Landscaping (part one of many)

Now that we've made a lot of progress inside the house, it was time to tackle the outside. We've made a ton of progress in the front, but the back is still a work in progress! Here is the front on the day of our inspection. 

As you can see, the front landscaping was just some boxwoods, which made a great foundation to our landscaping. Although it's hard to tell, the boxwoods line the front of a very deep bed. 

Here is what we did:

• Moved the boxwoods back following the line of the house to create more of a hedge look
• Added a white dogwood tree between the windows to add some height and visual interest to the bed
• Added a row of hot pink azalea bushes which will eventually grow together to create a secondary hedge
• Filled in with some hostas and New Guinea Impatiens

My overall goal for the front bed was to add some color in the springtime and also because it is such a deep bed, add some additional evergreen plants so we still have some interest in the winter. Overall, I think we achieved our goal, but I think we will need to make some changes next year. For example, as much as I love the hydrangea bushes we put in the front corners, the plants are growing much larger and faster than we expected and by summer, I think they may take over the boxwoods behind them. We planted three bushes on each side because they were so small initially, so I think next year we will need to move two from each side and prune the one we leave way back so it doesn't get quite as big. I think it's trial and error and for our first year and having a lot on our plates, I think we did pretty well!

Look how tiny the hydrangeas were when we planted them. We did not expect they would go SO fast!

We owe a huge thank you to Danny's aunts Kathy and Margy for their expertise and helping us plant the front bed! 

Danny also removed this huge shrub from the front of our fence and we are going to add some lilac bushes in its place. 

Not sure why this won't rotate, but I added some flowers to the side of our garage. 

Something else I've been working on, and quite honestly, enjoying, is power washing everything I can think of. I find power washing to be extremely satisfying because you can see so much progress as you go. Much more interesting to me than cleaning the kitchen. 

Right side post washing, left side needing to be washed. I haven't finished the fence because it will take forever, but I am going through it a section at a time. 

Up soon, the rest of the back yard!

It's a girl! And some bump pictures!

So, obviously, I'm pregnant :-). I took a posting hiatus partially because we've been so busy actually trying to get stuff down at the house and partially because at the end of the day, I'm so exhausted that I just want to sleep! This pregnancy has been much more difficult than my pregnancy with Connor. Part of that I'm sure is because I spend my days chasing around Connor, but I think part of it is just because it's just different. But because I've been much sicker this time around, we thought maybe it was a girl (that's the Old Wives' Tale, which my OB said is somewhat true). Danny was actually firmly convinced it was a girl, I was a little more skeptical. We've been dying to know boy vs girl since we found out I was pregnant, so when my OB asked me at our 18-week ultrasound if we wanted to know, it was a firm yes! My dr said it is "definitely" a girl (I've heard stories where someone is told one thing and finds out when the baby is born, it's the opposite).

And for anyone wondering, no, we have no idea what we are going to name her. Connor was so easy. We agreed on it early, we went to the ultrasound and when we left, we agreed again to his name and that was that. This one just isn't that easy. It's not that we don't agree on names, it's just that nothing feels quite right yet. I've never been someone who wanted to wait until I met the baby to decide on a name, but I feel like that just might be us this time around. Maybe we will have one of those magical movie moments at the hospital where they put her in our arms and we just say "Hi, insert baby name here" and know. I doubt it. But maybe.

I often get asked if Connor understands and to some degree he does. He knows there is a baby in my belly and he likes to talk to it, hug it and kiss it. But do I think that he understands that in a few months a baby will actually be living in the room next door, taking up attention and rocking his world. No, he definitely doesn't. But he's very sweet and he loves to listen to baby's heartbeat (recorded on my phone from an appointment) and look at the ultrasound pictures (which I need to scan or take a picture of to upload!), so I think while it will certainly require some adjusting, he will be a great big brother.

Since most of the people who read this blog are family and actually care about the progression of my bump, I will post a few pictures.

Where I started, 4ish weeks

9 weeks (If I look tired it's because I am! This was the weekend we moved).

14 weeks. Starting to "thicken" up

17 weeks. Starting to look like a little baby is in there

Finally, I think I actually look pregnant to someone who doesn't know!

Updates

I realized I hadn't posted anything in a LONG time and even though the house is far from finished, thought I would give you a glimpse of what we've done. We painted every surface (except the floors of course ;-), so while we are still missing some decor and furniture throughout and definitely have some projects to keep us busy, I think our progress has been pretty good.

Upstairs landing. Painted woodwork white and walls grey. Need to replace the light fixture and add a rug to the landing

Another view of landing and stairs upstairs. You can sort of see where we added carpet 

Upstairs hallway. Has been painted. Could use some runners and some more art on the walls

Dining room. It's been painted like we are putting up a chair rail and one of these days we will. We finally bought the wood, so that's a step in the right direction, right? 

View coming down our stairs. We have a small foyer. To the left is the kitchen, to the right is the living room and straight ahead in the dining room. We replaced the old light with this new chandelier, inspired by my friend Justine's sister-in-law. See what an amazing job she did with her house renovation here: http://youresomartha.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/house-tour-sarah-mike/

Front room with Danny's completed fireplace! The shelves are a work in progress, but they are coming along. Eventually we'd love to find a nice piece of artwork for above the fireplace, but in the meantime, my parents loaned us this mirror. 

Bay window. We will be building and adding a window seat here. 

More front room

More front room

Our gallery wall is a little lopsided. We changed the layout some from the old house and we need to get one more frame to fill in that space in the top left. We also just ordered another chair for the living room and got an ottoman, so this seating area will be complete soon. When she gets home from collage, my sister-in-law is also going to help make some pillows for the couch from some fabric I've been holding onto since January!

Just a little shot to show how the colors all work together.  The kitchen is actually a pale blue color, not the same grey like it looks like here. 

Our other new light fixture. We will be replaced the one on the landing with this same fixture when we "get around to it". With the old wiring in the house, it was more of a project than Danny anticipated, so he's not looking forward to doing it again.

Right now we are working on getting the landscaping ready for Spring, so I will post those pictures soon and then we will hopefully be able to focus on the bedrooms. I forgot to take pictures of the playroom, so when I get a chance to clean it up, I will show you that too!

New Fireplace

Although, we've been up to a lot at the house lately, one of my favorite projects is our new fireplace and mantle. The existing mantle and surround were pretty insubstantial and needed a facelift. In addition, the old tile was cracked and crumbling off.

First, we pulled off the old mantle and I chipped off the existing tile.

After that, Danny and Tom started designing the new mantle and surround. However, once he did a little research, Danny discovered, there are a lot of rules when it comes to the design of a fireplace with regards to building code. We discovered that we needed to have at least 8 inches of non-combustible materials before the wood part of the surround could start. Because we are limited on the width of the fireplace because of the built in shelves, we realized that in order to have a fireplace with the design we wanted, we needed to have our firebox made smaller. So, we brought a mason to add two layers of brick around the sides so that we had more room to work with.

Danny's cardboard mockup

Tom's design

Here you can see the new layer of bricks that was added. He also had to replace 17 bricks in the back that were crumbling/deteriorating. Here you can also see the start to the mantle and surround

Finished mantle and surround

Painted white to match

New tiles

All done!

Well, mostly. We are still missing a few pieces, but it's done for now. I honestly doubt we will use it the rest of this winter, but it is ready to go for next winter. We need to add a piece of trim to finish the surround and obviously need a screen of some sort, but I'm really excited about how it turned out. One thing I love about these pictures is that you can see the other progress that was being made on the room as Danny and Tom were working on this.

White wood revealed

Our painter finished with the woodwork last week and now that all the tape and paper is down, I love it even more. I think the transformation gives the house a fresh, clean look and lightens it and opens it up a lot and am absolutely thrilled with how it turned out!