Nursery Rugs

I never thought it would be so hard to pick out an area rug. When I first started designing Charlotte's nursery, I fell in love with the Addison Rug from Pottery Barn Kids (PBK).  Tim and I both liked the design and it was the perfect color pink. However, once we hung the curtains we realized it was just going to be too pink.

I LOVE Pottery Barn Kids. I don't love their prices or that they charge a ton for shipping and handling but overall, I think they offer quality products. While I wasn't set on having a rug from PBK, I knew the colors would match perfectly which was a major plus. Their rugs pretty much only come in two sizes that would work in my space 3X5 and 5X8. I was really hoping we could make a 3x5 work, mainly due to price, but when we taped it out on the floor it simply looked too small. So then we taped out a 5 x8 rug onto the floor. At first I was thinking it was too large but after Tim centered it in the room, I felt like it could work.

I looked on the Internet and narrowed it down to several rugs:

1) Pottery Barn Kids' Addison rug- I thought it was a gray but it turns out it is a true tan
2) PBK's Chevron rug in gray
3) Overstock Moroccan Gray rug 
4) PBK's Chevron rug in Pink
5) Overstock Soho Gray Rug

As you can tell from the pictures above, I was clearly leaning toward gray. So last week while I was on my way home from working in Tampa I pulled off at the Pottery Barn Kids in old Hyde Park. They offer "free design consult" so I showed the clerk pictures of the room and she too agreed that we should go with the gray. Then she remembered that she JUST got a brand new grey rug in that day that hadn't even made it to the floor yet. I waited while she lugged the rug downstairs and was immediately sold. They accepted my coupon and loaded the rug into my car and I was off.

Tim was out of town again but I managed to get the rug home and rolled out. Its called Floral Bouquet and while the colors are perfect, I didn't love it.

Even though I had text Tim a picture, he told me to wait till he got home to see it in person before returning it to the store. A few days later I got an email from PBK again with a link to some new rugs... one of which was the floral bouquet I had already purchased. They also had another new rug called the McKenna. As soon as I saw it, I know it would work so much better in the room due to the medallion print: its mimics the pattern in the bedding without being too matchy.

So I had Tim load the rug back in my car when he got home and I tried to return it for the McKenna rug but they did not have it in stock. And of course shipping was an additional $47... not what I wanted to hear. Luckily, the sales people are always so accommodating. They ordered the rug for me, waived the shipping, honored my coupon AND had the rug shipped to my house. It came in the mail yesterday and we both agreed that it works so much better.

Unfortunately, the room isn't looking quite a clean as in the above picture. Its was a dumping ground for baby shower presents that we need to go through and organize. I  also need to buy a no slip mat for under the area rug once we get everything else put away. So excited that the nursery is almost done :)

Week 31

+ I am feeling quite large these days. Charlotte is sitting rather high which often makes me feel breathless and generally uncomfortable.

+ I am still trying to remain as active as possible. The gym is mainly walking/bike and light weights. If I don't make it to the gym, I walk the neighborhood.

+ This weekend my mom, mother-in-law and several of my friends threw me an AMAZING baby shower. Since I was so busy chatting the whole time, I didn't get any pictures on my camera. I am hoping guests email me pictures so I can post all the cute girly details. We we blessed with so many necessities for baby and it was SO nice to be able to see so many people in one place.

+ Tonight we are doing a few maternity pictures. I really wish we could have done the pictures closer to 28 weeks as I felt so much better about the way I looked then! As long as we get one or two good images, I will be happy!

+ I had to move my 32 week check-up to Friday due to a work conflict. Hoping to get a better idea of position and size of baby!

Some Progress

We have slowly been adding one or two things to the nursery each week.... well at least trying to! After we finished the Crown, my next project was to find curtains. This ended up being a fairly annoying process. I purchased the Dahlia pink bedding from Pottery Barn Kids which I love. I knew their "bright pink" window panels would match but they didn't sell them in stores. So I thought I would try to find blackout panels at a few local stores first.

My first attempt was Bed, Bath and Beyond. I was surprised to find they actually did have several different pink colored black out panels in store. Unfortunately, they don't sell them online but they were $24/panel before my coupon. I purchased one to try it and it was too magenta so back to the store it went.

The next day, I stopped by Babies R Us to see what they had. Luckily, this time I brought a crib sheet with me to color match. I found the PERFECT match...

They are the Sweet Dreams Twill Window panel in Bright Pink. All of the Sweet Dreams panels come in either 63 or 84 inch length... except the Bright Pink, that only comes in 63 inches. So unfortunately, this went back to the store as well. I will say, I thought $39.99 for one panel was a bit steep!

So after checking JcPenny, Sears and Buy Buy Baby, I finally just ordered the original curtains I liked from Pottery Barn Kids. Like I said, I originally wanted a curtain with a blackout liner but at PBK's that meant I was paying $59 for one panel. I decided that since I already had blinds on the window I would just get the traditional Sailcloth panel without the blackout liner. That brought the price down to $29/panel. I am SO glad I did not spend the extra money on this as the curtains are nice and thick and the blackout is not needed at all!

I picked up some Oil Rubbed Bronze curtain rods,rings, and tie backs at Kohls with some coupons I had. They also had a buy one get one for $1 sale so I really didn't end up spending much on that.

We also picked up some raw wood shelves at Hobby Lobby. Tim stained them to match the dark wood in the dresser and crib.

While staining them was not a problem, hanging them was a quite the project! Floating shelves always have the same hanging mechanism which is never spaced evenly or centered leading to unlevel shelves. After some trial and error measurements, we finally had shelves!

The only other thing to get accomplished to date are two pictures we hung up Friday night. I picked up two 11X14 white frames at Joann's last weekend. They were matted to fit 8x10 prints and on sale for 50% off plus an extra 25% off during their coupon commotion sale. So both frames with tax were under $20. I then ordered these prints from PrintsbyChristine on Etsy.

We hung them on either side of the dresser/changing table.

Still have quite a things to get/do. I think my last "Big" purchase will be an area rug which has been an ongoing issue for me the past few weeks ( post to come). Everything else is minor so we are on our way to completion :)

Crowning Around

I shared in my Week 27 post that we FINALLY got around to hanging up the Crown in the nursery. I purchased the Crown back when we installed the Panel and Picture Frame moulding. If I was already painting, I wanted to go ahead and get the Crown out of the way too. Everything got two coats of Benjamin Moore Advance in Super white.

I ended up buying a contractor's pack of moulding from Lowe's. All the other Crown in our house we purchased at Home Depot and was traditional one sided crown. This was flip face moulding. So after painting we were sure to mark the "bad" side with a sharpie to insure there were no mess ups during installation.

Tim and my Dad started the day by installing the crown moulding on their matching camouflage ladders. We weren't 100% sure on how the flip faced moulding would lay... turns out it is exactly the same as the one-sided. The only thing a bit tricky were the cuts. We have a templates that my dad made 2.5 years ago when we first installed Crown. We refer to the four templates as RIC, LIC, ROC, and LOC: Right interior corner, left interior corner, right outer corner, and left outer corner. They haven't failed us yet!

When installing Crown in an older home, you often end up with corners like this... but trust me, it is invisible in the end!

After everything was pinned down, Tim and my dad went around and caulked everything with White Lightening Caulk, using a damp sponge to rid of an any excess caulk on the fresh paint. They also caulked several areas on the paneling that needed some touch ups as well. 

Once everything was installed and caulked, I come around for paint touch ups: I went over every corner and pin hole in the crown and paneling. I also decided to roll another thin layer of paint over the paneling, now that it was in place and settled. 

Everything is looking nice and crisp...

So much so that we decided to go ahead and move in the furniture once everything was dry. 

 And since there is no baby yet... we used our current "baby" as a place holder. 

Its feels so good to make this much progress on the room. Now on to the fun stuff.... Accessorizing! :) 

Week 30

+ Seriously, where is the time going?

+ Tim and I went to a childbirth class yesterday at our hospital. We signed up for the 1/2 day intensive. I had heard from other "moms-to-be" to prepare dad for a lot of graphic videos. Ours was a lecture/Q & A format that was taught by a Labor and Delivery nurse. Overall, I think it was pretty informative and she did a good job of keeping people engaged most of the time. I know people have really strong opinions about their birthing process but I have been trying to take a more laid back approach. I realize that I don't have control over a lot of things and I don't know how I am going to respond to the pain. Instead of being upset with myself for not living up to my own expectations of myself, I am simply not setting any. That's right, this Type A personality is going to " go with the flow".

+ Today I had my 30 week check-up. My blood pressure and baby's heart rate are perfect. While my belly is measuring "right on target", I somehow managed to lose a little weight!

+ I am working with an Etsy seller on designing a few things for the nursery walls. Can't wait to share :)

+ My baby shower is this upcoming weekend and I am looking forward to seeing everyone in one place.

Tray Ceiling Upgrade

A few weeks ago, I decided I really wanted to do something different with the tray ceiling in our kitchen. I scouted Pinterest and Google for ideas and came across this. It was just a picture, no  "how to" or material list so I decided to check out Lowes.

Right near the Aspect Backsplash, they had Fasade "Thermoplastic Multipurpose Backsplash".  I ended up purchasing two sample sheets: one of the silver cross hatch pattern and one a brushed nickel pattern.   Tim was on the fence about this project because it thought it was going to be "too much" with our stainless steel appliances and backsplash. That being said, he was a good sport and went along with it. We both LOVED the brushed nickel design in the store but HATED it once we held it up to ceiling. We decided to go with the silver cross hatch pattern.

Our measurements worked out pretty well for this project. We needed exactly 8 sheets: 2 sheets across, 4 sheets long. This left for very little margin of error but we were confident we could make it work.

I always say that one project leads to another and it proves true again here. We have the original kitchen light that was installed when we bought our house. It's a track light from Ikea that they no longer sell. We don't hate it and it lights the kitchen well. The problem? Changing the bulbs was near impossible. Due to the design of the fixture, there was no where to grab the bulb in order to get it out. We decided that if we wanted to replace the light, we should do it now to ensure the tiles we were installing would cover the electrical opening appropriately.

So when we went to buy our supplies, we also checked out the light fixtures. Luckily I had a 10% off coupon from Lowe's for signing up for electronic statements. We ended up purchasing 8 tiles, adhesive and a new light fixture. We went with an Allen + Roth track light for $88.

First, we painted the edges of our tray ceiling green. Its the same color green as our dining room. Since the kitchen and dining room are attached and the kitchen is basically colorless, we decided to bring in the green. I have to admit I was skeptical of the green at first but ultimately it grew on me.

While the paint was drying, we took down the old light to see what type of mess was under there. We were shocked to find it was actually a normal electrical junction... a rarity in this house.

Next, we laid out our pattern on the floor. It was a little confusing at the start because we essentially had to "flip" our pattern for it to go on the ceiling and keep with the right and wrong edges in order to attach additional sheets.

We started slow but quickly got the hang of it. It was definitely a two person job, especially when it came time to trim around the fixture.

The tiles were relatively easy to cut. We used a cutting mat, ruler, scissors and an X-acto. For around the light fixture, Tim held a tile in place and I used a dry erase marker to outline the fixture right on the tile. After cutting, we simply wiped away any trace of the marker and adhered our tile to the ceiling.

After all the tiles were secured, we attached our new light. When all was said and done, I liked it but I didn't LOVE it. Tim agreed but since it was after 10 pm, we decided to call it a night and re-evaluate in the morning. I thought that maybe it was the green paint and that I would repaint it tan but didn't want to rush into anything.

The next day I went to work and received a text from Tim with this picture...

and I LOVE it. The white (mini) Crown moulding made a huge difference in my opinion. It cleaned things up and really made the ceiling pop.

We ended up using a PVC composite moulding we purchased at Home Depot. It was just over $6 for an 8 ft piece. Tim used the miter saw to cut the interior angles and secured it with the pin gun. A little caulk and white paint and things were looking pretty seamless.

There is NO natural light in my kitchen so pictures are difficult. At one point there was a window over the sink but since we have an addition on our house, that "window" now serves as the bar area. Here is a picture from the floor.

Inexpensive, not labor intensive but lots of impact.

Week 29

+ "Selfie" pic this week because the husband was away at a training.

+ I had to go for some routine lab work... no fainting which I always count as a small success!

+ Charlotte moves around SO much at night. Despite this, I am still sleeping pretty well which is awesome. I have no idea how I got comfortable before the snoogle. It has been WONDERFUL.

+Lily, our smallest doxie, now has to sleep on my belly constantly. I am not sure if she knows something is going on in there or what but either way its very sweet.

+ We purchased some raw wood shelves for the nursery from Hobby Lobby. Tim finished up the staining process over the weekend and they turned out really good.

+ It is becoming so much harder to workout! I have really good intentions and can get myself to the gym. However, I just don't last! Monday night I got winded and crampy after 20 minutes on the treadmill... I kept reducing speed and ended up at a 3.6mph before I had to get off and take a rest. I know its still beneficial to me and baby but my stamina is definitely not what it use to be!

Week 28

+ This week was an eventful week. On Friday we went and had a 3D/4D ultrasound done at a local boutique, Sneak Peek. While they have stadium style seating where you can bring family and/or friends, Tim and I decided to go alone. Baby Girl was moving all over the place but did not want to show us her face! She had her arm up with her hands hiding her face or reaching for her mouth constantly. While we did get several good pictures of other body parts ( cute little ears, fingers and toes) we did not get a good face picture. That being said, they are allowing us to come back this Thursday for a free ultrasound to try again. We, of course, will jump at any opportunity to see little Ms. Charlotte. Here is a picture of baby girl with her chubby cheeks.

+ Yesterday, I went to the doctor for my 28 week check and glucose test. I was only up about 2 pounds this month which is good.  I had my sugar drink and then met with the doctor during my hour wait. I got to meet one of the OB's I had yet to met and I really liked her, she is young and very relatable. After I was measured and we listened to baby's heart, I was shipped off to the waiting room to finish out the hour. I opted for the fruit punch drink and let me tell you... it made me nauseous! It tasted fine going down but I just don't think I am use to all that sugar! Thank God I passed the one hour with flying colors because I am not sure I could keep that juice down for the 3 hour test!

+ I am now on the two week schedule instead of once a month. Reality is setting in that we are in the home stretch now! :)

+ Room progress continues. We ordered curtains and now get to accessorize/ decorate which is always the fun part. I will do an update post soon.

+ I registered for a childbirth and breast feeding class within the next month. My OB also reminded me that I need to pre-register with the hospital this month AND schedule my tour.

Rats, Dachshunds and Iphones... oh my

These three things really have nothing in common aside from making last week quite the action packed week around here. While this week is proving to be much less chaotic on the home front, work is picking up the slack in that department!

So what's been going on here? Oh ya know.. Just relaxing last Monday night, husband does into the pantry for a snack and finds a huge RAT sitting on the shelf like he owns the place! Tim quickly shut him in the pantry and blocked under the door with towels and stacked books to make sure our friend didn't wander off anywhere else. I went to Lowe's to get a trap. Tim was brave enough to shove the trap in the pantry overnight until I could get an animal control company out the next morning.

Luckily, I remembered that a local Animal Trapper lived on the next street over. I called them at 8am the next morning and they agreed to come over. Good news: the rat was no longer in the pantry and we  knew how he got there so we were able to remedy the situation ( a small opening in the electrical from when the pantry was built). Bad news: the company did a free inspection of our property and found several "access points" and droppings in our attic. Just what you want to hear when you are 7+ months pregnant. We ended up contracting with them to close off all the access points around the exterior of the house, set traps in the attic and treat the attic for any bacteria. Unfortunately, I don't have a "rat removal" line item in my budget and it wasn't exactly cheap... although it was necessary.

So exactly one week later, our house is secure and the traps are set in the attic. The animal trappers come over every other day to check the traps since the rats cannot escape at this point. After a week or so of consistently empty traps, they will treat for bacteria.

Let's see... on a related note. Lucy, our middle Dachshund, somehow got in the pantry when the rat trap was set and decided to eat the peanut butter out of the trap. Let's just say she is lucky to still have a tongue!! It was an AWFUL, AWFUL sound and she was quite frightened but 100% OK... Thank God!

While we are on the subject of dogs.. Lily, the baby dachshund, started acting really strange. I took her for a walk one night and she got spooked by something and literally could not walk home. So I carried her home but after that she was fine. Several days pass and she is fine so I thought it was a one time thing. Then on the 4th of July, she started doing it more consistently. We would take her out in the grass to go potty, her eyes would get glassy, she would start shaking and be unable to move. She literally fell over on her side with all 4 feet in the air when she tried to walk...almost like she was having a seizure. So Friday I called the vet and brought her in. They ran some lab work and everything came back normal. She gained a lot of weight and has been increasingly hungry and thirsty which the vet said is because of the prednisone she was on for a hot spot (even though she finished the medication a week before). At this point, they want me to try to catch it on video so they can consult with a neurologist. Of course, now she hasn't done it since Saturday!  I am hoping its some weird reaction to prednisone or the antibiotic... even though not a known side effect, it is a better alternative than a seizure disorder. Poor little girl!

And while minor, it still contributed to an eventful week... Tim dropped his IPhone in the salt water while fishing. Since we just got the phones relatively recently, we have to pay a ridiculous sum of money to get a new phone without signing a contract. Needless to say, It has been sitting in rice and silica beads since Wednesday. Surprisingly, it looks like it is going to regain most of it's functionality. We may have to get a replacement camera for it because that seems to have been damaged. Oh and a waterproof case, definitely a waterproof case!

Fingers crossed for a "normal" week ahead! :)

Rotted Out

When we last saw my door it had seen better days. I called Lowe's about installation and it started at $300 plus the cost of any extra materials. Given the price of the door, I was less than enthused to have to spend that kind of money unexpectedly. But since I didn't want to bother my dad with it, I decided to go ahead with it, I mean it had to be done right?

My mother decided to tell my dad that I had contacted Lowe's for installation and was LIVID. He felt like I was insulting him and calling in an invalid. This was not the case at all, it was more me being considerate of his time and his back pain. He threatened to "never come over again" which I know he would not follow through on however, I did cancel the installers.

So back to the door... The houses in our neighborhood were built in the mid- 1970's. They all have a side door that goes into the garage. From walking the neighborhood, it is evident that the original door installed by the builder as an aluminum door with a Jalousie window. Much like this picture from Thrifting Thursday.

Somewhere along the line, our aluminum door got switched out for a wooden door. Not sure if it was done by the "flippers" or before but everyone should know not to use a wooden door as an exterior door being exposed to the elements. So I went to Lowe's and Home Depot to check out my options. I knew I wanted something with a window so I was basically left with three options:
1) Basic Steel Door with built in glass window

2) Basic Steel Door with fully functioning window

3) Basic steel door with built in blinds.

I was originally going to go with the first option because of the price ( $188) but decided that I liked the ability to open the window for ventilation considering how many projects we do in the garage. I was nervous about the blind mechanism breaking in the third option so I went with option #2 which was $228.

Before we headed out for supplies, we removed the existing door frame to get the precise measurements. We knew it would be a tight fit but we thought we could make it work.We purchased a 32 x 80 Right hand door. We also had quite a bit of trim work to do so we also purchased some caulk, shims, colonial trim and some 1 X8X8's.

After we got the new framed door in, we realized we actually had too much room. We used two trimmed down 1X8X8's to frame in either side of the doorway.

 My dad also cut down a bunch of the wood and stacked it to frame in the top of the door. Here is a before and after comparison of what I am referring to.

After the the door was nice and secure, we added new trim. Since the garage still had the original clam shell moulding, we decided to go ahead and replace it with colonial moulding like the remainder of the house. The picture below is with just factory grade primer and raw wood still exposed.

Here is a close up of what the trim looked like pre-paint. You can see the original door jamb and the additional wood framing we added, all capped off with the colonial moulding.

Since we purchased pressure treated wood, we waited a while for everything to dry out completely before we added more primer and paint. Tim actually surprised me and tackled the door painting while I was at work one day.

 We used leftover primer and paint from our Picture Frame Moulding Project. We used one coat of primer and 2 thin coats of Benjamin Moore Advance paint on the inside. On the outside of the door we used the same white exterior paint that is on our house trim.

 I was a little bit concerned home the outside would look since the previous door jamb fit different.  As you can see in the two pictures below, it needs a little touch up painting around the caulk lines but its nothing I can't handle.

It has been SO nice to have a secure door here now! It has been raining several inches every day here in Florida for the past week and we can open the door with ease.. No swelling! I am also really glad I went with the ventilated window option because that has been a nice feature on laundry day as well.

HUGE thanks to my dad for helping on this one!!! :)

Week 27

+ This past weekend we spent some major time in the nursery. Not only did Tim and my dad install the crown moulding but they also caulked everything. Once they were done, I did paint touch-ups around the whole room.

+ I caved and scheduled a 3D/4D Ultrasound for this Friday. It feels like it has been SO long since we have seen our girl!

+ Speaking of caving, I was so against maternity pictures but Monday I purchased a Groupon to have some casual ones taken. The photographer will be given strict instructions on what I find appropriate and what I find awkward/ cheesy... no half naked gazing at belly pictures for this lady! No offense to anyone who like that style of picture... its just not my cup of tea.

+ My mom is graciously throwing me a baby shower. She let me pick the theme but that's about it. I found this Etsy seller who matched the invites to me nursery theme. They turned out perfect!

+ Glucose test Monday... fingers crossed for a one hour pass! :)