progress - month one

 even leia is ready to move in, but

things are going a little slower than i would like 

at our homestead. 

we have a wall knocked down to open up the 

kitchen to the dining room and

we have the popcorn ceiling scraped off. 

we have also torn down the huge light in the kitchen,

added cans and a fixture over an island,

that has yet to be ordered.

a guy is at our house right now spraying the ceilings and 

ronnie hopes to have them painted this weekend. 

the day before yesterday we ordered flooring and it should

be here in a few weeks.

in the mean time, we would like to get the upstairs trim painted,

take down the wallpaper in brette's bathroom

and get brette's room painted. 

then we can have the carpet and wood floors installed

and (fingers crossed) move in.

that still leaves us with painting the kitchen cabinets,

installing a kitchen island, painting all the trim downstairs,

fixing/painting all the rooms downstairs and tiling the laundry room.

 whew.

i have to keep reminding myself that

its a marathon, not a sprint.

these are the wood floors we ordered.

we are saving $$$ by having ronnie install them.

i would have preferred to just have a team of guys come in a knock it out,

but i can't argue with a better price tag.

our original idea was to replace all the carpet in the house, 

but since the previous owners had just replaced two out of the four bedrooms,

we decided to just match their carpet and finish the other two rooms.

the grey carpet to the right is the one we are matching.

this is the wall that came down.

it separates the kitchen from the dinning room,

which also flows into the living room.

so by opening this up,

i can see all the way through to the front of the house.

 same wall, from the other side.

i'm now standing the dining room

 cale and ronnie just getting started.

 

 it ended up being a bitch to take down

because there was electric, plumbing and return air in the wall.

of course, i pick the one wall that has all three.

ronnie loved me.

 and here it is all done.

we still have to wrap the beam in cedar to make it match

the beams in our living room,

but it made a huge difference in the house already.

the huge light below we took down.

it was my job and fairly easy.

it really opened up the height of the kitchen.

we also took down the pendant in the bay window.

its supposed to go over a kitchen table,

but we have opted to add an island instead.

we're adding different pendants centered over the island 

to allow the kitchen to feel bigger and more open.

good thing i know an amazing electrician. 

we are having a bit of trouble finding an island to order.

they are either crazy expensive,

too big for our space or 

are not made to eat at.

if you have an idea of a place to look, send it my way.

i want something rustic looking. 

we are planning to paint our cabinets green,

so my dream would for it to look like reclaimed barn wood.

 these are two of my favorites, but one is expensive and the other

you can't eat at. wah wah.

so anyway, 

that's where we are at.

i promise to keep the updates coming,

s l o w l y  but surely.

brette update

 

 

since i did a little update about our moving situation yesterday

i thought i'd do another update today,

this time on brette.

i stopped doing my monthly recap when she hit a year,

but she's definitely still changing everyday.

let's see...

her hair is getting long with sweet curls in the back.

we're still fighting cradle cap,

but we bought medicated shampoo so

hopefully it clears up soon.

her eyes are a gorgeous blue.

she has a mouthful of teeth.

so many that i don't even know the exact count.

she's wearing a 4 diaper,

and 12-18 month clothes.

 

she takes milk three times a day:

morning, afternoon and night.

she can hold her own cup

and knows the difference between the ones that you

have to tilt your head back

verses the ones with a straw.

when she drinks out of a sippy cup,

she straight napoleon dynamites it.

its hilarious.

she eats breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack and dinner.

she can sign for "more" now.

that helps the whole grunting-for-more-food thing she does.

currently, i'm working on "please" and "eat."

i would like for her to tell me the difference between

when she's hungry and when she's thirsty.

hopefully that kicks in soon.

we're working on holding her own spoon,

but its awfully messy.

 

her sleep schedule is changing because of my work schedule.

she still sleeps through the night and

has been getting up around 8:00 lately.

since i go to work at noon,

we've started trying to put her down for

only one nap a day while at jaime's.

i'm crossing my fingers she loves it,

because its definitely a game-changer.

yesterday she slept from noon to 2:35.

and was in bed by 8:00.

so far its working.

 

she can point at things in a book when you ask her to.

where is the dog?

where is the cat?

things like that.

she can also point out things on your face.

where are mommy's ears?

where is mommy's nose?

its so amazing to see her grasp language.

i think she understands more than i give her credit for,

but we are constantly talking and labeling what things are.

she likes to take things out and then put them back in.

she'll take all her toys out and then put them back.

or she'll take every dishwasher tablet out of the box

and then put them back in it.

over and over.

some other favorites:

a winnie the pooh book that plays music

stairs - she loves climbing stairs

bathroom/kitchen cabinets

mommy's shoes

her swing hanging from our front tree

bath time

louie

the cable box

(i couldn't turn it on for like a week after she messed with it. its off limits now.)

 

she's a crawling machine and can pull up like a champ, but

we're still working towards walking and i feel like she's

a long way away from her first steps.

we have a meeting with parents as teachers this week

so maybe i'll get some tips.

 

basically, to sum up,

she's my favorite little girl in the whole world.

baby b.

 

 

what's behind door #2

there is technically no need for toys.

oh sure, we have fun playing with all of brette's,

but i'm pretty sure we could get by without them.
toys or toiletries?
she picks toiletries every time. 

brette has a particular fondness for bathroom cabinets.

e v e r y d a y  we play in the bathroom.

over and over she takes out all the items to either

study or put in her mouth.

i have found it very useful when trying to get ready.

she just plays at my feet.

we removed all the cleaning products,

but the rest we let her go to town on.

whatever works, right?

 

 

 

 

 

now excuse me, i have about 200 things to pick up off my floor.

home tour

i thought before i show off my "not quite finished, but still proud of the progress" basement - i could start with a house tour.  ronzo and i bought our house three years ago last spring.  i'm pretty sure we'll be done with all the improvements by our four year anniversary.  we're getting down to the nitty-gritty.

before diving in, i suggest taking a look at the house when we bought it.

not a beauty, but it had definite potential.

ronnie didn't see it.

but i loved it and he took my word for it.

so after a LOT of:

diy - learn as you go - leave it up to ronnie to fix it

we are here...

(the front outside - ranch style home built in 1979)

(the kitchen)

(we actually put in new counter tops, hardware,

and painted all the cabinets white)

(this is standing in front of the fridge looking down the hall.)

(and the double door in the picture above opens up into a laundry room)

(turn back around into the kitchen - the door on the right leads to the dining room)

(dining room.  new paint, new fixture, new wood floors)

(the living room.  everything was painted, including staining those beams.

and at first, the color was yellow from the bottom color of the dining room, but i didn't like it, so we repainted with green)

(this is the point of view of the living room if standing in the dining room)

(looking back into the dining room and kitchen. pay no attention to the halloween decorations or the dog toy in the middle of the floor.)

(in the living room looking toward the entry way)

(the entry way - to the right is the front door and to the left is the hallway leading to all the bedrooms and bathrooms.)

(here's a better look down the hallway.)

(the first door you see above on the right is a linen closet, the second leads to this: the office)

 (and across from the office is our guest bathroom - we tiled everything, added new counter tops and new fixtures)

 (down the hall to the left is the master bedroom and bath - this is an old picture because...)

(we now have a king size bed and new headboard)

ps- this room is in need of some decoration.  it's the last project on my list.

(this shows where the master bath is - don't mind the unmade bed)

(or the dog curled up ready for bed.)



(now our old headboard is in the guest bedroom which is across the hall from the master bedroom)

(our deck - the door outside is in the living room.)

(and here's the last shot - - the back of the house)

so there you have it.  next stop? a tour of the basement. 

sorry for all the crazy pictures - day, night, halloween, spring, but you get the point, yes?