Wednesday, March 20, 2013

In the home stretch...

Its nearing the end of March, and this is my first post for 2013?!  Obviously this blog has not been a recent priority of mine.  In my defense, I have been insanely busy lately with (you guessed it) the new house.  I am happy to report that while there is still a lot of work to be done, there is an end in sight!  We are finally nearing the end of the *big* projects, and will hopefully finish those up in the next couple of weeks.  Next month will be spent working on the little tasks such as hanging up new lights, switching out the old electrical plugs and switches, and a few other misc tasks.  This past weekend we had a couple of helpers, Eriks Aunt Katy and Uncle Jay came down from Maryland to help us tile the downstairs closet and bathroom.  They wanted to learn how to tile, and Erik was sure happy to have the extra help!  It was great to have them and made the weekends work a lot more fun.   Here are a few photos we took on Aunt Katy's phone...

Uncle Jay drawing out a map of how they wanted to lay the tile in the coat closet

Coat closet tile before grouting.

Me painting, painting, painting the master bedroom windows.  Formerly a dark teal, they are now a lovely shade of white, but only after three full coats of paint!  Luckily, they all still open and close just fine - I somehow managed to avoid painting them shut.  The walls went from a lighter teal to a "primer" color as seen above, and are now a nice creamy beige.

I had one request for the downstairs bathroom tile, and that was a herringbone pattern.  I was inspired by this pin, and have had the idea stuck in my head for months now.   We were lucky to find a natural stone tile in the exact size and colors we wanted.  I am so happy with how it turned out!  Erik, Uncle Jay, and Aunt Katy worked all weekend to finish the bathroom part of the floor.  Erik will finish the closet tile and grout everything within the next week.

The bathroom light (which has yet to be changed out) is casting a terrible yellow hue to this photo...  But anyway, you get the idea of the pattern.  I am in love!!

I finally got to install my painted kitchen cabinet doors!  I can't believe what a difference a few coats of paint makes...  This is just a little preview, the before and after shots will come soon!

 The idea that we are almost done with this crazy house "project" has turned into the realization that we will soon get to live in the house we have put so much time, effort, and love into.  We are hoping to move in early May, giving us just under a month to get our current house ready for the new tenants arriving June 1st.  We think we found the perfect couple, and although it is a little nerve-wracking to think we are about to become landlords, it is pretty exciting at the same time.

In other news...  Erik and I had planned to be done with this house months ago, or at least be at the point where we would start trying to get pregnant again.  The "date" I had stuck in my head for this to start was January, but at that time I was still scraping/sanding and painting walls, surrounded in dust and paint fumes nearly every day I was there.  Not exactly something I wanted to be doing while pregnant...  February came and went with the same realization that it was safer to just "wait another month..."  I did enroll in the fertility study I was accepted into, and had my initial visit last month where they took blood samples and had me fill out paperwork.  We were all ready for the baby-making this month (March), but when the time came around I panicked again because I still wasn't *quite* done painting.  Now, finally, I am almost done, and next month it is on.  Every month has been filled with a fair amount of disappointment when we had to yet again postpone something that we have been waiting so long for.  I realized that it has been almost exactly a year since we first got pregnant, and it's hard to believe we have had to wait this long to even start trying again.  I keep reminding myself that really, really great things are worth the wait.  And now that we are getting ready to start trying again, I can honestly say that I am ready and in a really great place.