Celebrating Earth Day

Our neighbor got a fir sapling from work on Earth Day and he passed it on to us since we have lots of empty space in our yard that needs to be filled. 

We decided to put it in the front yard. 

Hopefully it will grow!

Jacob's room

Jacob's room is all set-up and decorated. We love the way our little monster's room turned out!

monster prints from Etsy

Chris is still finalizing the plans for the built in shelving and the closet & bedroom doors need to be hung, but Jacob isn't sleeping in his room yet anyways so we've got time to get it done. 

baby's room - paint & trim

 This past week the baby's room was painted, the ceiling fan installed, and the trim was cut and is starting to get installed today. The closet shelves & rods should also be installed this weekend. 

We are trying to get as much done as possible today and tomorrow morning so we can move the furniture into the room and get the crib set up. The baby's furniture is currently taking up half of our living room, so once that is all moved I think Chris & I will both feel a lot better. 

Don't worry, though. We have a bassinet, clean clothes & blankets, diapers, etc. so if baby decides to come home early we are prepared. 

painted walls! 

starting to put the trim up

Still on the to-do list:

-sanding

-paint

-finish trim

-window

-finish built-in shelving

-install new heater 

-install ceiling fan

-finish floors

-move-in furniture & decorate!

baby's room- the hard part is over

All of the taping & sanding in the baby's room was completed last week. The walls are primed and the ceiling was primed & painted white. 

The floor has been refinished and the new window installed. So, according to Chris, all of the hard stuff is over. 

(this was taken before the new window was installed)

There are still quite a few items left on the to-do list, but nothing as time consuming as the drywall so I think we're in good shape. 

Still on the to-do list:

-sanding

-paint

-trim

-window

-finish built-in shelving

-install new heater 

-install ceiling fan

-finish floors

-move-in furniture & decorate!

baby's room progress

The work continues in the baby's room. There was no insulation in the room, but we were told this was a good thing since insulation from when the house was built would have basically been shredded paper which means it would have been a huge mess to remove & clean up. 

So, Chris put in some insulation. 

And then he started to finish installing the drywall on that half of the room & the closet. 

And now he's doing the taping and plastering. 

Still on the to-do list:

-sanding

-paint

-trim

-finish built-in shelving

-install new heater 

-install ceiling fan

-finish floors

-move-in furniture & decorate!

I am DYING to get in there and decorate. It's hard for me to have all of the baby stuff pile up in other areas of the house. Some days it really drives me crazy and I end up reorganizing the bags of blankets, clothes, toys, etc. 

And it's nearly impossible to keep the house clean while all of this work is going on. But, it will be over soon and it will all be worth it in the end. 

baby's room- electrical, framing & some new drywall

So the pantry, baby's closet, and closet to the "3rd bedroom/scary room" were all knocked out so we could make the space more functional. Chris also had to re-route some wiring so we could have a light switch for the baby's room & the pantry since neither had one. 

Before:

baby's closet

pantry

you can kind of see the closet of 3rd bedroom on the left.
This bedroom is behind the baby's room.

After:

This was where the pantry and closet to the 3rd bedroom were. (Pantry on the left)

This was where the baby's closet was. 

Here is the framing for our new pantry. 

And next to the pantry will be a built in shelf in the baby's room. 

Framing for the baby's closet. 

A new wall & ceiling! And light switch :) 

baby's room- out with the old

The baby's room had wood paneling that had been painted & an ugly drop ceiling. 

Everything is getting ripped down & out. 

This was the lathe under the paneling. 

And here is the room with everything torn out. 

A new fence

Next on the list was to build a fence in the backyard to keep these maniacs contained. 

First, Chris had to move some of the gravel in the parking pad out of the way so he could dig the holes for the posts. 

The posts were cemented in place. And a new slab of concrete sidewalk was laid down.

Next the stringers were put up. 

And then the boards. 

Gate coming soon... the baby's room needs some attention first. 

Replacing the garage roof

The garage roof was the first project on the to-do list. It was in really bad shape & needed to be replaced before the garage could be used. 

Thanks for your help, Dad!

We're Oak Parkers now

So we also happened to close on our house a few days after our wedding reception. 

These are the "before" pictures. There is quite a but of work that we plan to do to update and fix this place up!

living room 

living room 

Master bedroom 

Bathroom 

Baby's room 

Kitchen

Enclosed porch

Other half of enclosed porch- a.k.a scary room

Moving in the tools! We're gonna need them...