At the Speed of Light

Are me and E the 2 luckiest people in the world or what??  Last Tuesday, I invited my realtor, Katie over to walk through the house with me before we put it on the market.  2 days later, she had buyer beating down door dying to get in and take a look at the house.  Ummmm...E was gone and I was at home with Baby...so I needed a few days to clean up.  But they came by this weekend and within 20 minutes, we had an offer.  We counter offered and they accepted.  Our house wasn't even on the market yet...Can you believe it!!  So here was the final project.

E fence that him and my dad built while I was recovering from having the baby.

The front, ...not much to tell here

The storage center and E and his dad built.

The bookcases that E and his dad built.

The breakfast area that me and my mom built, with a little help from E.

Obviously, the dining room.

And, well, obviously the living room.

This Week's Projects

Yes, I know I am giving birth next week (hopefully), but there are still so many things that I want to accomplish before she gets here. None of these are vital to the survival of the baby but they would all make me feel more ready. Plus, when I don't work on a project at night, I don't sleep. The nights that I decide to sit around and relax, I end up sitting around and relaxing all night with my eyes open for hours. Not worth it! Since the laundry room is completed with the exception of a few pieces of trim (E's project) and a cushion that my mom is going to make when she gets here, I needed a new project.

So here are the projects I want to finish this week:

1.) My poor neglected coffee table. Luckily E bought me a new sander this weekend so progress is moving alot faster. But the 25 layers of clear coats are super stubborn so I finally finished sanding the top, about half of the side, and 2 of the legs this weekend. Hopefully, by the end of this week, the table will be ready for a coat of dark walnut stain.

2.) Pickup the new glider from the store and put it together. They called yesterday and to let us know it was in.

3.)Finish painting the Living Room/Dining Room and the Hallway (yes...I did start the hallway...I was bored)

4.)Rearrange the Living Room and the Dining Room.

5.) And this project is for my mom to help me finish when she gets here but I already finished my part. This is an old door that we pulled out of the house and has been sitting in our garage for 2 years now. So I decided to use it as a headboard for our bed. I filled all of the holes and put 2 coats of paint on it already. This is the before picture and I can't wait to show you the after picture.

Weekend Update

While we typically work at least an hour a night on the house these days, Friday night was the exception. Since we worked all night Wednesday and Thursday, we figured that we deserved a break. So a little pizza and a little movie .... much needed.

But back to work on Saturday. It was a long day of painting, laundry, cooking and caulking. No more pictures of renovations for a while. It's nice to see a little bit of difference being made each day and I want you all to be floored when you see the final product.

E left early to attend a boys night at Matt's house where they grilled some fish and he was able to take Maggie too so that she could play with their dog, Neal. While they did their "boys thing," I stayed home and made The Lady and Sons Lasagna, Blueberry Compote and Chocolate Espresso Shortbread Cookies. I love to put the Blueberry Compote between 2 whole wheat blueberry waffles for breakfast and I had a Ghirardelli dark chocolate toffee bar just sitting around looking for a good use...so why not cook. Besides this may be the last time I actually want to cook for a while. But I also made the lasagna so that I would have a few meals in the freezer for after the baby gets here. So I plan on putting it in the over tonight and eating it for dinner, BUT that still leaves 3/4 of a casserole dish for left overs.

I know I know...thinking ahead!!

Sunday, I made 2 big pots of Southwest Chicken Chili. One for us and one for Renee and Russell who just a baby on Wednesday. Congratulations to them on the birth of their son, Isaac. Renee was three weeks ahead of me and so I always got the 411 on everything that was going to happen to me 3 weeks ahead of time!! That was nice!! And we didn't even eat half of our pot of chili and I can throw the rest of that in the freezer too for the post baby season! Told you...thinking ahead!!

I do have a picture or 2 though from Sunday night. I took a nap and when I woke up, I saw this. E, napping, and Maggie watching tv (which she never does) in the living room. But then I took a closer look. She was actually watching the AKC Dog Show. It makes me wonder if she actually got a hold of the remote control...

Lots of Work

There are so many projects going on at the Bailey house this week that I thought I would share the main 2 with you and hopefully have the finished product pictures for you on Monday! I am so excited that all of this is finally getting done. E and his pop have been working well into the night for the past 2 nights and again today. Wednesday night I worked with them and painted and almost finished painting the living room but these past 2 days have been full of sleepless nights so I have been going to bed early. I lay in bed and hear the sounds of hammers and saws and the backdoor opening and closing...they have been working really hard!! But here are a few pictures of the work.

The basket shelf still has to come down and they are going to add a back to it today and then it will be done with the exception of a coat of paint. The new walls and the hinged storage bench just need a coat of paint as well.

Here is the desk that E has been working on for me. He finally finished it last night and now we just need a coat of paint here as well.

Here is my project...I finished painting the living room except for this part that I couldn't reach without the boys moving furniture for me...and I think I can do this even after my father-in-law leaves. However, I did have to call E a few times to come help me off of the floor after I finished trimming the baseboards.

The project for today include a book shelf behind my desk and some shelves over my desk. Hopefully they can get around to the recessed lighting and chandelier project this afternoon too but I will be happy regardless of what they finish up today. (Sigh of relief) Do you know how long I have been waiting for this room to be finished and to have a desk? All of the contents of my desk have been in a box crammed in a closet for the past 2 years. There is still lots to do but at least I can help with the painting...I am not so good with the power tools!! So this GREAT!!!

What is Happening?

Well, E's dad arrived last night to help work on the house for a few days. E took a few days off of work to work with him and I am very thankful for them both!! It is such a relief to have a husband who is actually handy! This is what he did this weekend. He got all of the walls installed until he ran out of wood and then installed a light fixture. I love days like this one where at the end, you can really see the difference in what you started with and what you ended with.

What did I do? Laundry...it was Saturday after all...and then I painted a little more of the Living Room took a nap! But we have lots of plans for this week since the boys are working for 3 days straight, that I hope come to fruition...

1.) finish the laundry room

2.)install recessed lighting in the dining room

3.) hang new chandelier in the living room

If they finish all of those things and I finish painting the Living Room, we are really putting a dent in our work. Wish us lots of luck!!

P.S. Here's a picture of Maggie when E opened up a new bag of dog food and left it in the floor for her to chow down...What a bunch of animals!! I guess this is the dog version of drinking milk out of the carton!

Progress

I feel like such a slacker this week since I don't feel like I have posted anything at all. Most of this slackerness comes from the fact that I got that computer virus going around on my machine here at work so I am working from a lab computer. Good Times!! So as a quick update, I thought I would show the progress being made on my house.

First, E was able to finished the laundry closet this weekend. So we (nevermind, not we, but E and a friend from work) finally got the washer and dryer stacked and into the closet this weekend so guess what I did all day Saturday? You guessed it ... LAUNDRY!!! Since the washer and dryer had been unhooked for so long, laundry had seriously piled up. Here are a few pictures.

Since the nursery is as finished as it can get for the time being (awaiting family to bring the rest of the stuff we couldn't fit in our car on the way home from the Christmas), I needed a new project. I have this mindset that at some point I am going to be too miserable to help around the house so I am working hard until that day comes...if that day comes. So I started painting the living room last night. Here is the color...yes, I really loved the green but after 2 years of the green, I was ready for a change. Plus, I saw this color in my sister's house and fell in love with it so don't think for a second that this was an original idea! I decided this over Christmas break so I was able to collect all of my new accessories and pillows and dishes at home with all of the nice stores that were having nice sales after the holidays! Hold on..accessory colors are orange and yellow! You will see...it will all come together and be AWESOME!!

My new dining room chandelier from CB2 came in the mail yesterday. I am excited about this...Look at my old contractor grade chandelier and you will find out why I am so excited about the new addition. We have had a rule at our house that we will not change any of the bulbs in the old light. So if all the bulbs go out, then the time has come to get a new one. We got the new one just in time...there are only three bulbs left.

And last but not least, the baby's new playyard came in the mail yesterday too. Small story behind this...Me and E have been saving our change for about a year now. I saw at the local grocery store that they had a coin star. I had used these in the past and enjoyed the fact that I got cash and didn't have to count all of that change even if I lost 10% of the money as a service fee. Now, you can buy a gift certificate to a few vendors and you get to keep the extra 10%. So I started thinking and researching. Since Amazon is one of the vendors, I checked Amazon's baby stuff to see if there was anything I could use. HECK YEAH!! They have alot of stuff! So I got an Amazon gift certificate and was able to pay for playyard and a few other small things for the baby. I was pumped...it was like all of that stuff was free because I never think about how much change I have. So here is the new playyard.

Next week, E is taking a few days off of work to work on the house with his pop, who is coming into town for a few days to help out! We are very thankful for this!! So I hopt to have more pictures for you next week!

Renovations and Nursery Finishes

I am trying hard to use things I already have or find things really cheap to outfit the nursery. However, the other night, E dragged me out to Hobby Lobby and I ended up finding this fabric and fell in love with it. Turns out, that it matches the crib bedding perfectly and softens the polka dots a little bit. Here is a picture of the 2 new peices of fabric with the bedding in the background.

I spent Saturday sanding and painting the baby's crib (not finished yet), I finished the dresser for the nursery and E put the hardware on for me...

and I got a chance to start using some of that new fabric when I repainted this chair...

and turned it into this chair.

I am so pleased with how it turned out. I have to touch up one or 2 places where I scuffed it up when I brought it into the house.

E worked hard this weekend too and had to make new door frames for the laundry room. He worked so hard trying to get everything measured and cut right. And we finally have a door up. Whoo Hoo!!

The Ban on Blogging

About a week ago, an event happened around the house that I was specifically told "Don't not blog about this!!" from my husband. Well, last night I recieved the green light.

While E is a genious around the house in my eyes, he doubts his ability to do certain projects. Electrical work is one of those abilities that he questions himself on. He reads up and the project, consults wise council, takes safety VERY seriously and then checks his work very carefully. Last weekend, he relocated the electrical outlet for the washer and installed a new outlet for my future desk. We checked the connection and all works.

Since I was behind on laundry because of the weekend project, I would do a load a day by throwing a dirty load into the washer as I was heading out to work and dry it when I got home. I did this Sunday, Monday and Tuesday morning. E was coming home early on Wednesday so I left him a note to start a load of laundry when he got home. He just so happened to be walking by the laundry room when he saw flickering flames inside the washer!!!!! He quickly turned the washer off and began airing out the house from the black smoke that had taken over the house. (Thank God the fire didn't happen on one of the previous days and send out house up in flames)

Well, Robert, a friend who is an electrician came over last night to check E's work. We got the green light and he even fixed a few other problems for us. What an angel!! So now that E knows it wasn't his fault, I am allowed to blog about the fire! Here are the 2 boys taking apart and rewiring the washer, just what every woman wants to see...Men taking apart one of her most expensive appliances. And Robert's wet shirt isn't sweat...it's was just raining cats and dogs last night!!

P.S. Thanks Katie for allowing us to borrow your husband last night!!

Renovation Updates

Slowly but surely...that's the team Bailey motto these days. Since I'm not much help to E with this giant watermelon in my shirt, he has been working hard by himself. Last weekend, he worked tireslessly for hours (longer than I would have had the patience for) to move the power for our dryer over a few feet. Last night, he ran the electrical sockets for my desk and for the washer while I unpacked our suitcase and started folding the laundry. The hope is....that the flooring will go into the laundry closet tonight, then the electrical work will be finished, we can put up the walls and install the washer and dryer by the weekend. Here is a picture of the work behind behind the washer and dryer.

In the meantime, I have put up our Christmas tree, wrapped all of the gifts, cleaned out the baby's room and continued with the painting projects I have in the garage.

The Great Wall

We have had the floor tiles in our house for over a year with a purpose in mind. We have big plans for our laundry room/den/my office. These floor tiles were involved in the grand scheme of things and now that we finally have free time, we got around to putting up the tiles this weekend. It really didn't take that long but we were both really surprised at how much we like it once it got on the wall. On the left hand side, E is going to build me a shelf for storage baskets and then a built-in storage bench to go across the rest of the space. There will also be a hook for coats and other accessories. Now that I can finally see the difference, I am getting excited.

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

Why bother at all? Because I don't have a fortune to spend on new nursery furniture. So let's go over how this is all coming together:

Crib: My mom and dad bought one for us second hand. Supposedly it is mission style and painted white. I have yet to see it though. All we have to do is buy a mattress.

Bedding: A friend had 2 sets for girls that she wasn't using anymore and wanted to pass them on and since I like free stuff!!!! The one I chose is pink and brown polka dots.

Changing Table: Still in the works. I have one picked out at the local supercenter but would rather find a crappy piece of furniture that I can put my stamp on. So the verdict is still out!!

Dresser: E has an old dresser that we are painting it white and replacing the hardware. So it is being repurposed in the babies room. Here is a little sneak peak of the progress I am making on the dresser so far.

Shelving: This shelf was left at our house when we moved in and I really liked it. I knew I wanted to use it but I didn't know how or where. But now it has a new place and new purpose. I am planning on painting it brown.

Walls: Since I really have no desire to repaint the walls, I don't plan on it. The walls are already tan and I plan on making that work.

This is what the baby's room currently looks like. Lots of work left to go. But my new policy is "One Hour a Day!" I worked 2 nights this week and I am almost done priming the dresser drawers and have started priming the shelf.

Sighs of Relief

While I have been sitting quietly in my house, trying not to say anything and waiting patiently, the day finally came this weekend. "What day is that?" you might ask! Oh...a very grand day. The day when all of the stuff that came from our two car garage that's been STUFFED into our house for 3 months slowly chipping away at my sanity IS NO MORE!! E worked really hard this weekend and got floor sealed and almost all of the new shelves hung so we could clean out the house.

You might be asking yourself "Why did this drive her so crazy!" Well, since I couldn't even enter the door threshold of the baby's room, my husband is currently using a green plastic patio chair for a reading chair in his office, and the door into the laundry room from the kitchen was blocked with all of our hurricane and camping supplies (luckily there were 2 entrances into the room), I was starting to loose it. Oh yeah, did I mention the giant blue tarp that covered the items in on the patio from the garage that we ran out of room for in the house?

After all was said and done, it was rather quiet around the house which never happens unless something is wrong. So I went on a hunt for my husband and dog. After searching the yard and the house, I was dumbfounded. "Where are they?" The car was in the driveway, Maggie's leash was still there so they didn't go for a walk...and that's when it hit me that he had a new workspace in the garage. I wish the camera battery wasn't dead because the picture was priceless. E, in his new "Man Space", had pulled out a folding chair and had propped up his feet on the ottoman that is going in the baby's room and was taking a nap in the garage. And there was Maggie, asleep at his right hand.

He is really going to town with this garage renovation project. He stayed out there all night reading Handyman magazines and designing a new workspace for himself. And then last night, I went out to check on him and noticed he had moved one of our spare computers out there and it was all setup and ready to go. I have a feeling that this could either go very well and very bad!!!

Bedroom Redo

Since me and E got a new mattress a few months ago, and it wouldn't fit on our original bed frame, we needed to adjust our bedroom setup since the bed was originally in front of the window. Every night, I found myself sleeping further and further down the bed to avoid losing my pillows in the window sill. So we rearranged the bedroom and I FINALLY got around to putting pictures into the picture frames. I have been married for almost 4.5 years and still haven't gotten around to putting pictures in any of my frames that I got for wedding presents or bought for our house. I know... ridiculous!!

So here are the pictures of the room. Sorry one of them is so blurry. I think I need my eyes checked.

Our Day Off

Well, work was called off on Tuesday in preparation for the storm so we made a day of it and made iced coffee (from Smitten Kitchen) and Whole Wheat Apple Muffins (also from Smitten Kitchen). Mmmm. I decided it was time to get to work on some of my goals to complete before the baby arrives. I only have 174 days till the arrival and those days are flying by oh so fast!

So the Bathroom/Living Room Closet (I know that doesn't make sense and I completely agree...why does the bathroom closet open up into the Living Room?) really needed to be cleaned out. In fact, it still had boxes in the bottom left over from when we first moved into the house over a year ago. Shame on me! So here are my before and afters of the closet...

BEFORE

AFTER

Then we made some spinach quiche and spinach dip and cleaned out the medicine cabinet and went throught the hurricane supplies. What a long day. I was exhausted.

E worked on the house some until his headache took over. He laid down for a little while and didn't wake up for 7 hours. Once he got up and starting functioning again, we wanted to walk Maggie while the weather was still mild and then watched 3 Days of the Condor. (E is on a kick where he only wants to watch old spy movies right now... I would object but they all turn out good...Marathon Man, the Lives of Others...I guess it's better than watching Harold and Kumar right?)

Oh yeah...did I tell you that me and E tried to stack the Washer and Dryer?? Even though I asked him to find someone else to take my place he was positive I could help him and we could do it easily...well,...we dropped it...It still works but whistles now.

It Finally Came!

Our bed arrived on Saturday! We were so excited...well, me more than E...he's out of town...again!!!

He is super jealous that I get to enjoy the new bed a week before he does. I told him "That's ok! I will just find Maggie's sleep number while you are gone!" But we finally caved in and bought one of the sleep number matresses. (BTW, my sleep number 35) It looks like we are going to have to buy a new bed though. Ours is SUPER old and it was my parent's bed all through my junior high and high school years. I have had it for the past 7 years and IT"S TIME!! It is so time for a new one. The new matress wouldn't fit on the old bed frame. Almost a blessing!

Andrea came over for breakfast on Saturday morning to hang out with me while the delivery men were there. We made a bacon, mushrooms, swiss, tomato strata...Mmmm delicious!

If We Weren't Safe Before, We Are Now!!

E met this guy who was selling home security systems. He has been talking to this guy for a few days now about what we want and the price. Well, when I came home yesterday, Maggie greeted me at the door as usual but E was no where in sight. Normally, he is sitting at his desk hammering out some paper for school or listening to Rush online but he wasn't there. I walked into the living room and E was in there with his new friend writing up a contract for a security system. By the way, this was about 6:30 last night. I guess you really never know what's going to happen at the Everyday Bailey household, even if you live there!

A few minutes later, he came looking for my signature on the contract and the guy left. So I went about my business fixing dinner and picking up the house when I hear the words "So it's a done deal. They will be back in a few minutes to set it up." I know my face must have had a wildly puzzled look on it. "Tonight?" I said. "Oh yeah, they should be here in a few minutes."

So I took Maggie and we went to bed so the boys could get their stuff all set up and they worked until almost midnight last night getting this thing installed. Imagine being woken up from a deep sleep by the sound of your new alarm system...TWICE! (By the way, this is also my public apology to my neighbors for the 2 times they let the alarm run for a few minutes after 10pm) This is only the first step in the grand plan. In no time, we will surely have camera monitoring the perimeter of the house. ?? I guess I should be more flatterred that he cares so much for my safety.

Poor E, I don't think he got into bed until after midnight and he was also trying to get homework done while the guys were here too. Looks like we are going to bed early tonight!

Purchasing Progress

So today I am super excited for 2 reasons:

   1. I am off work every Friday during the summer!  WOO HOO!!!  I have so many ideas about what I want to do with my new found time.  I was going to start my Fridays by taking Maggie for a jog, but I hurt my leg and so I am resting for a few days and it seems that Maggie is also in the same boat.  She has been favoring one of her back legs over the other for the past 2 days.  I know that a little rest will heal my leg and I am hoping the same for her.  We will see soon enough.

   2. I just bought the first set of carpet tiles for our laundry room/mud room/den/office. (call it what you want)

We decided to go with carpet tiles since the door to the backyard is also in that room.  With Maggie coming and going out that door to access the backyard, she tends to bring in whatever she finds or whatever she has been rolling around in (sticks, brown mud, leaves, shells, big rocks caked in dry mud, small creatures and dead bugs).  Also, with our second weeklong "BAILEY WORK WEEK" quickly approaching, we need to get our supplies ready!  So we bought Flor tiles.  They were a little more expensive that getting carpet off the rack at the home improvement store but if one of the tiles gets dirty, we can pull it up and clean it or replace it all together.  And that is something that we definitely needed in case some of you have missed the pictures of our master bedroom carpet (ink from when Maggie ate a pen, Maggie's vomit, accidental clorox spots from cleaning Maggie's vomit, that fact that Maggie brings all of her backyard finds in there to chew apart and create mulch in our carpet...do you see the pattern here?).  

So say hello to our new carpet!!