Pressing On

Relient K references aside, Jared and I have been pressing on with many endeavors these last few weeks.  November is quite literally just around the corner, and we've got a lot on our plate to accomplish before then!  Though we're both feeling the stress of the impending baby, move to WA, and deadline for the house, there's little time to dwell on it all.

I'm very happy to report (as I'm sure most of you know) that the main bathroom is (mostly) finished!  Jared did run into a few snags as he tried to finish the plumbing on the tub, so he ended up calling in a pro to finish/fix the job.  He was able to enjoy the first shower in the bathroom, and I'm told that the setup is acceptable.  I do only call the bathroom mostly finished because the drain under the sink has not been hooked up, though it's just a matter of Jared getting it done.  Also, there isn't any crown molding...yet.  So, it's a functioning bathroom, minus a touch or two.

The before view.  My goodness, how far we've come!  When we first moved in, everything worked, though not well at all.  The tub and shower leaked and the toilet didn't like to flush right.  Jared officially started this project in late March.

And this is what the place looked like a few days ago.  Notice anything missing?  This was a pre-toilet shot.

But Jared was just getting to that.  Can't have much of a bathroom without a toilet!

Hard at work.  Luckily, the installation when smoothly (he's never installed a brand new toilet before).

Beautiful, no?  A lot of hard work, time, and a little money went into this bathroom, but I can honestly say it's one of my favorite rooms...as weird as that is.

The biggest difference was probably made by reopening that window.  I love the amount of light that comes in here!  It's a small space, but just that window makes all the difference in the world.

A few more finishing touches, and this bathroom will be perfect.  I'm so proud of Jared for accomplishing all this!

But on to the next task.  This room was the old utility/storage area.  With the utilities in other places, we decided to make this room into a small bedroom or office.  However, it's become somewhat of a catch-all as well as the "cat" room.

Along with some sheetrock damage repair, Jared decided to add a generous closet to this room, as we had removed a few closets from the house during our contracted work.  This closet will allow us to list the house as a three bedroom, because a room has to have a certain amount of closet space to be considered a bedroom.

If Jared struggled a little with some of the stuff in the bathroom, he excelled at his real job: basic carpentry.

Fast forward a day or two, and the doors were installed and sheetrock was going up.  I know it's been nice for Jared to have a simple project after working on the bathroom for so long.

All this room needs is a few simple things before it's good to go.  The concrete floor is going to be carpeted, and after some drywall and paint, along with the baseboard and crown molding, this will be a nice office or small bedroom.








While Jared has been hard at work on the house, I've been trying to get some baby stuff ready to go.  The knitted blanket that I've been working on for awhile is VERY close to being finished, for which I am grateful.  I've started packing my hospital bag, though it's not quite ready to go yet.  The car seat has been installed and is waiting for its passenger.  The baby's hospital bag is almost ready to go.  Our stash of baby stuff has been growing, thanks to gifts from members of our church.  The church has even decided to throw us a baby shower on the 20th, so I'm hoping to make a dent in the list of things we need before baby makes its arrival.  All things considered, this downhill slide into what is yet to come is a slightly scary one, but we're going to press on

The Light at the End of the Bathroom

For many of you, Fall seems to be making its way into the air.  As it is the middle of September, it does make sense to be looking forward to the chilly sweater/scarf-wearing weather.  Not so much here, though.  This time of year has always been my favorite, and I'm very glad that this will be the last pseudo-fall  I will experience here in Georgia.

Of course, we have a few things to do first before we can leave!

First, though, I must apologize for forgetting to snap a few pictures of some of the progress in the bathroom.  Both Jared and I have been rather busy, and with my baby brain, it's easy to overlook some things.

So you may notice that there's been a lot of visible progress on the bathroom.  Having finished the electrical and plumbing, Jared was ready to move on to putting up drywall.  I did not capture any of that process, though, but here he is doing the mudding and taping of the recently hung sheetrock.

Although it was probably one of his least favorite things to do, Jared got the job done.  After the joints and screw holes were filled, he sanded everything, and then it was just a coat of primer standing in between us and freshly painted bathroom!

However, Jared decided that he wanted the baseboard in before painting, so, being the handy guy that he is, he got a few one by eights and made the baseboard himself with a router.

This was really more of an experiment to see whether it could be done and look fairly decent.  Most of the house doesn't have baseboard or crown molding, and Jared discovered that making baseboard is a heck of a lot cheaper than buying it.  So if he has the know-how and tools to do so, why not?

Even I was recruited to help in that endeavor.  After Jared routed and sanded the boards, I primed and painted them.

It was nice to be able to help, in at least a small way.

In almost no time at all, Jared put the baseboard in.  After that, I primed the walls with a layer of Killz, although I did not photograph that process, either.  I did discover that scooting around on the floor and bending over for long periods of time are not easy to do while seven and half months pregnant.  After a few touch ups, Jared did the actual painting.

Painting done, the next step for Jared was finding out how to get the tub in, which was no easy feat considering its weight.  I, however, spent my time practicing with the new car seat that we got.

Good grief these things are confusing!  At least we have a good car seat, and Jared even got the running stroller that he wanted, courtesy of my parents.  It might take us a half hour just to get the baby in the seat, but at least we can take the baby home from the hospital.

Moving right along, Jared had a few things left on his bathroom to-do list.  The hole in the wall was to become a recessed medicine cabinet, the tub needed to be moved in and installed, and the toilet and sink needed to be installed as well. The biggest obstacle with this list was the tub.  As heavy as it is, Jared couldn't move it by himself, and though it would only take a minute or two, he had a hard time finding anyone available to help.

So after a few days of doing odds and ends in the bathroom, like getting the medicine cabinet in, he managed to arrange a time for someone to help him.

And this morning, the tub finally got moved to its new home!  Soon, and very soon, this bathroom will be DONE.  It's such a relief to see the beginning of the end.

Here the color of the walls can be seen a little better.  This color definitely likes to change with the light, but it's a nice relaxing tone.  Next stop, toilet and sink!







I'm (figuratively, because I've got a baby pushing on my diaphragm) breathing a sigh of relief with this bathroom.  Though it's been a long time coming, the space is coming together nicely, and I'm looking forward to taking a relaxing bath after so many months of planning and waiting.  Now if only the weather would bless me with some cool relief...here's to wishful thinking!

Labor Day Weekend

Can you believe it's September already?  I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around how fast time is moving these days.  August flew by, and I'm sure the next few months will go just as fast.

Jared has been working consistently on the bathroom, so there is a lot of progress to show.

The bathroom plumbing was mostly done, so Jared decided to get working on laying the subfloor.

Thankfully, Jared acquired a few tools from my dad this summer, and they helped expedite this process.  Otherwise, that would have been a lot of battery changes.

My handy man!

Just cutting the right shape of subfloor was quite a project.  This bathroom is kind of an odd shape.

It finally looked like a floor.  What a big step in finishing this space!

After the subfloor came water-resistant dura-rock.

Next step: tile.  Although, we had to find tile first.  We originally were going to try to get enough from the Habitat for Humanity Resale Store, but they didn't have enough of any one kind, so we decided to check out Lowes and Home Depot for some deals.

And we ended up finding a better price on tile at the home improvement store than at the resale store!  We had to be mindful of the color as it needed to coordinate with the tub.

Jared tested out his layout for the tile.  Luckily, he had a bit of experience laying tile before this.  However, he did not have experience drilling/cutting holes in tiles for plumbing.  Despite his reservations, he managed to get the job done just fine.

We were both pretty excited when the tile started going down. This bathroom is coming together!

And what guy doesn't like an excuse to get new tools?  Jared had to get a tile saw, and was rather giddy about trying it out...or as giddy as Jared really gets.

Soon enough the tile was down.  Then the grouting was done, and poof, a real floor!  Now on to the next project.

Jared's friend Rossiter was able to help out with some of the electrical work that needed to be done.  One of the perks of having worked in an engineer battalion is knowing plumbers and electricians.

Also, Jared needed a hand to hang sheetrock.  Sheetrock!!!  How cool is it that we're to this point!?

Well now, doesn't that look like a room?  There's still more to be done, but hey, this bathroom has come by leaps and bounds in the last few weeks.

There's still a bit of plumbing to do for the sink and toilet, and Jared is going to install a recessed medicine cabinet.  We are getting so close!

I forgot to show a picture of Jared's skill at cutting holes in tile.  Not an easy task.

In the meantime, I've been working on a few projects of my own.  The baby blanket has been coming along, as long as I keep working diligently on it.

But I also convinced myself to make a diaper bag.  I used a Simplicity pattern, but I DON'T recommend using this pattern at all.  It was not very well written, and I'm just glad I had my mom via skype to help when I discovered problems.

I'm pretty proud of this bag.  I've never made anything like it before, so it was a fun challenge.  The bag has a large back pocket, two exterior side pockets, lots of pockets on the inside, and lots of space.  If I decide to make this pattern again, I think I'll use a heavier weight of fabric, but we'll see how this one works.  It was a fun project, and I've decided I could stand to do more sewing.







November is creeping up on us here, but Jared and I are both praying and working to get things done in time.  I have to say, considering Jared works full time, goes to his ETS (getting out of the Army) appointments, and attends my baby doc appointments, he does a pretty amazing job keeping up with the work on the house.  What an amazing guy I have!  Maybe I'm so focused on having a Thanksgiving baby that I'm just thankful all the time.  Then again, God has given me plenty to be thankful for!

A Late Summer Update

Well hello there!

Considering the amount of blogging I've done in the last few months, one would assume that not much has been happening with the house.  How wrong that assumption would be!  Also, I think everyone would agree with the comment that summer is such a busy time.  That is my explanation for my lack of updating.

That being said, there's a lot to catch up on.  The last post covered little more than a bit about how the bathroom renovation was going and the state of the antique tub.  Since then, Jared and I have been all over the place.  Firstly, we drove all the way back to Kansas for a bit of a vacation.  Ullr came along, and with him and my pregnancy, it was definitely an interesting road trip.  Being home was great, although it was not without work.  The majority of my time there was spent helping my family pack up and move a good amount of household items in preparation for the impending sale of my childhood home...I almost forgot to mention, we also had a bit of a hiccup when we got in a car accident.

Luckily, insurance took care of everything with the exception of my frayed nerves, and the car has since been repaired completely!  Anyway, Jared was a champ at helping and organizing a lot of the work that was done, and I was sad to leave him in Kansas as my mom, brother, and I made our way to Washington.

Three days in a Uhaul and halfway across the U.S. later, we made it without any major incident to Bothell just in time for my dear cousin Lynne's wedding.  It was a wonderful day full of celebration for the new couple and family get togethers.  My two weeks in Seattle were fabulous.  I celebrated my gorgeous cousin Lois's birthday, did lots of knitting, spent lots of time with family, and finally attended my first game at Safeco Field (and saw the Mariners play an awesome game).  By the end of my visit, I was feeling pretty prepared to go back to Georgia and kick some major booty on the house reno.

So feeling pretty motivated, I got around to this room.

We had tackled this room months ago.  With all the other major renovations that were quite a bit more pressing, the front room got put on the back burner.

During my stay in Washington, Jared managed to get this room completely ready for paint.  Sanding all the areas that needed to be smooth took awhile, but he was glad to have the job done.

So just a few days after returning home, I managed to get the room painted.  However, I do think I overestimated my ability, and Jared had to finish the second coat for me.  Being pregnant is work enough, but adding some jet lag and painting in there didn't really help get this done.

It is always amazing how much difference just a coat of paint can make.  How refreshing!

Meanwhile, Jared managed to work up the courage to work on the plumbing in the bathroom.  I don't have pictures of it, but he spent many an hour under the house puzzling over connecting pieces and bits of tubing.  He did it, though!  I am proud to say that, though he had reservations about his ability to do such a big plumbing job, Jared managed to get the thing done with maybe one or two issues along the way.  Next, the subfloor and sheetrock can go into place, and it's really just a hop, skip, and a jump before that bathroom is DONE.

I passed some of my recovery time by keeping my hands busy.  Baby's first lamb took up a whole evening and morning to complete, but I've been working pretty steadily on baby's knitted blanket.  It's very nice to be able to crochet and knit.  Such handy skills!

I also got Jared to take a picture or two of my ever-growing bump.  Here I am at about five months.  Phew, time flies!

And now for a throwback picture.  I honestly have to pinch myself when I think about what this house used to look like, inside and out.  Over the last year, not much except the foliage has changed on the outside.  Until now.

Jared and I had talked a lot over the last few months about the exterior.  The old asbestos siding was in poor shape, and we knew that a paint job wouldn't cut it.  Jared decided it was high time we looked into some siding options.  He found a decent contractor to take on the job, and as soon as I came back from Washington, we picked out the colors for the house.

Bright and early on the 20th, the crew arrived.  They made what seemed like good progress until the end of the first day.  Unfortunately, though it has rained almost every day for the last two months, Georgia would not spare the crew one clear weekend for work.  Having to stop for thunderstorms put a damper on progress, and the crew had to come back for an extra weekend.

The whole process went fairly well, weather considering.  As more siding went up, I was happier and happier with the way the house was looking.  The crew of four was very job oriented, and I was greatly impressed with their attitude throughout the job in spite of the rain.

This last weekend, the guys finished, and I have to say, it feels like we've got a new house...from the outside.  Jared and I are more than happy with the end result!

Jared finally trimmed the giant bush next to the side porch.

Who's happy?  ME!

All in all, a very good experience!  The house desperately needed the facelift, and I'm very happy with the contractor and crew who worked so hard to make that possible.











Well, that's all the updates for now.  Hope your summer has been going well!