Nursery Completed!!!

   Baby M could be here any day now! It's crazy to think that we're in a waiting game at the moment. We have had a lot of fun preparing for this little one, though, and we're feeling pretty comfortable that we have most everything that we'll need for these first couple months!

   For those that haven't seen them yet, we had a few maternity photos taken a couple weeks back by my cousin! She is the one that also did some of our engagement pictures for our wedding (especially the one we used on our save-the-date). It was one of the hottest days up here in MN the day we decided to take pictures, and poor Ian had a horrible night call the evening before. So I'm glad that the pictures turned out as nice as they did because we were both pretty miserable by the end of it. Here's a couple of my favorites from that day, though:

   Now I know a lot of you have been itching to see these nursery pictures! So I won't delay any further! Baby M's nursery is complete and decorated except for a gliding chair and ottoman. The one we liked is on back order for 10-12 weeks! We thought that was a little absurd and have been trying to find something with a shorter time frame. Hopefully we can get something online soon!

   So here is where our little guy will call home:

Our crib/change table combo and bedding all came from Babies R Us. The dresser we purchased at Ikea. The top half of the wall is painted in SW Frostwork, and the bottom half of the wall is painted in SW Marshmallow. The border is actually a removable "washi tape" that I got at JoAnn Fabrics! I love that it's removable and interchangeable. We can change the room without changing the paint very easily! The curtains I found at Bed, Bath, & Beyond, and the paper gray paper lanterns in the corner are from our wedding! I just love the color palette and am so happy with how it came together!

Here's a better view of the crib and change table combo. The rug we purchased at Target to match his bedding, and the gray and yellow stars on the wall were part of a decal set that matched the bedding. I am hoping to put baby's name in decorated letters within the frame after he's born because right now baby is completely nameless.

Here's a closer view at the frame and stars on the wall. The frame was one we used in our engagement pictures!

Here's the other side of the room. On the dresser is a dinosaur table lamp and Leonardo piggy bank (of course purchased by daddy)! We also have our internet modem in this room right now. The stars and moon came from the same decal pack as the other wall, and most of the framed art and decor is from Hobby Lobby! The "M" we received from my sister at my WI baby shower, and the blue mason jar with stars on it we received from my friends at my IA shower! The giraffe and elephant were the first decor pieces I bought for the nursery before the nursery was even planned, and then I found the perfect plaque that matched them the other day with lyrics from "The Elephant Show's" Skidamarink a-dink, a-dink on it! So perfect! I still would like to put a picture from our maternity photo shoot in the blank frame on the shelf, but I need to print which one first!

Here's the closet organizer in the nursery closet. We put the exact same one in the guest room since both rooms with be for kids eventually. We have diapers and his jumperoo type things stored in here for now, but we also have a good stash of books and blankets in here for him as well!

To the left of the crib (in the corner by the closet) we mounted our video monitor. We tested it already and have been really impressed with the picture and the sound quality! This will come in handy as our little guy gets older!

And here is where my anal retentive organization skills shine! I had a blast organizing our little guy's dresser. I bought these organizer cubes from Ikea, and then labeled them with washi tape so daddy and other visitors knew what was where and in which sizes. I also used washi tape to label the outside of the change table with the different sized diapers that we have open right now. Again....mostly for daddy to learn where things are!

   Well that's it! I hope it was worth the wait! We are definitely excited about this little guy, and are pretty impressed with how much he has "caused" us to get done this year on the house! We feel pretty blessed to have been able to get all of this done before baby came. We also are very thankful for all the help from our parents, friends, and Ispiri construction for everything they have done to help us along this year! Hopefully the next post will be of pictures showing off our little bundle! Have a great week, and keep us in your thoughts this week!

Preparing for Baby!!!

   Hey everyone! So we're officially in week 39 of my pregnancy, and I think we're about as ready as we could be for this little guy! Doesn't mean our to-do lists are done, but we have been able to get a lot of the big things done these last few months!

   This year has been a busy one for us as far as getting projects done around the house! So I decided to make a whole post on updates and changes that we have made to the house this year!

   It started with planning the nursery and guest room upstairs. Ian's man cave was now going to be in the basement so it was time to paint and re-organize these rooms!

   My mom came up in April to help us paint and move furniture around for these rooms especially. It was a huge help to have the extra set of hands, but Ian also was a huge help prepping the spaces before she got here. Here are the pictures of the guest bedroom before the re-decorating:

 
This is what the upstairs guest room looks like now:

We switched out the light awhile ago, but this year we painted, bought new bedding, and put the whole bedroom set together in one room.

We replaced the extra crib we had from Zac and Nichole with the matching dresser to the bedroom set. I love the color in this room especially! So much lighter and cozier!

Ian installed the closet organizers for me in the nursery and guest rooms. We used an Ikea closet organizer for the middle section. Then we added shelves and hang bars from Menards on either side for storage and hang space.

   I will be posting a separate blog post about the nursery and the pictures that go with that. So I'll skip that update for right now!

   Ian surprised me in April, too. I left for a girls scrapbooking weekend soon after we finished painting and installing the closet organizers in the upstairs rooms. Ian was off that weekend and decided to get a ton of stuff done to surprise me while I was away. One of the huge projects he did was installed a giant closet organization system in our master closet. In his words, "The kids can't have better closets than us." I didn't tell him what I wanted or how to organize it at all. He did it all on his own! I was so surprised and impressed! I absolutely love it!! Here's what the closet looked like before:

There were two wire hanging shelves, but the bottom one was impossible to utilize because it was too close to the clothes hanging up top. It's a huge walk-in closet, but there wasn't great utilization of space for storage in here.

A view from the other side of the closet. Things easily were thrown in here, and it quickly became a catch all for random stuff.

This is what the master closet looks like now:

Here's the left side of the closet when you first walk in. He installed floor to ceiling shelving, a vanity with lights and a mirror for me, and painted the walls (and he doesn't paint....like ever)!

Here's a view from the other side of the closet. We have pull out drawers, organizers for shoes, hats, purses, etc. Plus he installed remote controlled lighting that can be dimmed! It's so nice!

Here's a better view of the hanging space and the storage we have up top. I just love it! He did such an amazing job!

   In April Ian also prepped the landscaping, covered the garden space (since we weren't going to plant anything extra this year), and took over all lawn duties. This was a huge help as I got bigger because there was no way I could lift the clippings or yard waste bags. He really has been so awesome this year! I can't say it enough!

   In June we were awakened at 5AM for three mornings in a row because random smoke detectors kept going off in the house. We thought that all the dust from the construction project was the issue, but we soon discovered that they had never been replaced and were now 11 years old. All of our alarms are wired to one system, so when one was faulty....the whole house was faulty. It was really quite annoying for that week. So I went to Menards and picked up new detectors and Ian installed them all and wired them up for us. I also bought some CO detectors for our main floor and upstairs hallway. The house had never had any, and it was cheaper to install just the couple that we needed rather than get combo detectors hooked up on the whole house circuit.

   Ian also started removing more of the pink landscape rock on the left side of the house. He removed all the rock on the right side of the house last summer, but it took a long time because the rock is huge and it was piled 5-6" deep. So he did it in sections. He was determined to get all the beds around the house done this year, though, and he did! It took awhile, but he did it and replaced all the rock with mulch! It looks so nice, and now we won't have issues with rocks throughout the yard while mowing!  Here's what the landscaping around the house looked like before:

Here's some of the pink rock on the right side of the house.

It's hard to see in this picture, but there is pink landscape rock around the house on both sides.

 This is what the landscaping looks like now:

Here's the mulch that Ian finished up on the left side of the house this summer.

It's hard to see the mulch here, but here's a recent view of the front of our house now.

Here's a view of the back part of the house with mulch around our bench and water fountain feature.

   Since we were getting things updated outside we also decided to have our painter come in June to finish the brick flashing and door jams around the exterior of the house. These were suppose to be weather proofed and finished after the house was built, but they never were. So we had him put some rust proofing on the flashing and then he painted all the trim a darker reddish brown to match the brick on the house. It looks so nice and updated now! Plus we don't have to worry about our exterior jams rotting out any more!

You can see the darker trim framing out the garage doors in this picture, but the same color is above all the windows and around the front door, too!

   July, though, has been our most productive month I think! We installed new curtains and curtain rods throughout the house, organized our extensive movie collection, touched up paint in the main areas of the house, bought furniture, bedding, and bathroom items for the basement, and moved furniture around in a few of the rooms on the main floor! My mom came up again July 4th weekend to help us get a lot of this done, too! It was awesome having the extra pair of hands since my lifting capabilities were limited! Here's some pictures of some of the things we've gotten done this last month:

My mom and I lined the backs of two of our bookshelves, and Ian attached them to the wall and anchored the uppers on top as well. He also installed some library lighting over the bookshelves since we have limited lighting in this room.

My mom decorated with knick-knacks and some of our art from traveling, and Zac and Ian moved the futon down from the guest room upstairs. So now it feels much more like a library or study! I love seeing this room as soon as we walk in! Books make me happy!

With my mom here we hung new curtains over the patio door and rearranged the furniture in the living room area.

We were able to make room for the baby swing and rock-n-sleeper down here. I'm sure they will be used often this next month! The white rocker was a gift from my mom. She painted the old rocker that her parents gave her when she was pregnant with me. I just need to get cushions on it yet!

Just this past week Ian replaced the tiles in our patio table since a few of them broke during a wind storm last fall. We then put our patio umbrella back outside to complete the look!

Here's a close up view of the tile. It was 13x13 floor tile from Menards, and Ian borrowed a tile saw from a neighbor to cut them down to ~12x12 to fit the table! It really freshened it up for us! I know it was a pain for him to do, but I appreciate him getting it done for us!

I also finished getting our hospital bags packed for baby, too! We still need to put a car seat base in my car, but the bags, snacks, and pillows are all ready to go when baby is!

   On top of all this we also have been power cleaning the house, washing and organizing baby clothes and items, making sure the cars are detailed and up-to-date on maintenance and repair, and we took a couple days to prep and make up 25 freezer meals for when Ian has to be back to work at the end of August!

Here's Ian measuring and prepping one of the meals we made! I was so thankful he had off this last week to help with any last minute things we wanted to get done!

   So that's just some of what we've been up to this year! Of course we have been busy organizing the basement and getting things back to normal after all the construction, too, but it really is nice to have all this extra stuff done, too! Now we just have to wait for our little guy to make his appearance! :) We promise to keep you all posted, and I will post pictures of the nursery this week for you all as well! Have a great weekend!

Basement Remodel: Week #11 & Week #12

   It's our last basement remodel post! I combined the last two weeks into one post because there wasn't a whole lot finishing up at one time. Just a lot of little punch list items that needed to be wrapped up! This is what the last couple weeks looked like for us:

Week #11: July 6-10th

Paint touch-ups and trim filling (Mon)

Bathroom mirrors installed (Fri)

Bar Wine Cabinet shaved down and fixed (Fri)

Under cabinet lighting trim installed (Fri)


Week #12: July 13-17th

Radon Fan re-wired (Mon)

Tray ceiling lights installed (Mon)

Trim around upper bar cabinets installed (Mon)

Sconces for theater and bathroom arrived and installed (Mon)

Countertop recaulk/fix in one corner (Fri)

TPS treatment of driveway to get rid of the dumpster rust stains (Fri)

PCM meeting with our entire Ispiri team (Fri)

Ian installed the guest closet shelf and hanging bar (Sat)


   So there really wasn't a lot, but those last little things made a big difference still! We're so glad to have this completely done and ready for the arrival of our little guy!

   Ian's brother and his family were here this last week, too, and we definitely loved having the extra finished space for kids, sleeping, and watching family movies! It was a wonderful time, and I can't wait to see what our parents think of it in a couple weeks! Here are the pictures of the final updates that were done on the space:

Numbered Blueprint to show where the pictures were taken

1.) Sconce on the left side was delivered and installed

2.) Our LED strip lighting was installed in the tray ceiling. These lights are dimming, color changing, and can "pulse".

3.) Here's another look with a different color in the tray.

4.) The under cabinet trim was installed to hide the under cabinet lighting.

5.) Trim was also installed on the sides of the cabinets where the glass tile met the wood. This hid any imperfections in the cut glass pieces while also giving a finished edge.

6.) Sorry this picture is a little crooked, but I was just showing that we had to shave down this cabinet a little bit to make the wine fridge fit a little better.

7.) Our custom framed mirrors were installed in the bathroom! The frames match the wood and stain of the vanity in here. Plus our replacement sconce was delivered and installed this last week, too!

8.) Ian installed the bar and shelf in the guest closet after our guests left (saving us $200)! Woohoo!

   So that's it! We still have some decorating and pictures to hang down there, but everything else is done! Our whole Ispiri team was really excited to see the finished project last Friday, too! Everyone was really pleased with the selections, the extra added details, and the colors we picked out! It was really awesome to see everyone again and to show off the whole space!

   I have a feeling that this whole project will be masked by the arrival of our little one in a couple weeks! We're okay with that, though! We think he'll be worth all this work this summer! :)

   I will be posting more projects that we've completed this summer, and pictures of the nursery soon! So we'll keep you posted! Hope you all are having a great start to your week!

Basement Remodel: Week #10

   Happy 4th of July, everyone! Sorry I didn't get a chance to post earlier this weekend like I was hoping. My mom came up to help us get the rest of the house in order and to help us cross off things on our to-do list before baby gets here in a month! We were extremely busy and productive, but man....I'm tired after going going going all week long to get the house back in order.

   It was an exciting and very busy week wrapping up the basement project! Ian was off all week, but he probably doesn't feel like he was! He was super busy being the ultimate rockstar in getting things done around the house! He built storage shelves for our backroom, set up his treadmill/workout area in the backroom, did some baby shopping with me, picked up some Ikea stuff with me, took care of the yard work, hauled a bunch of our decorations and storage items to the basement, and so much more! He has been amazing! I don't know what I would do without him!

   We are definitely at the final stages of the basement project now! This last week we had furniture delivered by HOM furniture for the theater room, we had the AV guys here from Home Electronic Systems (HES) to install the screen, sound system, and projector, and we had the Ispiri cleaning lady here cleaning up all the construction mess that was left over! They also picked up the dumpster and porta potty from the driveway at the end of the week, too! It's nice to have those eye sores off the lot!!

   On top of that we had a final walk-through with our project manager to mark dings or final touches that are needed on the walls and trim and to discuss the warranty booklet from the construction company! It was awesome to know that we are so close to being done! Of course we still have those minor punch list things that will be taken care of here and there, but all of the big items are now complete and we have started personalizing, organizing, and decorating the basement with our items!

   So without further ado, here are the pictures of this week's progress in the basement:

Not sure you need this any more, but I thought I would number it just in case!

1.) Guest bedroom with the king bed in place and temporary light blocking curtains up for our recent guests. It was hard to get the whole room in the picture, but this bedroom is a really nice size and has plenty of room on the left side of the bed as well!

2.) Guest bathroom with the new towels and countertop necessities out.

3.) A view of the new towels against the bathroom wall color.

4.) The AV components rack in the storage closet under the stairs. We also have some hand-me-down kids' toys stored back here, too!

5.) A view of the back bar with the wine cooler installed, glassware in the cabinets, and some decor out.

6.) The old school video arcade is in place next to the bar as well! This system has 50+ some old games on it, and is a blast to play!

7.) It's a mess, but it's a storage room! Ian built the two storage shelves for our holiday decorations, odds and ends, and miscellaneous items that needed a home.

8.) This back room also acts as a workout room for us, too! Ian set up the treadmill, mounted the TV, and set up his weight bench and weights this last week as well. The pine shelf in the corner is a cheapy one we picked up at Ikea so Ian didn't have to make one!

9.) A more full view of the living space in the basement with the theater room set up. The stools in the lower right corner will be under a couch/pub table that will be delivered in August sometime.

10.) The main attraction. The theater room with the furniture we picked out and mostly in place.

11.) This has been a constant distraction this weekend. 110" micro-perforated screen with 3 front mounted speakers behind it. In total we have 7 speakers (4 are in the ceiling) with a Dolby Atmos sound system connected for all. If you haven't experience Dolby Atmos yet, you are in for a treat! It's an amazing sound system with a very integrated and real-world effect of sound.

12.) Here's a better picture of the furniture. The couch, loveseat, and accent chair came from HOM furniture, but the little storage ottoman is from Ikea. The color on the ottoman actually matches the pillows and accent chair exactly! We lucked out finding it, and love the color in the space! Plus they are all super comfy!

13.) Above the loveseat is our Sony 4K projector and our 2 back-mounted, ceiling speakers. We are extremely impressed with the picture quality of this projection system and are glad we spent the extra money to upgrade from the Epson model we originally planned for.

    We still have some small touches and finishing work that will be completed this next week! The painters are back to do touch ups and final inspections (you may have noticed blue tape in some pictures....this is for them to note "to fix" areas). We also have the trim guy back to install the mirrors in the bathroom, under cabinetry trim, and some extra trim work around the bar cabinets. I also think the electrician will be back this week to re-wire a fan in the garage that isn't on the right circuit, and to take care of the tray ceiling lights.

   We will keep you all posted with the rest of the updates as things wrap up these next two weeks! We hope you have enjoyed following along with our remodeling project these last couple months, too! It's been fun being able to share the experience with you! We hope you all have a great first week of July!