Project Season Has Returned

Wow, I can't believe it's been 3 months since my last post.  I was doing so well at posting on a regular basis, too.  Oh well, we've been busy this summer with so much, but now we're getting back into "Project Season".    It's like deer season, except at the end of the season we don't end up with deer meat in our fridge.

I'm fairly certain that our next project will be to renovate our kitchen.  We've discussed other rooms in the house, but we use our kitchen area the most, and it will probably be easier to renovate before Ruth becomes mobile and we'd have to chase 2 kids out of the project area.  So, here are the before pictures:

This is looking into the dining area.  We can also see John's Dad's new house out of this window.

Obviously this is the kitchen/cooking area.  The window in the corner looks out onto our barns and the back part of our driveway.  We can also see our neighbors barns in the distance.

I'm very excited to take this wallpaper off.  It really makes the kitchen look dark.

We'll be getting a bigger pantry area, which I'm really excited about!

Baby Girl's "Room"

As I've said before, since my parents are going to be here for a few weeks following Baby Girl's birth, we decided to keep the guest room as a guest room for now.  When Henry was a baby we had him sleeping in a small pack 'n play for the first 2-3 months of his life, so I can only assume that we'll do the same for Baby Girl.  With that in mind, there's no need to move Henry into his big boy room, just to have the nursery empty for a few months, and my parents sleeping in the living room.  

So, I've made room for her in our bedroom.  I cleared out half of my closet for her clothes that would need to be hung.  She has 3-4 drawers in my dresser just for her things.  The top of my dresser has now become a changing station.  And her pack 'n play (with bassinet feature) has found a home at the foot of our bed...We may have to move the location of the pack 'n play because as my son likes to watch cartoons on our bed, I can already see him trying to climb into the pack 'n play, etc.  We'll see how that works, though.  

In this corner, there is a small portable swing and play mat waiting to be used by Baby Girl W.

We chose an elephant themed room, bedding purchased from Carter's.  

This is the quilt that came with the bedding.  So cute, and I love the bright colors!

Overall House Update

With 7 weeks left to go of this pregnancy I've been in "nesting" mode for the last 4ish days.  Basically, I've been organizing and decluttering the main parts of the house, and also getting Baby W's stuff ready for when she arrives.  

This is the office/play room/exercise room.  We just recently moved the black desk and treadmill up here from the basement and I like the way it has turned out.  

This is a view from the other side.  The baby swing won't be staying in this room, I just need John to carry it up to the next level for me.

I just had to post a picture of our living room.  I cleaned/decluttered this space 3 days ago, and yesterday it still looked pretty much the same.  Last week it was filled with toys everywhere!

Now, this is what our basement looks like.  If you scroll down and look at past pictures of this room, this is a huge improvement.  As I said before this will be our next indoor project, and I can't wait to get this room gutted!

A view from the other side!

Basement: Before & Some Progress

So, since we have moved into this house we have done NOTHING with the basement.  Well, except for throwing things down there.  We've determined that this area should be our next indoor project.  Now, at this point in time I can't say exactly when John will be starting on this project (especially since we're only 7 1/2 weeks away from having another little one), but for now we are taking baby steps to get it cleaned out.

The following photos were taken on April 15, 2012:

These photos were taken this morning, May 24, 2012:

So, like I said, we're taking baby steps, but it's already looking better.  We do have a pile of boxes/totes to go through in the corner, but that should be an easy organization activity.  And the treadmill, desk and jumperoo will be moved to the next level of the house.  The wooden dresser in the middle of the room will be going as well.  I'm not sure where it will be going, but it's not staying here.  :)

Outdoor Project: The deck is done!

We cut back on the landscaping space, because we would rather have more grass for the kids to play in, so we're still going to have wait for that grass to gown in.  

I love this area of the deck.  The deck before didn't have access to this side of the yard, so it was a bit inconvenient to walk down the original stairs and then walk around to get to this side.  And since we have this huge tree it provides tons of shade of our dog Wallie, so he can be outside longer without getting scorched from the sun (he's usually put on a leash that is attached to a stake in the ground).

And here are some inside views of the deck...

We used it this past weekend for Henry's birthday party, and it was so nice!  The afternoon/evening sun does beat down on you for the most part, so we just put up a tent to provide more shade for everyone.  On a regular basis, we probably won't need the tent except for special occasions.

Outdoor Project: Deck Done! (pretty much)

This is where the hot tub used to be...now we have so much more space for entertaining!

New stairs...

New stairs...

The best feature of all...built in slide for the kids!  It's already been used a few times and they LOVE IT!

Henry's Room: Redone!!!

After much deliberation we've decided to hold off on switching Henry to a new room and bigger bed.  My parents will be coming back to visit when the baby is due and they plan to stay for 3-4 weeks.  Right now we don't have another space to put them in where they would be comfortable for that length of time.  So, for now, we're keeping the guest room as a guest room, Henry will stay in the nursery and Baby Girl W will sleep in our room for the first 2-3 months (just like Henry did).  We'll probably convert the crib to a toddler bed (which only means removing one side of the crib, and adding a bed rail), but for now it will stay in crib form.  We're running out of time to prepare for the baby and not having to worry about creating a comfortable space for my parents to stay has taken a lot of stress and pressure off of the situation.  

So, I decided to use most of the decorations that I had already purchased for Henry's new room to redo his current room.  I could definitely add some extra touches here and there, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

He has a ton of stuffed animals (that he doesn't really play with), so I thought about displaying them in this corner because it is lacking "something".  I thought about getting one of those mesh hammocks specifically for stuffed animals, but they aren't as easy to find as I thought they'd be.  

I moved this shelf cube over by his bedroom door to keep his toys and books easily accessible.  Before they were in a corner by his crib and it was difficult to reach all of the cubbies.

This corner is pretty much the same.  Eventually we'll move the rocker out of his room since we'll need it for Baby Girl, but it's fine where it is right now.

This shelf was in the other corner, so it was moved to this corner and I think it works pretty well there (not that it's much of a difference from the other corner).

AND, take notice of his new chair that I ordered from Potterybarn Kids.  He seemed pretty excited about it, but hasn't really used it much since.  But let's face it...it is just a chair and doesn't really do anything like his trucks and tractors do!  I think it's pretty nice, though!

Outdoor Project: Deck Progress

Removal of original deck boards

New boards in place

We removed the hot tub since we had one before and rarely used it, so now 

we have more surface area for entertaining.

Since we have small children we will be installing a railing around the perimeter of the deck to keep our kids from wandering off.  There will be 2 sets of stairs that will have locking gates to make sure the kids can't get out.  Not to mention we have 2 dogs, so when they want to get out of the house they can and we won't need to watch them to make sure they don't run off.  

Somewhere at the end of our deck we are planning on installing a plastic slide (one that you'd see on a regular swing set) for the kids to play on.  We'll also install a gate at the top of the slide so that the slide isn't used unsupervised.  Hopefully this plan works out for us because I think the kids will have a blast!

Past the deck (under the lowest tree branch in the picture) is a square shaped fire pit for those nice summer nights roasting marshmallows for s'mores.  I'd like to get some more outdoor furniture to provide some comfy seating, but we'll see.  Maybe we'll hit up the after season sales later this year!

Outdoor Project: Deck

My father in law built this deck about 20 years ago.  In the open space at the middle they used to have an above ground pool, but gave that away to the neighbor a number of years ago. 

This is the before picture taken about a week ago, before my husband got "dig everything up" happy.  I'm not complaining at all (it will be nice to have a somewhat fresh start), but it did surprise me a little.

This is the deck/back side of the house as it stands this morning. 

The view from our bedroom window.  Don't mind the glare, I didn't open the window. 

After lunchtime progress...

Mini Project: Closet Organization

Now that we've done all of my requested projects before Baby Girl W arrives, I have time to do my mini projects. Today I decided it was time to reorganize a few closet areas.

This is the cabinet next to our upstairs bathroom.  The top shelf and a half's contents belong to my father in law, which he left for us. 

I moved my father in law's belongings to another closet for the time being.  Things he left were some family photo albums, a projector, and some puzzles.  I am currently storing my wedding dress on the top shelf, so that it will be in a safe place. 

This is the closet next to our downstairs bathroom.  When we moved in I didn't do anything with it (i.e. clean, organize, etc.).  So, it really needed to be organized. 

It will store my father in law's belongings, lightbulbs, cleaning supplies, toilet paper, paper towels, games, etc...and whatever else needs a home behind doors. 

I also didn't do anything to the shelves in the laundry area when we moved in, so it was time that I tackled this area as well.

My father in law also left this recliner for us.  While it's not my style, it does provide a nice place to sit down to take shoes off or put them on.  I didn't really like it's location in the room, so I pushed it a few feet over to get it out from in front of the washer/dryer. 

Shelves cleaned and organized!  Some of the things on the top shelf also belong to my father in law.  Not sure what to do with them, yet, so for now they can stay there. 

More room in front of washer/dryer!  I also need to take down the plaid curtains, but the rod is not that easy to take off and this pregnant lady needs to rest.  Overall I'd say I had a pretty productive day (and it's only 1:30)!