super hero birthday bash!

Somehow my sweet little baby boy has managed to grow up and turn three.  I'm in shock.  Wasn't he just a tiny, squishy newborn that took forever and a day (or four days) to arrive?

And didn't we just celebrate his first birthday, after which he quickly learned to walk... and fall.  I distinctly remember our first ER visit a week into the walking adventure.  In E vs. toy drum, toy drum won.

And, I swear, it was just yesterday that he turned two and started impressing us so much with his growing vocabulary, gentle nature and silly personality.

But somehow, at the end of July, he turned three.  Holy moly.  I am so blessed to call this little boy my son.  He makes me laugh daily, knows how to give the best hugs and kisses, brightens any room and is just a joy to be around.  I am so lucky to be his mama.

 

A couple weeks ago, we celebrated this little guy Super Hero style with a big group of family and friends.  It was such a perfect day - lots of people who love our little guy, fantastic weather and an overall fun party.

I love parties -- especially the pre-party planning and crafting.  But this was the first kid-focused party I'd thrown and I was a little nervous about how the details would come together.  I'm relieved to say, however, that everything seemed to work out pretty well.  We had fifteen kiddos under the age of seven and I think the only tears were related to a wayward elbow while everyone was scrambling to grab candy out of the pinata.  That's a success in my book!

The big bash started at 11 am (I look forward to the day we're not planning around naps!) and I had the kids start by making super heroes at our kitchen table.  It was a nice way to keep everyone occupied as the guests trickled in.  We had also set out some toys in the play room/office/junk room and the kids migrated in there as well.  Always fun to play with someone else's toys!

After everyone arrived and we'd wrapped up free play and craft time, we dug into the lunch spread.  The hubby and I went super simple this year and made sub sandwiches ("Hero" sandwiches - har, har) and veggie shooters - served alongside cut-up fresh fruit, bags of chips and a pasta salad (thanks, Mom).  It was so nice to have the prep work done the day before and I loved how simple it made serving food on the actual party day.  No rushing around at the grill, cleaning up the kitchen the morning of or accidentally forgetting an important ingredient, requiring a last minute dash to the store.

Following lunch, we headed out on a Super Hero Adventure!  The kiddos were given silly string and instructed to use their "spider web shooters" to spray Batman if he popped up.  Hubby and my brother in laws had hidden two Batman posters along the way to the park and the kids freaked out when they came across them.  Screams of pure joy and happiness.  So fun!

Just before we got to the park, we stopped to explain the next adventure - the kiddos were each to rescue a stuffed animal that had somehow gotten captured or trapped at the playground.  They took off running, rescued their victims within minutes and then proceeded to play for a bit.  Eventually, we made it back to the house for the final mission -- free the candy from the pinata!

The party wouldn't have been complete without cake and ice cream.  A super talented gal that I work with made the cake based upon some Pinterest inspiration photos and she did an amazing job.  We received so many compliments!  I also got an idea for serving ice cream off of Pinterest - dish scoops into cupcake liners ahead of time and don't worry about the mess at the party.  So handy!

We wrapped up the day by opening presents and our little guy was beyond spoiled.  We certainly have a very generous group of friends and family.  Too generous in fact.  I'm always humbled by all who love our little family; we are beyond blessed.

As a small token of appreciation, we put together goody bags for the kids.  I included a pack of crayons, a super hero coloring sheet, some super hero stickers, a felt mask (thanks Target Dollar Spot!) and a homemade Super E cookie (they turned out so much better than I'd anticipated, especially for my first attempt at royal icing sugar cookies!).  We also told our guests to disassemble the centerpieces to take home (super hero Tootsie Pops!) and will be sending personalized Super Hero photos with our thank you notes.  The photo backdrop was so much fun and I can't wait to share the shots I grabbed of the kids.  Their personalities shined through in the photos and I got the biggest kick out of watching them pose.

Besides crafting the centerpieces and photo backdrop, we also made a comic book pennant and decorated the mantle with framed Super Hero headshots.  Simple but festive!

Overall, we had a really fun day and it was so great to be able to welcome everyone into our home to celebrate.  It's the first big bash we've hosted at our new house and I loved having the space to entertain everyone.  Thanks again to all of our family and friends who made time to celebrate our little guy with us.  We love you!

intermission over.

We've officially been in the house for 17 sleeps (can you tell I have a wee one?).  And holy moly.  In some ways it feels like we moved in yesterday.  Like the fact we have half-emptied boxes in every room.  And  paper blinds hanging on many windows.  And an empty refrigerator.  And a garage full 'o stuff.  And a basement even more full 'o stuff.

But, in other ways, it's already feeling like our home.  Like we've been here, making memories, for years.  I know that it's really our little family that makes this house a home.  That brings the love and laughter and warmth.  But I also know that all of our extended family that made themselves available to help us move, were really the ones that caused the house to overflow with love and support.  The majority of our family is four to five hours away, so building this house has meant so much more than giving us additional space and new amenities.  We finally have the room to welcome guests properly.  And to host special occasions.  And I can't wait.

So, as anxious as I am to unpack and hang things on walls and really get settled, I'm also okay with playing outside, sitting down at night to read a book or do a puzzle with E or to watch a show with my Hubby.  We're here to stay.  And all of the boxes and all of the stuff will eventually find a place.  The important thing is that we're already making memories in this house.  And it's feeling more like a home than our temporary house ever did.

As you can imagine, the past two and a half weeks have been eventful (umm, so much so that I haven't posted...whoops!).

- day 160:  Moving day!  A huge thanks to our parents, Kendall, Tootie, Donna and Connor, who came up/over/down and helped us get all of our stuff from points A (condo), B (storage unit) and C (IKEA!) to point D (lot 23).  We are beyond grateful.  And, I promise, when things settle down, I'll write a real thank you note to tell you so.

I've never packed and moved at the same time before.  I've also never allowed others to pack for me.  And I've certainly never moved a full house in a day before. It's exhausting!  Our morning started with a call from U-Haul at 6 am, letting us know that the truck we had reserved hadn't been returned because it was stuck in a field.  And, they didn't have a replacement because most of their trucks had been vandalized overnight (apparently it's the new 'thing' to break into these lots and steal catalytic converters - so sad).  Hubby was sitting for the police exam Saturday morning (perfect timing, right?), so my FIL and I loaded up and headed to the next town over, in hopes they could help us out.  Thankfully, they had a truck we could use for the day.  And I'm proud to say I've officially driven a 26' truck.  For a few blocks anyway...  The rest of the day was much less eventful.  Thank you, God.

- day 161: Started the unpacking process, installed a bunch of hardware, ran errands and did a lot of staring at boxes/cabinets/etc. feeling completely overwhelmed.  Do you know how hard it is to find things that you didn't pack?  It's kind of like Christmas every time I open a new box.

- day 162/163: I headed back to work to wrap up the quarter, but Hubby stayed home and managed contractors/answered questions.  They wrapped up the plumbing, did drywall repairs, replaced the master bedroom carpet and completed some carpentry finish work.  A busy few days!

- day 164/165: We both worked and did the best we could to continue the unpacking process at night.  A big thanks to my Dad who left behind enough food to keep us fed for the week!

- day 166: To celebrate the 10-Q being filed, I took a day off of work to work on ths house.  I really need a day off that doesn't involve work.  Like really.

- days 167-170: Lots of errands.  And more unpacking.  And a little bit of curtain hanging, pantry organizing and  laundry catch-up.  All made much more bearable by a sweet new neighbor that stopped by with a delicious plate of cookies.

- day 171: As we were getting ready to leave for work, we discovered our garage was wet.  Everything had stayed dry during the crazy amounts of rain we'd been getting, so this was quite concerning.  Upon moving back inside, we discovered that our laundry room was completely flooded.  And the powder room beside it was wet.  And the basement below was the most wet.  I'd put laundry in to wash the previous morning and was planning to switch it over to dry that morning.  But somehow, in 24 hours, a drip/leak had developed where the hose connected to the wall spiggot.  And oh.my.goodness was there water.  We're still trying to figure out what caused the problem, since I'd done at least a dozen loads of laundry without issue.  Everything is currently dried out and the washer is hooked back up, but I'm only turning the water on to do a load of laundry and then it's immediately being switched off.  Ugh.  We have to replace our wood floors in the powder room, switch out baseboards and quarter-round, and readhere the vinyl in the laundry room (and, yes, I'm now actually glad we switched from wood to vinyl in the laundry room).  Luckily, everything in the basement was in plastic bins and was salvagable.  It's always something..... 

- days 172-177: We've continued to slowly work on getting settled.  And figuring out what else needs to be done.  Even in a new house, the work is never done.

We were able to make some progress on E's room this past weekend and I'm loving it so far.  I'll do a full post soon, but here's a sneak peek for now.  My MIL made the quilt and it's absolutely perfect.

I think E's definitely getting comfy in his new space.

Our house cleaner came today and I can't tell you what a difference in makes to have the dust removed, the floors cleaned and everything shining.  Such a motivator.  She's been such a blessing to us -- and my sanity.

We've had a few non-house related distractions recently, as well.  Hubby had his wisdoom teeth removed on Friday so we tried to have a slower-paced weekend.  He did pretty well... until being diagnosed with a dry socket today.  Bummer.  While he recovered on Saturday morning, E and I went to hang out with some of our good friends.  They just welcomed another precious baby girl to their family.  And, oh my, is she sweet.  I had the lucky priviliege of taking some photos of her and her big sister and, as I've worked on editing them, I can't get over how incredibly perfect she is.  Not good for the baby fever.  Not good at all.

Also not good for the fever?  These sweet bows that I had a blast making.  I'm pretty proud of how they turned out.  And I only burned myself three times..and poked myself with a pin once.  Thank you, Pinterest!

I've also been working on reading the latest book for our neighborhood book club.  No showing up without actually reading the book this month.  Why?  Because I was silly enough to sign up to host this month.  But, I had a good reason.  I figured the ladies would give me a little more grace for having a half put together house now than they would in another nine months.  Right?  Right.  At least that's what I'm telling myself.

Now, I just need to find the serving platters, figure out a killer mixed drink and dig up some delicious appetizer recipes.  10 days and counting...

day 152

1. It's quarter end and I work in accounting.  Enough said.

2. The condo sold.  We found out Monday night when our landlord called to say there was an inspection scheduled for Wednesday.  The sales contract says tenants have to be out 15 days prior to closing, which means we're supposed to be out on April 15.  10 days from now. (insert mini panic attack)

3. Our Construction Manager's last day with the company is this coming Monday -- April 8.  We found that out on Tuesday. (insert second mini panic attack)

4. On Wednesday, we had a painter come out to paint the master bedroom, powder room, living room/foyer and E's room.  I'd intended to do it myself, but we're running out of time. With the condo selling, I won't have a gap between the house being done and being able to move, so we just hired it out.  I was unimpressed with the work.  (insert third mini panic attack)  He's coming back tomorrow morning to finish touch-ups and clean up his lines.  Crossing my fingers he's able to meet my expectations.

5. We found out Thursday that the hood vent we received (which was actually an upgraded newer model) does not currently have an extender being made for it.  And, without the extender, it's not tall enough for our ceilings.  After lots of back and forth with the appliance company, they found us a new hood (which is the older model) out of California, along with an extender.  Hopefully it arrives next Thursday (April 11) as expected.  The installer is slated to be there first thing Friday morning to get it in.

[36" Stainless Chimney Hood by Best]

6. Our new Construction Manager continues to assure us we'll be in by April 15 (the completion date per our contract and now the day we have to be out of the condo we're renting).  He's tentatively scheduled our occupancy inspection with the Village for next Thursday.  Like 6 days from now.  Day 158.  I'm not totally convinced it's going to happen.

7. W'e're hoping to be able to do our final walk-through and punch list on Friday (day 159) and then be able to move over the weekend.  It gets us out of the condo on time, but it also means we'd be living in the house while they're doing the finishing touches.  Not ideal, but it's going to have to work.

8.  Speaking of the painter coming, I had to pick out more paint colors.  Because of the craziness at work, it involved my Hubby grabbing paint samples from Sherwin Williams and me spreading them out over the kitchen table at 10 pm, trying to pick paint with tired eyes via poor overhead lighting.  While I didn't like the paint job, I like the colors.  One small victory!  Our house palette now looks like this:

Master Bedroom - On the Rocks

Main Bath - Nantucket Dune

E's Bedroom - Versatile Gray

Master Bathroom - Perfect Greige

Kitchen/Dining Area - Gray Clouds

Living Room/Foyer - Gray Clouds

Powder Room - Copen Blue

9. Our master shower is finally tiled!  I love the tile work.  But I'm not sure how I feel about the granite seat and ledge.   I thought it was all going to be tile.  At first I was insistent that the granite come out but the Designer talked me out of it.  He assures me I'll be happier with how the granite holds up in the long run.  I still don't like the look, but practicality wins out again.  I really hope the granite grows on me once everything else starts to be added to the bathroom.

The missing tiles have since been installed but I haven't taken a photo for some reason.

10.  The fireplace tile has also been installed.  I like the wall tile, but I'm a bit undecided on the floor tile.  Does anyone else notice the front right tile?  I know it's natural stone and the colors will vary, but it's the only tile that light.  And I think it looks odd.  The tile guy's solution was to pull a few of the darker tiles out and replace them with a couple leftover tiles that were lighter.  But, because the tiles were wet when I went out to see if I liked it, it still looked the same.  The replacement (and larger) mantel has also arrived and been primed.  I believe it will be installed by the trim carpenter tomorrow.

11. The electricians came out and installed a few more of our lights.  They'll be out again tomorrow to wrap up.

12. Our appliances were delivered last Saturday (day 146) and were installed on Monday (I think?).  The pictures below were taken on Easter, pre-installation (and mid egg hunt!).

13.  We celebrated Easter with an egg hunt at the house.  E was glad the Easter Bunny found him!  And we were thrilled to start making family memories in our new home.

 

14.  Tomorrow is going to be a crazy day!  The painter, electrician, trim carpenter and plumber will all be there.  I think the biggest items left to complete are: paint touch-ups, finish trimwork, install mantel, finish hanging lights, hang mirrors, install carpet and transition pieces, plumbing, complete front porch columns, rough grading, put in temporary driveway/sidewalk and then CLEANING.  It's a tight timeline!  Hopefully more updates tomorrow once everyone has gotten in there and worked their tails off.  I stocked up on Gatorade, water and am baking cookies to drop off in the morning.  I'm hoping a little bribery will go a long way!

happy easter!

Lots to catch up on (like we're supposed to be moving in just over a week!) but so little time to download pictures and put together an update.  Hopefully tomorrow.  Hopefully.

In the mean time, this little guy is keeping us sane, making us laugh and helping us to forget the recent chaos.

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter! xo - Amy, Hubby and E

home sweet home - number two

Our first house was a mid-century Cape Cod in the middle of town.  We were located on a corner lot and were the proud owners of a 2.5 car garage.  Our backyard was non-existent but we did have a fenced-in side yard with a large deck that was perfect for entertaining.  I loved the house.  Hubby was never fully on board, though.  Our main floor had two bedrooms, one bathroom, a living room and a tiny, eat-in galley kitchen.  The upstairs was a large open area that had been finished by a previous owner and our basement had been partially finished by the couple we bought the house from.  Essentially, we had three levels of livable space so the tiny 850 square foot main floor didn't seem so small.

We did quite a bit of work on the house in the five years we lived there.  Walls were painted.  Hardwood floors were re-finished.  Basements were waterproofed (and re-waterproofed and finally really waterproofed).  Rooms were decorated.  Yards were landscaped.  Entryways were tiled.  Lights were replaced.  Walls were re-painted.  Kitchens were remodeled.  Drywall was hung.  Decks were built.  Foundations were braced.  Popcorn ceilings were scraped.  Stairs were refinished.  Drop ceilings were hung.  Paved sidewalks were laid.  Carpeting was installed.  Decks were stained.  HVAC systems were replaced.  It's actually kind of sad and exhausting to think of everything we did... and then left behind.

I'll go into more detail and provide progress photos for a few of the rooms, but I thought I'd share the true before and after photos.  The before photos were either taken by the inspector when we bought the house or by ourselves when we first toured it.  The after photos were taken by our Realtor when we sold the house this past fall.

You can't see the true extent of the work we did outside, but it involved removing very overgrown Yew bushes, building a front porch, adding a compost bin and rain barrel, planting loads of flowers and replacing old, broken patio pavers with a new paved sidewalk.  We also replaced the porch light and added a clothesline.

The living room transformation wasn't quite as exciting.  We replaced the linoleum entryway with ceramic tile, painted the white walls a creamy milk chocolate, replaced the entryway light with a boob light (eeek), replaced the ceiling fan with a more stylish ceiling fan, painted the curtain rods oil rubbed bronze and installed faux-wood blinds.

In contrast, the kitchen was our biggest transformation and the most exciting.  Hubby's dad is a woodworker by trade and helped us to completely remodel the kitchen right away.  We removed popcorn texture from ceiling, skim coated the ceiling, removed paneling from the lower half of the walls, patched  plaster, painted the cream walls a minty green, painted the trim cream, refaced the green and cream cabinets with cherry veneer, built new cabinets for the appliance wall, replaced old cabinet doors and hardware with new cherry cabinet doors and updated hardware, replaced laminate counters and a stainless steel sink with solid surface counters and a flush-mount sink, replaced aged light fixtures with new ones, replaced all appliances, replaced the faucet and installed faux-wood blinds.  Really, the only thing that didn't change was the tile floor and backsplash.

The previous owners used the spare bedroom as a workout room and we changed it into an office.  A few years later, it was transformed into a nursery.  Over the years, we refinished the hardwood floors, painted the white walls mustard and terracotta, installed crown molding and chair rail, replaced the old light with a ceiling fan, painted the closet white and ultimately re-painted the mustard and terracotta walls cream and baby blue.  We had intended to replace the old metal blinds but never got around to it.

We pretty much lived with the bathroom 'as is' and only painted it a light taupe when we listed it for sale.  If we had stayed in the house longer, we probably would have made it a priority to add a second bath (there was another shower in the basement, but no sink or toilet).  We also would have re-finished this bathroom at some point.  It was functional, but was a by-product of leftovers.  There were at least seven shades of taupe/pink/tan in there (the floor tile, the baseboard tile, the tub, the tub surround tile, the toilet, the toilet seat and the vanity).  On a side note - we had someone come through to help us stage the house before we listed it for sale.  She suggested a lighter shower curtain to brighten up the bathroom, so the curtain you see hung above was brand new.  The entire time we lived there, we had used a dark brown shower curtain.

The spare bedroom, master bedroom and bathroom were connected by a hallway that I can't find before/after pictures of.  I suppose it's not something you're specifically trying to market when you sell a house, though.  The hallway housed two closets, as well, so it was really just a jumbled mess of doors.  And the door frames were painted varying colors.  It was one of those things that drove me crazy, but I never got around to fixing.  We really didn't do much to the hallway other than paint the walls cream and install a frame wall, a la Young House Love.

The master bedroom  actually went through a bit of an identity crisis.  I changed the original paint color at the last minute from a darker, gray-based turquoise to a brighter, Tiffany-like turquoise.  I never really liked the brighter color but it took me four years to buy the paint to re-paint it.  It took another six months before my Mom visited and decided to re-paint it for me.  Thanks, Mom.  In the master (that was the same size as the spare), we refinished the hardwood floors, painted the white walls a semi-bright turquoise, painted the closet white, replaced the ceiling fan with a more stylish ceiling fan and ultimately re-painted the turquoise walls cream.  I'll have to find photos of the bright walls to share.

Upstairs, we really didn't do much.  I'd intended to fix the weird trim and paint the ceilings the same color as the walls, but it never made the priority list.  We were also thinking about removing the wood burning stove (we didn't use it a single time while we lived there) and ripping up the lovely burnt orange/red tile.  Instead, we hung a curtain rod to conceal a storage area above the stairs and re-finished the stairs by stripping the peeling paint, sanding the treads, and painting the risers/staining the treads.  I'll also have to share a photo of the stairs, as well.  I absolutely loved how they turned out.

The basement received quite a bit of DIY love, as well.  Besides bracing a foundation wall with steel beams, replacing the furnace and A/C and adding a sump pump and drain tiles, we also did a lot of cosmetic work.  We finished drywall in the main rec area, installed carpet, hung doors, painted the walls, hung the drop ceiling, added can lights and ultimately replaced an area of the carpet with vinyl flooring (the result of putting off installing a sump pump for far too long).

The smaller rec room in the basement was transformed from a poker room to a bar area.  Hubby's dad handcrafted the solid oak bar as a housewarming gift and we were extremely sad to leave it behind.  It was never listed for sale with the house, but eventually it became a condition of the sale.  Still bummed about that one.

The laundry room received a thick coat of white paint to hide the horrible, dungeon-like sponge painting and was also officially walled off from the rest of the basement.  Otherwise, we did very little.  I had hoped to add shelves at some point and we'd even talked about making this room a second bath, but neither ended up coming to fruition. I do need to add a photo of the shower that was built under the stairs, though.  For being the secondary shower, it was far nicer than our normal bath/shower combo.  The built-in granite seat, and wall-to-wall tile were actually very pretty.  Too bad that it was hidden under the stairs and that the basement was always a bit cold to shower in.  I think I showered in it once?  And it was in the last week we lived there because the shower curtain from the upstairs bathroom had been already been packed.

There was another section of the basement that was walled off and used for housing the mechanicals, as well as all of our storage.  I was amazed at how full that room became once E came along and started growing out of baby clothes, equipment and toys.  I think his stuff ended up filling half the room.  Pure craziness.

Also pure craziness?  The number of people willing to help us make this house our home.  We wouldn't have been able to make the improvements we did without the help and expertise of others.  A huge THANK YOU is due to many of our friends and family members who sacrificed their time to assist us.  From the bottom of our hearts, thank you to our parents, our siblings, Bryan, Uncle Jim and Aunt Sharon, our neighbor Gabe, Tank, Aunt Donna and Uncle Gary and anyone else I probably missed.  We love you all.