Tree Removal

We had a tree cut down in our front yard today, some pictures courtesy of our neighbor, Betsy:

Hawk Attack

We saw a hawk fly down in the front yard and attack a squirrel today. The hawk then carried it into the back yard. Below are some pictures of the hawk and it retreating after I got the camera out.

2nd Bathroom Completed & 40 weeks Pregnant!

40 weeks!
Foyer is tiled (not grouted in this pic)

2nd bathroom is done!

Daniel has been hard at work. The 2nd bathroom is officially completed. The water is on so the sinks are working and so is the tub. The toilet was either bought messed up or we can't figure out how to get more water in the bowl. It doesn't want to cooperate.

We went to Sam's Club this morning and Wal-Mart and got everything we could think of when people are coming in and out of the house. We were also trying to walk this baby out but she must have her own agenda. Just waiting around for her grand appearance! We'll keep everyone posted as to when she decides to join our family!

2nd Bathroom-Granite Installed

The vanity (minus 2 drawers that will be put back in)

The tile is grouted and installed!

Granite for the vanity

The granite got installed today. It's called peacock green and it's much prettier in person than this picture. The goals this week: get the tub hooked up, turn on the water, and have a baby! All Daniel's hard work is really paying off.

Remodeling Cost vs Value

In the spirit of all our remodels at our house, we found a great website from Remodeling Magazine about the average costs, values, and percentage of the cost recouped from many home remodeling projects:

Remodeling for Raleigh

Remodeling in the US

Guest Bathroom

The tile is in and it looks great!  The morter has to dry for 3 days and then he can put in the grout.  After that, it has a dry for another few days, get sealed, and then we can use the tub!  Wahoo!  I'm ready for a bath!

2nd Bathroom

Our neighbor brought over some flowers!

Daniel the tile man (the tape is to hold the spacers in place & the tile)

Yesterday after he threw in the towel--looking good!

Well it finally feels like spring and I've been doing some spring cleaning! Daniel is working feverishly on the guest bathroom, and I'm trying to get the baby room halfway completed. I'm 38 weeks pregnant and starting to get a little uncomfortable. It's difficult to move around at night and flip over--but I only have a few more weeks. Since we are done with baby showers, we went to Babies R Us today and grabbed a stroller with our giftcards. We also went to target and got some other things that I knew I needed but didn't register for. I think for now we're fully stocked on just about everything we'll need but diapers. I decided not to cloth diaper until she could fit into the all-in-one diapers I already bought--which is at about 12 pounds. I'll still use disposable diapers when we're traveling or when someone is taking care of her (except her daycare which does cloth diapers) unless they want to try it! The hospital bag is mostly packed, car seat is installed and in the car, and the diaper bag is finally all packed. I'm feeling more ready, but I don't think anyone can be quite ready for how this little person is going to completely change our lives. We're looking forward to seeing family when they come to see the baby which could be any day now! Will post a belly picture soon.

Guest Bathroom Progress

Bathroom #2 Progress and More!

Tile in Bathroom
Bathroom

Putting down the tile

35 weeks

It has been a crazy past few weeks. Our jobs are keeping us very busy and on top of that, Daniel's been working VERY hard on getting this house together. Last weekend his co-worker Chris and him laid tile on the floor of bathroom #2. It's beautiful! I can't wait to see what it looks like completed. Also, Daniel put down hardwoods in the guest room and down the hallway. Now we can start moving the guest room furniture into the actual guest room and start setting up the baby room. They moved my due date back to March 27 so I guess I have exactly a month to go!

Things are still fine. I feel great when I wake up but my energy starts to fade around 4-5pm and I start to get tired and worn out. She moves around quite a bit still and I can't believe she's about 16 inches and 5 pounds. I'm not sure how she fits in there! I had a baby shower at work on Thursday and I thought we were going to have to rent a U-Haul to get all our stuff home. I've done two large loads of baby clothes this morning and I still have more to wash. She better enjoy fashion shows because she has lots of clothes to wear. I doubt she'll get to half of them before she's too big. I'm still not eagerly awaiting her arrival because we have so much work to do before she gets here. I am starting to get ready to hold her though and see who's been squirming around for months. Will post more pictures of progress!

Bathtub Progress

Daniel has been working on installing the hardibacker (aka durock, cement board, etc) in the bathtub surround in preparation for the tile.  We decided to include a niche in the tub (for all of Sophia's future shampoo and conditioner for curly hair).

Neighborhood Deer

Daniel got a couple of pictures of the neighborhood deer in the yard of the house across the street from us.  The deer roam the neighborhood and usually go through our neighbor's yard on the way to another house down the street that feeds them.  They've stayed out of our backyard since we got chickens though. 

Foyer Construction

Daniel's been working on putting down hardibacker in the foyer to get ready for the tile.

Before:

Guest Bathroom Progress

Daniel put down hardibacker on the bathroom floor today and sconces on the wall.  Hopefully our tile will come in this week.

Click Here for More Bathroom Pictures

Baby Shower 1/24/10 and Snow 1/30/10

Christian, Rachel, & Monica-College Friends

My best friend of 20 years, Sarah (who flew down from NY)


Mom and Me

MC Girls and fabulous hostesses!

Jessie, Victoria, Me, Margaret, and Elizabeth

Welcome baby!

We had our second baby shower last weekend. Margaret hosted it last weekend at her house and it was lovely. The food was great (thanks to some careful planning and the supper club girls!) and my mom made a very yummy cake. We got plenty of bath time necessities which will come in handy when she gets here. Hopefully by then we'll have a functioning second bathroom. Joy came to the baby shower and brought along her camera, that's why we don't have any pictures of her! That's where all these beautiful pictures came from (www.joylynphotography.com). She's fab in case you didn't know. All in all, it was a really great shower. Thanks Margaret for all your hard work!!

SNOW!

Daniel has been working on the house lately (as usual). He's working on the second bathroom quite feverishly. We ordered our tile for that bathroom and for the foyer last weekend. It was supposed to come in this weekend but I bet all the snow/ice held everything up. We won't have the "tile guy" to come over and help out till the weekend of Feb 20. A co-worker of Daniel's is going to come over and help since he's done many tile projects before. We just have to make sure we have all the supplies. Luckily we won't have to worry about using that bathroom for a while. After the tile is in, we'll have to order the granite for the vanity--then we might just have a working bathroom. It's the little things in life right? We'll post pictures of the progression sometime this week!

Progress!

Pile of wood scraps

Daniel "ripping" the boards for the dining room

The dining room is almost completed!

Living room looking into dining room

Just thought I would share some pictures of the progress that's been made in just the past few days. The living room is finished with laying the hardwood floors. The only thing left is to cut and paint the quarter round, then nail that down. The hardwoods in the dining room should be finished up today. I'm not helping much but I am cleaning! I've been on a cleaning spree since last weekend. The house is finally started coming together a little more, now I feel like I should be cleaning it from top to bottom (and I know I won't get around to it after Sophia's born).

28 Weeks Pregnant!

Well, I am 28 weeks pregnant today. Feeling really good still--just tired from the chaotic work week. Went to the doctor yesterday and they said everything looks good. I talked them into not letting me come back for 4 more weeks (I should be going every 2 at this point) with the promise that if ANYTHING happened, I'd call. Well, with much hesitation he said yes and I went on my merry way, happy that I didn't have to go back there for 4 more weeks. Sweet victory! They said she was "very active." You don't have to tell me. She lives inside my belly which is constantly lopsided or moving around.

Daniel got home last night and has been working on the hardwoods ever since. I took a video of some eggs he found under the shed. 23 eggs in fact! Apparently some of the "girls" have taken a liking to laying under the shed instead of in their nesting boxes. We'll fix that by keeping them cooped up all day tomorrow, which will force them to lay in their boxes.

More Living Room Renovation

Daniel has been hard at work! Yesterday he laid hardwood floors from 10am till 8:30pm with only a lunch and dinner break. It takes a lot of time to lay hardwoods in a room you live in because you have to move furniture from one side of the room to the other. I'm not the best help either right now but I sure did clean--a lot! The first part of the video was around 11am and the second part is from 8:30pm. We hope to get these two rooms completed (the dining room and living room) before February. In February, it's bathroom time since Daniel's friend and co-worker will help with the tile in the bathroom. After that's in, it's smooth sailing and time to lay the hardwoods in the rest of the house. We'll keep you posted.

On a side note, I bought some more cloth diapers. I got happy heiny's this time. They were also rated really high on the diaper blogs I've been reading. They have a velco closure so they are similar to a disposable diaper. They were rated #1 among grandparents and husbands due to ease and familiarity. We'll still use disposable sometimes, but hopefully I can build up a good enough stash so those disposables will be few and far between. I'll post pictures or a video of them when they come in. If you'd like a sneak peak, go to www.happyheinys.com. P.S. My favorite so far is the cow print diaper (of course I had to get one of those!)

Renovation Time!

We bought a pocket camera. The following video is not the best quality in the world but considering this video camera is the size of a cell phone and will be in Sophia's diaper bag, I can't complain too much. It's amazing how far things have come. I remember my mother's HUGE video camera. That thing must have weighed 20 lbs. The video below is a little long and I'm not the greatest videographer, but at least you'll get to see some of the house!

The front living room, 2nd bathroom, and our bedroom.

Hallway Bathroom Construction

Under Construction:

Before: