Living Room Remodeling

Here are the long awaited pictures from the living room. I finally got our hard drive all cleaned up so that I could download my pictures (ok, so it was mostly in preparation for the baby). I posted before, during, and after. I am so blessed to have such a handy husband! He is very talented, and I am always amazed at his knowledge and skills. He is still pointing out "slight imperfections" in his handiwork, but I try to tell him that it looks great and so much better/updated!
I also posted maternity pictures and crocheted baby blanket pictures below all of this if you make it that far. Enjoy!

Before: Living Room with Paneling...

Sorry, I do not have a before picture of the ceiling. This is almost what it looked like, but some of the "popcorn" ceiling texture has already been removed in this picture.

Our old living room...

Close up of the paneling...

During: Construction Zone (this phase lasted way too long)

Taking down the paneling...

Taking down...

Paneling all removed.

Up close picture of the termite damage underneath paneling.

No more paneling!

David spraying and scraping off the "popcorn" ceiling texture.

Temite damaged sheetrock and warped sheetrock removed.

David had to replace some warped 2x4s as well.

New sheetrock being put up.

Oops! David missed a step on the ladder and came crashing down into our non-tempered glass window. His bottom hit it first, but somehow he came out cut free!

We had plastic in our window until just 2 days ago when we finally bought a new piece of glass and eventually got it back in.

Sheetrock all back up and mudded!

David putting the heavy texture on the tallest wall (soon to be red wall) to add a little accent to the room.

All primed and textured and ready for some color!

All painted! David changing out outlets.

Gray wall..painted!

After: The Results!

The corner of the red wall, gray wall, and the ceiling.

A close up of the texture on the red wall. It is hard to see, but it looks kind of like icing!

Pregnancy Pictures: When I was 36 weeks

Here are some maternity pictures from a photo shoot that David did. I was 36 weeks...

Crocheted Baby Blanket

About a year and a half ago I decided that since I have no crafty homemaker skills that I was going to try my best to learn how to crochet or knit. Well, I heard crocheting was easier so David bought me a kit to satisfy my desire. I practiced all the "how to" stitches and samples. I eventually made a scent sack and a skinny scarf. Neither was amazing, but considering my skills I was thoroughly inmpressed with teaching myself this much. So when I got pregnant, I thought I might give a baby blanket a try. I have been working on it since this summer though not consistently. My intention was to also have one made for my nephew, but that has not yet happened since I just finished me own baby's. I really enjoyed making my own blanket for my child, and I am so glad to be done!

Nesting and Baby Update

So I went to the doctor again yesterday for my weekly check-up. He estimates that the baby is about 6 pounds now (it is looking good for a baby somewhat smaller than I thankfully- 10 lb 3 oz- my poor mother. I seriously don't know how she did it.) I have gained 27 pounds so right in a good range. He checked my cervix again and said I was about 2 cm dialted and still somewhat effaced. He said something like, "Wow, I really do not know how you are still walking!" I told him I was feeling alot of pressure down there, and he said he could see why. He did not have to go in far at all to feel the baby so he/she is very low. The doctor said this should help my labor because the baby doesn't have to spend time coming down and the uterus is already have time to shape, etc. Sounds good to me! He said he could be wrong, but he does not expect me to be pregnant on December 7th. When I was leaving in the hallway, he gave me this look like "How in the world are you walking around. You might just pop the baby out right now." So they said they would see me next week if not before. I have been feeling some very small contractions- I think, but I am no expert on them. I am so thankful to the Lord for blessing us with a smooth pregnancy thus far, and pray that we have a healthy baby in the very near future.
So, I read all these books, magazines, etc. that have all talked about nesting in the last month or soon before the baby comes. They say that you can get these sudden urges to clean, scrub, or reorganize closets. All along I have been thinking that it sounds great, but I do not love cleaning quite that much and I do not anticipate while being tired and pregnant that I am going to reorganize ANY of my house. Well, since we finished the living room about a week and a half ago which I steadily painted on the last few days, I have scrubbed the entire kitchen including reorganizing some cabinets and drawers and washing the outside of the cabinets, and cleaing and reorganizing inside the fridge and freezer. I washed the walls of the whole hallway, pictures and baseboards included, trying to remove sheetrock dust. I dusted our bedroom including the fan. I scrubbed both bathrooms and reorganized all the cabinets in there throwing away a good bit. I cleaned out and got the nursery in functioning order. With David's help, we cleaned and reorganized the hall closet- now we can see the floor, and alot of it. Now we have also steam cleaned both coaches, the living room, the hallway, entry way, and the sitting area in our bedroom. All the baby clothes, blankets, towels, gear, and toys is all washed and put in its new place. Does that qualify as nesting??
Good news: we got the USB flash drives for our pictures so we should have room to download and post our living room pictures very soon. So stay tuned!

Baby Shower Fun

Well, I am sorry about the lack of pictures of our living room. Our computer hard drive is so full that it will not allow me to upload any more pictures. So we have to buy some flash drives or something to store our pictures on so that our computer will not be overloaded and so we can still get to our pictures. It will be soon though because I have to clear out all my camera cards so that I will have room for pictures and videos of the baby!

But, I posted some pictures of my baby shower that some people in my church had for me yesterday. It was so sweet and thoughtful, and alot of fun. I got alot of good gifts such as a play pen, a Moby wrap, hardback books, some blocks and toys, baby socks and pants, burp cloths, towels, diapers, and a layette set. I have everything hanging on the line to dry as I write this. When I got home I said to my stomach, "Ok, Little Baby, you can come now!" David was so cute- we got some receiving blankets so we practied swaddling a teddy bear in them, and afterwards he sat in the glider for a good while holding the swaddled teddy bear while I got all our new stuff ready to wash.

I am 37 weeks, full term, today so I am definitely ready. Last Wednesday at my OB appointment the doctor was suprised that I was already making progress: 1.5 cm dialated and about 75% effaced. He said the baby was so low that he was touching his/her head! So I go back this Wednesday, and we will see if anything has changed. Until then I have lots of back pain and bladder pressure to look forward to. But I have had a fairly easy pregnancy so I can't complain. I am just praying for a healthy baby that loves the Lord even now and a safe delivery.

It is kind of exciting knowing that the baby could come at any time. David called today from work to check on me and to see if I was having the baby yet. I told him thanks, but that I think I would let him know if I was! Your prayers for these next few days/weeks and afterwards are greatly apprciated!

Drinks in Baby Bottles

Decorations (Baby Pictures of David and I)

Kara and I with my Moby Wrap

My burp cloths

My Polka Dot Cake

Living Room Remodeling

So I am very very happy to say that our living room remodeling is coming to a close. All we have left to do is steam clean the carpet and de-sheetrock dust the house! David started this project a few days before he was offered a job. He decided that he had alot of time on his hands, and this was a project that we wanted to do at some point and would be pretty cheap since we already had some of the paint. So needless to say, work started (which we are VERY thankful for) and the living room came to a slow crawl. David took down all of our wooden paneling, resheetrocked some spots underneath due to termite damage and rotted 2x4s, remudded the walls to smooth them out, scraped off all the popcorn ceiling (tall ceilings), mudded the ceiling to make it smooth, caulked underneath all the wooden beams, textured the side walls the same as the rest of the house, painted them gray, heavy textured the biggest wall for an accent and painted it red, then painted a very light gray o our now smooth ceiling, and painted the trim. I am sure I left something out, but the project ended up being alot of work, though still very cheap. I helped alot with texturing and painting, but that is all I can take credit for. I am so thankful to have such a handy husband that enjoys doing these projects. It looks great and I am just so happy to be so close to having our living room back in working order. Then I can remove all the furniture squashed in all the other rooms, and proceed with nesting before the baby comes! Stay tuned... pictures of the process soon to come!