Home Improvement

So one of the reasons we bought the house we did was because, despite being 65 years old, it had been updated and had relatively few things that needed to be done to it. However, moving anywhere means needing to change things to make them your own, and this has been no exception. There are definitely still several things that I plan to do, but here's how decorating/updating has been going the last few months!

So when we first bought the house, the white paint was seriously fading and the porch was a darker gray color. 

As part of our contract, we were given a check to pay for the house to be re-painted. Nice. I was sooo excited thinking I was going to be able to change the color of the house. I had big plans to make it a nice beige or gray or blue or green. Then we found out that it was going to cost nearly $1000 extra to change the color (as opposed to keeping it white). Now I almost wish we had done it, but that was NOT in our budget. 

So we went with white. But then we had to pick out what kind of white we wanted to use. It's REALLY hard to tell from a sample what your whole house will look like. I thought the white we picked was going to be kind of a bright grayish-white. Instead it ended up being kind of creamy. It's fine, but I don't love it. Every now and then I think it looks a little pinkish, and I am not a fan of that.

 Really, it would probably be fine if the three houses next to our weren't so darn cute. Ours just looks lame in comparison. At least the paint isn't fading now, though.

In the above picture the porch is already painted, but, originally, the painters left it gray. Gray does NOT look good with cream. Not even kind of good. It drove me CRAZY. So I went to Sherwin Williams and bought a can of paint to match the house, then took my afternoon naptimes one week and got busy painting! 

It took three coats and four days, but I finally got it done!

Ah, the porch looks MUCH better. I also added the flower box under the window, and some nice hanging baskets on the porch. 

I'm trying to figure out what else to do to improve the curb appeal. Any suggestions? 

I want to get rid of that orange foundation under the window, but have no idea what to do with it. I'm hoping maybe the bushes will grow and that will make it look better too? I might also get some darker mulch. We're also going to be getting some new shutters VERY soon (like I already bought some). I'm not a fan of those diamonds!

In addition to working on the curb appeal, I've also been doing a few projects here and there, mainly for Samuel's room.

I found this cute frame back at Thanksgiving and finally got around to spray painting it and filling it with pictures. It's not perfect, but I think it turned out pretty well!

I also made (okay, put together from an ikea package) this step stool. It might have been Ikea, but it still took me QUITE a while. Much longer than the ikea bookshelf or bench  that I built. Speaking of which....

Our mudroom has turned out quite nicely! There's actually another little shelf where the stroller is now, and we have baskets in all but one of the shelves. I love that this empty room that had NO purpose before is now part of our home!

This is another fun little project I did. It was ridiculously easy with some canvas, fabric, and a wooden "S." I really should have gotten enough to do all of Samuel's initials, but I bought the stuff to do this back when I was pregnant, so I think it's safe to blame that on pregnancy brain, right?

I posted on facebook about my fun ottoman-making afternoon. My original plan was to use this in lieu of our coffee table, but it turned out to be WAY too tall when it was done and no where near long enough. However, I have been in need of a side table, and this seemed to do just the trick! 

This may not seem like much of a project, but it has been one of the most helpful things I've done. No one EVER put things in the right bins before!!

Samuel's room was probably the one that got the most updates when we moved in (other than the mud room). When we first saw the house, it looked like this: 

Yup, lemon-lime colored. I'm not completely opposed to that color, actually, but it in NO WAY matched ANY of Samuel's room decor. It had to go. Eric was amazing and spent a day painting away. The color, once again, was not exactly what I had envisioned (it's supposed to just be khaki, but, depending on the lighting, it can have a bit of an orange flair), but it works, so no complaints here!

We also changed out the hardware on one of the closet doors (seriously, best $5 EVER!) and had the light fixture changed (I forgot to take a picture of that, but, once again, HUGE difference!)

              

My original intention when we moved was to get new living room furniture in addition to our recent dining-room-table purchase. Unfortunately, I quickly realized that I have really expensive taste. Our furniture is only a few years old, so there really wasn't a NEED for new furniture. So I decided to just re-decorate what we had. Previously everything was done in blue and brown. Now things are looking a little more lively:

(and no, the teddy bear blanket is not part of the decor, though it might as well be since it's there 10 hours out of every day!)

(excuse the messiness)

I also got some baskets to store our DVDs, partially for looks, and partially because a certain little boy thought it was fun to pull the DVDs out of the cabinet.  

We really need a new TV. That might be coming up before too long. 

Our dining room was the easiest to decorate. I just have one picture that needs to be hung and it's done. Oh, and now there's a nice high chair over in the corner by the bookshelves. :-) 

Upstairs, we bought Eric a new desk and turned a storage box into a home (okay, bathroom) for our cat. It's much more pleasant than our old arrangement. I didn't take a picture of that. Do you really want to see? Probably not. 

This is my current project. Our play/guest room. You can kind of tell from the toys and now the bedding what color theme I'm wanting to go with, but I have no idea how to incorporate the two together and make it look cohesive yet still fun for kids and inviting for guests. Any thoughts? I've been perusing the internet and Target for wall decals etc., but nothing's come to me yet (except that I'm probably going to be getting a shelf/storage system of some kind soon). 

We haven't used it much, but I really like our patio furniture. It's not fancy, but we also didn't pay that much for it, so for what it is, I'm pretty happy! Now if Eric will only ever be off work enough for us to grill!

One last unexpected project that I had this week was painting our fireplace. While moving our coffee table to vacuum, I came to the realization that our gray tile was painted gray, not just made that way. Whoops.

We left things that way for several weeks, but pretty soon little man decided it would be fun to peel at the paint. And eat it. Not a good idea!

So last week, when I was getting really tired of pulling him away from the fireplace 10 times an hour, I hauled myself and my baby out in the rain back to Sherwin Williams and bought some paint. Of course the color was a little different, so I had to do the whole thing. Glad nap time is usually 2 hours long!

Anyway, there's been plenty more going on around here, but that's probably plenty of updating for now, right? :-)

Weekly Pics

I realized today that I haven't posted these since c. week 21 (not that he's changed a ton the last  months. I still think they're fun though!) There are a few that are still on my camera and not on the computer, but here's what I can find right now!

Celebrations

We've had a lot to celebrate lately! Unfortunately, with Eric working so much, it's made it a *little* difficult to fit in some much needed party-time. We do what we can though!

July 26th was Eric's and my 5 year anniversary. That seems like kind of a big deal (along with all of the other big deals we've had going on this year). We didn't have money or time to do anything really extravagant, so we decided to go out to dinner at what is probably the nicest restaurant in town, Fabian's. We'd heard a lot about it and had it recommended to us many times, but were kind of hesitant to spend ~$150 on one dinner. But if anything made it worth it, 5 years of marriage did, right? Plus we're both a little food-obsessed. It seemed appropriate.

So on Saturday, July 27, after Eric worked a nice 12-hour day, we went and dropped Samuel off with our friend Nicole and made our way to the restaurant. It was super nice and quaint, with only about 7 tables total and one time available (turns out dinner was 3 hours long!). The chef came out and explained the night's menu -- 5 courses, the first 3 picked for us (some kind of salad that I quite liked, a mushroom risotto [mmm], and a delicious tomato soup), then our choice of 5 entrees and 3 desserts.

We enjoyed our courses amid the fun music and quiet chatter. Eric had some kind of pork with carrots and "grown up" mac and cheese (I don't really know what it was -- I was too engrossed in my own food) and I had the most amazing filet mignon. Like, seriously amazing. I remember that whatever was on the side was tasty, but I can still taste that steak when I think about it. It was probably one of the best things I've ever eaten.

My dessert consisted of a dark chocolate-bourbon creme brulee (which had a little more bourbon than I preferred, but that's okay), and Eric had a blueberry cobbler. Everything we ate was organic and fresh and delicious. I think it probably was worth pretty darn close to what we paid for it.

We were pretty stinkin' pooped by the time we made it home at 11 (we're usually in bed by 10:30!), but we really had a wonderful evening. It was nice to spend time with my love.

(btw, we took pictures with the iPhone, but they all turned out pretty crummy due to the lighting).

Eric's birthday is just a week and a half after our anniversary, so I decided to surprise him with a night out! I made arrangements with my friend Jamie to watch Samuel so I could whisk Eric away to a night of burgers and movies. I also ordered an ice cream cake since I found a good deal on Groupon.

Things didn't go quite as planned. The ice cream place was about 25 minutes away, and, when I got there, they informed me my cake wouldn't be ready for 2 more hours (their decorator got sick). I had to wait an hour, but I was not about to go home and come back with a 6 month old. Sorry, homies.

We got that fiasco straightened out, but then Eric got off work early (which I was both glad and sad about -- not so easy to surprise him when he's there!) I spilled the beans about our plans, and Eric then changed what movie we were going to go see. Then we ended up leaving late and forgetting the bottle and having to turn around and go home twice.  

But FINALLY we dropped Samuel off at the Walton's and ran to Five Guys to pick up burgers and fries which we heartily gobbled down in the car. We went to go see Pacific Rim, which was definitely as boyish a movie as you can get (think Transformer-type monsters and aliens duking it out). It was entertaining, and Eric seemed to enjoy it. Once again, we ended up coming home c. 10:30/11 pm and pretty much falling into bed. We're so old! Haha.

Then on Eric's actual birthday we went to the Loop for pizza and I gave him the third season of Scrubs (the last one he needed to complete his collection) and bought him steaks to grill the next day. And we ate ice cream cake every night for the next week.

All in all, it was a really fun couple of weeks of celebrations!

Guess we have to wait until next year to party it up again... or at least Christmas. :-)

Today.

Most of our days around here are pretty seemingly mundane. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that I get to spend so much time with my boy. But I'm usually looking for stuff to mix it up.

Today, however, Samuel decided to mix it up for us!

After morning nap (and poop), we went to a new playgroup. We were just sitting around in the grass and letting the babies lay on blankets when my baby decided he wanted to get up on his hands and knees and start rocking! What?!?!?!

I thought maybe it was a fluke, but he did it again when we got home. Then I held him in a standing position, and he grabbed the coffee table and decided he would just hold himself up! Well then.

So we went down for afternoon nap, and he woke up two hours later crying. Covered. In. Spit Up. And of course he had prunes this morning, so it was a nice purple color. On his face, his hair, his clothes.

So I gave him a bath, which I only do like once a week (I usually just wipe him down at night). And, in our fresh new clothes, the prunes decided to work their magic and we had a poop disaster that rivaled his newborn days. It definitely was one of the top 10 so far.

So we got MORE new clothes on and we went to the Y.

When I picked him up from the Y child care, he was wearing -- NOT his clothes. Apparently he peed through his third set of clothes for the day and, after his extra set got used at church on Sunday, I had forgotten to replace them. So he was wearing a 4-year-old's shirt and his diaper. Nice. Ruined my plans to go to the grocery store, for sure! LoL.

They also said he did his rocking thing some more.

So now my child is playing in our living room, mostly naked. There's still an hour left before he goes to bed... Wonder what else he'll come up with? :-)

Fun times!

6 Months

So it's totally crazy to me that Samuel is 6 months old already! In a way it makes total sense... I mean, this has seriously been the busiest 6 months of our lives, so it definitely feels like 6 months worth of stuff has happened. Still, I can't believe that teeny tiny little baby we brought home from the hospital is now sitting and playing and yelling and babbling. It's just crazy how quickly babies change!

This month, well, okay, really the last two weeks, have brought about some big changes! Samuel has started sitting on his own pretty much all the time, using a high chair, eating solid foods (our half-birthday celebration: rice cereal. Not quite as tasty as cake, I'm guessing) and teething.

Most of that I was ready for, but the teeth really caught me off-guard. Eric and I both teethed really late (like 9 months to a year), and we just assumed that Samuel would follow suit. So when the pediatrician told me last Wednesday that she thought he was going to get teeth soon, I was kind of surprised. And I was even more surprised when he had one that night (his bottom right tooth). I'm pretty sure his other bottom one is going to come in any day... or more like any hour now... he's been SO fussy the last two days! It's really crazy that my little boy has teeth though. Hopefully it won't interfere with his eating!

As far as solids go, Samuel is doing really really well. He took to eating almost immediately, probably because he's been watching us for so long! haha. He usually opens his mouth really well and will eat 1-2 oz. at a time. So far I've given him rice cereal, oatmeal, bananas and apples, and I plan on giving him some acorn squash tomorrow. I made several other purees last week and stored them in the freezer, so we should be good to go for a little while! (I also bought some prunes because I have NO desire to puree prunes. Ew.)

(We have a better video that's actually of his first bite, but for some reason it wouldn't load!)

Samuel is still really into happily screaming and spitting right now (like literally RIGHT NOW). He "talks" a lot, though he hasn't started babbling the same syllable over and over yet. He goes crazy in his exersaucer and loves his playmat and other various toys. He is also obsessed with light fixtures of any kind and with feet (gross). He gets distracted suuupper easily, but I guess I can't blame him. The world's a pretty interesting place, especially when you're 6 months old!

These days Samuel is pretty regularly sleeping from 8-7. Granted, when I say "sleeping," I mean in his crib. He usually wakes up between 6 and 6:30, but we have a little toy bear that we leave in his crib, and he is usually pretty content to play and stay put until I come get him. (I probably wouldn't mind getting him up earlier than 7 right now, but I know that when fall/winter come and it's dark until 8, I am NOT going to be cool with waking up 2 hours before the sun.)

Anyway, he definitely has his moments, but, overall, Samuel is a really happy, friendly, funny kid! I'm sooo grateful for his great disposition and sweet smile! These have been a great 6 months. I can't wait to see what the next 6 bring (crawling? walking? talking? yikes!!)