Guest/Baby Room: Before and After

So we just finished up the baby's room and I thought I'd post some pictures. Before:
(door leading to our room)

Closet and hallway door. (I'm starting to wonder why I bother posting before pictures since every room in this house looks exactly the same...)

We ran into a few snags along the way...I had originally wanted to strip the paint from the trim and have a dark wood border. We started doing this and then, at Patricks insistance, double checked to see if it was okay for me to be doing that. The internet betrayed me and every site I found said pregnant women should not only not strip paint but should vacate the premises until the project is completed. So we stopped stripping the paint and Patrick sanded down the part we had already done so I could paint it. Here's what we did:

We've been referring to this room as the "box room" since it is where all of the unpacked boxes have been. Here are some pics of most of them shoved to the center of the room for painting. There were actually 4-5 more big boxes in here before we started fixing it, but we managed to find some place to cram what was in them...for such a big house it seems to be lacking in usuable closet space...

So here's the finished product; notice that we only painted up to the edge of the two far doors. This was because Patrick is planning on putting in a wall here so that we can access our bedroom without having to walk through one of the kids rooms. So it may look kind of funny with only three of the four walls painted, but we'll fix it before putting the baby in there (so before like November/December since he'll be in our room the first couple of months).

So there area few more things that need to be done...I want some sort of curtain or valance for the window, we still need to paint the louvered doors (waiting on a paint sprayer thing for that) and I think the walls need a few more things on them, but I'll have to go looking for something I like for that. Plus the cradle will have a bumper/sheets/mobile but I'm not putting them on this early for the kids to destroy. I was thinking it might need a colorful rug in the center of the room too...and something more substantial on the bookshelf, but I'm sure we'll fill the space soon enough.

My parents are coming to visit next week and mom said she'd help me take down wallpaper in the dining room so I may have pics of that soon...or not if I'm not feeling like it. I usually take a few weeks off between rooms so I don't know that I'll want to jump right into the next one so soon. ;)

Belly pics

So, by popular demand, here are some pictures of my growing stomach:

16 wks

20 wks

24 wks

I don't know why it loaded them all to the side like that...they're supposed to be in the center. Oh well. You can also see my bad haircut in these...if I'm ever somewhere with a salon that's open and I don't have the kids I'll try to get it fixed. In the mean time it just looks retarded. Oh well. I'm currently working on the guest bedroom/baby room and should have pics of that posted within the next week. :)

Master Bedroom: Before and After

Well this past week I decided that if there was any chance at all I was going to have to be on bedrest at some point then I needed to get the bedroom done so I wasn't stuck in an ugly room. ;) Looking for before shots I realized that we seemed to have largely overlooked taking pictures of this room (probably because it looked just like the other two) and could only find two pictures showing parts of the room. The first is a pic of the tv stand they had mounted to the wall (just like a motel). Some people that have seen this thought it was cool. I thought it was butt-ugly and had Patrick take it down. The second pic is of the door leading out to the screened in back porch from this room.

I debated over what color to paint this room...I was toying with the idea of doing a cool two-color faux finish in here but after bringing home a couple of colors to look at that ended up being no where close to what I wanted I decided to just paint it the same color as the bedroom in our last house. The idea being that I was never able to fully actualize what I was visualizing so maybe I could do so here. The color looks a little washed out in these pictures. it's actually much darker.

Bye bye tv stand.....hello bookcase.

I think I'll buy a plant of some kind to put in the corner by the treadmill...maybe a small tree? I think that wall needs more stuff on it too...

In the future I would like to get some new dressers, matching the dark wood of the mirror over the taller of the two as well as a cool-looking four poster/canopy bed...kind of like this. The ceilings in this house are high enough I think we could actually get away with that. In the mean time I've tried various methods to mimic a canopy...two houses ago we had a sloped ceiling that I looped the fabric on, last house the ceiling was low enough that I hung it from there and then caught it back at the wall with hooks and draped it down either side. Neither of those options would work here, so I finally decided on a curtain rod. I think it turned out nicely.

I also plan to get a new bedspread...I'm kind of leaning towards one similar to this (look at the bed, not the rest):

but haven't been able to find one. I'd like to get some more red in the room so I may buy a red sheer curtain or loop some red in with the bed drapery. But here it is for now. :)

Coming Soon(ish): Before and After Guest/Baby room

Coming much later: Before and After Dining Room

Stay tuned. ;)

Na na na na na...Batman!

James got some new jammies at the store last week. I debated over getting these, but finally did since they were so cute. My little brothers used to have some very similar to these.

Please ignore the messy house. ;)

It's a....

Baby! YAY!!! We were worried it was four hamsters there for awhile. ;) I was going to post a picture here, but I guess my scanner isn't working. Imagine generic baby profile ultrasound pic.

So we were convinced that this baby was a girl, not only because of symptoms I had similar to Isabelle's pregnancy but also because Isabelle was convinced that not only was it a girl but that her name was Angelina...she said it often enough that she had us convinced too. Alas it was not to be. (That means it's a boy) So now we have to think of some boy names...maybe I'll do a post about that at some point, but right now it's a little depressing since girl names are so much easier to come up with...and I was excited about getting all of Isabelle's cute girl clothes out again. She had so many that most of them are still in very good condition...James' clothes on the other hand were mostly 2nd or 3rd time hand me downs which he managed to almost completely destroy (i.e. stain horribly in several places)...so I guess that will be fun....boy clothes are so boring! Pants and shirts. That's ALL they wear. Bah!

In other news, we also discovered that I apparently have Placenta Previa. This means that my placenta implanted over my cervix (i.e. baby's escape route). The doctor said that this can resolve itself as the uterus grows, it can "move" the placenta out of the way allowing for a regular delivery. I have another ultrasound scheduled at 30 wks (which I might add are an additional $300 per ultrasound...if it has partially moved at 30 wks, they'll check again at 36wks...so a possible extra $600 we'll need to pay them)to see if this has happened. If it doesn't move then that means that I have to have a c-section. That freaking sucks for several reasons:
1- We've already paid off the hospital for a regular birth, a c-section is at least another $1200 we have to come up with.
2- How am I supposed to take care of three kids by myself when I'm going to be broken for weeks afterwards?
3- Apparently our hospital does not allow VBAC's. EVER. It doesn't matter that the only reason I would have to have one this time is the placenta thing or that I've had two completely normal vaginal births previous to this, they will not allow me to ever deliver "naturally" again. I think this is the biggest load of crap I have ever heard in my entire life. My doctor said it's because they're required to have a surgical team on hand in case I do need another c-section. Since their anesthesiologist is not there 24 hours a day and my ob is 20 minutes or more from the hospital, they've decided to just make it a blanket policy to not allow these for any reason. Caren, my doctor, said that if someone did come in and they were already at like 8-9 centimeters and didn't have any problems then she would deliver them but that I shouldn't count on that happening. She said if I wanted a VBAC for the next one I'd have to deliver at one of the much larger hospitals closer to the metroplex where they do have a surgical team on hand at all times. This has made me very, very mad. So right now we're hoping that the stupid placenta will just move and we won't have to worry about this.
4-I also found out that there is a higher chance of bleeding ALOT during and after delivery if you have placenta previa for various reasons I don't want to go into. But if they can't get it to stop their solution is apparently a hysterectomy. Yeah. What the crap. So that freaking sucks too.
5- I have now been placed on "pelvic rest". This means no fooling around with my husband...FOR THE REST OF THE PREGNANCY! Plus, the six weeks after delivery...which is SIX and a HALF MONTHS (assuming it doesn't move at 30 wks when they check again...which is still 10wks away but a lot better than the 26 wks we'd be looking at otherwise). Yeah so that REALLY sucks....really. I think that is a very important part of a healthy marriage relationship and I worry that it is going to effect us in more ways then the one in the coming weeks. They do this because if it were to hit the cervix or 'disrupt' it or something it could cause the placenta to start bleeding profusely and kill the baby. She said I will probably have some spotting in the weeks/months to come since any contractions and such can also disrupt the blood cells in this area and cause bleeding. She said spotting is okay but if it's anything heavier than that I am to rush to labor/delivery at the hospital. You know the one that's a minimum 45 min drive from here. So...yeah. Lots of fun stuff to look forward to. Plus now we also have to come up with money for a circumsion. Bah.

Anyway, baby is apparently healthy and doing well, kicking away. He was curled up into a ball during the ultrasound which made me worry they wouldn't be able to tell the gender, but she found it just fine. Fun, fun.

"Master" bath & Kid's room: Before and After

Well my husband went away on business this past week and I suddenly decided that I needed to be productive with my time. So Tuesday I painted the bathroom, Wednesday I decorated the bathroom and painted the kids room, Thursday I drove into Gaivesville to buy some wall art and Friday I drove in to Sherman to buy even more art after I noticed big empty spaces on the walls. Now my baby didn't seem to like this much (you know the one in my belly?) so I've been taking it easy the past couple of days, but it was nice to get so much done. The bathroom is long, narrow and dark and subsequently hard to get a picture of, so hopefully you can kind of tell what it looks like. Also I can't find any good pics of the kids room before so you'll have to just imagine more of the same from the one shot I have.

Bathroom Before:

Bathroom After:

Bedroom Before:

Bedroom Intermediate (Isabelle wanted to help):

Bedroom After:

There are actually a few more pics hanging on the wall now, but I guess I took the after pictures before I hung those up...just use your imagination. ;) I wasn't planning on painting Isabelle's room, but she kept asking when we were going to do hers and insisting that she wanted it green. So I told her that if there was enough green left over from the bathroom we could paint one of her walls...I was thinking like an accent wall....anyway there was a LOT left over so we painted two walls. I think it turned out pretty cute. What do you think.

Coming soon: The Bedroom Before and After. ;) This room looks really, really bad now that the ones surrouding it are done.

The Den: Before and After

So I suddenly got completely sick of looking at the den, or "computer room" as we call it this past Saturday, shoved everything into the center of the room, and started painting while listening to conference. I optimistically estimated that I could probably get it mostly finished by the end of the Sunday afternoon session. Well after staying up until 2am + three nights in a row, the last two with Patrick helping, we finally finished it. Here are some shots from before we moved in and a few after we moved in so you can get an idea of the sty we were living in before I snapped. I should say that this is the room where the movers put most of our stuff so it has been the most junk filled/disorganized of the house....and unfortunately where we seem to spend most of our days as the tv in the kitchen picks up pbs and the living room doesn't and since we're on the computer a lot.

Okay here are the after shots. The mirror is currently planned to go back on the bathroom door and the bookcase isn't filled yet, so I didn't take a picture of that...and ignore the box of office stuff we have yet to find a place for. Also the blue is slightly more purpley than I was going for, but I think it still turned out pretty good. :)

Doesn't it look much better without all of that brown, beige, and light pink (the color scheme for the entire house btw)? I think the wainscoting looks WAY better painted white...what do you think? Also, if you didn't notice that is a pic of the St. George Temple over the computer and there was one of Jesus in the living room, though I don't think we got a picture of that corner...aren't we such good mormons now? ;)

Birthdays

Well we've had quite a few birthdays around here the last three months...four in fact, so now the whole family has to wait for the baby in September for another birthday party...although I guess hours of labor isn't really what I'd call a party...and they don't usually bring the new mom cake, though I think they should. Maybe I'll suggest it and revolutionalize the hospital cafeteria. ;) Patricks birthday was first. He turned 33 years old. His birthday is only two weeks after Christmas and thus I usually buy his Christmas and birthday presents and the same time and arbitrarily decide which will go to which holiday.

We had a big cookie cake that his sister Heidi made us, which was very nice btw, and that I decorated with black frosting I bought for Halloween cookies and never opened. We also had strawberry cheesecake which I made later, very delicious.

Isabelle's birthday is ten days after Patricks. This year she turned three years old and we invited a couple of friends over (and their siblings and moms, so seven kids including my two and three moms including myself). I think I went a little over board with decorations and such, but I guess it's okay for her first party. There were a few crying instances where people weren't sharing but they all quieted down when we had cake and pizza.

Later that night we had the family party with the rest of the cake and presents from us and anyone who mailed stuff. Isabelle got a cowboy hat and a magnifying glass like Sid the Science Kid (pbs show). Two of her favorite gifts were her own toolbox with tools and a big princess dress from her friend Tyson who couldn't make the party.
James's first birthday was next, exactly one month after Isabelle's. We didn't have as much of a party for his as this was also the day we closed on our new house. We were out signing papers and checking out the new place until around 9pm. When we got home we had some carrotcake and James opened his presents. One of his favorites was a helicopter toy that makes lots and lots of noises from Grandma Segler. Mommy likes that it has an off switch. ;)

Two weeks after James' birthday was mine. I turned 28. Patrick surprised me by inviting all of our Denton friends up to our new house to celebrate. We had chips and cookies and Patrick bought me a HUGE strawberry cheesecake from a bakery/pizza/sandwich place in town. It was good though a little too rich. We had fun visiting with our friends and eating ourselves sick.

One of my favorite gifts was a cool U2 coffee table book from my friend Josh and Dave. Patrick got me some nice movies and the new U2 cd, and my mom sent me a cool table runner and some nice maternity clothes. You can also see my ugly living room pre-paint/decorating in these.

So there you have it. Our three month birthday extravaganza! Wasn't that exciting?! ;)

Before and After

Okay so we FINALLY finished one room to do before and after shots...well actually I still need to hang the curtains, but this is close enough I guess. So here is the living room before we moved in:

The first thing I did was take those curtains down. Here is an intermediate/almost done shot:

It's kind of hard to see in that shot, but I wrote Isabelle's name above the entryway....I also put a heart with Patrick and my initials in it. I thought it would be okay since I did it in trim paint which was a lighter color....unfortunately the trim paint was also semi-gloss and the regular paint was satin/eggshell finish. This meant you could see the writing even through the paint. So those areas got lots of extra layers. So here is the end result...I couldn't get a very good pic of the opposite wall, but rest assured that it looks good...also picture red curtains framing the windows.

So there you go. I'm going to put a plant to the side of the big couch there, the smaller sofa has a red throw that goes on it, but you can see what it's supposed to look like. What do you think? If you don't like it, don't tell me. ;)