List Is Getting Shorter

So does that means the baby is coming soon then? Actually I am just on a kick to get things done and ready for the big day.

There are now 44 items (up from 40) on the list and items have been getting crossed off left and right.

1. paint nursery - thanks MIL!

2. hang crown molding

6. make crib bedding - thanks again to the MIL for that one ;)
7. Find a crib that we like.
8. Make Christmas Tree skirt If you missed it, check it out here!
10. decorated house for Christmas
14. find a rug for the babies room - You can view here.
16. Power wash the side of the house.
32. create Christmas card and send out - WahoO! I didn't think I would make it in time, but I did! Here are a few photos that my brother took from Thanksgiving. He is an amazing photographer and I am so happy he took these for us. Also if you did not get a x-mas card from us, I apologize. Let me know if you would like one next year and I would be MORE than happy to send you one from the Bach's (family of 3+one fur puppy!)

40. Make baby sleepers.

And the most recent check off was #33. Make 2010 Christmas Card Book. I even made this years 2011, so I am on top of my game!

Next up on the list? Figuring out the nursery lighting, closet organizer and possibly even starting on the baby book! EAK! :)

xox m.

Baby B Update

No journal this time... changing up the baby book style. And don't mind the photos either... I wasn't up to par because I had nasty allergies. (Hopefully I’ll be able to show the progress on that….) But we did go to another baby doc appointment.

Short Story:  Doctors office forgot about our appointment, and pretty much didn’t have us in the system. (That kind of made me feel like just a number to them). They squeezed us in (oh how nice of them) so we got our checkup and baby B’s heart rate was at a good 147 and I gained 2 lbs. We both are right on track.  They drew a ton of vials of blood and we made our anatomy ultrasound appointment for the end of September! I’m hoping they remember that one in the system, because that is a pretty big appointment. If we were finding out the sex, this would be when it would be revealed.

Take A-Way: I already had decided that I want a completely natural birth – no pain meds, no iv hook ups…. Nada! Then after this (not so big of deal) happened, I really thought about having a midwife and not doing the hospital “I’m just a number” route.  I watched Ricki Lake’s The Business of Being Born and I REALLY wanted to do an all-natural birth. (Side Note: If I had to have surgery for my babys sake I would TOTALLY do it in a heart-beat). So basically now I have a ton of questions to ask at my next baby doc appointment and I have a bunch of books I want to read now.  Anyone do a natural birth or have a good midwife experience they would like to share with me? :)

Other Updates:  I’m pretty sure I felt the baby!! Steve and I were sitting in our living room thinking about what to do for dinner and I felt this ‘pop’. Steve told me it was just gas… haha, but then said my face was glowing and he was jealous. Then the next day I was driving and I felt the same POP-POP! That’s all the pops I’ve felt, but I swear it was the babe and not gas! LOL

Other News: I’m throwing my good friend a baby shower come Oct! I am SO excited about this. 1.) Because it’s for Jen and her little bump! 2.) It’s my very first party I get to ‘host’ at my house with decorations and all. 3.) It’s all about BABY!! So fun!  I would tell more about it…. But I know Jen will probably read this at some point and I don’t want to ruin the details. So I’ll post all the pictures after the party. It’s going to be so fun!

House Updates:  Steve installed new doors upstairs, and my dad finished all the cabinets in the kitchen!! WAHOO! Next up, my butcher block counter tops that dad is going to make. We picked out a nice walnut and stained it for a test piece and it was magical. Ha-ha. I’m now looking out for wallpaper to finish up the last wall in the kitchen and then lighting picks for over the table… hmmm….

Hope everyone had a great labor day weekend! This week has flown by and I can’t believe the weekend is almost here!

xox m.

Little Things

Our home gets updated every weekend. A light fixture gets installed... an outlet cover gets put on (ha-ha)... a new space gets filled.... I love it! Why? Because my house is starting to feel like a home.

Remember this post? Well look what I got from my parents from my birthday!? It is finally nested in place and I LOVE LOVE LOVE sitting here and reading. :)

Before I had all my laundry items sitting on top of the dryer. Not any more! I found a rack that fits perfectly in between the two and it works like a charm. Also, if you can see the funny brackets and holes in the wall at the top of the photo.... yea I assume there was a wire shelf at one point in time and there were doors to cover these puppies up, but not anymore. Our entire house looked like this 'hole punched' mess. However, we plan to turn this into a huge closet for all or our winter and summer gear. Then the floors will get tiled and the laundry will be moved into the next room which will be a huge mud room, fully stocked with a dog shower and all! :) Can't leave Tovi out of the fun!

Oh and the newest addition is this heater. It will keep on us on hold until we install a fireplace! JUST KIDDING! This is a heater for outside on the deck... for summer/fall parties to keep us warm while we are sitting around with a glass of wine or a nice juicy burger in hand. This heater is the kinda thing you see at restaurants that you sit by when you dine outside. 

Yes, we got it for a steal. Pretty much walked away with it for some change. Coupons are wonderful! :)

xox m.

CAPS Lock on the letter B

B is for BUMMER!


The past few days we have been getting quite the amount of rain. (Yay spring is here!!) But we are just a tad bit worried because we just finished our basement (nice carpet and all) and we don't want it to flood. 


If you were unaware.... when we bought our home the basement drywall, from the waist down, was ripped out because the basement had flooded. It flooded because the bank turned the electricity off so the sump pump wasn't able to turn on. Smart right? Well moving forward, we purchased the home and then one day... or two.... or three days, the basement flooded. The sump pump was on and working but we had a leak around the tubing that carries the house waste to the outside. No one sealed the opening around the tube. You could literally look straight out from our basement and see the ground outside. Awesome. Well my amazing hubby fixed that right up. We waited for rain, and then snow... and the leak was no longer a leak, so we were confident there would be no more flooding. 


WRONG!


So we finished our basement (besides the small details). Everything is going great. It rained, we held our breath, and sighed as the basement was still dry. Wah hoO! 
But boy-o-boy was I prepared with buckets by my side just in case! 


It started to rain again a few days ago, and my dad spotted a HUGE puddle on the ledge underneath the window. (Where the bucket is placed in the photo below.)

We (and when I say we, I really mean Steve at this point) cut away the caulk and a little bit of drywall from the window and tried to see the problem.  We went outside and duct taped the outside of the window. (Time out! I know what you are thinking....duct tape on the outside of your window?  PRETTY!  Note to self: duct tape can fix ANYTHING! But lets be honest here...the duct tape was only temporary while the rain was pouring down).  So using the duct tape on the outside totally helped stop the flow of water pouring in. Now I ask myself... why did this leak not happen while we were putting up new drywall and knocking old stuff down? Hmmm.... the world may never know. 


Here is the cut away.... but nothing seemed too crazy or explainable. So now we wait.

We sealed the outside of the window yesterday since all the wetness was dried up thanks to the spring sun, and now we wait again. It rained all last night and there seemed to be no water leakage. So the sealing outside worked?? I don't know... my heart is still kind of nervous about the 'what if'.  I think we might just have to tear down the drywall above the widow to be sure. 


Sigh, and I thought the basement was almost complete. Ha-ha.  However, times like this I am glad I work from the home so I can keep checking on it during the day.  Which... reminds me.... we should invest in a back-up sump pump pronto! 


xox m.

Man Cave Update

Ladies and Gents.... we have a go-2 relaxing man cave! 


Er.... man cave? 

Lets be honest here. This basement isn't the typical male sanctuary. It isn't the type of cave with neon lights and beer signage. There is no slamming beers together and getting the carpet all beer sticky while your favorite football team scores a touch down. Remember we are being honest here... we don't watch football. Maybe we will catch a game a few times if we are with some friends, or if the Bears could make it to the super bowl, then yea we would watch the game. And beer? Sure. But I can't remember the last time we purchased a case. Once again, maybe once in a blue moon we will have a few in the summer while we are outside hanging out and about, but we just are not the type to crack open a drink when we get home from work. We will save that for around the camp fire in the summer. So thus being a 'typical' man cave? Not so much...  we put the neon signs and beer money into a nice entertainment sound system, little custom features like all the handmade trim, benches, entertainment units.... the carpet, an engulfing couch, and of course all the little bits and pieces to make the cave our living area.  


We couldn't be more happy with the results. All of the hard work from my dad and our good friend Nick... the countless hours Steve would put in after work... my amazing mom who helped with all the details and clean up.... they all deserve a great big HUGE thank you!!! And not going to lie... pretty proud of myself and my contribution to the cave. 


Now there are still a few things that need to be done in order to stamp this project as finished. 


-paint the doors
-add the hardware
-add a piece of MDF to the top of the bench
-sew bench seating
-insert selves in entertainment system and attach doors
-think about shelf system in storage room
-need to get blinds
-build me some end tables
-collect decor items 
-the list will never end :)


The man-cave.

I can't wait to be able to fill those cubbies with toys and games one day!

Below is the stairs going up to the middle level and the server room.

Below is the view when you walk down the stairs and turn right... the first door leads into the server room. The second door you see is storage, and the door on the far right (the one you can hardly see) leads to the water pump. 

This is a blurry iPhone photo just after the TV and speakers were mounted. 

xox m. 

Ice Ice Baby

Icicles right out our front window. 

We have been hit by a ton of snow these past weeks. Steve, Tovi and myself are LOVING it!!
I'll post some photos of the excitement later.

xox m.

It's True...

Photo taken by my iphone 5 mins before the bears vs. packers game. this place was EMPTY!

 

I've been thinking about purchasing some stock in The Home Depot. We visit them every week, if not twice a week, so it makes perfect sense to me. I wonder if I will feel the same way once every room of our home is complete? Or will it be time to move then? Hmm....



xox m.

Wonderful Weekend

This past weekend was a HUGE success! Don't you love productive weekends? I sure do!

I got to hang out with the Miller family (love them!), catch up and take some fun family photos.

Steve got to hang out with Josh and make some additions to their twins.... I mean Jeeps.

I got to purchase a few things for our guest bathroom! I am very excited about this. I am going to try and do the whole bathroom myself.... tile and plumbing included. Tune in to find out how that goes! Ha-ha! (Anyone have experience in cutting mirrors down to size? Just tossin' that out there!)

Here is a sneak into what I've been planning....

The mirror, lights and tile I have yet to purchase because I'm doing my bargain hunting and have to find the best price/ greatest deal.

And we started the man-cave construction. Which couldn't have been done without Nick, such a great friend we have. And Ryan joined in on the construction as well. Thanks Ry!!

But man o man, when Nick says he is coming over to help, that means business and also means production! My heart smiles at how generous he is to us, and how he kicks our butts into working mode. I am thinking up ideas on how we can repay him since he wont give me an invoice.....hmmmm.....

So far we have done the following this weekend:
- Cleaned out the basement.
- Made ONE trip to Home Depot. (That is amazing because I think the record is 5 or 6 in one day!!)
- Knocked down the bedroom wall.
- Knocked down the closet wall.
- Put up new wall for home server and more storage.
- Did all electrical for new area.
- Figured out where new overhead lighting will go.
- Ran PVC for cables.
- Ran wires for speaker system.
- Figured out where bench would work its way in.
- (in my mind) Figured out color scheme and little details of the room.

WHEW!!

Next on this list for this week:

- Install overhead lighting.
- Remove gas line from the non-existing fireplace location.
- Purchase more wood for bench seating and table top that goes around the whole room.
- Possibly start drywall and bench construction.
- Figure in more ideas for 'man-cave theme'. (Yes, I get to pick out the 'style' even though it's Steve's land!! Ha-ha.)

Can you believe it?? Then before you know it, Christmas will be here, then New Years - which means new carpet and furniture and then BAM basement is complete! Wow... one room out of the 9 complete! Makes me smile! Also makes me praise God for how blessed we are to have such amazing friends and family, to have great jobs that provide, and the creativity and skill he has blessed us all with. So the real thanks goes to him. Can't wait to celebrate his birth this Saturday!!

xox m.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like....

a Kitchen!!

And you thought I was going to say Christmas!

All uppers have been installed. Woo hoo!!! We just purchased a new microwave so my dad can continue with the cabinet above the stove. Then he moves onto the pantry (which will be left of the fridge) and then.... the base cabinets!!! How blessed am I? I have an amazing father who God has given such great talent. He has done such an amazing job, and is such a hard worker.

Other house updates?

Steve and I will be heading to Menard's to purchase the last 5 pieces of plywood for the cabinets. We will also be getting a few doors for the bedrooms. Currently the doors are the classic oak doors and some are broken, missing all together, and damaged. (Remember, when we purchased our home it had been foreclosed on, and the previous owners did quite a number on it. So everything basically has to be fixed, updated or replaced.) We also are going to be getting some 2x4's and drywall for the basement! Yes, you read right. The basement will be fully cleaned out by this weekend and we will start knocking a room and closet down to expand space. Then we will put up another wall for storage. Steve is very excited about this man cave of his.

As far as Christmas goes, we sadly don't have any decorations up because of the construction. However we just started to receive Christmas cards in the mail and I love it!! This is our first Christmas as our happy little Bach family. We didn't send out cards this year, we have been a little busy every weekend and couldn't get time to take a family photo. Hopefully next year. Here is a quick phone photo of some of our Christmas cards!! :)

xox m.

Homegoods

I received a gift card to Homegoods a few months ago and I've been holding on to it and waiting for something good. I don't live that close to a Homegoods, so it was easy for me to not spend it. However since it is conveniently located right next door to Michael's (where I've been taking my cake classes) I decided to take a peek and see what's in store. Boy o boy I wish I had $500 (the total of all items pictures below) to buy all this stuff for our home.

............................................................

An awesome chair for our reading nook up stairs. The colors are PERFECT. It's the perfect transition going form the white/tan living room to the green and grey kitchen....up the stairs to the reading nook which leads into the yellow and grey nursery and my orange and brown office/craft room! And that table lamp could go perfect in my office, the color is spot on. However, I am a little reluctant to make my purchase of the lamp because I feel like I could find something like it at a thrift store and spray paint it this color. Hmmm.... BUT my gift card does cover the lamp, but not the chair. Sigh...

This floor lamp and table lamp are the perfect dual for the reading nook as well. Just picture the floor lamp a little behind the chair above. Then maybe a side table with the table light on it? Hmmm.... gift card would cover either or, but not both.

Or I could use the gift card to purchase this beauty. It is kinda hard to tell in this picture (sorry all photos were taken from my phone). The base of this lamp is all wood, and the shade is the perfect color that would go wonderful in our living room. Also I think the lamp is more modern but since it had the wood it would tie in well with the modern country theme we have going on. Decisions decisions....


 
 
xox m.

Kitchen Update

A package arrived in the mail and look what was inside:

Our PULLS for the kitchen cabinet doors!!! The knobs are on back order till the end of January... so we shall wait for those good lookin's. Glad the Lord has blessed me with patience. :)

But aren't those pulls just lovely?

Here is what our kitchen looks as of two weeks ago.

I believe we will finish the painting on the rest of the 'uppers' and get them in place by the weekend. Then give the ones that are already up a quick touch-up.

We also plan on clearing out the basement this weekend, because all we need to do down there is take a wall down and add extra storage, then drywall and carpet. Oh and I guess we will have to paint as well. So actually there is quite a bit to do down there... ha-ha

This is how the basement looks...

Have a blessed week!

xox m.

4 Chair Makeover

We have been very lucky to have friends and family give their unwanted furniture to us. Honestly we have been blessed. We have gotten about 4 couches, 3 beds, a bench, 2 rockers, a hutch, a table with a set of 4 chairs, a bookcase, and even some Halloween decorations! :) To me it’s a blessing, and to the friends it’s a blessing because now they get to go purchase brand new!
So far everything has been put to good use! We have passed a few of the items on and I am now in the stage of ‘re-doing’ the items that are left.
But lets start from the beginning. A few years ago I feel in love with a kitchen table at World Market Cost-Plus. So I started to save all the gift certificates to go towards this kitchen table. Well it was time for a table…. so I picked up my table only having to pay 25%, thanks to my loving family and friends for my GC! :) So I bring the table home and I start to get it set up, and realize I have no chairs. I naturally went online to check out some chairs and I was dumbfounded! I couldn’t believe how much chairs cost! Well little did I forget I had a set of chairs sitting in the basement waiting for me. Now these chairs didn’t match, they were a different color, look, style, feel…. but I say let’s revamp them! And that’s what I did.


I forgot to take a before picture… grr…. But if you can imagine they were a classic oak color. I used spray paint to cover the chair in a satin brown color. It was a pretty good match! And the seat cushion was a blue pattern. Pretty, but my kitchen is going to be whites and a hint of green.

Ta-da! Now I’m a little wishy washy on the patterns I picked out. After the kitchen is finished completely I will more than likely do the reupholster thing again to match, but for now… ahhhhh comfy seats to rest on while eating dinner. Now all I need to do is make a bench to match and the set will be complete. Maybe this weekend?? :)

xo m.

Kitchen Sink

As promised.

Oh and where the sink is mounted is 'make-shift'. So once all the cabinets are made we will remove the faucet so the real counter top can be installed. Just a lil FYI.



And boy o boy... our sink is going to come in handy when we want to wash the kids in there, it's huge! :)

xo m.

Fawn Lane Update

Flooring:
The sub floor is complete so the hardwood floors are ready to  be installed!!! We just need to finish up the paint and crown molding to start the installation.


A quick snap of the hardwood floors :)



Basement = Dry:
Every time it rains our basement floods. That's not a good thing. Well the problem was that the 'poop' tube that runs from the inside of our basement to the septic field outside was never installed correctly. The person who installed it never packed and sealed around the tube. So when it would rain the water would run into the ground and literally pour into our basement. So good ole Stevie Boy did the dirty job and fixed the leak :)

Also Nana if you are reading this... we got a dehumidifier a few weeks ago and it is running non-stop! The basement doesn't smell anymore! Oh and when I mean we got a dehumidifier, I mean we are borrowing one from mom and dad until they need it back ;)




Tovi:
While Steve was making our basement dry Tovi was playing in the culverts muddy rain water. Pure joy written all over his mug! And boy did he smell PRETTY when he was done frolicking back and forth.

(Please note his new summer shave. My poor baby. It's only hair... it's only hair....)





Kitchen:
The kitchen fan has been installed and it's blowing wind and light ever so beautifully. Yeah!! Good work Steve!!

Also the 4th wall has been painted white and all the sub-floor is finished as well! Now I just need to paint my green damask and the painting in the kitchen is complete!




Tovi Part 2:
And yes, Tovi still is deprived of attention. Poor poor kid, but look how beautiful my Mom is?!


xo m.