Nursery #3

We are in the home stretch before Baby 3 graces us with her presence. We’ve been tinkering on this room for months and months.

We’ve had quite a rocky start to 2018, but trying hard to persevere.

We lost my dad to a short (but incredibly fierce) battle with Cancer. He was one of my very best friends, and transitioning to a new life without him a phone call or short walk away is proving itself to be quite difficult. But — we are trying hard to persevere.

While waiting in between doctor visits, hospital visits, and long days at home by his side we’d talk about what to name this new Baby of ours. We knew his prognosis wasn’t good, and we knew he wouldn’t be able to meet his newest grandchild, so it was very important to me that while he was still with us and cognitive, that he was part of naming her.

It’s no surprise the importance that whatever name we decided on weighed heavily on the idea on honouring him.  He was a man full of faith, full of love and spirit — so come June we will be welcoming Grace into this family. Grace really encompasses a lot of the feelings towards my Dad, and most of important of all, it means to Honour.

I miss this man more than I can ever explain, but the memories and impressions he left will last forever and ever.

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There was debate about what we were going to do when we found out we were expecting No.3. Do we get bunkbeds for the other 2? Do we share room A or room B? Do we put the newborn in with one of the “big” kids? Do we finish the basement bedroom? Do we put the baby in our closet?

Yep– we put the baby’s room in our closet. Seems logical.

We had been using the closet, as well, our closet. So we needed to do SOMETHING to put all of our clothes…

IKEA to the rescue! We changed around the orientation of our bedroom to accommodate IKEA’s PAX wardrobe system. OMG. It’s the best thing ever.

If you’re still hung up that we are putting our baby in a closet…let’s get one thing straight. Our closet is not your typical closet. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

 

 

In Da Club.

Our latest project is done (well, at least 90% done, which as you know is our MO).

Off of Charlie’s bedroom is a small bonus room. It used to have a door which lead to a small platform. When we had our roof redone, the platform was interfering with the integrity of part of the roof we, we had it removed. SO now, we had a door that actually lead to nothing but some broken bones.

So, we when we had the windows replaced in the house, we had them convert the door to another window.

With the many issues of the roofers we used, this room also had lots of water damage done to the ceiling. SO, that needed to be replaced. There used to be a small closet in this bonus room, too, but we opted to take it down to get some more space.

We thought this room was going to be a quick fix (rookie mistake), but all in all it worked out as the extra work lead us to some wires that were rubbed bare and a fire waiting to happen. SO that was remedied in a hurry.

Once we got all the major headaches out of the way it was just some paint, some laminate flooring, and some cute kid accents to make this room transformed into a super fun kid hang out.

I wish it were my office!

 

 

I present to you; The Mudroom.

This has been a long work in progress. The plans will that this mudroom will serve as the main entrance for the house for the family (read: school years). For a couple of reasons…

1. we put on a code padlock, so no need for keys and lost keys and forgotten keys and i accidentally ate my key keys (I can see it happening..)

2. Our main entrance, though equipped with a front hall closet, doesn’t lend itself for a lot of drop-your-stuff-space. If we fast forward life a bit, I wanted a designated area and easy access for school bags, muddy rain boots, running shoes, dog leash and accessories (read: poop bags. All the poop bags), ALL THE HATS AND MITTS (oh my gosh.), etc. So you know….by very definition, A Mudroom.

When we moved in, the porch off the kitchen was a touch worse-for-wear. The wooden beams everything was rotting, not insulated, was sinking, and was basically a mouse hotel. While we did the kitchen reno, I mistakenly loaded up the back porch -which then had lots of build in shelves and storage – with dry goods. Well, a day later when I opened up the pantry to grab some crackers EVERYTHING was shredded. And eaten. And pooped on. So that was nice. Enter mouse traps— exit an entire family history of mice. Sorry guys, but, you asked for it.

So from then on that room until we could give it some attention became a bit of a drop-zone for stuff. But once the weather warmed up…

• down came the walls
• new window
• new door
• new walls
• insulation
• new floor supports
• new floor
• new light fixture
• upper shelving/”cubbies”
• Bench w/ storage
• Magnetic display

Keep in mind, this was about a 2 year project. Because it wasn’t something like a kitchen reno where it NEEDED to be done to have your day-to-day life function, we just picked away at it as both money and time allowed.

Initially we had some contractors quote out to do the cubbies/bench/storage solution. But….it came with a hefty price tag. We were willing to pay for the work to be done, but also had a budget. Those quotes…well, they blew up our budget. Like…exploded. So…what else to do but turn to Ikea…and make it so.

We got all the shelving from ikea. We spaced out the upper shelves and then put in fake face plates to make it look super custom. Still need to do that on the bottom unit, but…time. Added a strip of Crown Moulding to the top and bam. Custom cubbies at a fraction (f.r.a.c.t.i.o.n.) of the cost.

For the bench, we had a long strip of foam custom made and cut for us. Then I got some outdoor fabric (60% off ….woop!) and covered the foam cushion. THIS WAS EASY. Seriously– no sewing skill at all needed. Barely any skill needed, really.  So we had the wooden base for the bench, the cushion, and fabric. Lay down the fabric good side down, put the cushion down and centred, topped with the wood. Pull the fabric up one side at a time and staple. Boom. Done.

The Magnet Wall, is quite simply a metal sheet with moulding attached to frame it. What’s better about this is the metal was left here in the house, AND the trim was leftover from another project. So this cost us virtually $0.

For the baskets up top…ugh. Don’t get me started. You’d think for an Ikea shelf that ikea boxes/bins would exist. Well, sure, they DO, but not the size I wanted. They needed to be big enough to hold a fair amount of hats/mitts/etc but I didn’t want them to overhang the shelf. I was very picky about the boxes. One night I went to 5 different stores but couldn’t find anything that I was happy with. So, you’ll be surprised to discover the end result were diaper boxes covered in raw canvas….

 

 

 

 

 

Catching Up.

Our days are packed and we are pretty busy people, and apparently 3 year olds live pretty social lifestyles for us to keep up with. The household of  a young family is undoubtedly a busy one. That paired with orders coming in for freelance and my small etsy shop— there’s not a lot of time left in our days. But, with that time that’s left we tend to tinker on the projects in the house. It is kind of like our downtime, as backwards as that may be.

So, that being said, we have been playing a bit of catch-up with some things around here.

SEWING & CRAFTING & STAIRWELL.

Whenever I was going to break out the sewing machine, I had to lug it into the dining room to set up. Set up was annoying. To reach a plug I had to either hunt for the extension cord or shimmy the table closer to the wall. I would have to dig out my cutting mat stored under the couch, then gather up all the supplies that were squirrelled away. Then to clean up again, which lead to putting things away when I was tired and not at all interested in putting things back properly so enter: losing all sorts of things and/or screwing up any organization I had done with a fresh state of mind.

The idea was to eventually make a sewing/crafting room in the basement tied in with the laundry room. It was a Saturday morning while changing loads of laundry that I looked around and decided “no time like the present”. Rob came home from morning errands to find me shuffling furniture around things torn apart.

We had shelving units and an empty table and it was just becoming a breeding ground  for STUFF. And I’d rather sort through the STUFF (toss or otherwise) and get this sewing room under control. So we cleared things out, raised (and painted!) a shelving unit for it to be a better height for cutting etc, painted and plopped up some peg board, ta-da!

As for the stairwell, Rob patched up all the holes still leftover from the electricians from when we first moved in. And we (okay, he) painted it and then for a little variety, painted the ceiling bright (bright.) green. Because, why not? It’s a hallway. Have fun.

 

PANTRY & MILKBOX.

We painted the stairwell & pantry white. And while painting decided to give the shelves inside a little facelift & tummy tuck.

Super simple: resident wrapping paper, glue, water, tape. Done.

Same idea with the pantry, except substitute in scrapbooking paper and no need for tape. Easy makeover just because.

 

** MORE PICS & INFO OF THE REC ROOM BELOW, REMEMBER CLICKING ON PICS MAKES THEM BIG**

 

 

REC ROOM.

Finishing touches galore! Trim up! Quarter round up! Photos up! Shelves and toy storage, done! TV up! Heating Plate Up! Revived shelving unit done! We now spend a LOT of time down here. The kiddos love it.

Where did Summer go?

I have been out of school for some time and I don’t yet have children in school to re-experience summer, but man…it went fast!

So fast that I don’t think we did one blog post. Maybe we did. But I’m feeling far too lazy to go back and check when the last post was.

We had the entire house outfitted with brand new windows. Oh my gosh. Best decision. The ability to get breezes in the house and fresh air is just the best. Our front porch was all glassed, like a sun room. Though it’s nice in the winter to have an enclosed area acting as a primer before going out into the frigid, I still thought I’d prefer it opened up again. So, while the windows were being installed, we had him take out the biggest pane of glass and then we finished off the job. It’s way easier bringing in the groceries and stroller not having a door at the very top step that’s for sure.

I love it. We spend way more time out there now than we did when it was closed in. Rob also installed an outdoor ceiling fan to keep bugs at bay and a continuous breeze-a-comin’. We need to change out the flooring on the porch because it won’t withstand the extra moisture/dirt/snow/ice/salt it will now be exposed to. The next debate is now to paint the front door or not. The verdict is still out. (…but it will probably be yellow…)

However, those lovely breezes aided a bat family to find their way in the house. Hooray! Except not at all hooray. And of course they were always discovered swooping over our heads between the hours of 1 and 4 in the morning. So it was totally convenient.

It’s been a busy summer of bigger & necessary projects (re: window replacement and bat removal & prevention) so haven’t had as much time to do the fun things.

We’ve been picking away at the basement rec room as well as the office. Happy to say the office is done! Okay– we need to put the curtains back up…but a project done by us wouldn’t sound right it was anything but 90% complete!

The basement is looking amazing. So in love with it. And it’s been a great spot to head during the super hot summer we’ve had. All that’s left there is hanging (…and purchasing) a TV, hanging up artwork, and then the baseboards. You know, all that 10% stuff!

We kept 3 of the old windows from the office and are going to hang them up above the counter. It’s a good solution because that wall has been bare for far too long.  The office’s theme was basically wood. But nothing matched. The wooden desk was a different wood than the floor, which was different than the trim, which was different than the counter, which was different than the beams up top. SO lots of wood. So, to break up the wood, we painted the shelving unit (colour: Denim Blue by Behr) as well as the top slab of the desk. Also added some new handles on the shelving unit. Ta-Da!

As for the next creative/fun project, I think we’re going to get another set of engineering prints done and put them up in the old glass windows now in the office. We’ll see.

More to come including the befores/during/afters of the basement.

Enjoy the last few days of summer!

A wee update

With this wonderful weather we have been having we’ve been so busy out-and-about that some of our house projects have just been touched on, rather than tackled.

And you know what, that’s okay.

The garage doors are complete! huzzah! Two matching and functional doors. Slapped with a fresh coat of paint for the siding.

Rob has had his hands busy and dirty in the basement. Ceiling is in, taped, mudded, and painted. Walls are all primed and painted. We had new windows installed and super pleased with how they turned out. After picking up the last load of pallets, Rob finished the wall. Looks great! We just can’t decide to stain it or not, so for a now, we are going to leave as is and change later if we feel it still needs it. Carpet was ordered today and should go in next week if we’re lucky.

I had purchased a canvas and it’d been sitting blank for too long. So, on calm & quiet evenings, I hauled out the painting supplies and go to it. We hung it in the stairwell on the tall, tall, wall.

We also gave our back deck a bit of a facelift. It’s built super sturdy but we wanted to freshen ‘er up. So we did a quick & inexpensive fix, but it really does transform it to look totally new and refreshed. Who would have thought wood could be described as refreshing. Well, feast your eyes on this refreshing stack of wood.

As far as this thing known as “Parenting”, we have been having a hard time at bedtime for a few weeks. I’m not sure if it’s the brightness of day, the amount of time we are spending outside, her age, the grass being green, it being a day ending in ‘y’, or what. Likely a combo of all of the above. She gets her stories at bedtime, then a book for her bunny. The idea is that when she is done reading to bunny she then goes to sleep. It’s what we’ve always done.

But now it’s her talking and singing and talking and singing and rolling around, and needing a drink of water, then more talking and more playing, and more requests for water. She’s happy and content– but we’re talking some nights this happens for 2 hours passed her bedtime. So hopefully this will pass. My biggest worry is making bedtime a negative experience. I mean, she’s up there singing to her bunny and then here I am, the mean one, beckoning that it’s bedtime, not playtime, and stop having fun, and close your eyes, and “I better not have to come back up here one more time….” There have been a couple trying nights, and then me feeling super incredibly guilty for making bedtime a negative thing so much that at midnight I crawled into her bed to sleep because of my mom-guilt. Oh my goodness with the mom-guilt.

Other than that, we’ve been just enjoying one another, and getting oot-n-aboot.

 

 

 

 

All My Bags are Packed…

We’re ready to go! To the hospital, that is! We are at 5 days before the due date of Baby #2.  There are a lot of loose ends (at least, feels like it) to get done before Baby makes their big debut.

Last year, for Ellie’s FIRST birthday, I wanted to make her a “Quiet Book”. (Google it if you’re confused). Well, that never happened. So then it was going to be just “because”. Well, that never happened either. This was always a project that I was working on in the background. Making a page here or there, thinking of ideas here or there. But never really sitting down and hardcore committing any great amount of time to. The idea then morphed into Christmas gift…then 2nd Birthday gift; neither happened. SO I had to give myself an actual deadline to stick to or else this book would never get done. New deadline: The new Baby’s gift to Ellie when she comes to the hospital (okay, fine, semi-bribe to like the new addition haha). WELL…goal achieved! Hooray!

You can definitely tell the pages that I did late at night and losing steam/ambition. BUT IT’S DONE. I got a little backpack for her to hold the book and threw in some stickers and play-dough in case she thinks the book is a complete bore. But play-dough and Frozen stickers will always win! So her backpack is now packed and ready at the door.

 

Next on my list of things I wanted to get done before Baby arrives was painting our staircase as a gradient. There are MANY things in these home renos that I am not much help at, or can do solo. Rob is the in-charge guy and Mr. know-how. Don’t mistake that as an unwillingness to learn, mind you. But this staircase I had fully planned on doing 100% myself. Time went on and then I realised how close we were to the due date. I picked out the paint, purchased it, theeeeen I had a run-in with a not to comfortable, er, ailment, with this pregnancy that left me on the couch for way too many days than I would have liked. I learned how much I really can’t stand sitting still. So Rob, knowing I had wanted to finish it before rushing to the hospital was kind enough to do it himself. I know, I know…but he’s taken.

I always thought these gradient staricases looked neat, and a great way to add some colour and fun without being too committed if it didn’t turn out. That’s the best part about paint– if you don’t like it, it’s easy to go back or change your mind.

We bought a quart of the dark turquoise and Rob did one step at a time. 2 coats per stair, then would go mix in some white, apply 2 coats to the next stair, step and repeat. Now this left us with a TONNE of paint at the end (after adding in all the white). Looking back we would have done it the other way around, add dark to light. But live and learn.

What was next? The back Kitchen Porch, AKA Summer Kitchen, AKA MudRoom AKA…Room from Hell. For anyone that has been following this reno has been quite extensive. What we thought was going to be a weekend project has turned into 6 months and counting. But, that’s always the way it goes. When you look behind covered walls, problems are bound to present themselves. You know, if you think the foundation sinking and soft rotten wood are “problems”.

It’s shaping up, though! Rob has done a great job. Since jacking up the building in the summer and re-framed all the walls, he put up the drywall, mudded, taped, painted,  chiselled off all the plaster to expose the brick wall, laid in flooring, painted/white washed the flooring.   We decided to follow this tutorial for the flooring and add a slight white-wash. Beside the cabinet we are going to build in a bench seat with a cubby per person in the house to hold our coats, shoes, etc. We are going to treat the room as a mudroom, essentially. Rob is getting pretty antsy to start the cubby-building and hey…if it makes him happy, who am I to get in his way?  More updates to come…

Oh, poo, I forgot about the office and how I wanted that done before baby– well it’s done but the photos are not….and I am not about to go take pictures now. Ha.

Next time?

 

 

No More Crib

With the baby-on-the-way (ETA January) we thought it would be best to start transitioning Ellie into a “big-girl-bed” now. This way we are still 4 months out before Baby so we can spread out the big changes for Ellie. Rather than everything happening at once.  That, and I didn’t want to have two cribs in the house.

When we moved in, we didn’t do a thing with her room (apart from putting up pictures and placing furniture). Mostly because when we first moved in we had bigger fish to fry.

So almost a year later, her room is next on on the docket.

Rob and I took a somewhat impromptu vacation and just got back a couple of days ago. I was itching to get started on her room. We purchased fabric to make a duvet cover and a couple accent pillows. I wanted lots of patterns and lots of colours. I wanted a feminine room for her, but wanted to avoid doing everything in pink. As I think there’s more to a little girls room than default pink e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. (same with default blue often used for boys).

We also had a bed that we have been using as our spare since our first house. It was actually from my parents house, which before then, was from a neighbour’s farm house. My parents had it beautifully refinished…

…and then I ruined things. Well tomato/tomato. I really wanted a colourful bed. I thought about getting a toddler bed and painting it. But then I thought to pass on getting a toddler bed since we already had this one waiting and willing. The more I thought about having a colourful bed, the more my heart was set on it. So I asked my parents if they minded if I painted it. I DID like it refinished how it was. It’s a great looking bed…but just really wanted to do a turquoise bed. So…we painted it and I am thrilled!

For the duvet cover I followed THIS tutorial.
Like her, I also used a white sheet for the backside to save money. Luckily, I had a sheet to use that was perfect for this. You see, like 3 years ago I bought what I thought was a set of white queen sheets from IKEA. Once home I realised it was, in fact, a queen duvet cover. Yep. So it has sat for three years with me constantly thinking “it will get used one day…” Good thing Rob doesn’t read this so won’t ever know. Oh…wait. So I cut it up to use as a big white sheet. Don’t worry Rob, it was just me being resourceful!

For the envelope pillow cases I followed THIS tutorial.
Both recommended. The pillow cases were such a breeze…15 mins spent on each probably.

We’ve been reading her books all about switching over to a Big Bed for the last couple of weeks to prime the pump. She seems to like the idea. She would clamber into our bed and say “Under covers!” and then lay down and fake snore. So we took that as a sign….haha.

Finally! We can shower! Clean never felt so good.

The Bathroom.

It’s done and we are so happy with it. This one has been a long haul. I think if it weren’t for Rob making the shower on the main level usable, then this upstairs bathroom would have had way (way.) more of a push to get crossed off the list. But since we were able to shower on the main level, and you know, stay clean, it didn’t seem AS urgent to get upstairs ready to rock.

It’s quite different from when we started. All the holes from the electricians are filled in, old vanity was taken out, old shower walls taken out…

The floor tiles resemble that of slate and we decided to not stager the design and keep it crisp-and-clean. It’s a good thing, too, otherwise we would have had to order in more tile to incorporate all the waste associated with staggered layout. Walls are the classic bevelled white subway tile. You’ll notice on the other side of the shower we put in grates instead of tiles. Reason being is if we have any issues with the pipes (which, let’s face it, it’s a possibility), taking off 6 screws off the grate versus hacking away and ruining the tile is a heck of a lot easier and way less stress.

Since I’m a sucker for pastels, the bathroom colour wavered between a pastel blue, a pastel purple, and a pastel green. Blue won.

We were able to source out some free (Rob’s favourite word) wood from his parents having some leftovers. Rob ran them through the planer and we stained them and ta-da! Up on the wall!

Some of the baseboards got ruined in the teardown of the old bathroom so we had to re-create some of them to match the original. We (rob.) was able to match them pretty well by shaving off a 15 degree angle off the top of the board to match the same style of what already existed.

I was going for a clean-cut bathroom but with some warmth. The modern shower tile with accent, the floating vanity, and the slate floors were great, but some warmth was needed. The shelves really helped get us to that point as well as adding some knick knacks on the shelves (albeit useful! Cotton balls, Q-tips, etc in mason jars).

We also made sure to keep a piece of the wallpaper from what it was when me moved in and framed a piece of it.

Just missing some final touches of artwork on the walls and curtains. More to come.

Below you’ll find all the pictures of the work of the bathroom as well as the final result. And below THAT you’ll see some sneak pics of other things we are working on: the garage raising and garage doors as well as Ellie’s new bedroom.

Enjoy and let us know what you think! Remember, clicking pictures make them big!

B is for Bathroom

The upstairs bathroom has made a couple more strides this weekend.

The tile order came in so that meant only one thing — get to work.  Because we are tiling tile-on-tile in some areas we had to get a primer to put on the existing tiles first to ensure the cement would stick to them properly and be worry-free of a tile falling on your toe mid-rinse. As for the walls and shower, just the grout is needed but we need to wait a few days before doing that step.

Rob was worried about cutting the tile around the faucets but he did a bang-on job. The flooring is next! We are putting down a new subfloor, then the heating floor wiring, then tile on top. The tile order is in for the floor, too, and currently sitting on our dining room floor..so that only means one thing — get to work. Oh…wait.

The flooring is almost a dark slate grey. It will really help pull those grey and black tones out of the border tile in the shower. I AM SO EXCITED.

Happy long weekend!