Table

Well here it is what I've been talking about since August updated list

I know the before pictures are not the best but all I know is that is looks 100x better than it did when I brought it home.  Marcus used a black stain that had polyurethane in it, gotta love a 2 in 1 product. It took a couple coats and few lessons learned along the way but it looks beautiful.  The other thing I love is that we got the table and chairs for all of $50.  We are still undecided on the chair style we want and have yet to compromise on a light fixture. All good things come with time, right?? Anyways, I'm loving that we have a table again and not just a table but a table that I love!

Potty

On September's to do list I added start potty training. I had no intentions of doing this but when a) your child has on frequent occasions been waking dry from naps from time to time and b) asks to go. I'm not one to pass up an opportunity. Now, I have yet to cancel my amazon diaper subscription and to save $30 every month and a half. He has gone pee 2 handful of times and has left a stinky and pee 1 handful + one finger of times, but hey whose counting? Oh yeah I am.

I don't push it, I ask him if he wants to go but he does better when he tells me he has to go in which my child is stripped down to just a shirt. He's gotta have not only pants completely off but also shoes and socks. He then sits on the potty for what seems to me as hours but it's just about 3 rounds of "head shoulders knees and toes", a dramatic reading of his Elmo book, another reading from his Richard Scarry First words book and finally Elmo's ABC's on the iPad. During this time he can produce nothing or something. I was going to give him a m&m but I usually forget after I have diapered and clothed him, cleaned his potty seat and washed my hands. But please don't fret we have a great potty party with high fives and woohoo's. Followed by texting Grammie (who is undergoing a possible name change), PaPa Jim and CiCi of the most recent potty production!  *Note I would text Marcus but his job doesn't allow him to check his phone very often or ever.  So, I just fill him if we talk at lunch and if not then when he gets home.

So there you have we have started the use of the potty and thanks to my good friend Mo we are using her son's training potty.  Also, I'm all for convinence so if I need to make dinner and Ian has to go potty I'm not opposed to moving the potty into the kitchen area so I can get my multi-task skills on.

Z house Debate

Ok so Marcus and I have been having a little debate over leggings.   I like them and think they are cute if worn properly.  The below are wearing them properly and this is how I would wear them myself. 

His argument not all people wear them properly and they have ruined the legging look in his book.  I too agree but don't think that should mean that they can't be apart of my wardrobe.  I got a pair of skinny jeans and you would have thought I told Marcus that I got a jumpsuit (no offense to jumpsuits I just can't see how going to the restroom can be done without stripping completely down, therefore they don't meet my functionality needs).

the below people have ruined it for Marcus by wearing them as pants...

Now, like I said I understand where he is coming from but I won't wear mine like that I PROMISE!!

House to Home

Since purchasing our new house in June we have been striving to make it our home.  At 1st walk thru we thought it was liveable as is.  Well after the pervious homeowner moved out we quickly realized that her stuff was hiding somethings that needed to be tended too.

911

• carpets cleaned- we had these professionally done and have rented the Rug Dr and done them ourselves and the carpet in the very near future will be taken up
• fresh neutral paint in living room, master bedroom, and guest room- Marcus pulled some late nights for this to happen before we moved.  It's not the most perfect paint job but compared to what our walls looked beforehand the walls look great.

Not so 911 and were putting "our" stamp on it comes into place

• kitchen
• remove wallpaper- not gonna lie, it was a pain in the A**
• remove cabinets above breakfast nook- DONE, loving it
• purchase bar stools for breakfast nook
• paint walls- DONE
• paint cabinets
• replace wall oven and possibly cooktop
• upgrade ceiling fan
• window treatment
• replace door knobs w/brushed silver
• Dining area:
• table and chairs
• wall art
• refinish floors
• paint door
• 1/2 Bath
• remove wallpaper- DONE yes peasy
• replace vanity- DONE $60 for new vanity and mirror
• upgrade floor- went with stick tiles for a quick change
• replace flooring with ceramic tile
• paint- DONE
• paint doors- DONE
• replace door knobs w/brushed silver
• Ian's room
• paint- DONE
• Paint ceiling
• Paint trim
• replace light fixture with ceiling fan
• paint doors
• replace door knobs w/brushed silver
• replace carpet or refinish floors
• Bathroom:
• repair walls
• upgrade caulk around tub
• flooring
• paint doors
•  Master Bedroom
• paint walls
• paint ceiling
• paint trim
• paint doors
• replace door knobs w/brushed silver
• upgrade bedding
• mount TV to wall
• build better base for bed or replace
• replace carpet or refinish floors
• Living Room
• paint walls
• paint trim
• paint doors
• replace door knobs w/brushed silver
• hang pics on wall
• replace carpet or refinish floors
• Guest Room
• paint walls
• paint doors
• replace door knobs w/brushed silver
• paint trim
• purchase bed
• turn closet into desk area
• replace carpet or refinish floors
• Outside:
• finish patio bricks around pool
• walkway landscaping- DONE
• Remove bushes in front of house
• Basement:
• turn bedroom into play area
• purchase projector
• turn area into a entertainment area
• finish off laundry room
• improve flooring on finished side

Oh boy that is a long list for my very tried contractor and our small budget.  Here's to hoping we get some of these things crossed off without to much budget breaking or compromising coming from my end.  I don't like compromising nor am I very good at it.  I always think my way is the BEST and ONLY way and I don't like to steer away from my ways.  I will hopefully get to update this list every couple of months or so.  I will pull items off the above list and put them on the monthly to do list.  But this will be the master list.

October Checklist

Yes, I know the month is almost half over.

As you saw on September's update we have a few leftovers to tend to first:

• Refinish kitchen table and chairs
• make a house to do list
• give the flower area in front some fall lovin'
• nail down kitchen cabinet color (black or gray)
• landscaping in front
• celebrate anniversary that was back in August
• start Christmas shopping

There it is kinda small but I do plan on making a house list that I will update.  Since I have realized that the majority of the monthly to do list revolves around the house.

8 second ride

Oh and you like how Marcus questioned if I was the one who told Ian to sit on the doggie as if it was my idea....


*I promise sometime soon so more interesting posts.  Nap times are currently being taken up by work, boo

BUBBLES!!!

Picture...er...watch the clip below from Finding Nemo


And now turn your head (sorry if your neck gets sore).  Also I apologize for the lack of lighting it gets dark around our parts kinda early.

September update

Another month has passed and it's that time to see what got crossed off and what is being moved to next month's list

August leftovers:

1. tuck both vehicles into garage at night. - this one was a close call in getting crossed off. but none theless it's off.  I'm loving it, new routine with entering and exiting from the garage but I'll adjust don't you worry!

2. get color painted on the walls- this is only temporarily being crossed off but this month we painted the kitchen and half bath.

 3. get pictures hung on the walls- not done but getting closer and by closer I mean, hubby has acknowledge that we have pictures to hang.  I'm okay with holding off as we have yet to tackle the paint color in the living room. We are doing one room at a time, right now it's the kitchen/dining area (they are connected) and half bath (it's little)

4. decorate guest bedroom- taking this off the list as we don't even have a bed for that room. And I'll just toss it on the house list which is coming.

Newbies:

1. refinish table and chairs- the table part is one coat away from being crossed off.  And the chairs well after looking this weekend we may be changing our mind on the style of chair we were orginally thinking. 

2. Clear out furniture from garage this will assist in accomplishing August list #1- it's gone and while they were here I also had them take our old kitchen table and chairs.


3. Kitchen upgrade- we aren't done which is why it's only partially crossed off, the kitchen got a mini upgrade. There are a few things we can't agree on and have yet to come to a compromise with.

4. locate new to us appliances (more on this a little later)- this is one of the items we haven't come to a final decision yet. Our oven needs to be replaced as much as I love the avocado green Universal Chef it is missing gaskets which means when I set the temp to be 350 then my kitchen basically doubles it's temperature we are wasting energy which means we are wasting money.

5. close pool for the season -after much debate we decided to hire this task out. I spoke to a lot of people who all said it's very easy you do this this and this.  Well, folks ours was different due to the type of cover we have we don't have to do steps x, y and z. I took notes, asked questions and so hopefully next year we can tackle the task ourselves. Glad we hired that out for the our 1st time and we also learned we don't need a new liner yet...YAY!!

7. order prints of latest professional pics taken by Knox Photography-well since the pictures we have currently haven't been hung, we have yet to order anymore.  We did purchase a frame and did a mini makeover on another. So we will be ready.


8. continue to work on printing off pics from snapfish- now that we are in a digital age I have made it my mission to print all pictures that have been taken since Ian's arrival and put them into a photo album. Why, so that we have them physically in our hands so that if someone (Ian) wants to look at pictures or work on identifying family who live out of state, etc he can do so without putting the laptop or ipad at  risk of being ruined.  Now, I only have about 400 more pictures to go and since I take at least 10 a day I'm only getting more and more beyond.  I also only print photos when I receive a specials via email so it will be a while.


9. run in a 5k race with Ian and finish so he his the 1st finisher in his age group, ambitious?? Maybe but still worth a shot. Oh and not to pee my pants while running said race. - I ran, Ian stayed home due to cold, damp, raining weather condtions. Yes we have rain cover for the jogger but he hates it so the run would have been stressful for me dealing with that and didn't want to run the risk of him getting a cold.  Good news he is still the youngest finisher, there was a little one there but she was 17mos and Ian was 8mos when we ran it last year.  For me it was a PR of 24min 44sec and I was the 2nd female finisher but 1st female finisher in my age group.

Additions:
Move bricks from front of garage to side of house- this was not a fun task at all. We had about half a pallet of bricks sitting in front of the garage and since we don't own a fork lift each one had to be moved by it's self to a new a pallet on the side of the house.

replace water supply line to toilet- this made the list as of today. I heard water spraying in the bathroom and made a quick discovery of ths source.  Turned off the water to toilet, got myself and Ian around and headed to the hardware store for a new one. Replaced it and had toilet back in working condition before hubby got home from work.

Start pottying training- wait what?? Seperate post to come

So overall not a bad month.  Looking forward to this month where a kitchen table will be in our kitchen and we won't be sitting on the floor to eat our meals.

mini upgrade

This month we did a little mini upgrade to the kitchen

I first removed the wallpaper that was not put up properly.  Then Marcus patched the walls where the wallpaper took wall down with it. And then he painted the ceiling and then the walls.  Marcus also got the bright idea to remove the backsplash since it came down so easily in one spot.  Needless to say, I wasn't a fan of this idea.  Rather I was fine with just painting it until we were ready to figure out our plan. But he insisted it would a) be easy b) be quick.  It was NEITHER and there area now needs drywall patches installed. He agrees not the right move.

This was a quick/easy way to open up the space between the kitchen and dining area.  Yes we lost some cabinet space but we weren't even using them to begin with and the openess we gained from them being gone with worth the loss of storage.

Still to come: paint cabinet, paint/replace where backsplash was, replace ceiling fan or install recessed lighting. Oh and Sept list update...