgraded and fitting with the rest of our finishes.
The addition of the carpet has an affect that is so much bigger than just adding the carpet. It turns a plywood construction zone into a home. The difference is awesome. We both commented on it repeatedly throughout the day.

N went to town today on replacing the guts of all of the light switches and electrical outlets, in addition to the switch plates. He also installed the attic fan cover and all of the vanity doors and drawers. I went bonkers cleaning furniture and carrying armloads of little girl clothes and books and toys and gear and decor and dropping them in the appropriate rooms. So much more to do, and the house is still a disorganized disaster, but it's a start. Can't wait to keep it going tomorrow...

Speaking of, big doc appt in the morning! I was a little nervous, but then this evening a ponytailed 21 month-old physician wielding a travel-sized flashlight lifted up my shirt, shined the light on my belly, declared me "Good!", and ran off. So I guess that means I have nothing to worry about, right?
(True story, btw.)

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Hats, part two

During a trip to Buy Buy Baby to pick up a few things for her sister, somebunny found a fedora made just for her.
It came home with us. Duh.

Friday, February 21, 2014

Our house smells like carpet

I'm pretty sure that installed carpet will
smell even better.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Bath progress and remaining to do's

48 hours ago, the baths looked like this:
And now they look like this (better photos later, these aren't that great):
Mirrors and faucets and toilets and countertops and sinks OH MY. It's so fun seeing everything come together; everything from the tiles and grout to faucets and paint colors and trim.

With the carpet scheduled to be installed on Saturday and the bath and shower faucets and toilets taken care of today, it seems like there couldn't be anything left to do! But in the spirit of recording this craziness so that we can laugh at ourselves in the (distant) future, this is what we have left:
- install frames on bathroom mirrors, caulk, paint
- purchase and install overflow valves and drains in both tubs that match the new hardware
- paint the top grates of the hvac vents in the baths so they seamlessly match the trim
- reinstall the hallway and bedroom hvac vents 
- reinstall the exhaust fan cover in guest bath that we had removed and painted
- reinstall the attic fan cover that we had removed and cleaned
- install the painted and poly'd vanity doors, drill holes for new knobs/pulls and install
- reinstall all of the doors (15 in total)
- install new knob on each door
- purchase and install new door stoppers where needed
- replace guts of each light switch and electrical outlet, install new switch plates (27 total)
- reinstall window hardware now that each window's paint is dry
- purchase and install window blinds/shades
- purchase and install towel bars/hooks and tp holders in both baths
- finish painting the three balcony doors that we kind of forgot about in our initial door painting extravaganza
- prime and paint the spot in guest room where we had to do a last minute drywall repair 
- replace the toilet flush handles w one that matches the rest of the hardware (maybe?)
- finish the final coat of paint on all the baseboard, crown, window and door frames (about 60% done)
- finish caulking all the trim (about 90% done)
- finish all wall touch up paint (20% done)
- finish all ceiling touch up paint (0% done)
- reinstall the painted closet shelves and rods
- carry all debris out to dumpster bag on curb and arrange pick up 

From there, it's all about cleaning and moving furniture back in and organizing like our lives depended on it, not just upstairs, but also in all the other areas of the house that are suffering because of the project (I'm talkin' to you, office, dining room, and basement). And then we'll clean some more. And organize some more. (And then decorate!)

I need a margarita. And a cookie.

What's wrong with this picture?

The handyman is upstairs right now installing all the faucets and toilets. They look awesome! But take a guess what did not come included in our shower/bath faucet set?
Sigh. Off to place our 742nd online order related to this project...

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Mid-week pics

Off kilter pregnant ladies are terribly clumsy with handheld paint buckets. I won't admit how long it was pouring off me before I finally noticed.

Breakfast date this morning with Auntie Jamie.

Finishing touches are arriving! Like switch plates,
door strike plates that will finally work with our thick trim (third time's the charm),
and vanity pulls and knobs.

Abstract of our bathroom ceiling + partial
punkin selfie. 1 of 36.

Playing the night night game right before bed, where she snuggles herself or an animal into the blankets and pillows, often transitions into a hiding game. "Sss! Hiii!" (Shh hide!) she'll say. If her face is covered, she totally thinks she's hidden.
Then she pops out and laughs about five seconds later as her target approaches.

The faucets go in tomorrow, but until then...countertop sneak peek!

Inching closer and closer. Carpet install this weekend, which means we are throwing final coats of trim paint and touch up paint around upstairs at break neck speeds. Dare I say we might actually have the beginnings of a nursery by Sunday? Oh my.