33 weeks and counting...

It's hard to believe it's already been 33 weeks and that Baby Girl Buma is about 7 weeks away from entry to the "real" world.

We've been working on little things around the house...like trying to pick up after ourselves, getting things organized and packing away things that used to live in the future nursery. It's all a work in progress and it's moving slowly.

After taking the childbirth class last weekend, we are now fully aware that it's really a crap-shoot trying to plan when Baby Girl will actually show up. A week or so early? A week or so late? On time? Who knows. But in reality, we have most of the basics...crib, clothing, etc. and Buy Buy Baby is on the way home from the hospital if necessary. Plus, Baby Girl isn't going to care how messy the home she comes home to is. Just that it's home.

What can a little paint do?

When we had our original home inspection before closing on our house last year, the inspector told us that we'd want to paint the solid wood garage door before winter (last winter) since the paint was chipping and we didn't want the door to rot.

Well...we didn't get to it last Fall. With weekends filling up with birth classes and baby showers, the clock was winding down to colder weather (not to mention the arrival of a baby) so Chris and Craig, his dad, tackled the job last Thursday.

Chris and I had picked up paint chips on Monday but hadn't gotten around to picking the color to match the house trim before I had to leave for work on Thursday morning. My control freak personality was having a hard time not having input on the color choice...but I let it go. And Chris picked the perfect match - Dutch Boy's Antique White. How fitting, Dutch paint for a couple of Hollanders.

The "before"...

Craig cutting in the panels...

Half done...the new color is quite a bit creamier.

Can't forget the trim...which Chris can paint easily from a 4 ft. ladder...it helps to be tall!

Looks like a brand-spanking new door! All for about $35. Nice on the budget and necessary!

Labor Day Weekend...Operation TV.

Projects have been moving slow around here...kind of like me. And they've been even slower getting on the blog. I've been a slacker. My brother even called me out on it.  

Over the Labor Day weekend, we...finally got TV. We have a TV...it just hadn't been hooked up to cable or an anntena since we moved in (over a year ago). Instead, we got by watching shows and a limited amount of sporting events online (insert frustrated husband here). We really wanted to avoid paying for cable so Chris researched the best options for anntenas based on our location/direction from Chicago and order all the parts for about $150.

So all the parts and my parents arrived just in time for the Labor Day weekend. Last Labor Day weekend, we were sanding and refinishing the living/dining room floors all weekend. This project proved to be a "bit" less work.



1. Get up on the roof...with all the parts.



2. Assemble antenna without falling off roof.

3. Run antenna cable down roof, seal around fasteners and run through basement window.

4. Run antenna cable to TV and enjoy...football. (Lions/Bears game)

We even had time to check out the Kane County Flea Market over the weekend...after we watched some TV.  

 

Baby meet IKEA...

All parents and parents-to-be can probably relate to how kid's stuff tends to take OVER. If not, I envy you. I feel like - actually, I'm well aware - we're losing the battle I'm not quite sure it's possible to win anyway and she's not even here yet. Since Chris started painting the nursery all the things that were stored in there plus all the baby stuff we have been acquiring are now consuming our bedroom and office...driving me a bit crazy. Not a far drive some days but that's another matter. 

Solution to our storage problem? One word. HEMNES. Don't speak IKEA? Let me translate. HEMNES is the traditional looking furniture line from the great Swedish store. A couple months ago, Chris and I got two white HEMNES 8 drawer dressers for our bedroom and love them...someday I might blog about them.  Continuing the theme, my parents bought us (really, the baby) a white HEMNES dresser for the nursery as an early baby gift along with baby's crib from IKEA.

After picking up the dresser and the crib yesterday morning with the help of Chris' family's van and muscles, I begged Chris to put the dresser together...after he was in class all day. Knowing he's still got a lot of painting to do in there, we decided the dresser could just move to the center of the room while  painting was being wrapped up. And it can hold most of the smaller baby things and clothes at the same time. 


If you didn't know, most of IKEA furniture comes "flat-pack" which means you can get it home easily but have to put it together at home. Just think of it like a "big-kid" lego project. Pretty fun. Chris seemed to enjoy himself...and I enjoyed watching and taking pictures.

Step 1. Open box, read instructions and sort pieces...all while smiling. 

Step 2. Start assembling dresser frame.

Step 3. Continue smiling while assembling frame, wonder when your wife is going to stop taking your picture.

Step 4. Frame mostly assembled, consult instructions.

Step 5. Assemble dresser top.

Step 6. Nail backing on dresser, avoid thumbs.

Step 7. Put drawers together, end is in sight.

Step 8. Finished. Assembled. Happy.

*Optional* Step 9. Add organizers to hold baby's little things.

The dresser is going to have a changing pad on top so we can skip the traditional changing table. Bonus for us tall folk? Upon putting it together, we discovered that it's higher than some of the other changing tables/dressers. Nice. 

We decided to wait to put the crib together until the painting is actually done so Chris will have room to move while working in the nursery. Guess I'll actually have to start sewing the quilt now...

A New Hobby...Quilting

After a few trips to the baby superstores, Chris and I couldn't decide on a crib set that we liked. They were all too pink or purple or foo-foo. So what did I do? Decided to make our baby girl her own special quilt...with absolutely no clue about how to quilt. 

After borrowing a few quilting "Bibles" from the library, I signed myself up for Quilting 101 at the local Joann Fabric store. I learned some of the basics and made this pattern for practice...

Trying to figure out the material and color scheme for our baby girl's quilt proved to be much more difficult that picking our 3 fat quarters for my practice piece in the class. After spending an hour or so in Joann's trying to figure out what we liked, Chris and I came home with about 6 different fabrics. Then we found some more fabrics on vacation in Wisconsin and scrapped some of the previous fabric choices. Then I continued to be indecisive until I went back to Joann's with my friend Mel who helped me finally make up my mind on patterns. 

The inspiration behind the color scheme is fun and funky...

Armed with my final choices, I cut out all the squares using my handy dandy new quilting tools and skills I learned at my class...

And after a week or so, I think I've decided on a random layout for the center of the quilt...

The plan -as of right now- is to put a 2 in. dark purple border and a 3 in. green border around this layout. The backing will also be the green pattern. 

Now it's time to get sewing...

De-shelfing the Nursery...

Since we first saw the paneled shelf in the room now known as the nursery...we hated it. Don't get me wrong. It was useful for awhile...to hold a multitude of junk. But it had outlived it's usefulness. On Monday, Chris and I got down to business.

First, remove trim.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, remove all the wood plugs covering up 14 bolts.

Then remove 14 monster bolts.

Next, marvel at the size of said bolts.

Then take shelf off wall, pondering how to get it out of the room and down the stairs.

After finding hand saw, cut shelf in half.

Finally, cut it into 4 pieces so it can fit nicely in the trash can.

Prime-d Nursery Preparations...

Many people have asked us where we are going to put the nursery and look shocked when we respond with "Oh, in the closet."

Okay, let me clarify. The nursery will be the 10 x 13 room formerly known as our "closet." It is a bedroom but you have to walk through our bedroom to get to it. Future plans for our second floor include moving doors and adding a small hallway so you don't have to wander through our room but these renovations will have to wait till baby's a bit older. Renovations will also include adding a few closets since our house came with ONE. On the MAIN FLOOR. Thus, the reason we used the space as a closet. Here's some "befores"...

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After getting all the clothing and miscellaneous stuff out of the room, Chris primed the paneling (while I was gone). We are planning on painting the room the same neutral color as our bedroom so we can decorate with a lot of accent colors and patterns.

See next post for "shelf removal"...