Cora’s Nursery

I started this post before the baby arrived but lost steam and then she arrived and well, we’ve been busy 😉  I didn’t really pick a theme for the room other than colors.  I knew I wanted light pink walls, to incorporate some gold and teal, and make sure the grey glider from our first nursery didn’t seem out of place.  The colors in the curtains ending up being my jumping off point. The room is a bit smaller than Gretchen’s room, and the closet is about a foot smaller.  We again chose to take the doors off the closet, paint it, install new shelving, and use it as our changing area.

Our photographer Darbi G captured some beautiful images of the space that more accurately capture the colors in the room, so I will share those first, followed by my own iphone 5 pictures, which are not as impressive!

Bedding: sheets from Target, crib skirt from Buy Buy Baby

Wall art: prints and wooden hello art from Hobby Lobby (elephant, hello, alphabet , string art from Kim’s Heart Strings (she is local to KC to I messaged her directly on Facebook and picked up my order to avoid shipping charges.)

Crib: Jenny Lind Liberty 3 in 1 from Franklin and Ben

Chair: Best Chairs Quinn

Ottomon: Oh Joy for Target

Lamp: Target

Light fixture: Overstock

Storage Cubes: Target (gold dot no longer available)

Throw pillow: Target

Storage bins: Target (striped and woven)

Bookcase: IKEA Kallax

Curtains: Target 

Fabric banner: DIY’d (tons of tutorials on Pinterest) and bought the fabric at Hobby Lobby.

Pug loaves: Etsy shop Cornstarch

Paint color: Behr youth blush (I do not recommend their paint anymore, the formula was changed and the paint and primer in 1 no longer covers well.  We did 2 coats but really should have done 3, whereas their paint and primer plus formula used to cover in 1 coat.)

 

a few updates

I am 30 weeks pregnant as of today.  75%ish done.  Holy crap, how did that happen?  I have been having some hormonal freak outs recently, mostly related to having to raise an actual baby, the childbirth stuff isn’t bothering me just yet.  It doesn’t help that my current “baby” refuses to snuggle me now that he has figured out change is definitely on the horizon.

well I take that back, he did hug my belly when we were down in the basement during a tornado warning recently, but that was probably just a moment of weakness.  I keep telling him that someday Gretchen will be his buddy and drop all kinds of food on the floor for him but he will have to see it to believe it.  In his defense, his current sister is a total bully so I’m not surprised he is wary of adding another girl to the household 😉

I am feeling pretty good.  A bit more uncomfortable now than I was in the 2nd trimester.  Energy is waning some but I blame the heat.  We went on our “babymoon” to Colorado last week/weekend and had a great time.  Loved the cool mountain air!

Our nursery to-do list shrunk a bit more in the last month!   Can’t wait to put things in the closet and get it all organized to my liking!

–paint walls
–paint trim white
–remove closet doors, paint inside of closet
-install closet system to maximize storage space (will do this in June)
-refinish dresser/changer  still need to add clear coat and new knobs.
-make wall art, hang gallery wall
-hang floating shelves
–decide on fabrics, send off to seamstress that is making our crib skirt and curtains
–install new light fixture
–put together furniture
–install new blinds 

Some new pics:

floating shelves, need to add some stuff to them.  I love my new puffin classics!  Such pretty books!

gallery wall, half DIY art projects, half purchased prints.

I will try to blog again soon.  Want to write some about our birth plans, post pics of our cloth diaper stash, and of course final pics of the nursery once everything is done!

nursery progress

April is over and we put a nice dent in our to-do list for the nursery.

–paint walls
–paint trim white
–remove closet doors, paint inside of closet
-install closet system to maximize storage space (will do this in June)
-refinish dresser/changer (current project)
-make wall art, hang gallery wall (almost done with art, should hang soon)
–decide on fabrics, send off to seamstress that is making our crib skirt and curtains (waiting on grommets to arrive)
–install new light fixture
–put together furniture
–install new blinds 

Here are some pictures I took yesterday, so exciting to see it all coming together.

my pink closet!  love it so much.  It will not be so in your face once the closet system and dresser are in there.  The white trim is such an improvement over the scratched up 1970s brown trim.  Painting it was not fun, but I’m so glad we did it.

Our Jenny Lind crib, it is beautiful!  One spindle was broken upon arrival but they shipped out a replacement in less than a week.

The other side of the room, can’t wait to fill the shelf up with books.

view from the door.  I love the chair so much, it is beyond comfortable, and the pink pouf is perfect place for resting your feet.  We’ve decided to do curtains in the same fabric as the crib skirt (you can see it hanging there on the crib) to really amp up the color in the room.

more pics to come as things progress!

yard reno 2011

Our backyard has long been an eyesore.  Like many other things in our house, the previous owner (owners probably) neglected to maintain the yard and it ended up completely overrun with weeds.  You name it, we had it back there: clover, thistles, wild strawberries, some other kind of clover, crabgrass, and of course dandelions. There was a small amount of real grass but it was in random patches around the yard, the rest was long ago choked out by weeds.  After 2 summers of attempting to mow the weeds as they grew more and more out of control we’d had enough.  Due to drainage issues and the sheer enormity of the problem, we knew we had to do something drastic.

We had a few landscaping companies come out and give us quotes for overhauling the backyard and putting down sod.  The project was just more than we were willing to DIY.  Our biggest concern was removing all the weeds without using Round Up or other harmful chemicals.  The company we ended up choosing was able to do it without any chemicals, by using a sod cutter to cut out the existing yard.  Basically it shaved off the top few inches of our yard.  They were then able to rake it into piles and haul it out.

They used a rake to get the weeds/grass closest to the fence.

They ran out of sod today so will be back Monday to finish up the last corner of the yard, but they did enough for me to show the dramatic before and afters 🙂

Before (about a month ago, weeds were much taller by now!)

After

I love it!  I think it will take some getting used to 🙂  The pugs are quite perplexed.  They seem lost when we take them out back now and feel the need to re-mark all of their favorite spots.  Now we just have to water water water and take good care of it while it gets established.  We do need to do some more research on how to maintain our yard without using harsh chemicals.  This book has been helpful so far.

sneak peek

Here are a couple of photos of the bedroom.  2 walls painted, 2 to go!  I found some new bedding yesterday and picked up the ladder shelf at Target.  New ceiling light came in the mail this week too.  Can’t wait to have it all done!  Maybe next weekend 🙂

I loooooooove the headboard.  It may be my favorite inanimate object in our entire house 🙂

Chubbs also gives it his stamp of approval

 

House Goals for 2011

2011 House Resolutions/Goals

 

Finish painting family room ceiling

Touch-up trim in the half bath

Fix leaky pedestal sink

Paint furniture:  buffet, nightstand, dresser

Re-paint master bedroom and ceiling

Paint master bathroom

Replace/repair ceiling fan in master bedroom

Paint vanity in guest bath and replace countertop/sink/faucet

Paint basement, including the trim

Spray paint brass fireplace cover

Stain our privacy fence

Re-seed front yard again

Tear up and start grass in backyard from scratch. 

Clean up bed on side of the house and plant flowers/ornamental grasses

Install new storm door

organize organize organize!  Most of the closets in my house need a total overhaul

some “maybes”

replace interior doors

paint trim white (surely the largest single project we will undertake in homeownership thus far, ugh)

replace vanity in master bath and tile the floor

paint the interior of our bedroom closets

get a new roof

A busy 2010

We’ve been busy this year!  I decided to look back on the year and make a list of all the projects we completed.  Our list for next year is LONG and I will share it soon, but for now it’s nice to reflect on what is already done 🙂 

remodeled our half bath

spiffed up our wall cabinet

painted our shed

organized our linen closet

organized the drawers in my bathrooms

accessorized our built-ins

finished painting the exterior of our house!!! (14 months after we started!)

landscaping/gardening:

planted a redbud tree after we removed the stump from our old crab apple tree

replaced old railroad ties with a rock retaining wall

under the close supervision of the pugs, we built our SFGs

then we assembled the Mel’s Mix and planted our first SFG

painted and then hung our hang a pots

Half Bath: Before and After!

Well I would love to say our bathroom remodel is 100% finished, but that’s not true.  The sink is leaking a bit and the trim needs to be touched up, however, it is done enough to reveal to the world, so here we go!

Here’s how the bathroom looked when we moved in 18 months ago, 1976+1992=one scary scary room we used as a closet and a place to rinse paint brushes until this summer.

BEFORE

AFTER

I did not keep very good track of how much money we spent, but here’s a source list and linked to items when possible:

wall color: SW Kilim Beige

light fixture, pedestal sink,  tile, and toilet from Lowes

toilet handle, towel, and tp holder from Home Depot

mirror from Target

wall cabinet, soap dispenser, trash can and tp basket, hand towel from Homegoods

bath rug on clearance from Bed Bath and Beyond

glass canisters and basket in wall cabinet from Crate and Barrel

decorative wallpaper in cabinet from Ferm Living website

Moen faucet from Dealyard store on ebay

The major costs for this remodel included paying our lovely contractor, Matt German, to move the light fixture and sink plumbing and then install and finish new drywall on the walls and ceiling.  This was DEFINITELY money well spent, as it involved work that we had no experience or comfort with.  We would recommend him to anyone in the KC area and will definitely use him again in the future when we have more projects outside of our comfort zone!

After Matt finished his part of the remodel, Tyler stepped in, and with a little help from our dads, we finished the job.  Tyler installed new tile, the new toilet and sink, and cut and installed the new trim.  By breaking it down into smaller projects it didn’t overwhelm us, and our #1 most helpful tool was definitely GOOGLE!  We watched several videos to help guide us through our first adventures in plumbing.  Here are links to the videos we found most helpful:

how to install a pedestal sink (this video is EXCELLENT, broken up into different parts, we watched several parts multiple times to make sure we are on the right track.)

how to install a toilet (a good basic video, but since we were installing on a cement slab, several other google searches took place to help us troubleshoot!)

Whenever we got stuck, which happened quite a few times, we brought out the laptop and a few clicks later could usually navigate our way to a solution.

I think we would both agree that the hardest piece of the entire project was probably the trim.  Cutting it, nailing it, painting it, uggh.  It was worse than the plumbing if you can believe that!

Besides gaining a great little bathroom out of this project, and lots of new tools (stud finder, yeah baby!) we also gained a lot of confidence in our abilities to do DIY projects.  Tyler is already talking about what he’d like to do to our master bathroom.  The confidence is definitely priceless!

Monday Night DIY

So I decided to punch up my white wall cabinet for our renovated bathroom with some fun paper.  After searching the internet I landed on this wallpaper, which conveniently can be bought in 8 1/2 x 11 sheets for $3 (they are samples, so some were slightly irregular.)

here is the cabinet before the mini-makeover:

and here is the after:

can’t wait to see it on the wall!

We have tile!

Tyler and his dad spent Saturday afternoon cutting and placing the tile, and today Tyler and I have been grouting (well really I just hand him a fresh sponge every few minutes.)

Here are pictures of the tile pre-grout:

and post-grout (still need a good cleaning and to be sealed):

before next weekend we hope to install and paint new trim and then install the new toilet.  Then next weekend we will tackle installing the pedestal sink.  After that all that will be left is hanging the mirror and the wall cabinet.  I am optimistic we’ll be done before the 13th, but you never know…

check out other DIY projects in this week’s project parade!