Home Projects

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We Did It!

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We have a lot of dreams and ideas when it comes to our house. Some of them we’ve managed to accomplish, and some we’ve pushed off. Sometimes we change our mind after living with a space for a while. I’m a big fan of making your house work for your current life, and being willing to edit it as life changes. Houses aren’t meant to be perfect. Try that weird paint color, give yourself grace over the messy floors (and counters and bathrooms and and and), or turn your dining room into a guest room if that’s what you need right now.

When we first moved in, we brainstormed every possible thing we might like to do, change, add or accomplish while we live here. On that list, but way down the line, was to finish our attic. It was a large empty space that was open with possibilities, and we thought about doing something with it in ten years or so.

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A New Nursery

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There's a lot of different questions you get asked over and over if you're pregnant - one of the more benign topics, though, has to with the nursery. Have you picked a theme? Is it done? What does it look like? It’s certainly an easier topic than symptoms or complications.

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Curtains

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Confession: I felt like a failure last weekend.

I’ve been feeling guilty that I’m so tired and sick that I’ve mostly taken to watching the kids play while Tom takes the lead. Last week I decided to change that, and came up with a bunch of Easter crafts we could do, and spent time prepping them. I had big plans for the weekend. We’d make muffins to use up the bananas that were sitting on the counter, do some crafts, and even cut everyone’s hair.

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A Home Project!

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On the surface, it feels like you should be able to get all kinds of things done to your house, now that all we do is stay home. In reality, nothing is happening. Finding time to clean our floors seems impossible, let alone do all the home improvement projects my brain can dream up. So it is a VERY BIG THING that we somehow scraped together lunch breaks and half days and minutes here and there to get a big project done.

It’s way scaled back from my original plan, but we’ll call this Phase One. It’s a big improvement from what was there, super pretty and definitely functional. But I might put a hold on any other big projects for a while. It turns out doing these things in a pandemic with two small children is not easy.

We’ll get into the details, but first, a before and after!

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Chasing That Feeling

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I am riding a high.

The type of high that can only be achieved by checking something off your list. Something that’s been on the for way too long and has been hanging over your head for too long. It’s one of those things that you end up thinking about multiple times a day, worry about before you go to bed, and just want it taken care of. It’s times like these that I often wish we weren’t the adults here, and someone else would just come along and do it for us.

But when it’s done? Boy it feels so good.

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Goodbye Sun

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I realize that we’ve been in a drought, so maybe I shouldn’t talk about how much I’ve loved the weather lately, but I’ve really loved the weather lately. June was full of sunshine pretty much every single day, and it was amazing.

While we haven’t made much progress on a lot of things on our interior to do list, we’ve managed to make some real improvements to the outside of our house this year. We’ve completed a lot of maintenance stuff that needed to happen - cleaning the gutters, getting the septic pumped, even pressure washing the fence and front porch. But more than that, we’re completing a lot of big projects we’ve been dreaming about for a while. Our shed, while not here yet, has been purchased and the land is prepped, so we’re counting the days. We’ve also finally got our side patio completed, which means we have our gazebo up(!), and it gives us some shade and rain protection on that side of the house. I am fully in love.

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Entering Week 7

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So. Quarantine.

We’ve been here for a while. 43 days to be exact, and we’re not going anywhere soon. We know we have at least two more months of this, but ask the Actuary how confident she is that this will be over then. Part of my actual job is to study pandemics. We’ve been doing this since before it was cool. Ask me about what happened in the fall of the 1918 flu.

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It's Going to Be a Long Day

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Sometimes I feel like a canary. Desperately trying to sound the alarm that the house is on fire while everyone else calmly sips their tea. The truth actually lies somewhere in the middle. A lot of times I’m overreacting to a non problem, and occasionally other people are a bit slow to see a problem that is clear to me.

So on a recent Saturday when I was panicking that the house was about to blow up, Tom wasn’t sure how to react. I was smelling gas in the basement, and desperately trying to convince myself that something had just died down there instead. But I didn’t, I smelled gas.

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Hacked Play Kitchen

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Okay we all know I can go a little overboard at times, yes? And sometimes I’ll admit that I’m not sure if I can actually pull off what I’ve dreamed up or not. This was one of those projects.

Almost a year ago we started talking about getting E a play kitchen. I spent some time looking at what was out there, and trying to decide what we wanted. A lot of them were pretty, but a bit plastic, and I wasn’t sure how well they’d hold up.

Outside!

Once E learned this word, we were done. With his big brown eyes and cute little voice, he jumps up and down and declares “Outside! Outside!” Now that it’s not freezing and a huge undertaking to get us all out, we agree more often. And we’ve been taking steps to make it easier and more fun to be in our yard too.

We recently fenced in our porch, which has become a toddler’s wonderland. There’s a play structure with a slide, and a sandbox, and even a chair for Mama. We’re working on our patio still, but this year we finally did something I’ve been wanting to do since we moved in.

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Finished(ish) Closet!

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There are certain things in life that I have an irrational (or maybe not) hatred of, and that make me incredibly angry. And I’m always puzzled when other people don’t seem bothered by them. One sign that Tom and I were right for each other, was that we tend to agree on which things we hate.

One of them? Those wire, ventilated, closet rack systems. They usually come standard in any closet, and they’re the absolute worst.

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Goodbye Dressers

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Before I had children, baby-proofing seemed like a one time thing you did. Your house wasn’t safe, you baby-proofed it, and now it was. Instead I’ve learned it’s an almost constant state. First you move things out of reach, and then what they can reach changes. They learn to climb, and then more things need to be moved or secured. We’ve done a pretty good job, but it’s getting to the point where we need to do another pass through the house.

First up? Our bedroom.

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The (hopeful) End of an Era

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Of course I know I could be jinxing myself by writing this, but I’m really, really hoping we’ve finally put an end to the false fire alarms in our house! They’ve been going off randomly pretty much since we moved in. Sometimes a humidifier will set them off, sometimes we don’t know why. Almost always in the middle of the night though. And while E used to sleep through them, he’s reached an age where he’ll wake up screaming.

I’m pretty sure they’ve given him a bit of PTSD too. Every night before bed he points at them and goes “Beep!” and waves bye-bye. Every morning he wakes up and points at them. And a few nights ago he woke up screaming and pointing at the one in his room. UGH.

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The End Brings Out the Crazy

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Here’s my tip to other pregnant women: If there’s some idea you have floating in your mind, but you keep putting it off or saying no because logically you know it doesn’t make sense, just go ahead and do it NOW. Otherwise, you’re going to hit 38 weeks and decide that it needs to happen that minute, and all logic goes out the window.

Normally, I am queen of logic. It rules my life. I am fine with putting off projects or saying no to things, because I know the reasons why it wouldn’t be a good idea. And so this entire pregnancy I’ve been saying that no, the guest room can stay the way it is for now. No, we don’t need a second baby room right now. The baby wouldn’t be using it right away anyway - I mean E slept in the living room for the first few months of his life. This baby can sleep in our room if need be.

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Busy Board!

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I have to say, this may be one of my favorite trends in parenting lately. Yes, it’s a way to entertain and keep your toddler busy (YAY!) but it’s also super cool, and I want to play with it probably as much as E does!

They’re also super easy, and completely customizable. Basically you take a piece of wood, and screw on whatever random stuff you have lying around the house, or want to incorporate, and voila! You have something fun and entertaining that is teaching your toddler valuable life skills in the process!

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Outdoor Progress

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Our yard is a mess.  It's not quite as bad as it was when we moved in, but that's largely due to the fact we're not currently in a drought - not anything we've done.  There are large patches of dirt, and the green that is growing is weeds, not grass. 

However, a lot time ago we decided it wasn't our priority.  I was going to put some analogy here that my boss used on me yesterday about not tying the laces of the shoe before taking it off or something, but it made way more sense when he said it, than me trying to remember it now.  Anyway the point is, our whole property needs work, and that work will only dig up the lawn more.  So I've decided we'll live with a non yard for a few years while we get everything else done first. 

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A Peek at Life Now

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At some point you realize that life goes on.  Even though you feel like yours has completely turned upside down, and nothing will ever be normal again... you adjust.  You go from thinking about keeping this tiny human alive 100% of your day, to 98%, to 95%...  And you find you have room to start to care about a few of the things you did before he made his arrival.