this house. our home.

I had planned to write a post reviewing my February goals (HA HA HA --- you’ll see how THOSE went soon) and set some for this month. But then something happened at breakfast that totally changed the course of my thoughts for this morning. The baby is an early riser and as of late, so is Evalyn. Up until she was potty trained she was always a 7am or later riser. Since training, we’re lucky if she sleeps until 6:15. I fought it for a long time. I hated it. I got frustrated. But now? I’m learning to accept it. And then add the baby to the mix, she’s always up early anyway. Again, lucky if we get to 6 am with her. With Eva as a baby I could do the whole “make her stay in her crib until 7am as long as she was happy” thing with no qualms and eventually, she always slept past 7. It wasn’t such a hard game with her, though, because when she was a baby, waking up “early” meant 6:45.  Leaving the baby in her crib to “learn” to sleep later isn’t as easy this time around because if I do, she wakes her sister up and then I’m just left with two pre-6am risers.  I used to feed the baby at 4am and crawl back in bed relishing the idea of sleeping another 2.5-3 hours. Now when I climb back in bed I pray I get another hour. Anyway, this is getting away from me – this post isn’t even meant to talk about when we wake up – I just say this to say that I am learning to embrace the early mornings. As much as I can.

The reason I mention the change in our mornings is to say that one benefit is that our mornings are less stressful these days. Getting up at 6 gives us more time before Daddy races out the door at 7:25 than when we used to roll out of bed at 7 or later. What this means is that after we spend a few minutes all huddled together in Mommy and Daddy’s bed,we make our way to the kitchen for breakfast.

This morning it worked out that all four of us were sitting up to the table together to eat. As soon as I sat down with my coffee and oatmeal, Eva said, “So, Mommy, how was your day?”

And in that moment I realized how beautiful it is that she sees our dining room table as a place for conversation, communication and family. That this is the place we gather. This is the place we connect. Where we touch base. Where we share details of our lives and learn more about each other and join together as one unit at the end (or in this case, the beginning) of the crazy, hectic days of our lives.

When she said this, I looked around my dining room table and realized what is most important… that my girls see our table, our dining room, our home as a safe place for them to land.

It’s been almost a year since we started on our journey with this home. March 20, 2012 was the day we first saw this house and put an offer in. Over the next days and weeks as the details got sorted out and multiple hurdles were overcome, God quickly showed us that this was, undoubtedly, meant to be home. Logically, when we look at how it all went down, we never “should” have gotten this place. There were too many things that happened to work against us. But we were blessed. It was a God thing.

It’s been 9 months since we took possession and started renovations. Seven months since we moved our little family of four to the country to start something new.

If I’m being honest, we are no where near where I expected we’d be after over half a year of living here. No where close. My expectations were too high. My plans and goals were unreachable.

This is what my dining room looks like, at this very moment.

 

Our table is old and ugly and falling apart. It is surrounded by random, mismatched chairs. There are old towels strewn about, trying to protect our home somewhat from the damages of baby led weaning, there are no doors on the closet, with coats and hats and shoes thrown about, no window coverings, no china cabinet. Random toys are stacked on, around and under the table. There’s a dollar store bunny chair cover over the chair where’s Eva booster, that she no longer even uses, is. Eventually, our table and chairs and china cabinet will be refinished and repaired and the rest of the room will come together. And until today, I kept feeling like it’s just not happening fast enough.

But then a few simple words from my always wise two and a half year old reminded me that this doesn’t matter. When we sat down together and she looked at me and asked how my day was, I realized she doesn’t care.

When we spend time together in this home, do my children notice that our table and chairs set is incomplete? Do they notice that there are no closet doors in our rooms? Or that the baseboards are missing? Or that the decor is lacking? Or that our front door is old as the hills? No.

They notice none of that.

What these sweet babies notice is that our mornings start with the four of us (often five when the dog joins us) curled up in Mommy and Daddy’s bed, giggling and giving good morning hugs and kisses. What they notice is that we have the privilege of enjoying coffee and breakfast together. What they notice is that we are together. Our family is together. Healthy, happy and completely, entirely in love with each other.

Sure, we could focus far more of our time and energy on completing the unending list of projects, decorating, renovating … we could do that. We could consciously devote more time and energy to making this place home.

But I know now that it’s okay if we don’t, not all the time. It’s okay to just be sometimes. To forget the list of projects and have quiet mornings and quiet evenings together. To go for walks as a family, instead of always going, going, doing, doing. It’s okay to do this.

It’s okay because the biggest mistake we could make would be to get ourselves so focused on checking things off a list to make this place home that we miss the life we are living here, that we miss the memories we are making and that we miss these moments we’ll never ever get back. Because these moments?

These moments are what make this house our home.

House Tour: Kitchen (Before) and (Now)

Today’s installment of the house tour features the kitchen. The kitchen is even more in the “now” state and way farther from the “after” state than the living room. Basically, not a lot has been done in the kitchen except a few things that were absolutely necessary so that I wouldn’t cry every time I looked at my kitchen.

You see, I’m a cook. I’m a baker. I am a kitcheneer (yes, that’s a thing). So, funny that in my new home, my kitchen is my most hated space, right? Yeah, it’s hilarious, really. When we bought this house, the kitchen was actually one of the main selling points for us. Hello, potential. But, as it stands right now, it’s in bad, yucky shape.

Here are a few shots of our kitchen that I took the first time we walked through after having our offer accepted.

And just for fun, here’s a shot taken from the living room looking into the dining room and kitchen just a few weeks before we moved in. Yikes.

And here  is where’s it at today. Well, on Thursday at the tail end of Gwen’s morning nap after I spent a good thirty minutes cleaning, if I’m being entirely honest. It’s quite a lot messier today.     As you can see, not a whole lot has been done at this point. But, if you look carefully, you will see that some things have been done. Evan replaced the floor. This floor is possibly temporary. It may stay when we renovate, it may not. But regardless, it was necessary. The existing floor was very, very bad. The room was also painted. This included transformed the sea foam green ceiling (!!!!!) to a clean, crisp white. The walls were done the same color as is in the living room, dining room, n=nursery and master. We like to keep it simple. Or cheap. However you like to look at it.

We went close to four months living here without a dishwasher and when we finally purchased one, Evan added an extra few feet of counter top to accommodate it. Don’t you think the hunter green ties in so nicely with the rest of the look? (Sarcasm font!) This was just a piece of counter top he had laying around so for now, it will do. I must say, despite the huge eyesore of the mismatched counter top, I feel so much less frustrated and more settled since it was added. It may look horrible, but the extra few feet makes all the difference in the world. Before this piece of counter top, and the dishwasher, there were constant dishes piled on either side of the sink, and often on the cook top as well. There was not a natural or ideal place to serve as the work space. I felt like I was on top of myself all the time and so cluttered and cramped. If you remember our apartment, you’ll know that I’m used to a large, spacious kitchen with a lot of counter space. Getting use to a less functional space was tough.

The cabinets are in bad shape. Really bad shape. Many people have asked if we’d consider painting them for the time being to spruce it up. But honestly? All that work is just not worth it. There’s only so much covering up you can do, you know? The sink and above the sink window are super grunge, too. As well, the oven is tiny. It’s smaller than a standard oven so that has posed some difficulty for me, but I’m adjusting. Lastly, the cook top is horrific. It’s old and dirty and nasty. It’s way less dirty and nasty than when we got the house but again, only so much you can do. Only one burner works entirely well. Two work so-so. One doesn’t work at all. I don’t think I’ll be able to put up with it for too much longer. I was trying to hold off to see if I could just make do until we renovate, because I’m not sure whether or not I want to keep the separate oven/cook top kind of deal, but the idea of sticking with this piece of junk until I get a brand new kitchen is getting less and less wonderful as the days go by.

I have big dreams for this space. Big. I can see the potential. Every day I come up with new ideas of how to make this kitchen my own. That right there is another post all together. I know that once we scrape together enough pennies (ugh, pennies? More like dolla dolla bills, y’all) and my husband works his magic in this room, it will be my dream. My absolute dream. It is spacious. And open. It will be perfect.

Until then, I just keep truckin’. Or, erm, cookin’.

House Tour: Living Room (Before) and (Now)

Like I’ve said a few times, this whole home tour thing is going to have to be a “before” and “now” series as opposed to before and after because despite the tremendous amount of work my husband has done in our home, it is far from being in the “after” state just yet. Aside from the bathroom, which I’ve already shown you, the rest of the house is still in a state of progress.

This is the living room as it looked the day we took possession of the house. Nasty, dirty carpet. Crumbling walls. Beautiful (read: hideous Grandma style) window coverings.

Here are a few pics of the process.

Hours, well, hundreds of hours, of work. Some blood, sweat and tears. Perhaps a choice word or two. And my husband transformed the space into this….

(The doors off this room are the kiddo’s bedrooms)

And just for fun, a side by side comparison of the before and now from the same angle.

So, what’s been done and what’s left do?

Obviously, the nasty carpet was replaced with gorgeous hardwood flooring. And let me just say this, these floors were a labour of love. I cannot even tell you how many days and nights and weekends my rockin’ husband spent installing this floor (with the help of his uncle, my uncle and a few pals here and there). The walls were repaired and room was painted – including ceiling, window trim, doors and door frames. Can I tell you the huge difference that painting the trim made? I remember coming into the house shortly after he finished the trim and my jaw hit the floor. It was like an entirely different house. It brightened the room up so much and makes the windows look like they’re in a lot better shape than they actually are. We also added the wall sconces as there was no lighting in the room and I didn’t want to rely entirely on floor lamps. Hello, monkey children climbing all over them!

What’s left to do. The big one? Baseboards. Although he just painted the existing window and door trim in the rooms, the baseboards were not worth saving. They are high on our priority list, we’re just still deciding exactly which direction to go. Also, poor Gwendolyn still needs a doorknob. It’s been sitting on my dresser for months. MONTHS! Problem is, house stuff usually starts after the hour of 7pm, once she’s in bed so it keeps getting pushed to the wayside.

Eventually, we might take a few feet off the living room and add a hallway so that the girl’s bedrooms aren’t directly connected to the main living area. We’ll see, though. So far, I haven’t minded it but as they get older it may be more ideal to have a little bit of separation. We’d like to do something with the little alcove beside where our (prehistoric) TV sits. My vision here is built in book cases with a small bench seat. A little reading nook, if you will. Maybe a fireplace with a TV mounted above it in. The kid’s book slings and toy corner will also see some revamping and relocation in the very near future, just as soon as the playroom is up and functioning (it’s close!!). The sofa table needs some desperate attention. Eventually, the windows will be replaced and I’ll add some type of curtains. Although, I haven’t decided just what yet. The decor is less than stellar. Basically, I’ve just recently unpacked my boxes of decor so I have haphazardly placed my existing decorations around our home. Nothing really has a “place” yet and I have some ideas for new looks and new directions I’d like to go in but alas … it’s all about finding the time and money to browse and shop and add to my collection. Sigh. All in due time, right?

So there you have it. This is the area of our home we spend most of our time. It’s not nearly as cozy as I’d like it… but we’ll get there.

Entryway Reno

Rumour has it that in order to have an effective before/after renovation post one must have before photos. I fail. I have no idea how it happened but either I forgot to take before photos or I somehow lost them when the laptop crashed. I am fairly certain I didn’t take any because I know I had all my files backed up. I guess when I took the initial before photos of the house when we took possession the entry way was the last thing on my radar and then when he started working away at it, I didn’t realize there weren’t any. Which stinks. Because it would be nice to show you just how far this space has come.

So will you just trust me on it? That the walls were crumbling and falling apart and that there was a large, open hole that went straight to the concrete floor of the basement? Um, yeah. No joke. Most people would have assumed it was meant to be a laundry chute but considering the house didn’t have any laundry hookups when we moved in (again, no joke) I’m not entirely sure what the purpose was. Except to pose an extreme danger to young children. When we moved in, the “hole” was quickly covered with a piece of plywood until Evan got the space finished.

This photo of our hallway is the only one I have that shows any amount of the before of the entry way. You can just barely see the door to the garage and the hole on the bottom right that was covered by a lovely turquoise curtain.

Anyhow, use your imagination. It was bad. Really bad.

This is the space that comes in from the garage. It’s our primary entrance and because there is no (functional) closet space in this area of the house, we needed to make it more useful for our needs. Eventually we’d like to have the garage at a state where we can put coats/shoes but even in the winter, this is no good because who wants to put freezing cold boots on when they go outside? We have a front door and front closet where we store most of the shoes/coats/hats/mitts but we like to avoid using this entrance, especially in the winter to avoid tracking dirt into the dining room.

This is how the space looks today. Evan replaced the floor, fixed the walls, put white paneling on the bottom half of the walls to even them out and painted the upper portion the same colour as the rest of the hallway and bathroom. He painted the existing door white. He added hooks for coats and transformed the elusive hole to the basement into a permanent shoe storage cubby. It’s perfect for keeping shoes out of the way – and accessible enough that we don’t end up leaving them tossed all over the floor when we come in.

  

On the opposite wall of the coat hooks is the door to the basement and this high (not very functional) closet. I need a ladder – not just a chair – a ladder to get to it. So for now, with a huge unfinished basement for storage, it sits empty. It doesn’t even seem to make sense to put seasonal things in there. Much easier to store them downstairs. Maybe someday I’ll find a use for it.

Because the door to the basement swings into the entry way, there wasn’t enough room to make the coat shelf big enough to have baskets for hats/mitts/scarves and so on. So for now, a few of them are tossed around but most of them are still either in the bench in the hallway or in the front closet. Scarves and kid gloves that are on a string can hang on the hooks. Not the most ideal situation, but I haven’t yet thought of something better.

I try to keep most of our outdoor apparel hanging in the closet in the dining room and reserve this space for our most used stuff so it doesn’t get to jam packed but already it seems that it is becoming the catch all area.

The space still needs a bit of work. The door is painted (and looks 100% better than it did before) but eventually I’d love to see it replaced. The photos in the frame of the key holder need to be updated. And I may need to find something for the wall above the shoe box or maybe some kind of sign above the door. I’m not sure about this yet. It is a small, busy, potentially clutter filled area so I may just want to leave that wall bare to cut down on the craziness of this area of the house. Any suggestions?

bathroom: before and after

It’s kind of ironic that the first home renovation post is showcasing our bathroom considering our bathroom wasn’t one of the first things on our list to renovate. We were intending to just bear with it and put up with it for a few years. That is, until one Saturday before our move in day when I showed up with supper in hand and found my husband sitting on the toilet in a bathroom with everything except the tub and toilet ripped out. So, yeah. I guess plans changed. Without me knowing.

Now? I am very very glad that he made this decision. I’m not sure I could have lived with that sick nasty bathroom for long. Witness, exhibit A:

Wow. I couldn’t even manage to close the lid before snapping these photos? Bah. I guess I was just excited. They were taken the first time through after our offer was accepted.

Really, adding the bathroom renovation to our list didn’t take a lot of money out of our pockets because Evan was able to repurpose many of the materials he already had. In the end, the only things we purchased were the toilet, the beadboard for the walls, the baseboard, the counter top, and the outlet covers/fan. The sink and shelf were given to us by my Aunt, the vanity and medicine cabinet and mirror were removed from a job Evan did last year, the paint is the same colour used in our hallway and the light fixture was sitting around at my Dad’s store not being used. The flooring is the same that we put in the kitchen, entryway and (eventually) playroom. It was also free because it has a slight flaw running through it, so my dad couldn’t sell it.

We did end up leaving the tub the way it is. Which is clearly not ideal. But? This bathroom renovation is really just a facelift. The bathroom sits between the master bedroom and the tiny extra room (which will be a playroom for now). Eventually, our intention is to tear out the wall between the bathroom and the playroom and make a larger main bathroom and a small ensuite bathroom. Eventually. Needless to say, because of that plan, we decided not to put the time, money and effort into tearing out the old tub (including tiled walls) to replace it. So, we pull the shower curtain closed and ask you to refrain from looking at the few inches at the bottom where you can see the lovely turquoise peeking through. The hardware in the tub, faucets, showerhead, taps are relatively new so it’s working out just fine for us for now.

So, for a couple hundred buckaroos and a little (lot) of time, we (I) think it was definitely worth it and makes the room much more comfortable and home-y while we wait to undertake a more major renovation.

I’d Like to Thank….

The last few months have been crazy. To say the least. My sweet friend Lindsey said once that this an experience we’ll look back on in 20 years around a table with friends and laugh at. “Hey, remember the time we bought a fixer upper, renovated, had a baby and moved all in the course of two months? Remember that? Ha. That was so funny.” I hope she’s right. Because I sure ain’t laughing just yet.

Needless to say, we have survived. We are all still alive, happy and thriving. Neither Evan or I have killed each other or done each other any permanent harm. My babies are healthy and happy. Our home is coming together nicely. We have survived. But, not alone. Not even a little bit alone.

So, right now I’d like to thank….

Barney, Diego, Dora and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse … for occupying my toddler for many, many, many more hours than I’d care to admit.

McDonald’s Vanilla Iced Coffee and Pepsi Cola … for giving me a daily boost of caffeine. Or seven.

Our friends and family … for every little thing you’ve done. For babysitting, for packing boxes, for unpacking boxes, for cleaning, for bringing food, for laying shingles and hardwood, for painting, for keeping me company while Evan was working around the clock, for the hours and hours and hours of time you’ve given to us. I thought of including some names here, but I know I would forget someone.

My babies … for sleeping well, for transitioning well and for smiling even when I am the most boring Mama in the world and spend too much time working and not enough time playing.

My husband … for busting his booty getting this place ready for us to call home.

My tweeps … for keeping me sane. All the time.

Our church family … for two weeks of wonderful, wonderful meals brought to us daily – making it so that I didn’t have to cook for the first 5 (yes, 5) weeks of Gwen’s life.

Our dreams are becoming our reality but we couldn’t have done it alone. Really, we couldn’t have. And we are so deeply and forever grateful for the support we are constantly shown by our loved ones.

I have so many posts I want to write. I want to answer your questions about homebirth, I want to write a post explaining the significance of Gwen’s name, I want to show you what both my kids are up to, show you some pictures of our house, and share some stories about the adventures of our new life. These will all come in time, I suppose. For now, I’m still trying figure out which way is up.

We did it.

We did it. We moved with 2U2 and lived to tell the tale. Because of the weather forecast we ended up making a last minute decision to move most of our stuff on Friday night instead of Saturday. It was definitely a good choice as it rained the better part of Saturday. We also decided to stay at Evan’s aunts’ place for the weekend so we could get things organized around here before bringing the kids to sleep. Another wise choice.

We were blessed to have tons of help over the weekend (and, really, throughout this whole process – more on that in another post), which made all the difference in the world. Friends to help with the babies, the lifting, the organizing, the cleaning – the whole deal. We really wouldn’t have been able to do it alone.

After nap on Sunday, I brought the girls up to “da new house” for the first time since we had moved any stuff in. Immediately, Evalyn was SO excited to see her big girl room. Once again, she has surprised me and impressed me with how seamlessly she’s made all of these transitions (again, more on this in another post … can you tell I have a lot to say these days but no energy to actually sit down to say it?).When we arrived, my parents were here to help for the afternoon and were already busy cleaning my kitchen. On Monday, Evan took the day off and we tackled a lot of unpacking and organizing, Monday night, the Aunties arrived and we tackled the kitchen. By Tuesday morning, I woke up feeling fairly impressed with how much unpacking and organizing we’d done in that short amount of time.

Of course, there is still a ways to go. A long, long, long ways. I mean, things might be better once there is a sink in my bathroom. And a door. (Note: if you are coming to visit, pee before you arrive). But, regardless, we have what we need to function and the rest will happen as it happens.

For now, I’m working on things bit by bit and trying to take some time to enjoy the last few weeks of summer as we watch this place transform into our home.

It’s getting there. Starting to feel like home.

As my precious, tell it like it is, almost 2 year old said to me yesterday while playing with her toys, “We at home now. Da new house is my home now".

His. Mine. Ours.

There’s not much to say today other than … finally! Yesterday was a day we have spent years waiting for. There will be lots more to come as the months go by, so for now, this photo will sum it up.

Home sweet home.

The State of Things

We are now less than a week away from the closing date on our first home. Wooooowza. You know, the house I told you about way back when but have rarely talked about since? The one I’ve shown you zero pictures of? Yeah, that one.

Things have been crazy around here trying to get ready. Although, not sure I mentioned it before, we aren’t actually moving next week. The house we bought is a piece of work. A piece of work that is going to be a long, long project for us. And although there are tons of jobs we will want to do eventually, there are a few jobs that we are doing right away. Which will be easier to do before we have all of our stuff and two little kidlets chilling in there. Like floors, roof and painting.

So, we decided to stay here in the apartment until the end of July, giving Evan time to do these tasks before we move all of our furniture in, and also because the move would have meant a change in care providers for me. Something I don’t want to do at 36 weeks of pregnancy.

Regardless, though, I knew it would not be wise to leave everything as is until after the baby arrives, seeing as I will only have somewhere between 3-5 weeks after his/her birth until the official move.

So? I’ve spent the past few weeks packing up all of our non-essentials and getting things as organized as possible to minimize the number of mental breakdowns I have over the next two months. Raise your hand if you’re surprised by this. I hope there are no hands raised.

The plan is to move everything that is packed, plus some pieces of furniture that we’ll be able to do to without, next weekend just after closing and stash it all in the basement/garage until the floors and paint is done.

This plan is all fine and good but let me tell you … it has left things in a state of chaos around here until we wait to get the keys.

But, don’t take my word for it. Let the photos convince you.

And these are just a few. Not every room is pictured. And the four loads that have already been taken to Goodwill are not pictured either.

Boxes. Everywhere. Empty walls. Everywhere. Packing tape. Everywhere. Newspaper. Everywhere.

I’m sure by next weekend when it’s all gone, I’ll strangely miss it since the house will look so empty but I must say, I am looking forward to having it cleared out so I can focus on pulling out baby stuff and getting the last few things in order for his/her arrival. Because, oh yeah, in case you lost track, I will be full term just six short days after we get the keys.

One thing I’ve learned through this process is that we have a lot of crap. A lot. The mere fact that I have been able to pack up more than 20 boxes of stuff that we don’t have an essential need for for three months? That’s gotta say something.

Say a prayer for us as we enter next week, because getting the keys will also mean losing our husband/daddy most evenings and weekends as he works hard to get things in shape for us to move in in July.

And I think it’s been crazy this far?

Updates

I’ve been sparse around here lately. Other than sharing the news about our house and a few little kidlet updates, I haven’t had much to write about. I guess you can say I’ve been living the moments instead of sitting down to blog about them. And by living the moments, I mean grading papers. Because honestly? What’s really kept me away from blogging is the ginormous stacks of papers taunting me. Work has been insane, yo. But speaking of that, first update: I’m almost done. I just picked up my last set of papers today and if all goes according to plan I should have them all done by Friday.

Then? Work is done. Done done done. And I’ll be able to focus on my tot, getting my house packed up, planning for renovations and birthing a child. And the best part? If all goes as planned, I won’t be returning to work for 15 months after s/he is born. Keeping my fingers crossed on that one.

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Next up, I promise I shall post some photos of the new joint soon. I’m starting to get really excited about what we’re going to do with each room. And with every ounce of excitement, comes another pound of anxiety.

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A few months ago I blogged about our horrific pool experience when I took Evalyn back to the pool after a 6 month hiatus? Remember that? Well, what I haven’t blogged about since is that immediately after that I decided to try to kick that fear to the curb and signed her up for swim lessons. We started 6 weeks ago. Today was the first day that she really, really enjoyed it. Sure, it’s gotten progressively better each week, but today was like magic. There was not a single tear. No “all done”s screamed for 30 minutes straight. No “sit down there”s while pointing to the benches on the side of the pool. Just splashing, kicking, following instructions and having fun. Today she even took four turns down the slide, and when she had a positive reaction all of the other parents, who have been witnessing the painfulness for the past month or so, cheered and hoorayed for her. It was sweet. And the best part? As we were pulling out of the parking lot, I heard her little voice from the backseat say, “Mommy? Mommy? Thank you. Thank you swimming”. Melt.My.Heart.

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Another little tidbit about her – this stage? The 17-19ish month stage? THE BEST EVER. Sure, it’s trying. She’s testing the limits. Learning how to assert her independence. Trying to see what’s what. But amidst all of that? She is just so stinking fun. We can have conversations. We sing songs together. We play pretend. And it is amazing. She amazes me and fills my heart in so many ways every day. Like today when I walked in the door after a late evening at work and she ran to me, lifted my shirt and said “Hi my broser! My sitter!”

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I’m now in the single digit countdown for weeks left in this pregnancy. It’s a funny feeling. Like, I feel like the baby will be here in no time at all. Yet at the same time 2+ more months of pregnancy feels like an eternity. Am I the only one who feels/has felt that way?

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I know when I set out to write this post, I had a few more things that I had planned to write updates on. But, of course, I forget what they are. So for now, I’m heading out to watch my belly dance.

Blogland? I need to come clean…

It’s time for me to come clean. I need to ask for your forgiveness. You see, I haven’t been entirely honest with you over the past few weeks. I haven’t been lying to you, per se, but rather, I have been purposefully withholding pertinent information.

Remember a few weeks back when we got food poisoning? And then Evalyn gave us the worst week we’ve ever had with her while she cut eye teeth?

Well, friends, that is not all that was going on during that week. Other big, big things were happening in our family at the same time.

Clearly, I’m already pregnant, so that takes the #1 automatics guess off the table.

Any other guesses?

Yep! You guessed it.

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We bought a house!!

In fact, when I wrote the post about our food poisoning, I mentioned that we were sitting in a meeting when Evan first leaned over to me and told me he wasn’t feeling quite right. That meeting? Was with our realtor where we were putting an offer in on the place we had seen just before. The reason we had the lunch that made us sick in the first place was because we were having a busy day getting ready to go see the house.

And then on the Friday of that week, once we had recovered from that, and were moving on to eye teeth hell, we got word that our offer had been accepted.

It has been a long process since that day, getting everything sorted out and finalized, but now, we’re finally ready to say with confidence that we will be home owners at the end of May.

The house is a fixer-upper, to say the least. I’ll share some before pictures sometime in the near future.

I’m coming to realize that buying a house – especially your first house – is a big deal, folks. A big, big deal. I’m already losing sleep as I spend my nights having nightmares that when we move in we discover that the basement is infested with moles (?) and seeing numbers fly around in my head as we budget for the renovations that we are going to do immediately and those that are going to be saved for in the future.

But, at the same time, we feel so at peace with our decision. Already, even before having the keys in our hands, I can see how God has worked His mighty hand in this whole process – right down to the littlest details. Perhaps that’s another post for another day.

I hope you’ll stick around for the next few months years as we set out on our very first house renovating project. I’m certain there will be ups, downs, laughter, tears, perhaps a small argument or two and many curve balls along the way – and I’ll hopefully be here, documenting it all as we go.

The Bathroom Redo: Before and After

You may remember way way way back when, I posted about our bathroom. I did not like our bathroom. I bought some accessories hoping to spruce up our bathroom. It kind of worked, but didn't change the fact that we had a yellow speckled counter top, mismatched walls and a mint green sink.

The FD has been trying to convince me since we moved in here over three years ago to agree to redoing the bathroom. I always talked him out of it, saying that we wouldn't be staying here that long anyway, so we could just deal with it. Read - I am cheap and did not want to spend money on it.

Well, three something years later, and with no immediate plans to buy a house, we're still here and our bathroom was still hideous in need of improvement. The FD finally convinced me to propose some changes to our landlords and lay out a plan regarding what we'd like to do and what we would be willing to pay for, and what we would ask them to cover. Well, guess what? They agree to the plan and they were gracious enough to offer to pay for the entire thing, plus some extras that we hadn't included in the original plan!

So, a few weeks ago, the dude got to work on renovating the room. It was a crazy few weeks and the house was turned upside down, but now, I am so happy with it. Let me tell you, it is amazing to be married to such a handyman. I found myself in awe so many times at how he worked ... I just cannot understand how one can know how to do all of that stuff. I would seriously be lost.

As of yesterday afternoon, the renovation is 100% completely done so I thought it would be a great time to share some photos.

Unfortunately, the shape and size of the room makes it quite difficult for photos, but I did my best. As you can see, we chose our materials based on the bathroom accessories we already had so that we wouldn't have to buy all new stuff. And, at first, I wasn't sure I loved the way the shower curtain looked against the new floor, but now that all the decorations are back and the hooks/towel bars are hung, I think I like it. Of course, I will probably be on the look out for some new and cute accessories but for now, I think it's just fine the way it is.

So, without further adieu, our bathroom renovation: before, during and after.

Before


During


After


So, whaddya think?