New Bathroom Week-Part 1

Ryter was gone for two weeks so my plan was to redo the bathroom.  It ended up being a bigger job than I expected, but it's mostly done.  So far, we've replaced the swinging door with a sliding door to make a little more room in the bathroom.  All of the wood trim associated with the swinging door was removed and filled with wood filler.  Sanding is coming, but that doesn't affect the function of the bathroom so it's last on the list.

trim on the silver track is still to come

Vain took a look at moving the plumbing for the cold water so the vanity can contain all of the pipes behind the cabinet. He wasn't sure about the job, so I hired a plumber to come and take care of it.  It was quick and painless for him, although I'm not sure I could say the same if Vain and I would have been involved :)

As part of the destruction that is happening in the bathroom, the weird closet/mirror/shutter door is now gone, as are the silly shelves that don't all go to the back of the closet.  I checked for insulation in the walls inside the closet and it does not exist.  Behind the closet wall is the siding.  This is not good.  It explains why our bathroom is so cold in the winter. We're basically bathing outside. As of right now, the plan is to insulate and install pre-made cabinets from Target.

The electrician came and moved the outlet away from the faucet and also added another outlet down low inside the vanity for Vain's shaver to charge so that doesn't have to sit out on the counter all of the time.  I think in the end, that will end up being my most favorite part of the bathroom!  As you can see, a new light fixture has been added and the bathroom has also been painted a very pale pink instead of the gross green we've been reflecting onto our skin for the past 9 months.

This project is taking a lot longer than expected and Ryter comes home today. The goal is just to get a working sink back in here by the end of the weekend.  Part 2 of my post will include tiling, the worst project in the history of man!  Lets just say, it's a little like child birth and I won't be doing it again until I only remember the experience as delightful!

The Last Week

Today marks the first day of the last week of my pregnancy. Unless this baby is late like Ryter, I should have some result by next Friday.  I have one day left before Ryter gets home from Iowa and my only hope was that I'd keep this baby in until then.  I want Ryter to be here and come to the hospital to see us and be here when we get home.  Happily, that will happen.

I'm not nearly as large this time at this stage as I was last time, but baby is measuring right on schedule so it must just be hiding a little bit more.  I'm having some irregular contractions at night and really have been for the last month. I think it's just because I move around all day and by night when I relax I start to notice them more.

Vain and I had dinner on Tuesday for my birthday and the waitress very matter-of-fact asked me "you're having a girl?".  She asked it like she knew what she was talking about.  I told her we actually didn't know what we were having and she just said "it's a girl", smiled, and walked away.  Well, when I was pregnant with Ryter we had a lady in the Phoenix airport do the same thing except she said boy and she was right.  We shall see this time.

new baby 2013

Ryter 2011

35 Weeks

Wow!  I can't believe it's been 10 weeks since the last time I made an entry.  It doesn't seem like it's been that long, but things are just happening so fast around here. It's summer and the days go by so quickly trying to find enough time to play outside and in the pool.  I'm 35 weeks pregnant which means this baby is coming in 5-6 weeks whether we're ready or not.  For the most part, we're ready.  We've done this before so any day would be a great day for a baby.  Ryter has officially been moved into his new room and the baby has a room of his/her own so I guess that means we're ready.

Ryter turned 2 on July 14 and we had a little family party for him. He's getting so big and turning into a real live boy.  He's expressing his opinions on pretty much everything and speaking in full sentences for many things.  Every time he uses more than one word at a time I can't believe I'm actually having a conversation with this little guy and then he surprises me with more words and sometimes words I didn't intentionally teach him like "damn it".  Opps :)  Apparently he is hearing everything I'm saying, he just doesn't always choose to listen to what I'm telling him.

I had a little scare last week when he decided to climb out of his crib during nap time, come down the stairs, and out the front door.  He hasn't tried to climb out since, but I did find him in his crib one day when I left him out of it playing on the floor while I went to the bathroom.  That was interesting as well.  It looks like taking the side off of the crib is in our near future.  That's ok because lifting a 32 lb child out of a crib when you're 8 1/2 months pregnant is really difficult and I don't even want to talk about changing the sheets on a crib mattress!  Why does that process have to be more difficult than child birth?

As far as house progress goes, we've torn out our basement bathroom walls and floor to get rid of mold and asbestos we found when we had a minor toilet leak.  Turns out somebody knew about a leak and never fixed it a long time ago.  Mold?  Yuck!  Now we have a working toilet in a storage room.  It's very chic, very college housing.  Eventually it'll be a laundry and bathroom combo with actual walls, but for now we take a seat next to Christmas decorations.

 
Our upstairs bathroom got a new sliding door and the bathroom feels so much bigger now that the door doesn't swing into it! I ordered a new vanity that is much bigger and will give us counter top to use finally.  Being the only full bathroom in the house, we really need a more functional space.  There are so many criteria to having a new vanity in this bathroom and this little beauty is for sure, without a doubt in my mind, the ONLY thing out there that can be used so we can avoid custom cabinetry and a counter.  I'm so excited!

My back porch got new screens and some furniture, thanks to mom and dad, so it's liveable now too.

The front entry got a face lift by adding some cabinets and a shoe bench.  It feels so much bigger now!

As can be seen in many of the photos, things are about 7/8 finished in each and every project.  I've been so desperate for function in most of the projects around here that once they're almost complete I move on to something else that's driving me crazy.  So, Ryter is taking a big leap and going to spend 2 whole weeks with Baba and Dukas in Iowa.  It's huge for us and huge for him, but we've already started talking about it and he's very excited.  I will be able to finish up all of those loose ends while he's gone which will be a gigantic help!  When baby arrives, the house will be finished except for the big projects (bathroom and kitchen).