Before

Its hard to tell but the tile have little gold speckles on them thus dating the tile quite a bit.




This is the bathroom before demo. There are several areas where the tiles have already been removed as the bathroom has been a work in progress basically since we moved in. We have slowly over the past 2 years replaced all the molding, the shower, the vanity, toilet, painted, new fixtures , new tile floor , and finally new bead board on the walls. Mike has vowed to finish all his "works" in progress in case a house pops on the market that we can afford that has more space. We are emailed all the new listings at appear on the market in our price range and we want to be able to put our house on the market in a moments notice if need be. The bathroom is the last unfinished project before we dive into the nursery remodel for unnamed baby boy!
Anyways the "project" was to replace all the old speckled tile with new vinyl bead board. He was able to finish half of the bathroom today and it came out great!

Wall without tile or beadboard

After

Its hard to get great shots because our bathroom is so small that I can't get the whole bathroom in the shot. Also Mike only did the one wall and will finish the other one when we get back from vacation probably. I love the way it looks!

ohhh boy

Keira was playing with a blanket yesterday and tripped and fell right into the heater. Thus the nasty bruise and swelling on the L. This am she woke up and her right eye was swollen even worse. The only thing I can think of is she got a bug bite on the right side as she has a small bump right by her right eye and it wasn't swollen until she woke up. She won't let me ice it either. She screams bloody murder if I try... otherwise she is happy as a claim even though she can barely open either eye.

New table and chairs

If you know us really well you know that for the longest time we have only had 2 kitchen chairs. When we moved into our house 2 1/2 years ago we borrowed a ghetto table and 2 unmatching chairs from Mike's parents and that worked for a while. Last summer I bought the famous stars and stripes table at a yard sale ( see below) It was only $25 and solid oak and the owner said it was from a ritzy store in Boston. Mike was going to refinish it but hadn't got around too it. In the meantime Keira has decided she is too big to sit in her clip on feeding chair ( it clips on to the side of the table) and she decided that Mama's chair was now her chair. That left one of us standing at the table during meals so Keira could sit on a chair like a big person. Annoying to say the least. Luckily its summer so we eat dinner outside most of the time when its not raining. And luckily our families don't mind when they come over and either have to sit on the couch and eat or on the floor in the living room or outside if its nice of course. But the need for more than 2 chairs caught up with us. We found this table at the Mill stores ( unfinished furniture) and I fell in love with it because its small ( and it was only $92 dollars!) but still able to have 4 chairs on it and in our tiny kitchen space is EVERYTHING. Mike has been working hard all week refinishing it and it looks great! Mike says that in a few years I am going to want a different table ( because I like to constantly change things up) and he is probably right. Because baby #2 is on the way and in a few years will sit at the table like Keira does maxing us out on chairs once again. So I told him when baby number three is here or in the works we will have to upgrade to a table that seats 6 and that definitely won't fit in our tiny kitchen ( and we have no dining room) so we will need a new table and a new house! :o)

We were all set to sell this festive table on Craigslist but there is a furniture drive for the local refugees so we are donating our stairs and stripes table to that. How fitting.

We had beautiful sunny weather all weekend and were even able to go swimming in a real pool ( aka not a kiddie pool) for the first time this summer. Keira is just as in love with the water this year as last year.... so she was excited to be in the pool.

Some Videos

New tv and lots of bubble wrap!

Almost as much fun as the new tv ( of which 10 seconds after seeing it Keira asked to watch her Mother Goose video) is the mile of bubble wrap it came in!!


Its almost as big as the wall... We are definately outgrowing this house. Our couch and TV belong in a much bigger living room....

Decisions Decisions

This pregnancy has made me useless to make a decision. Besides the baby's name which we still haven't decided on... we are going back and forth about circumcision, and whether to rent a birthing tub or not. Its driving me crazy that I can't decide on this stuff but at the same time I can't commit to a decision!
Comments welcome on any of it.... :o)

Bye Bye TV!

Yesterday Mike sold his TV on Craiglist. He dropped it off and set it up and wall mounted it for the buyer. We haven't bought a new one yet. Mike is still searching the Internet for deals. I told him he could spend $600 and he wants to spend $800... so I said I would compromise and allow $700. We sold the old one for $600( including the wall mount and set up) so its really not costing us much. Keira keeps asking to watch her Mother Goose Barney Video. We explained to her 100 times that the TV is gone and she can't watch it. Imagine our surprise when after breakfast she brought the DVD to daddy and said... "Watch Mother Goose on the computer Daddy???" Too funny!! She might have her daddy's techie brain after all.
My garden appears to have suffered some damage from the month of rain and lack of sun. The only thing that looks good and is producing is my sugar snap peas. The green beans look pathetic, the cucumbers haven't grown in a week or 2 and the lettuce is done. Tomatoes look okay but again are pretty small for having been in the ground for almost 2 months. Nothing is dead so they might bounce back if we get some decent sun but the forecast is calling for more rain so we will see. I swear if I don't get a good cucumber crop I might give up gardening all together ( veggies that is). Its been 2 years since I had some good cukes as lasts years crop was ruined by rain and mildew and I just want some good, crisp garden cukes!

wearing breakfast

More nesting

Its been about 5 days since I posted any pics of cleaning, organizing and nesting so its time for a few more. :o) The sun actually came out yesterday and today ( of course we did have some rain both days) but hey at least the sun was out again!! If the sun returns full time as it should be I should probably slow down with the cleaning and organizing and spend my energy playing outside with Keira. Anyways Mike and I did this on Thursday eve when it was raining of course. We set the crib up in our room to make sure it would fit. Keira was in our room in a bassinet for 2 months and then moved to the crib in her own room at 2 months old. This guy doesn't have a room to move into ( probably won't till next summer) and I don't want to put him in with Keira until he is sleeping through the night ( and at that point hopefully his room will be done) So anyways he is going to have to bunk with us. Since we never had the crib in our room ( just the bassinet) we set it up to make sure it would fit and it does although its a wee bit crowded in there!

Mike installed another shelf to hold extra blankets and random stuff.

This is how close the crib is the foot of our bed!!

Happy 4th of July!!!

Mike and Keira eating some festive red, white, and blue Italian ice. I can't even begin to describe Mike's excitment on finding these gallon containers of Italian Ice at Market Basket.

Our best attempt

of getting a good picture of Keira in her Fourth of July outfit.... we obviously failed.

Before and After

Mike replaced the molding around the kitchen window as it was looking a bit sad... here is before the work and below is after.....

When will the sun shine???

Its been a crazy month but the craziest thing of all is it has rained almost every single day in June. Its been cold- in the 60's , cloudy and depressing, and crazy humid. Not summer weather at all. Its now July and still raining. Amazingly enough our basement has stayed dry. We have been running our dehumidifier and AC constantly ( I can't wait to see our electric bill) to just dry out the air because its just so darn sticky and humid everywhere. The bugs must love it because there are about 10,000 more than usual. Not fun summer weather at all. We have been stuck inside and resorted to winter entertainment tricks, arts and crafts, lots of play dough. I am running out of good ideas. Keira whines to out and we do... and get soaked, play in the puddles and then come back in. We have baked stuff, cleaned stuff, and made stuff. Yesterday She spent a half hour applying band aids to her dolls face that she had just colored all over and I let her because it entertained her. At this point we are down to watching more Barney than normal because their simply isn't anything else to do. Its summer... we should be able to play outside and I will probably keep whining until we do.
No ones outdoor pool has warmed up because their has been no sun and now I am starting to wonder how freezing the ocean will be for our RI vacation in a month since there hasn't been much sun or warm weather to do the trick.
It feels like fall outside.. all that's missing is the pretty leaves and the new baby brother.
Mike has joined me in the nesting and selling alot of stuff we don't use on Craigslist and Ebay. He got a little crazy and just sold our 4 year old flat screen 42 inch plasma TV!!! He wants to spend some extra $$ to buy a bigger and better one but I am trying to convince him its really not necessary especially considering we get not ONE channel and only watch movies a few times a week. Is an 800-1000 dollar TV really needed? I would rather build up our savings account and replace our TV with a slightly smaller but better TV and not have to spend anymore money than we sold the other one for. Its one of the best friendly arguments that we have had in a while so we will see who wins this one. Mike knows how to be really annoying when he wants something and just to shut him up I have been known to give in... not this time! :o)
Speaking of baby brothers... yes he is still nameless. Mike suggested a new name yesterday that is possibility so I am trying it out in my mind for a few weeks to see how I like it. We will keep you posted.
In the next few weeks we look forward to our beach vacation ( I'm ordering some sun please!!!), blueberry season ( just waiting on some sun of course!!!), and the third trimester ( because it brings us closer to baby being born=not being pregnant anymore= feeling 10x better!)