Don't shoot!

The Sorensen Two

Miss A is warming up to her baby sister more and more every day. We finally got her to say her name last weekend - it usually comes out sounding like "Ewah" or "Wehwah" or even "Eyah" - and ever since then she says her name all the time. "Ewah, what doin?" and "Ewah, where go?" and "It okay Ewah." The last one I taught her to say when EJ was crying, a vast improvement in responses compared to what she used to do - crying herself!

A few pics..snuggling in A's room yesterday:

Pants are not required during snuggle time in our house, in case you were wondering.

This morning, fascinated as much by her sister as the swing she is sitting in. (Also, behold our gorgeous painted wood paneling and doesn't-match-at-all beige carpet. Don't be jealy.)

(Trying to "hewp" by shoving the pacifier in her mouth, backwards and while EJ was already sleeping.)

She tries to climb into the swing at least once a day, which I obviously have to stop her from doing, but aside from that I try to let her "mess" with EJ as much as possible without interfering. Stopping all interactions certainly wouldn't help with the jealousy issues, and plus, it will only be a matter of time until the little one is able to mess with her right back.

Love these two to pieces. Is Little already almost a month old?! Good gracious.

Xoxo!

Vanity before and after, plus finishing touches

I still have several Upstairs Remodel updates to get recorded here, one of which is a quick vanity before and after. It's a study in the power of paint! And countertops and faucets and pulls and, okay, it was more than paint...but still. Very pleased with how they turned out.

Here is how they looked near the beginning of the project (mirror and wallpaper had been removed at this point, but that's it):

Many stages of During:

The countertops were removed, along with the doors and drawers. The latter were sanded and prepped for paint in the basement.

The rest of the vanities were sanded, primed, painted, and poly'd in place. Two coats of prime, two paint, and three poly (some pieces, four). Both baths received the same treatment. It was a loooot of painting.

Tops, sinks, faucets and door/drawer hardware are all new. 

And here they are After:

On a related note, N settled on a basic frame for the mirrors. They're just the original builder-grade mirrors, and the frame seems to add a certain extra finished look.

Without the frame:

And with:

Love the difference a little bit of trim can make.

Finishing touches have slowed, but the remaining to do list is super short. A final towel hook and maybe one door knob or two? N crossed off quite a few things today with tp and towel holder install, curtain rods, and a couple of the outstanding door knobs.

(Naked construction supervisor strikes again.)

I have been working on decor, one small thing at a time...something that my Need to Nest impulses wanted to be doing months ago, but are tickled to be tackling now with an extra punkin supervising my work.

I have put my craftastic hormones to

good use the past week...hanging a banner and making a crib skirt in EJ's room (with help from a fantastic grandmotherly assistant!) and ORB spraying a couple funky hooks that were originally in the girls bath, among other things.

Far from done, decor-wise, but we are getting there.

We are already talking about the dining room, next on our list. Somebody help us! :)

Xoxoxo.

Photos from the last few days

iPhone lessons last weekend with Aunt Jill.

(A was the teacher, Jill the student.)

Fun with hair bows. Something she wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole for a year+, until she found them in EJ's room and suddenly wanted them all in her hair at the same time.

She even shared the bow fun w little sis. I think girlfriend's gonna need bigger bows.

Stocking hats and dirt digging in the sunshine this afternoon. 

We had planned a trip to the library, but EJ decided to snooze so long we lost our window. #notcomplaining

Cuddering with grandma S.

Funny faces.

Pretty in teal.

Currently snuggling in the basement with the Iowa game on the big screen, lady EJ curled up on N's chest. Happy Wednesday! Xoxo.

Upstairs remodel 2014: by the numbers

Because sometimes there is no other way to describe it than with the stats:

3 bedrooms

2 baths

1 hallway
1 balcony

4 - times we called in our contractor after promising him we were done calling him in

1% - the amount of all the work we did that we actually planned to do at the beginning of the project 

22 - times we looked at each other in disbelief and wondered how we got into this situation

1000% - how pleased we are that we did it all now and can check the entire upstairs off our list

2 - number of feet you could walk into the office before running into furniture and having to turn around during the height of the construction

9 - number of times we high fived over the heavy duty abilities of our whole-house central vac system 

2 types of carpet

2 types of tile

2 colors of grout

1 type of countertop, toilet

X 2, sink x 3, sink faucet x 3, and bath faucet x 2

8 colors of paint, including ceiling, closet, primer, trim, and walls

3 different paint finishes

2 types of cabinet pulls

2 types of doorknobs

5 unique light fixtures across 10 locations

1 HUGE design project

12 gallons of paint-like materials piled up in the garage, waiting a trip to the toxic dump

6,472 trips to the hardware store

24,891 nail holes that were scraped, filled in, sanded, and painted over amongst all the trim

100% of popcorn ceilings removed

100% of the trim upstairs that's now brand new, including all baseboard, windows, door frames, and crown moulding

14 - original doors that were sanded, cleaned, primed twice, painted twice, and reinstalled with new hardware 

1 plumbing-related catastrophe

1 emergency plumbing repair

30 outlet and light switch guts replaced

30 new outlet and light switch covers replaced

10 - weeks the garage was too full of remodeling debris for N to fit his truck in

30 - wheelbarrow trips N took from the garage to the curb to load up the dumpster before pick up

1 - extra dumpster bag we quickly realized we would need to fit it all in

105 - days from very start to finish

Phew!

Three girls and family snuggles

Not great, but the first few snaps of the three Sorensen gals:

Also, there is no better way to celebrate a Friday evening than with family. Snuggles all around.

We're celebrating this little lady tomorrow with more family and friends. Can't wait. Xoxo.