Sprucing up the joint

One of my favorite things about summertime is that one can spend a great deal of time outdoors and never get sick of it. At least I don't get sick of it. I don't even mind the rainy, gloomy days because I usually go out anyway, even for a few minutes. I'll pull some weeds in the garden or clip some herbs, anything to just get me out. A few weeks ago we had a string of gorgeous days and when Nanner was napping, I took some time to take a few photos of the ole homestead.

Until we got married and moved here, I never realized how much nicer our porch looks with flowers out front. It really makes our house look like a home. That said, I always have very little to do with the gardening--that's where Graham's a viking.

Last fall, right around Halloween, we took a trip to Menards--Mecca for the cheap homeowner--and I chose a few different spring and summer bulbs. Graham did some work out front, mostly with the lava rock and the edging, and he planted my bulbs. We got tulips and daffodils in April and May, and in June my irises finally bloomed.

Hello, gorgeous!

They were definitely worth the wait. They've since fallen off, but they were lovely while we had them.

This little bugger is called a lobelia (I think). I just love that color.

And check out that cute pot! I DIY'd it!! It was almost foolproof. It needs a few touch ups, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I think I'll give it a touch up at the end of the season since I've got some spray paint left over.

 This, my friends, is a begonia. And, believe it or not, it's gotten bigger and lovelier in the weeks since this was taken. When I was a kid, I didn't know what a begonia was, except that old ladies grew them. During our first year of marriage, this was one of the first flowers I planted in our window boxes on our balcony. I've always had a lot of luck with them, and they really do some good for your soul, doncha think?

When this rash of rainy weather passes, maybe I'll post some photos of our vegetable and herb garden. I'm really pleased with my perennial herbs and my basil plants are out of control. I'm seeing some pesto in my future!

Our Place, May 2011

It's been a while since I've done a post about our home and the improvements we've done to Casa de 1970. We're definitely overdue, and there's a lot of smallish things we've done that we're proud of, so I'm showin' 'em off.

See this vehicle? It's ours. Like, literally ours. We OWN this! 

Aaahh, what an awesome feeling.

 In October, we planted some spring bulbs out front. Last year we had some large pots and window boxes outside, but we both really like the idea of something that comes back each year. Since I was Angie the Pregosaur, I didn't really help with this project, but I'll say "we" just for the hell of it.

First, we started by extending and rearranging the stone border around the bushes. We extended the stones so that they went to the corners of the house instead of just smallish circles around the bushes. I really like this, because it makes the landscaping look a little more polished and less like someone threw some rocks around some bushes.

All we need is the white picket fence.

Next, we planted spring bulbs. Since I couldn't do much of the digging and planting, Graham let me pick the bulbs and decide on their placement.

I picked four types of flowers because I can't ever make a decision about anything. We alternated with red and purple tulips, which look and smell gorgeous.

We didn't have enough tulips to go completely across the front, so we put our tulips on the ends and placed daffodils right in front.

Call it an Easter miracle, but with the exception of the purple tulips which bloomed this past weekend, our red tulips and daffodils were all blooming and open on Easter morning. It was pretty terrific.

Behind the tulips and daffodils we planted purple irises. You can't see them yet, but they're starting to come up. Our neighbors on the corner have gorgeous irises, and I fell in love with them last year. These will come up later in the season, and I'm really excited to see how they're going to look.

While Graham has been doing much more work in the garden than me, I'm happy to say that this year I've been able to help out and work on some of the weeding and planting. Last year I had to opt out and let him do it all because of the risk of toxoplasmosis to me and Nanner. We weren't sure if any kitties had been using the garden as a litter box, so we chose to play it safe. This year, I've been slowly getting myself into the garden, and as the snow melted and the ground warmed, I was suuuuuuuuuper excited to see that my perennial herbs have returned!

Oregano on the left and chives on the right. I have some small sage plants growing behind them, too.

The old lady who lived here before we did loved to garden. Unfortunately, it got too much for her as she got older and she left her flowers and garden to their own devices. Last year we had peonies growing all over the place, small rose of sharon trees all over the yard, and lots of green leaves but only two daffodils. This year we broke open the ground in front of the garage and did some...redistributing.

We created a small raised bed in the back where we broke up some huge clusters of daffodils--like, seriously huge--and then planted some more tender bulbs in front of them. We'll have calla lilies growing here this summer!

My friend Amy yelled at me for uprooting daffodils in the spring because we likely shocked them. Not the best practice, but since we really didn't expect them to bloom this year given their condition, we figured it was okay. I should have taken photos.....you really can't imagine how many bulbs were growing in some of these clusters we uprooted. Some of the bulbs were so small and being choked out! This layout is much better and will give the daffodils a chance to reestablish themselves and actually grow and thrive.

This area will probably always be a work in progress. This side of our garage was a jungle when we moved in. There was a sick rose bush, peonies all over the place, and an infestation of day lilies. Add in some small and stubborn rose of sharon trees, weeds forever, and growth from the neighbors on the left, and we had a situation. Graham spent half of his spring break last year hacking away at the mess back there and trying to make sense of it. He replanted a ton of peonies that were growing where our vegetable garden was, and he broke up some huge clusters of peonies he found over here. He also cut back the rose bush and dug up a number of day lilies because they were taking over. It doesn't look like much now, but once everything blooms, this area is quite lovely.

See these down here? See that growth?

These are the peonies that Graham dug up last spring and transplanted over to this side of the garage. Like I mentioned above, he probably shocked them by digging them up in the spring, because they didn't bloom and just flopped over. However, it looks like nature is on our side because they're growing just the same and will be blooming this season.

So there you have it! Nature and flowers and springtime goodness. You're welcome.

Hannah's Nursery

If you remember, I had a pretty rough time trying to decide how to decorate the nursery. I'd have a good idea, and then I'd decide I didn't like it or it was too girly or too masculine, or I'd start looking at bedding ideas and get disgusted. The nursery didn't get done until the 11th hour, but overall I am really pleased with how it turned out! It's still not technically "done" but since Hannah won't be sleeping up there for a while, we have a small window in which to complete it.

First, some "before" photos.

I can't believe how gross that room was. The dusty 1970s blue needed to go, but between the "before" and "after" photos, I really can't believe how ugly that color was.

Now, some "during" photos!

After painting the walls and ceiling, Graham worked hard at getting the crib put together.

Jane decided to help us put the furniture together.

Ta da!

"Hey, guys! This is an awesome place to hide."

Decals on the ceiling, finnials, and valance are set up courtesy of my fabulous friend Ali.

Ali was a lifesaver, man.

And now, some close up details.

This is one of Jane's favorite hiding spots.

I had high hopes for this corner. I'm really excited about the way it turned out. Would you like to see it?

Voila! I found the butterflies from Target, and the chair is a Christmas gift from her Nona (my mom).

I really love how these add some texture to the wall. They were super easy to install, too. They pop onto little pegs and the pegs were tacked into the wall. They'll be easy to reattach when Hannah starts crawling around and inspecting her bedroom.

This picture hung on my bedroom wall when I was a kid. My mom found it and gave it to Hannah for her room. My Nina (nona) gave this to me when I was around 5 years old. 

And that's that! We still need a rug and some curtains or a shade for her bedroom, but like I said--she's not sleeping in there or playing up there for a while, so it's nice that we can go up to her room, read some books and rock in the glider, then go downstairs and sleep.

Making Progress

In more ways than one!

Last night, I woke up and had one hell of a pain in my hips. I could barely sleep and thanks to that (and some other factors) it was a rough night. Thankfully, Jane slept right next to me all night. She rarely cuddles, so it was a nice tree to have my first baby next to me and keeping me warm.

Today I walked into work and everyone said, "Oh, you've dropped!" It's a little easier for me to breathe, but I've still got some heartburn. I'm not sure if I've actually dropped or not, but if I have that definitely explains the hip pain! Naturally, just in time for another family wedding this weekend. Suuuuuuuuuuuuper! If I didn't love to dance so much I wouldn't worry about it, but dammit! I love to get my groove thing on.

Last night, I finally had enough. I'm annoyed as hell that the nursery isn't done yet--damn room wasn't even started! I decided that enough was enough, especially after my doctor said that I could basically go into labor at any time (though it would be a fast as hell labor considering I'm not dilated at all) and I just started tackling that room. I taped it up and sanded down what I could. I was majorly pissed to realize that there were more cracks and breaks that needed to be spackled than I originally thought, but I was not about to be stopped! I even busted out the toolbox to start putting the crib together. Mama Bear was on a mission!

It wasn't ideal, but it did help light a fire under Graham, and by the end of the night the room was spackled, the walls were cleaned, and the spots on the ceiling that I couldn't sand down were sanded. This is PROGRESS, people! Wahoo! If the priming isn't started tonight, it will be started soon. It's entirely possible that I'll have a purple nursery by Tuesday at the very earliest. Then, we start assembling the glider. That should be fun....

Nesting, Ahoy!

Well folks, I think it's safe to say I've officially entered the nesting phase of pregnancy. Oh, joy! Just what Graham needs! I've gone from being a crazy, hormonal mess who sleeps a lot to a crazy, hormonal mess with a mission. What mission? I'm calling it Operation Clean Up The Crap, or OCUP for short. Greeeeeeat!

I've been so tired lately. I get home from work and I'm ready for a 6 hour nap. After our shower on Saturday I was really tired. Sunday I went to bed obnoxiously early. On Monday, the day we entered Week 34, something inside just clicked. Or snapped. Call it what you wish. Allow me to explain:

Our kitchen's been a bit of a sty lately and it had been bugging me but I was usually too tired or distracted to do anything about it. I wanted to fix it, but I've been exhausted. Growing a human is tough work, people! I'm barely done with #1 and I have to seriously question the sanity of those of you who do this two or three or four times. I can't imagine being this tired with another small person to take care of. Ya'll is crazy!

Anyway, back at the ranch...Monday night was a different story: that kitchen had to get clean and straightened and it had to be done NOW. So, we did a quick rearrangement of the "pantry" and microwave cart, shifted the table outwards, and a frenzied spree of organizing and inventorying what was in the pantry and BAM! I felt better about the kitchen and was able to sit down without my fingers twitching. After that, I dealt with a huge pile of junk mail I'd let build for a week or so and I made about 13 trips from the living room to the recycling bin as I found things to toss out. Jane was following me back and forth--probably hoping I'd feed her--and I think I wore that kitty out because she didn't decide to headbutt me until 6:15 a.m. on Tuesday--a new kitty record!

In new developments, last night I tackled the thank yous for the baby shower. I would have finished completely had we not run out of thank yous--and I swear I'd purchased enough, but we got some gifts we weren't expecting, so that depleted our thank you note stash temporarily. Tonight I'll address and stamp the thank yous and waddle them to the mailbox to get them out of my hair.

My nesting instinct has either triggered the same instinct in Graham, or perhaps he's scared I'll bite him or something; he's definitely kicked it into high gear, too. On Monday he finished the second coat of paint in the dining room--finally!--and made plans to rip out the carpet later this week so we can clean out the nursery for the electrician this weekend and painting next week. I came home yesterday and he'd already started ripping out the carpet in the dining room. A-freaking-men. Adios, ugly blue shag. We hardly knew ye, but we knew we hardly liked ye.

Tonight I'll finally be able to put my china cabinet back together and I won't have to haul my cookies back and forth to the basement to get baking sheets and other things I use often for cooking (but don't really have space for in the kitchen). Once the dining room is "put back together" (meaning: the china cabinet is back in its rightful spot and the closet is full; we don't have anything else to put in the dining room) we/Graham will move stuff in the nursery down to the dining room so we can paint, and then we'll haul it all back up so we can put it all together. Yahoo! This time next week, the nursery will be painted! I'll be well on my way to decorating and making it as close to perfect as it can possibly be. Hallelujah. Amen.

Another thing that's gotta get done this week? Getting the carseat installed in the backseat of the car. ACK. That's gonna be weird. "Okay, gotta change lanes. Lemme just check my rearview mirror and....HOLY CRAP! WHO PUT A CARSEAT BACK THERE?!"

Ah, life with a crazy pregnant chick. It's never dull! Next thing you know I'll have built an addition onto the garage or something ridiculous. I'm a little scared to see where this journey takes me.

Nursery help

 Now that we've gotten some other very necessary home improvement projects out of the way, we can finally focus our attention on the nursery. I've been getting a little anxious that it wouldn't get done in time, and until it's actually d-o-n-e and the last finishing touch is put in place I probably won't rest too easy. I'm still having a little trouble putting together the "vision" for the nursery in my head, so I'm turning to all 5 of you for help!

We decided to paint the room a light purple and stick with a more neutral bedding so we could decorate with a little more fluidity. As far as a "theme" for the room, we're sticking with the outdoors and nature, but when I look at things I really like I realize I'm gravitating towards butterflies and dragonflies a little more than to anything else. Maybe it's because the room isn't yet painted, but based on what we've got it still feels a little "unfinished" in my head. Here's what we've got so far:

Bedding:

Art/stuff for walls:

I got some 3D butterflies similar to these from Target. I'm thinking they'll go over the crib.

Now, here's my inspiration. We're going with an outdoors/nature feel for the room. I love the idea of an applique tree in the room, but the ceilings slope inwards and I don't think it would look right if half of a tree was straight and the other half was leaning inwards. There are two or three possibilities for a tree like one of these, though, on the outside wall and opposite the closet....not sure if there's enough space for one of these babies, though.


Inspiration:

Pretty much all of the above comes from Etsy. Go figure. I really love the first two trees and the blowing/wind effect they've got going on. But, like I said, there's not really enough space for either given the ceiling and flat wall space we've got to work with. I like the yellow flowers growing in the green grass, and I could put those up tomrrow because the colors would work well with the paint we're going to get on the walls sometime soon. But, it's my least favorite of the bunch and there's already a lot of grass going on in the bedding.

I loooove the cherry blossom applique, I really do. I think it'd look really pretty over the crib or dresser. Only problem is that I know nothing about decorating and I'd have to pick colors. A brown branch would be fine, but what color would you pick for the flowers? Pink & light purple don't really work well together, right? I suppose I could go with white flowers just to be safe, but that seems kind of lame.

The tree with the fawn is probably the one tree decal or applique we could get away with, given our space constraints. I like this one a lot--I feel like it goes along with the "theme" we've got for the room. (I use the word theme loosely...we're not really big on themes as it is. Giving a room a theme is just weird to me.) I really like that it's cute and whimsical without being all, "BABY" and in your face. This is something we could keep up in her room for a few years, or move to a playroom in the basement. We could keep this in a room and change paint colors and it'd still feel like a child's room. Or, maybe I'm just saying that because I really like it.

The last picture is a sheet of decals I found, so if all else fails...we've got that.

I'd like to incorporate one of the above ideas into the room, no more than that. I think it would look too busy otherwise, and the room's not exactly enormous. No need to cram more in there.

So. What do you think? Lots of questions here, so lemme break it down:

1. Tree on a slanted wall: will it look as stupid as I imagine it will?

2. Does anyone know someone who can do a cheap (as in 'not expensive') paint job for us in the nursery? Anyone?

3. With light purple walls, what colors would you choose for some of this stuff?

4. Anything else to add?

I have zero talent for art, so please don't suggest I do it myself. We'd be more successful if we gave the baby a marker and 10 minutes alone.

Sneak Peak

The dining room reno/paint job is underway! We'd been meaning to do it all summer and just never got around to it. I had "pack up china" on my to-do list all summer and always seemed to find something more interesting to do instead. We've had paint since, what....late June? Early July?

Graham spent the week sanding down bumps and patching holes in the walls and the closet. He partially primed the other day, and I realized that I wanted to get a "before" picture before the whole job was done.

As you can see, we're finally getting rid of the ugly powder blue in the room and we're replacing it with a sunnier, more contemporary yellow. The room won't be completely finished once the paint job's done, but it's some major progress. We'll still have to rip up the awful blue shag carpet, replace the light fixture, find some more dining room furniture (like, oh, say....a dining room table), and finally put some finishing touches in the room. BUT...finally painting will give the room a nice little makeover before the major plastic surgery begins.

Goodbye, 70s blue! Or should I say, na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey! GOODBYE!*

(*I'm lame. Forgive me.)

New Windows!

A few weeks ago, we made a major purchase: windows. Not exactly the most exciting purchase a couple in their mid-to-late 20s can make, but definitely one that's going to pay off in the long run. They were delivered this morning and I was definitely impressed with the hard work the crew did, and with our great taste! I love the end result.

Naturally, I documented the event. Why? Because everything must be documented.

Busting out the front 3 windows in the living room. These were the worst--we couldn't find screens for them so we haven't been able to open the windows all summer. G-R-O-S-S.

Removing the two wooden posts that framed the picture window.

Equipment that could take off my fingers. Probably best I stay away.

One completed bedroom window! This was the first one finished.

The other bedroom window. Still a big hole in the wall.

Another hole in the house, this time without the wooden posts. The cross breeze coming through was great!

Ladder not included.

Basement window-to-be. These were steel framed windows that were original to the house and had the concrete foundation poured around them. They were a pain in the ass for them to rip out.

The finished product from the outside! I love the way they look, and the grids/window panes add a lot of character to the house.

So now, our bank account is a little depleted, but the house is officially worth more than it was this time a year ago. Cha-ching!