final before and afters

Downstairs bath and kitchen.

Bathroom before us:

And now, thanks to a great deal of inspiration and help from Teresa:
Kitchen before us:

And now, starring the beloved kitchen island in all it's run-over glory:

Dining area before us:

And now, with the addition of Ikea curtains, fresh paint, and a healthy dose of baby paraphenelia:

Garage entry before us:

And now, with the paint color that I absolutely love:

bliss on a blanket revisited

Almost exactly a year ago,
I wrote about "Bliss on a Blanket."
I was taking advantage of the tiny space in time
after Idaho warmed up a little
but before my expanding belly got too big to comfortably lay on.

Today that Reason my stomach grew and grew and grew last year
and I
ventured outside into the sunshine.

Because although we don't have grass in the backyard yet,
no one is going to stop us from setting our blanket on the weeds.

And let me tell you.
It was a beautiful day.


Nicholas took his first "crawling step" forward-
got up on all fours and moved one knee forward before sliding back down to his stomach.
Who knew weeds and a garden hose would be so enticing?
I noticed this little guy sunbathing on the lawnmower handle.
We haven't seen him since November.
Do geckos hibernate? I did a report on them in fourth grade, but the only thing I can remember is
that they use their tongues to clean their eyes.
Weird fact. That's all I learned.

I bought these tiki torches for Kent for Christmas.
We lit them a few nights ago.
Our backyard was magical.

I'm thinking we should head outside more often.

master bedroom and bath

We have a lot of work left to do on our bedroom as far as decorating and furnishing go, but compared to what it looked like when we first moved in,

our bedroom has undergone probably the most drastic of all our renovations.

The master bedroom before us:

And now:

And the master bathroom is still in the works, but here's what it looked like when we moved in:

And here's what we are hoping it will look like soon:

and afters

Now that we have so much of our house completed (or nearly complete), I thought I'd show you how far this little house has come,
from before we owned it,
to now, almost 9 months later.

There's a lot of pictures, so I'll show you room by room,
a sort of mini-virtual home tour.

Today I'll show you the living room.

Come back tomorrow for a peek at our master bedroom.

new carpet

It was time for this gold carpet to say goodbye.
It had some funky little stains, discoloration, and a general old-carpet feel, and after we did the tile it no longer met evenly with the kitchen and entryway floor.
And the gold clashed with our wall color.

It just wasn't working for us anymore.


Kent and I spent Monday night clearning out the furniture and wall decorations
and tearing up carpet and pad.


It all seemed oddly familiar-the whole "furniture-crammed-in-the-wrong-places" idea.
Didn't we just do this,
like a week ago?
Look! It's a baby on a giant quesadilla!
A very, very cute baby, too.
How delicious!

At the end of the night, when everything was cleared out,
we made sure to leave our mark on the house. If anyone ever decides to replace this new carpet,
they'll know that we lived here and loved here.
Awe.

(Oh, and don't worry, Nicholas's middle fingers aren't uncharacteristically long-it's just really hard to get a 7-month old to make a handprint.)

And then, only three installers and four hours later, behold!
The fresh, unbelievably soft,
glorious new carpet.
We love it!

And it's just one more reason you should come visit us. We'll let you sprawl out on our soft, fresh carpet for as long as you want.

medina lake

We drove out to Medina Lake for a Sunday afternoon picnic.
Yes, the water was a bit cold.
But I just couldn't resist the classic "baby crying with toes in a lake" picture.
We all have one of those,
at least I know I do.
Good thing Nicholas has Daddy to calm him down after being so wrongfully dipped in a cold lake.

And it wasn't that cold, really.
Kent always tells Nicholas that he is
"the cutest and the smartest"
and today he amended that with
"but not exactly the toughest."

We had a delightful picnic,
complete with sandwiches and fruit and graham crackers with frosting-
those are the best, especially when they get a little bit warm
and soft. Mmm.

We also enjoyed the blend of country music and the mexican radio
playing from trucks on both sides of us,
seeing some of Texas' famous Hill Country,
and burning a hole through our picnic blanket
because Kent sat on a hot coal.

(We were unaware of the still-smouldering coal beneath the blanket
until Kent sat on it and noticed a peculiar warmth
that just got warmer and warmer.)

We stopped on the way home for a nursing break,
and took an "everybody close your eyes!" picture.
Perfect.

young love

Never before has one boy had so much love
for a waterbottle
as Nicholas does.

He's always held a special place in his heart
for waterbottles
of all shapes and sizes.

After waterbottles, his next favorite thing
is knocking on things
with his chubby little dimpled fist.

So to knock on a waterbottle,
well, life just doesn't get any better than that!

"Uh oh! Mom, I dropped my waterbottle!"

"Right there, on the floor. Won't you please
pick it up for me?"


Nicholas, you sure are one silly little boy.
And ooh do I love you!

finito

The kitchen is finished.
Or nearly.
I almost can't believe how different the kitchen looks with the new tile, baseboards, and hardware on our cupboard doors.

Oh, and I'm doing a happy dance about my shiny new dishwasher. I can't wait to pull a dish out of the dishwasher and have it actually be clean!

Today, we rest.
Tomorrow, we'll finish up the entryway and bathroom, cut the rest of the baseboards, and replace the toilet and sink.
Huzzah!