Finishing touches

It was a productive weekend.  We did a lot of finishing touches and marked a lot of things off the "to do list".  We made a trip to ikea.  It was chaotic like always but worth the trip.  

In Abby's room, she has new window treatments.  We fixed some holes in her dresser.  

In Jace's room.  He got the same window treatments, painted a road around the room, we got him new bedding from ikea (could not resist $19.99 and it is cars!), and a new light fixture.

Jay switched out electric outlets and light switches in the downstairs and I started painting some end tables my parents gave us that they did not use.  

We are gradually getting there.  We agreed to not start the downstairs renovations until we complete the upstairs and some minor things that needed to be done.  We are close and than we will start meeting with contractors.  

3 days till our trip to Florida!  So thankful!

We have a hole in our ceiling

Picture this . . . .sitting around the dinner table and Jay looks up.  He sees a small pucker in the paint in the ceiling.  He gets curious and peels it away.  Than the drywall slightly crumbles and Jay continues to cut back the drywall.  

He is now curious what happened there and wants to check for water damage.  Well . . . . . now that we have a hole in our ceiling . . ..  it appears that there at some time was a leak in a pipe.  It appears to have been fixed but they probably cut a hole just like we did to fix it and over time the patch has not survived.  We have been monitoring it to make sure there is no additional leaking.  

So we have a hole in our ceiling.  It is currently covered with painters tape.  Since it is in our dining rooms (which will have some work done during the "renovation"), it does not make sense to patch.  We probably will end up replacing most of the ceiling in the dining room  . . . NOW ($$$$).  Awesome.

We are still working on finishing small projects.  Should have more to show by the end of the weekend.  

On to the kids . . . . Jace started t-ball this week.  Pretty funny.  

Abby loved watching.  

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We are headed to Florida for Thanksgiving with these two Turkeys.  Cannot wait for warm weather.

Sump Pump

So the most expensive home improvement item we have done so far is the sump pump.  I know exciting right?  To be honest, I had no idea what this was . . .  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sump_pump  and if you don't and do not have an old house, you never will.  But these pumps are pricey and not only do you need a pump but a back up pump in case the electricity goes out.  

Got to hand it to the hubby.  He installed it and it works!  

Beautiful right?  Yep.  That thing took a chunk out of the budget.  

We are right now trying to finish the little things before we start to discuss the kitchen / adding shower / basement renovation   I want to have the rest of the house finished so we can focus on one thing at a time.  A big thing right now is window treatments, touching up paint, and other painting details. 

On the home front, the "godfather and Elizabeth" came into town this past weekend.  We had a great time with them.  It was so nice to see them and we laughed a lot and had fun at the vineyards.  

Jace and Abby are exhausting as usual.  Abby is starting to sleep again.  We are recovering from some teething and we are finally sleeping through the night again.   Abby still does not really crawl (not a huge fan of being on her tummy) but she loves to stand and walk holding our hands.  

I am starting to look for a job.  More on that later. . . . 

Sorry ladies . . ..

Sorry ladies . . . . you are not going to be able to watch Jay get ready in the mornings.  We now have curtains in our bathroom.  Yippee.  Hope it does not mess up the women on Oak Street's view.  But also we have finished most of the work on the bathroom so here is the mid week update.  Keep in mind this was my cheap fix to the bathroom.  We have this bathroom on the long list of renovations but since this is our only shower, it has to wait till we add more showers.

Before

After

So here is what we have done so far . . . . the trim has been painted white.  1 coat oil based primer and 2 coats water based trim paint.  Removed old towel bar.  Hung mirror and iron shelves.  Touched up areas with caulk.  Filled some holes in the walls.

And . . . I decided to get crafty.  I used this step by step to make "no sew" roman shades - http://365days2simplicity.blogspot.com/2011/04/easy-no-sew-roman-shades.html .  Very good blog.  Everything worked like described.  Only thing I would recommend is putting a little bit of hot glue on the very end of each blind as reinforcement.

I also added a ribbon down either side because it felt like it needed something.  

Also the curtains could use a lining but I will probably not do that.  Kind of done with this project :)  Still need to hang the curtain rod and thinking about a new light fixture and faucet.  Not sure if it is worth it or not.  I am sure I will think of something else.

Gotta go . . . . need to get someone out of timeout.  Spends a lot of time there these days :)

Date night

This weekend did not include that many house projects.  Jay and I finally had a date night!  It was long overdue.  We took the metro to Clarendon, had drinks at a wine bar, dinner at the Green Pig Bistro (thanks M&W), and met some family for drinks after dinner.  As you see the number of times I said drinks, Jay and I were slightly hung over the next day.  We had a great time and we need to have dates more often!  We did have a new babysitter.  She said everything went great except Abby woke up around 10:30 screaming and it sounds like she screamed until 10 minutes before we got home (which was around midnight).  Abby has been teething so there is not much that makes her feel better especially from someone new.  Poor girl.  Hope she will come back again!

We did some random things while the kids were napping.  Jay hung a light fixture in the hall and replaced some light switches.  During Abby's nap this morning, I started painting the trim in the bathroom while Jay and Jace worked in the front yard.  It was a beautiful day.  

Our focus this week is to get the bathroom fixed up.  We have family in town the next two weekends and want the bathroom in better shape.  So I sanded the trim and painted with the oil based primer this morning and tonight I put the first coat of trim paint.  Will try during naps to get the second coat on tomorrow.  Hopefully will have some good pictures to share of the bathroom by the end of the week!

Stairs

So the big project this week was the stairs.  I have to give Jay all of the credit.  He has done most of the work on the stairs.  So here you go . . .  

Before

 Jay painted the vertical of the stairs.  Oil based primer than semi gloss white paint.  Paint spindles and sides of stairs.  

 Runner being installed.  Carpet pads first. 

 Runner installed

 The boys hanging the black and white wall up the stairs

Before

 

Finished product

We also had an entry rug cut and bound as well. 

On family front . . . . . went to the National Building museum on Tuesday because Jace's school was closed with a friend.  It was pretty neat but again Jace's favorite part was the train ride.

 Abby had her 9 month appt today.  She was 16.1 lbs (35%) and 27 1/4 in (30%) and a head circumference in the 98%.  Our kids have the biggest heads.  At 9 months, Jace's head was in the 96% for head circumference but he was alot bigger. . . Jace was 23 lbs and 29 inches.  He was always in the 85-95%.   Poor Abby's head is so large and she has such a little body.  She has to lay her head down when she is trying to crawl for a break.  No wonder she is not moving much . . .that head!

Miss me?

Have you missed me?  Sorry no blogging last week.  I need to keep up if I am going to be a true blogger.  I had to put blogging on hold as a nasty stomach virus hit our house.  We caught it from our adorable little niece when we spent the day with her last weekend.  I was out of commission on Monday, Abby on Tuesday, and Jay on Wednesday.  Jace somehow did not catch it and Abby is just today .... back to normal.  So we were all a little sleep deprived last week and in recovery.  

So not much happened for the house last week.  I did meet with the carpet guy on Monday who will install the runner on the stairs . . . . . . let's just say I almost puked on him.  It was lovely.  But, nice guy, hope he did not catch the virus, and he comes back tomorrow to install the carpet. 

We had a trip planned to Raleigh this past weekend for the UNC/NCSU game and also one of Jace's best friend's bday party.  Jay decided to stay here to get stuff around the house and also to complete some stuff for work.  He stayed busy.  He took a load to habitat (ancient microwave has been replaced), trip to Lowes, and several other projects.  His main project was to get the stairs ready for the runner.  He did who knows what to get rid of the unbelievably loud noises the stairs would make.  Had to remove the drywall to the basement to work on them.  They are so quiet now.  

This is what they look like now underneath......

Painted the stairs . . . . . will show the final product in a post after the runner is installed.  But this consumed alot of his time.  Took 3 coats of paint.  

Installed a new thermostat, put the TV on a new bracket (he told me he almost died doing this), and unpacked the shed.  Hopefully he also got caught up on sleep and gave Finley some needed attention.  

So I headed to Raleigh with the kids (warning the rest of the post is non-house related and about the kids).  Got drinks with one of my besties on Friday night, game on Saturday, and birthday party on Sunday.  Some pics highlighting the weekend.  

Yes.  We lost again.  To be honest, I did not see much of the game.  Aunt Jen disappeared to who knows where and my mom spent the day with her best friend in gboro.  It was my dad, me, and the two kids for most of the game.  Leaves little time for game watching. 

Got to see Owen Rowley.  Yes.  It appears that Abby is grabbing him inappropriately and Owen seems to be enjoying it.

My dad held Jace for most of the game - he wanted to be held high to see.  Not sure how many questions my dad answered but there may have been 1,000 whys or whats.

 Poor girl does not realize how hard it is to be an NCSU fan.

 

Went to Carson's bday party.  They had the coolest bounce house.  Wish I lived in Raleigh and we may have stayed there all day.  

These two are best buddies.  As you can tell by the sharing of the cake.  

It was a great weekend seeing friends and families.  The drive down was slightly hellish.  I tried to upload a video. . . . if you could imagine - Jace crying because the end of the banana was yucky and needed a trash can, Abby screaming.  Missed my exit off 95.  You know how it goes.  The trip home was slightly easier but still had our moments.  But we made it.