Quick & Dirty Kitchen Update

Our kitchen was not on either one of our radars just yet. We want to knock out a wall and expand, clear everything out and start from scratch. However, out of everything growing in our ridiculously overgrown yard, a money tree is not one of them (ha!) so we decided to make a little upgrade that made a big difference for us.

Since I spend the majority of my time in the kitchen, I was totally over the yellow and white gingham wallpaper. Here's how it's looked for the last year and a half.

Once again, old owners stuff. You can see the bad yellow wallpaper though.

That border. Can't believe I lived with it like this for so long!

There were a few reasons we thought we might do a little update. With my job change, I got the gift of two days off in between jobs. Since I can't ever relax and love to be busy, I knew I had to capitalize on two free weekdays. The second is that we're having a big party at our house in a few weeks for my brother and his fiance, so we thought, "let's just see how hard it is to take the paper down and maybe we'll make it nice for the party." So, on a random Tuesday night, without doing much thinking, I stood on a chair and started ripping. It came off in huge sheets! That was encouraging.

Then, we started on the border. We quickly realized that removing the border was going to be terrible. There was another border underneath, and awful bright blue paint. We couldn't get the first border off because it was put directly on sheetrock, so I primed several coats to cover it. You would never know it was there.

The two borders side by side.

This border was the only one we thought existed. It's scored here and ready for stripping. To strip, we score, use DIF concentrate or Piranha concentrate, then a steamer. It was still pretty slow going.

The border and paint waiting underneath. Seriously? Who would have chosen this? Who would say "Oh, perfect! There is a hen, a whisk, a lady holding a frying pan, mushrooms and a chicken. SOLD!!!"

This was the area where the yellow gingham had been living. Even freshly stripped walls looked so much better. 

After everything was finally stripped, Brian spent an entire afternoon sanding the walls. While they don't look perfect, they actually have a small texture on them that is kind of appealing. The only problem was that it soaked up primer. I had to prime three times before I could paint, and kitchens have a lot of trim!

One of the things I was most excited about was removing the gigantic rotary-dial phone that was taking up vital counter space next to the sink. After whacking with a hammer, unscrewing, tugging, etc. over several days, it finally took my dad coming over and removing it for us. It left a gaping hole in the wall, but Brian is a master at covering this stuff up, so I wasn't too worried. 

Saying goodbye!

Since this was not a completely planned project, and I wanted to keep things cheap, I planned on using some leftover Benjamin Moore Gray Horse paint from the nursery. But, I checked and realized I didn't have enough so I would have to buy paint anyway. After doing some Internet research for about 10 minutes, I settled on Sherwin Williams Repose Gray. Emily Henderson, one of my favorite designers, called it the perfect shade of "French Country Gray" - I just LOVE it. One of my favorite colors to date. It's lovely in person. Not too blue, not too green. I didn't paint the cabinets or trim, saving us some time and effort.

Here's the after, nice and fresh! 

I actually painted that lovely painting above the sink a few years ago. Ha!

Would you EVER know a phone was there? or a big hole? Joint compound will cover just about any imperfection, although you will get best results if you sand the area down first. You can find it in the paint section.

I ordered a bay window curtain rod from Amazon and got some Target curtains at $15/panel. 

Some free online printables that say "Roll with it" and "Be Grateful" in cheap black frames.

This will definitely hold us over until the big redo happens. For me, it was worth the 3-4 days work and about $100 price tag when you add it all together. I am enjoying it much more and keep going in and turning on the light to look at it. I would say that's a success!

Hall Bathroom Update

This update is long overdue :)

Our hall bathroom is finally finished. What a nightmare! What we thought would take 8 days, took over three months, but we are very happy with the results.

We had not planned to makeover this bathroom. However, the shower pan went out and leaked water into our downstairs living room. We had an insurance adjuster come out, and we realized we were going to have to tear most of it out anyway. So, after many months of leaving it like it was (this happened in December), with a hole in our ceiling and bathroom floor, we finally took the plunge and the bathroom renovation began. Here's the damage on the ceiling above the bathroom. A nice hole in the ceiling and some rotted wood in between floors.

We hired a contractor because the job was over our heads. The contractor was terrible, but we all made it out alive. Tearing something down to the studs and rebuilding it, moving plumbing and electrical, is definitely not something we wanted to do, so we had to hire someone. He took SO long and didn't communicate. He would show up like twice a week with workers.

The bathroom is in the upstairs hallway and will serve Preston and (hopefully) another child one day, and also guests. Here are the before pictures of the bathroom.

This is a pic from when we first looked at the house, with the old owners stuff.

I always liked this custom curved cabinet, but in the redo it had to go.

One night, Brian took down the wallpaper in about 15 minutes. 

This bathroom had a walk in shower, but no tub.

It had a custom built cabinet under the sink which I hated to take out, but had to do it for the greater cause. :) The contractors removed the divider wall that separated the sink and closet from the stall shower and toilet. This allows much more room for multiple people to use the space. We put in a double vanity, a soaking tub, 13" floor tile, subway tile around the shower, Delta faucets throughout, added sconces over the vanity, new toilet, and created a deeper closet space. We added 18" to the room by going into the guest bedroom. I know taking away bedroom space is a big no-no, but it is still a good size room with a walk-in closet. We had guests over, who told us that you would never know that we took away space. That made me happy, because I kind of agonized a little over that.

It was dark, so pictures were hard, but this is when they first started.

New floor going in!

Subway tile installed

And the after! Benjamin Moore Nantucket Gray on the walls. Love the color. 

Double sinks with limestone counters. 

Delta plumbing fixtures throughout.

New toilet

Nice big closet. It's hard to tell from the pic, but you can fit two regular size hampers on the floor, below the first shelf.

So nice and open now!

The cabinets have the slow shutting feature. Love that with Preston.

Much better! Glad to cross this room off of our list.

18 Months

I just realized I never did an 18 months post for P! He has been 19 months old for two days, so here is what he is up to these days.

Dear Preston,

At your check up a month ago, your stats were:
Weight: 26.6 lbs (50th percentile)
Length: 32.5 in (50th percentile)
Head: 75th percentile

What an age. I LOVE this age. It's these days that I am thankful for an extremely hard newborn and infant. I tell people this all the time, but when you FINALLY stopped crying nonstop from his colic and reflux at around 6 months old, FINALLY started sleeping and taking naps at 7 months old, and FINALLY stopped projectile spitting up at 11 months old, I felt like I had mastered parenting. :) We attended your cousin's baptism recently - you won't see anything about your baptism because we had a purple-faced, blood curdling screaming infant that everyone was afraid of. haha! ;) Case in point:

May 2011. Brian's face is priceless. I might be smiling, but I was pouring sweat!

It's these days I can look back, pat ourselves on the back for getting through it, and enjoy you - our precious, all-boy toddler.

Disclaimer - I work at a children's hospital - for a little while longer anyway - and I know very well that it could have been much worse. We had a healthy baby, and that was most important.

I say all of this, because I think being put through the ringer that first year gave me the beautiful gift of living in the moment and enjoying what comes as it comes. As our pediatrician says, it made me "the perfect toddler mom." It taught me to be brave, flexible, and gave me the perspective I needed. I was just telling some friends lately that I feel like a much tougher (non-weak) person since becoming a mom. I'm amazed at the patience you are teaching me, son. For me, toddlerhood is pure bliss.

He loves this toy he got from his Nannie!

Here are just a few of the things I love about you lately:

• You can sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Jesus Loves Me, and a few other songs. But no matter what song, you always end with "eeee iiii eeee iiii oooooooooo".
• You can count "1, 2, 3, 2, 5, 7...." We are still working on it. :)
• You can say so many words. Everyday a new word comes up. You told me you were "happy!" the other day and it melted my heart. You're most recent phrases are "awesome!" and "yay football!" :)
• You're starting to switch from mama and dada to mommy and daddy.
• You can name every character on Sesame Street and most of the characters on Yo Gabba Gabba.
• You are rowdy at school and have to go to time out fairly frequently. Mainly for pushing or hitting. They are teaching you to be gentle with your friends. Of course, being a worrier, I wanted to talk to the teacher more about this. When you get over-stimulated or super excited about something, you basically go crazy. As your teacher said - "He has loads of energy!" You'll show this by throwing toys, hitting, pushing or "acting out" all in the name of fun. You'll usually laugh as you're doing it.  All we can really do is watch you and make sure you don't hurt people, and teach you that gentle is the way to go.
• You've got a mouth full of teeth. You have most of your molars, and there are only a few holes left. I had no idea teething was going to last two entire years. We will be very happy when you have them all!
• You have always loved books, but now you really love them. You're always bringing us books, and you have some of you favorite books memorized. You "read" them to us!
• We were dancing with him in the playroom the other day, and for the first time, you jumped with both feet leaving the ground at the same time and said "jump! jump! jump!" These are the little things parents notice and get a major thrill from!
• You are getting physically stronger. You can go up and down the stairs by yourself (although we stay right next to you for safety), climb up and down off of furniture on your own, and even try to climb over gates. 
• You're still an awesome eater. So thankful for that! Not a picky bone in your body and you are NEVER full. We have to watch portions or you will make yourself sick. 
• You are strong willed and pretty stubborn. I don't think that is just you being a toddler either. ;)
• You love art and music. You do an art project and sing songs everyday at school, and your teacher says you just light up when it's time for both activities. You can also carry a tune - could you have inherited our musical genes? 

Showing off some of that lovely toddler attitude!

This is how I play with my toys now - dangerously. 

Ikea special... he loves this thing.

Eating one of his favorites - strawberry yogurt!

"You're bring very sneaky, mommy..."

Preston, you are SO FUN. You light up any room and are just pure joy. Your daddy and I love you more than you'll ever know. We love watching you learn and grow. It is so neat to hear you say words and express yourself. The connections you make to things at this stage are just fascinating and of course, your daddy and I think you are BRILLIANT. We love your personality and your spunk for life. Thank you for making us laugh and for teaching us things, too. Happy year and a half. We love you, Preston!