It is crazy warm out today! But just in case it gets cold again – we now have insulation in the nursery and master bathroom as well as along the sill plate in the basement 🙂 It was great getting work done on the house while I got to stay at my desk and get regular work done. When they do a good job I like hiring people and this place did a much better job than what we’ve had done before.
Anyway – here are some pictures!
Spraying...Cutting...
And the finished pictures…
Basement sill plate - although the one mistake they made is that there were 2 bays we asked them NOT to spray (i marked under with an X), because we have to still run pipes and electric for the kitchen renovation some day - all well, we'll be cutting that back out.
The master bathroom (we didn't have them do around the windows since these haven't yet been replaced).The nursery and top of stairs.The nursery including the closet.The ceiling in the front hallway (front door entrance) - this part of the ceiling is just a porch roof above so we wanted it insulated.More in the basement - the front and back didn't have actual bays to spray but he sealed up what was there.Even got into the crawl spaces - uck!
I’m not quite sure what percentage of our house is now insulated – what’s not insulated:
 the kitchen
master bedroom
upstairs bathroom (the small one)
what will be the washer/dryer room (small section)
back bedroom (sewing room)
attic
Not too bad – we’re definitely more than 50% insulated, probably 65% maybe would be my guess. And I have all the windows open so the smell is already aired out (this stuff didn’t give off very much of a smell anyway compared to whatever the other people used). Oh in case anyone is interested – we went with GreenStar out of MA this time around.
Well last night when Ryan got home we moved the final items that needed moving so we’re all set for the insulation now… just waiting to see if they come today??? If I don’t hear from them by 8:30 I’m calling them, we’re not exactly on a flexible schedule (and they know that) so hopefully they show up soon!
[UPDATE] – Insulation guys are here as expected! So happy everything is on schedule!
Look at the crocus'. I'm assuming these are some of the ones I planted this fall (from mom's extra) - but we always got a few of these so it may just be the normal ones we get.These are definitely from mom's batch. Although I thought they were supposed to be green - maybe the green ones aren't up yet and we also planted yellow?
Of course Fitz has already killed a few of these 🙂 But they are sprouting up nicely in the backyard, hopefully they sprout in the front/side yards too where there’s less sun. And I’m finding ‘holes’ in the yard where i’m sure the squirrels have figured out they could find some easy food – stupid squirrels!
Anyhow. This weekend was a mixup of projects. Saturday we started with 3 runs to the dump to get rid of all the wood and start getting rid of the pile of plaster (in bags). Once that was done we worked on the nursery – finishing up any demo (all in preparation for insulation). We also had to clean up the walls of the master bathroom which is also getting insulation – and move stuff around so walls can be reached in there and in the basement.
Another project was running the vent from the downstairs bathroom so it later can be hooked up to the other bathrooms. It took some work to drill through the header with a 2″ hole (poor Ryan – the hole saw was not working at all so he did it with multiple 3/4 inch holes but got the job done). Then we pieced the PVC pipe and it’s all ready to go.
Next up we ran the outlet feed on the exterior wall, getting it secured so the insulation doesn’t push the wires out and they get cut (lesson learned from the first time).
Vent pipe connected up (where the magic vent used to be) and running up through the header.Pipe extends into the ceiling of the hallway.Outlets on exterior wall
We ended with a little more demolition and cleanup in the closet (it also has exterior walls) – so the closet is all ready for insulation as well.
Closet exterior wall.
On Sunday we did some shopping (we bought the bedroom set for the nursery! It should arrive on April 13th) – not that the nursery will be ready but I will need dressers for baby clothes so we’ll set the dressers up in the hallway outside the nursery at the very least. I’m very excited. The bedroom set was actually in the outlet section of jordon’s and that explains why it was much cheaper than their regular furniture – bonus! We also tested out sectional couches because once the tvroom is done we’ll be ordering one of those!
Once shopping was done Ryan had to get work done (he got multiple calls this weekend asking him if he could work). So while he did that I did some miscellaneous projects. First I used duct tape to seal up all the cracks/holes in the exterior wall of the nursery so the spray foam insulation doesn’t push out and affect the siding later. You can’t see the tape in the pictures probably because I used black tape.
Then I continued wiring the outlets on the second wall of the nursery. I left the third wall because we have to put a corner nailer in first. Next I finished vacuuming the ceiling of the nursery really well. And finally started the process of putting the light circuit in the nursery (we have some holes in the joists from the knob and tube that I could use). It’s not done because I need 4 holes drilled in order to finish but it’s close!
You can kind of see the outlet circuit (just have to nail the wires down) and the box for the light.And the nice clean ceiling and fan box (ignore the existing light bulb - that will be removed once the new circuit is hooked up).
Of course Ryan reminded me that we need to run cable/ethernet to this room still – luckily it’s on interior walls. And so I started mapping that out. I’ll need more holes drilled (there will be 2 drops in this room) but hopefully some night this week (tonight?) I can get started on those. I also need to wire the closet light (need holes drilled) and the smoke detector.
The one big project that’s left is screwing in all the firring strips in the ceiling – with ryan’s work load this won’t happen until the weekend. Probably while Dad and I finish up electrical, Ryan will do that. Then we’ll do the drywall!
Insulation comes on Wednesday! We have 2 large things to move out of the way and a radiator to move. Other than that we’re all ready to go!
Going into this weekend I was a little concerned with how much prep work we had to do before putting in the new windows but of course Ryan and my Dad surprised me and got it all done!
First – up went the scaffolding and then down came the aluminum siding which Dad cut and bundled into neat bundles which will be easy to recycle (much better than our previous method of just piling it up) 🙂
Scaffolding upAluminum siding down (around windows)
We finally got to see what they did to side the peaks we have – we were crossing our fingers for shingles – and YUP – shingles – they look awesome and they’re in really good shape so we can just clean them up and paint them when we put on the new siding below them! Yeah!
Shingles! And yes we are missing a piece of glass in that attic window 🙂 It's on the todo list.
Next the wood siding had to come down and the old windows had to come out. They actually did the 2 nursery windows on saturday and saved the top of the stairs window for sunday to remove.
Just finishing up Saturday nightJust before they put up the second piece of plywood
Next up was resizing the windows because we bought smaller windows so we could raise them up to make them a bit safer for the little one on the way. These are in her room (and the top of the stairs) so safer is smarter 🙂 By Saturday night the two nursery windows were reframed and covered in plywood for the night.
What did I do while the guys did all that work? I took nails out of the walls and cleaned up (constantly), plus I piled all the wood up that got thrown down and tried to keep nails out of the driveway.
Sunday Ryan finished taking off the rest of the cedar siding and took out the third window then Dad put in the new framing.
Third window almost ready (top of stairs).
The tar paper started going up and the windows started going in (the windows themselves go really fast once all the prep is done so I didn’t get a lot of in progress pictures!
First window in!
And here’s what we look like this morning…
From the outside - ready for new siding this summer 🙂New window at the top of the stairsNew windows in the nursery!!!!
Once the windows were in there was a lot of cleanup and Dad started getting more insulation out of the ceiling of the nursery. Ryan drilled the holes for the outlet circuit on the exterior wall (so we can install that next weekend) and I removed the old knob and tube wiring (which was still live of course and sitting loose/cut in the ceiling). So that’s now removed (except for the main light which isn’t knob and tube and will get removed once we put in a new light) 🙂
Look how clean that ceiling is (and it's not quite done - still a little vacuuming to do)
Things are right on track! With insulation coming on March 21st and Dad coming out to drywall the weekend after it’s a busy 3 weekends but the plan for next weekend is:
Install corner nailers (at least in the exterior walls, all if time permits)
Run the outlet circuit (at least in the exterior walls, whole thing time permitting)
Run the vent pipe on the exterior wall into and across the ceiling so later it can be met up with the upstairs bathroom vent
Clean up closet (nails to remove, vacuum)
Clean up basement (they’re insulating the sill plate) so they can reach sill plate all around
Clean up ‘guest room/master bath’ (so they can insulate)
Time permitting I’d like to get as much of the electrical run as possible (it’s just a simple light circuit, a smoke detector and the outlet circuit in that room). I will do what I can during the week nights as well so that it doesn’t all fall on the weekend (I can start cleaning up the basement for example). I’m so excited about the progress that was made this past weekend. Soon we’ll have drywall up again and be working on the finishing details – FUN!
We have finally picked out some furniture for the nursery and while we wait for the weekend (and working on the nursery) I thought I would post the furniture and layout we’re pretty much settled on…
Problem is that the Jamocha dressers that match (and look nice) don’t get good reviews (prices are good) – but seem to be made of particle board instead of wood. So I decided to shop around and started by looking for a queen size bed we like since this room has a queen bed as well.
For the bed I really wanted something with a wood frame but no footboard (a low profile so you can sit at the end of the bed – since it takes up most of the room). Finally I found a set I really like – and again – Ryan also liked it! These are actually from Jordon’s – we’ll have to go over to the store and make sure we like them in person before we finalize but I’m happy so far!
Prices are not bad either, if the quality is good – we’ll see. So then I had to figure out if we could fit it all in the nursery so I measured the nursery details and used Jordon’s room planner to see how it would work… and it fits!
Nursery design
The only issue with this is that the changing table/dresser is behind the door to the room (the other door is for the closet). So we may swap the two dressers, putting the longer one over by the windows at least until the little one is big enough that we aren’t using a dresser for changing her.
Even the chair/ottoman fit – that’s great. And I can see from this that an 8×10 rug will fit just fine (we just have to find one that’s decently priced) 🙂
I’m so excited to have this picked out. Of course we won’t buy any of it until the nursery is farther along (read: done) but soon! And the decision part is the hardest part – so happy to be done with that!
I’m not even sure when I stitched this but I forgot to update the blog with a picture. I’m thinking this might have been a few weekends ago at this point.
Royalty ABC
I really like this piece because I can pick it up randomly and make decent progress. Until next time 🙂
(If you read the baby blog I apologize that this is pretty much a duplicate post) 🙂
This weekend my family threw me the best baby shower ever! I really couldn’t thank them all enough. The decorations, the food, the desserts, everything was wonderful. I wish i could show everything but I have to pick and choose a few photos or this post would be way too long! 🙂 I still have quite a few photos though!
First off, the dessert table – Aimee made the awesome diaper cake (closer picture coming up), Suzanne and Becca stayed up late making the cupcakes, the cake and the extra sheet cake (closeups coming), as well as the cookies which you’ll see down below. Erica made the pumpkin cheesecake and brownies. And of course the baby shower sign – Aimee made that and it really worked out great!
Dessert tableDiaper cake - this will stay together for a while so I can decorate the nursery with it for a little while, although i did take the pacifiers off.Owl cookie/chocolate cake - awesome!A closer picture of the cupcakes - these were amazing. The purple sprinkle ones are carrot with cream cheese frosting - awesome, the vanilla ones tasted like sugar cookies (awesome) and the chocolate were obviously awesome 🙂
I’m actually still eating cupcakes (a few a day) and yes I am sharing with Ryan – although grudgingly 🙂 I just make sure I eat breakfast first, then a cupcake, then lunch, then a cupcake etc. What can I say – Itty likes cake!
Love this pictureSome of the food table - this fruit dip (yogurt with vanilla pudding mixed in) - was really great. I am definitely going to make this myself!This clothes line was ingenious! My dad built it the morning of for my sister and she had it all decorated with these adorable onsies - the owl and sea horse ones are SO cute (from Etsy).The table setup - we had 2 games setup for everyone to play and some great favors (more pictures coming of those).The center pieces my sister made (diapers rolled with fabric and ribbon and more toppers - so cute!) And she kept the fabric as whole fat quarters so I can use them 🙂 The favors were owl cookies (more pictures coming) and packages of kisses!These cookies were so great, Suzanne and Becca also made these and decorated each and every one! There were owls everywhere!And WOW - the gift table - this took quite a while to open, everyone was so generous!I couldn't resist a picture of little Jason of course!
So after mingling and a quick game of name as many baby items as you can we moved on to presents (we played bingo during presents and there were prizes for the winners) 🙂 My adorable nieces helped me open gifts. Instead of pictures of each gift (there were so many) – I’ll post just the quilts for now to save room. Itty has lots of quilts and blankets, she is so very lucky!
The quilt my mom made for Itty Bitty!A blanket that my grandmother crocheted!The quilt my grandmother made (yes she also made a quilt!)The quilt Suzanne made! Love the owls!Quilt my aunt made - we actually picked this kit out at a quilt show last november and she pieced the top and has to finish it still.
There was one more blanket that didn’t get a photo snapped (or it did but it didn’t make it to my computer from Ryan’s) – I’ll get a picture later and add it as it’s a wonderful summer blanket for Itty made by Marilyn.
After we finished gifts I wanted to get some pictures with family/friends in front of the clothes line which was now bursting with baby clothes!
My nieces who helped with opening all the gifts (and handed them to me) - all dressed up!Aimee and EricaMy momMy mom's sideAunt Mo and Hannah
It was a great shower and little Itty has a whole new wardrobe among other items. I’ll post later with some of the gifts. We spent the rest of the weekend with family, just relaxing. Sunday after some time with the family and then some time with Ryan’s family we drove home with the car packed to the max (we couldn’t even fit everything but luckily my parents are coming out next weekend and can bring the rest) 🙂 I spent some time Sunday night organizing the gifts but I haven’t figured out where we’re going to store everything just yet.
The week is already under way and I can’t wait for the 65 degree weather to melt the snow so we can do window installations in the nursery this weekend!
2 months to go until Itty comes – time to start putting the nursery back together 🙂
With only 2 months to go until the baby arrives! Yikes (it’s actually about 10 weeks but who knows!). We finally got a start on the nursery this weekend. While most people just paint a nursery – we are building from scratch – per usual in this house 🙂
So this weekend it was demolition. Unfortunately Ryan was not feeling well, and Saturday was not a good day for him. I wake up a lot in the middle of the night and I noticed Friday night that he was not sleeping due to congestion, so by 5am I gave him some nyquil and let him sleep late – it definitely helped.
Since we had prepped Friday night, we were really ready to just start in on the demo and after 2 hours had the nursery ceiling done (and cleaned up) – which is really the hardest part! Another 2 hours and we had the main exterior wall done, half of the next wall and the closet done and cleaned up. With the light fading and no light in the room (the fan was not mounted to a box so I think the wires came a bit loose – will rectify that this week but we’ll be running new wiring anyway).
So here’s where we were starting Sunday morning:
Ceiling done - and yes it was filled with insulation - uck!Another ceiling shotOutside wall finished!Half of the next wall and most of the closet finished
So that brought us to Sunday, we didn’t sleep quite as late but after a day of hard work we definitely needed a bit of extra sleep. And then we commenced the demo. This was easier demo in one respect (most of the walls were exposed from the other side so Ryan could kick them in from the outside), but harder in others – it was this hard cement board which is super heavy and hard to get off, so when we didn’t have access to the backside it was extra work compared to plaster and lathe.
Cleanup consisted of throwing all wood/lathe out the window, the all chunks of plaster board out as well. We ended up with a truck load full of plaster and a huge pile (probably 2 truck loads) of wood/lathe to bring to the dump. The rest of the plaster (and insulation) we bagged up and Ryan lugged down the back stairs to pile up for future dump runs.
The view of the nursery from the top of the stairs 🙂And the view from our bedroom - no more walls 🙂Our wood pileAnd my dump load for today
With that done I spent the rest of the evening cleaning up – vacuum, clean out vacuum, vacuum more etc. The dust was minimal since the plaster board does not generate as much as plaster and lathe and we did all the plaster/lathe while the walls were still up. But I still had to vacuum a few times and probably a good mopping is in order out in our hallway. Still by dinner time the house felt clean enough to relax!
Of course I still have to vacuum the ceiling and chunks of insulation that did not come down – some evening(s) this week after I get a light in that room again, I’ll get to that. But this is great progress. So what’s left…
Cleanup (vacuum ceiling, take down nails etc.)
Take down the siding (aluminum and wood)
Prep for windows
Install windows (3) – including the one at the top of the stairs
Some minor framing to make sure we have nailers in the corners, close up the extra doorway etc.
Run electrical throughout nursery (main light, closet light and outlet circuit)
INSULATION (spray foam so we need to hire someone), then insulate the ceiling with bats ourselves probably
Drywall
Finish drywall (tape/spackle/sand)
Install all trim
Paint paint and more paint
Re-finish the floors
Hmmm… I’d like to get up to number 10 before the baby comes – doable? yes/no? yikes!
Well this weekend was eventful but not quite productive 🙂 Ryan was away with his friends for a long weekend so after getting the house cleaned up and organized, and doing lots of baking I had a little girl party on Saturday (stitch friends). One of the treats I made was these homemade strawberry sorbet in chocolate cups treat:
Mmmmm - strawberry sorbet!
Fitzy had his cousin Buddy over to play for the weekend and they really are best buds.
Tuckered out on sunday 🙂
Saturday was a long day and after the girls all left I just crashed for the night (after clean up of course). Sunday I had big plans to be productive – but when i woke up I was still tired so the dogs and I chilled for most of the day (I finished up a good books with them cuddled on the couch). In the afternoon I did manage to do one little household item that’s been on my list for a long time…
We have this old switch (turn style) for the basement entryway light and it doesn’t always work (the wiring is old and loose). Since we put in new basement lights when we first bought the house I’ve been meaning to run a new light and switch off of that circuit so I could reliably see going down the first half of the basement stairs with laundry in my arms. Plus this means I could disconnect a bunch of the knob and tube that’s spliced numerous times for this light/switch and an old outlet.
Took a little while but we have a light. This isn’t permanent, when we remodel the kitchen we’ll be redoing this entryway a bit but who knows when that will be so for now we have a light!
New switch (see the turn style one to the right - that's now disconnected)New light fixture (the old one was definitely not up to par)
I also hung up a sheet to keep the dust more contained in our work area (since I’ll be sanding the drawers and shelves of the built-ins as soon as I’m motivated to).
Work area dust sheet 🙂
I spent Sunday evening over at my uncle’s house for my cousin Maia’s birthday. Buddy is going to stay the week with them so he made the trip with me. The dogs must have worn each other out because Fitz was pretty tired most of Monday when I worked from home. He has completely recovered however and thank goodness it was daycare day – he was driving me nuts this morning!
And last night I decided to do something fun and make a baby quilt for Itty Bitty! I actually only intended to get the strips cut but it went so quickly I couldn’t stop myself. This is the same pattern I used for the crib quilt for little Jason but this time I used all flannels.  I just have to figure out what to use for backing and binding now. The one unfortunate thing was that I could only use 10 flannels so I had to limit my choices and now i have leftover favorites so I may need another quilt. But after I finish this up I need to make an owl wallhanging. Maybe I’ll make burp cloths or bibs something with my scrap pieces.
Fabrics that I selected for the quiltQuilt top all put together (crib size)
The corners of the blocks definitely do not line up well but the nature of flannels is that they are stretchy so that was challenging and since the quilt is so busy I wasn’t worried about it. Plus I plan to lay it on the floor for tummy time – not exactly important that it’s perfect 🙂 This quilt took only 3 hours to cut and piece (for future reference)!
I hope everyone has a wonderful day! I got a special treat with my lunch (they’re doing free cupcakes if you buy lunch and for once they didn’t have chicken so I could buy lunch!)
By the way - this was too good and went too quickly - i'm tempted to buy a second lunch just to get another one 🙂
And Fitz is certainly having a good day at daycare 🙂
Lots of friends to play with!This looks like a staring contest 🙂
