Fireplace

We almost seem to be outgrowing our house, or at least the first floor, with all the baby toys, books, a Pack'n'Play, Exersaucer, Moses basket, Mamaroo, etc., etc. filling every corner and walkway. Our basement is finished so we knew it would be a great additional space for evening lounging once we got it set up, except for the steady 55-degree temperature down there. Alas, a gas fireplace seemed like the best solution for the space to warm it up!

Like most things around here, we had to wait a while for the installation, but it's finally done! Here's a few shots that I took along the way.

We still have some work to do for furniture and decor, but it's nice and cozy down there now!

Exterior Painting - finished up!

After weeks and weeks of the painters working on our house, they've finally finished enough for me to get some pictures of the house looking like a finished product!

We've come a long way since this spring. Here's one more before and after:

Exterior House Painting

We've been waiting since April to get our house painted before this winter and it's finally happening!

Here's how the house looked this summer before we did some third-trimester yard work:

Here it is after the landscaping this summer (details here):

I'm so glad those big bushes are gone from around the porch!

Here it is this October before the painters started:

And here we are halfway through the painting (don't the front windows pop so much more?):

Things should wrap up in another week or so. We're hoping the final "After" picture doesn't have snow on the ground! I can't wait to see the (Cardinal) red front door and black shutters! Then it's time for Christmas decorations...

Ready for Baby!

The classes are done, and the nursery's all set up (even though she'll probably do little more than nap in there for a while), so now we're just waiting for her arrival!

 

 

 

One day in the front yard!

It's amazing what a difference a day can make! We spent the majority of the day in the front yard taking out overgrown bushes around the front porch and filling the space with 21 boxwoods, bringing the front yard total to 33 (!), three hydrangeas, and several mums for some seasonal color.

Here's how the house looked last fall. We hadn't done much work outside at this point:

Here's how it looked early this morning:

Action shot...a few of the big bushes gone already!

And here's how it looks at the end of the day!

When we moved in, the wall along the garage (on the left) had hostas running along it that died back each fall. We moved those to a bed around the tree on the left side of the photo above and filled the space along the garage with three white hydrangeas, two vibernums, and 11 boxwoods. This project was done a few weeks ago.

Coming up in September: we're having the outside of the house painted. The trim will become a creamy white, the shutters black, and the front door Cardinal (Go tree!).

Nursery Progress

Over the weekend, we made great progress on the nursery as well as cleaning up the basement. On Friday, the nursery started out looking like this:

 

We had already hung the shades and had the carpet delivered, so this is the best "before" picture we have. This is the room that used to be my office (I decided I liked working from downstairs better).

 



On Saturday and Sunday we organized the room quite a bit, moving out furniture that was destined for other places in our house (i.e., the basement). We also hung the mirror, and the mattress was delivered so we could make the bed as well. Here's a few shots of the progress:

My mom was out earlier in July and we made the hot air balloon bed skirt and shams. And during the same visit, we found an antique chest of drawers in Indianapolis that will double as a changing table. I painted it teal and cleaned up the hardware so it really looks like a new piece of furniture!

Here's the hardware after about 30 minutes of cleaning...

And here it is about an hour later!

Nursery Inspiration

I was subconsciously tapping my love of Laduree - the Parisian macaron store and tea room - in putting together the inspiration for the nursery. Upon realizing this, I surrendered to the instinct and decided to embrace it. As we choose bedding, furniture, and accessories, the colors, textures, and styles of old Paris served as the primary inspirations.

Also, here's a blog post someone else already put together with many more wonderful pictures from Laduree:

http://svetlanaroma.blogspot.com/2013/07/inspiration-laduree-and-their-fashion.html