Wednesday, August 29, 2012
24 Weeks
Here's our six month update. Everything's great in there. Getting bigger every day. See for yourself on our bumpdates page!
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Room Reveal: Office - Take One
Hurray! A new room reveal. Finally. About time, right? Turns out the timing is based on necessity. I'm showing you our office today because it's about to be disassembled and moved downstairs. Why you ask? Because this room is ready for the next phase of it's life (and ours!)...it's about to be turned into a nursery! Because of its convenient location on the main floor of the house, next to the master (see our main level floor plan), it will make it easy for us to listen for and accommodate the babe during midnight feedings. The office will be moved downstairs into the new space James built in the past few weeks. But that's a post for another day (soon!). The room is actually a little boring because we never put much effort into decorating. You can see it's lacking artwork. And the curtains never even got hung. Ooops. Oh well, probably for the best since it all would have been changed anyway. So without further adieu, here's our current office enjoying its last few days above ground.
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| The office is located off the foyer on the main level of the house. |
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| The desks are from Martha Stewart Craft Collection in a light grey. Rugs are Ikea. |
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| The Big Mac (ha) is on a swiveling platform so that we can both use it. |
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| Curtains would have looked nice. |
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| The photographs on the wall were taken at the summit of Mount Washington in NH. I gifted them to James during our first Christmas together in 2004. They have seen a lot of different walls throughout the years. We love them. |
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Monday, August 20, 2012
Our Do It Yourself Message Board
As I mentioned in our last post, James and I have been working on a number of projects around the house. This first one we want to share is one I have been after James to work on for months! Once we actually got started it only took a few hours to complete. I've always wanted a chalk board or pin board of some kind and we happen to have the perfect stretch of open wall in the small hallway off our kitchen that leads to the powder room and laundry room. We even have a wall sconce that I've always kind of felt looked pretty lonely hanging on the wall and was just pleading for us to hang something under it. I scoped out a few message boards (here and here) and realized pretty quickly that spending over $100 on something like that was a definite no-go for us. So, we did what we usually do...we made it ourselves instead! I think it turned out pretty awesome. I can't wait to fill out the "honey do" list on there. =)
Material List:
2' x 3' plywood
trim board - we needed about 12' total
cork board
fabric to cover cork board (optional)
wood glue
spray adhesive
chalkboard paint
magnetic primer to make chalkboard magnetic (optional)
wood filler
water based paint to paint frame
picture frame kit (for attaching to the wall)
cabinet pulls to hold chalk (optional)
Equipment:
Table saw (other kinds of saws would probably work too)
Staple gun
Paint brush
James did most of the handy work because being pregnant means I have to stay away from paint (FYI magnetic paint is not water based). The message board is pretty big - 2' x 3'. The first step was to paint several coats of magnetic paint on the plywood followed by several coats of chalkboard paint. James then measured out the trim for the frame and cut corner pieces at 45 degree angles. He used a staple gun to attach the trim to the plywood. We filled in the holes with wood filler and then painted the frame white using water based paint. The upper portion of the message board is cork. We glued fabric to the cork using spray adhesive and made sure the fabric covered cork board fit tight into the wood frame before gluing it into place and securing the last piece of trim underneath the cork. The last step was to attach two cabinet pulls upside down to hold the eraser and chalk.
I found a wire mail holder at HomeGoods last weekend for $18 and we hung it next to the message board. So far it has helped to keep the mail in order and it will be great to hang holiday cards and baby pictures. So there you go. I love the way it turned out and not only is it practical, but it also livens up our little hallway. What do you think? Oh, and for those who were wondering, it cost us about $30 in supplies to make.
2' x 3' plywood
trim board - we needed about 12' total
cork board
fabric to cover cork board (optional)
wood glue
spray adhesive
chalkboard paint
magnetic primer to make chalkboard magnetic (optional)
wood filler
water based paint to paint frame
picture frame kit (for attaching to the wall)
cabinet pulls to hold chalk (optional)
Equipment:
Table saw (other kinds of saws would probably work too)
Staple gun
Paint brush
James did most of the handy work because being pregnant means I have to stay away from paint (FYI magnetic paint is not water based). The message board is pretty big - 2' x 3'. The first step was to paint several coats of magnetic paint on the plywood followed by several coats of chalkboard paint. James then measured out the trim for the frame and cut corner pieces at 45 degree angles. He used a staple gun to attach the trim to the plywood. We filled in the holes with wood filler and then painted the frame white using water based paint. The upper portion of the message board is cork. We glued fabric to the cork using spray adhesive and made sure the fabric covered cork board fit tight into the wood frame before gluing it into place and securing the last piece of trim underneath the cork. The last step was to attach two cabinet pulls upside down to hold the eraser and chalk.
I found a wire mail holder at HomeGoods last weekend for $18 and we hung it next to the message board. So far it has helped to keep the mail in order and it will be great to hang holiday cards and baby pictures. So there you go. I love the way it turned out and not only is it practical, but it also livens up our little hallway. What do you think? Oh, and for those who were wondering, it cost us about $30 in supplies to make.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Project Previews
Ever since we got back from our summer vacation a few weeks ago, James and I have been keeping busy (too busy!) with various projects around the house. I'll be sharing each of these over the next few weeks but to keep me on track I figured I'd share a sneak peek at what we've been up to. In addition to these projects I hope to finish the rest of our room reveals. We still have several more to go including the game room, both guest bedrooms, a full bath, laundry room, our current office, our "new" office (has something to do with one of the photos below!) and eventually our nursery. Lots to get through!
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
22 Weeks
Feeling about the same as last week. Stretching more and experiencing a bit more back pain. After last week's busy running week, I've lost some motivation and only managed to get out for two runs this time around. Oh well. Hoping to stay in the game going into Week 23. Check out all the "bumpdates" here.
Monday, August 13, 2012
New Blog Layout
Hurray! I finally got around to updating our blog layout. No huge changes in content but the layout and design are much improved. Hope it makes for a better viewing experience. Let me know if you find any bugs. Thanks!
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| Yahoo! It's about time! |
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Summer Vaca Part IV: Lake Tahoe
Before I get to my final installment of our vacation recap, I want to go back in time to Part II: Yosemite. I forgot to mention that while we were in the park James and I got our little bean her first books. Can you tell which one I picked out and which was James' pick? Humm...
Going back even further to Part I: Mountain Wedding. I also forgot to mention that James got a chance to go downhill mountain biking at the resort we were staying at with our friends Molly and Greg. He and Greg rented bikes and spent the morning of the wedding biking. Sounds like they had a great time. I'm glad James was able to get on a bike while we were in the Tahoe area or else I might not have heard the end of it. =)
OK, on to Lake Tahoe! This was our last stop on our week long trip. We decided to stay in South Lake Tahoe because it's a little cheaper than lodging on the northern side. I had only been to Tahoe once before and it was in the winter to ski with college friends at Northstar. James had never been. Lake Tahoe is really, really beautiful and SO BLUE! I didn't have it in me to convert any of my photos to black and white and I swear these were only edited with a very light hand. It really is that blue.
We spent some time driving around the lake, finding short hikes where we could explore the coastline. We also rented a motorboat for a morning (James was in heaven!) and toured the lake on the water. It was really stunning and the water was so clean and clear. You could see the bottom of the lake to almost 40 feet! Crazy. On our last day we took the Heavenly gondola up to the top of the ski resort and hiked around the ski trails for a bit. The weather was perfect making for some great views from the top.
On our way back to Reno we took a scenic route and drove around most of the lake, stopping in some of the ritzy towns in north Tahoe. There were some amazing mansions right on the lake! I didn't snap any pictures but I have to think a few famous people have vacation houses in that stretch. They were unbelievable. Our last stop before flying home was the Patagonia distribution center and outlet. One of my favorite places in the world. Our timing was perfect because not only was everything marked down to outlet prices but it was all an extra 40% off for their summer sale! James and the little bean both got winter gear - an awesome jacket for James and a matching down puff suit for the bean! I can't wait to snap a picture of the two of them in the snow.
So that's it. Our big summer vaca is behind us. It was a great trip and probably our last biggie for awhile. As summer winds down we have other things on our plate to think about. Big. Exciting. Things. To. Come!
Going back even further to Part I: Mountain Wedding. I also forgot to mention that James got a chance to go downhill mountain biking at the resort we were staying at with our friends Molly and Greg. He and Greg rented bikes and spent the morning of the wedding biking. Sounds like they had a great time. I'm glad James was able to get on a bike while we were in the Tahoe area or else I might not have heard the end of it. =)
OK, on to Lake Tahoe! This was our last stop on our week long trip. We decided to stay in South Lake Tahoe because it's a little cheaper than lodging on the northern side. I had only been to Tahoe once before and it was in the winter to ski with college friends at Northstar. James had never been. Lake Tahoe is really, really beautiful and SO BLUE! I didn't have it in me to convert any of my photos to black and white and I swear these were only edited with a very light hand. It really is that blue.
We spent some time driving around the lake, finding short hikes where we could explore the coastline. We also rented a motorboat for a morning (James was in heaven!) and toured the lake on the water. It was really stunning and the water was so clean and clear. You could see the bottom of the lake to almost 40 feet! Crazy. On our last day we took the Heavenly gondola up to the top of the ski resort and hiked around the ski trails for a bit. The weather was perfect making for some great views from the top.
On our way back to Reno we took a scenic route and drove around most of the lake, stopping in some of the ritzy towns in north Tahoe. There were some amazing mansions right on the lake! I didn't snap any pictures but I have to think a few famous people have vacation houses in that stretch. They were unbelievable. Our last stop before flying home was the Patagonia distribution center and outlet. One of my favorite places in the world. Our timing was perfect because not only was everything marked down to outlet prices but it was all an extra 40% off for their summer sale! James and the little bean both got winter gear - an awesome jacket for James and a matching down puff suit for the bean! I can't wait to snap a picture of the two of them in the snow.
So that's it. Our big summer vaca is behind us. It was a great trip and probably our last biggie for awhile. As summer winds down we have other things on our plate to think about. Big. Exciting. Things. To. Come!
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