Priorities

Well I'm sure you have guessed it. I fell off the blog wagon again but this time I had a good reason.

Meet Hannah Caroline Matthews. She was born on Wednesday, December 5th at 3:55PM. She was 6 lbs. 13 oz and pretty adorable if I do say so myself. :) We have had time to adjust. Things were not always easy for us first time parents but Tim has been a pretty amazing father.

Anyways I have lots to update on here but I'm not sure how fast I will be working on that. However I wanted to document Hannah coming into our lives. She is pretty adorable and is already growing so fast.

(hopefully) more to come later...

Bump Out Progress: Operation beat the Hurricane

It's been awhile since I have posted. Mostly because of Hurricane Sandy. She took a toll on all of us in the northeast but NJ and NY took the biggest hits. Still, the impending storm forced us to buckle down and get a lot of the bump out built and water proof. So here is a bump out picture dump on the flooring, framing, roof and enclosure. I can't speak much about the details since Tim and his dad did most of the work but I tried to document it as best as I can.

Here is where we left off. Framing the floor after the drainage is put in.

After the floor was down and the frame measured out, we moved onto to securing the structure to the house.

Next we brought the roof and sides (that were already built by Tim and his dad) to the house to be attached.

Can you see it yet? :)

After the plywood and waterproofing went up on the extension we wrapped it in Tyvek to keep it safe from the hurricane.

Update: All went well and no water got in during the Hurricane! The guys did a great job and we were really excited to see so much progress. We lost power for 48 hours but we made out pretty well compared to others we knew.

Next up: siding, windows and electric.

Ohh and did I mention when this was going on we were also prepping for all of our floors to be refinished and all with 4 weeks to go until my due date? Yeah... we are nuts.

Did everyone make out okay in Hurricane Sandy? Anyone else decide to do multiple large projects right before their baby comes? We are hoping we aren't the only ones.

Bump out progress: Drainage and foundation

Last time we left off on the Bump Out project, we had just dug holes for the footers.

The next step was for the township to come out and approve the footer holes. When he did, he cleared the holes but required that we added a more elaborate drainage system underneath. He didn't want any water to drain towards our house since our yard is sloped that way. After our initial grumblings of the extra work, we decided to suck it up and get it done. So our next step was to dig a deeper level under our addition, add rocks and drainage pipes that run to our backyard. Not quite sure what I mean?- here are some step by step pictures of the progress.

ps: my poor garden is going to need a lot of TLC when this is over.

Once the drainage was set, we started to lay rocks over the entire lower level.

Since the footer holes were already cleared by the permit inspector, we also poured the concrete and set them.

No- that's not Tim. It's his older brother Greg who was nice enough to come down from North Jersey to help us out with this project. The footers needed time to set so it was a good wrap up for the day.

Next up: the decking for the floor!

Bump out: Breaking Ground

Well now that we are underway with our bump out project, its time to start showing you some progress. Check back at our old post here to see our plans.

The first thing we had to do was get a permit. We are not experts in anyway so I am not going to spend too much time on this but let me tell you that it is an ongoing battle. It depends on the township but it's important to always read the permit guidelines to find out what types of inspections and dimensions they are going to demand. We had to actually reapply for our permit with more information than what we originally gave them. And you never know what will happen. But more on that later. After we found out that we were getting approved Tim got to work on clearing the pretty garden we had going in the front yard. Luckily we enjoyed the blooms as spring and summer long.

Poor Tim had to do most of the transplanting since Little M and I shouldn't be digging much. :) Here is the great progress Tim accomplished after a couple of hours.

After they were cleared, Tim and his dad marked where the footers needed to be dug. The holes had to be 36" deep so it was no easy task. We decided to recruit some of our friends and family to help speed the process along.

After the holes were dug and tested, the boys decided to quickly frame out the dimensions so we could get a better idea of what it is going to look like.

Now squint your eyes. Can you see it? I can and it's so exciting.

At the end of the day we were left with some great footer holes and ready for the first inspection.

Anyone else working on a major project? We are definitely pushing our deadline closer to the due date but it is helping to make the third trimester go quicker.

Check it off the list: caulk and pictures

While we are working on the nursery, bump out and refinishing the floors we also try to get little projects crossed off the list. I made a list on the blog to keep track of projects for the house. One of them was caulking the lower bathroom tub. After we spent the good chunk of March redoing the upstairs bathroom, our lower bathroom was looking worse for the wear.

So a quick project was to simply remove the disgusting caulk around the tub and caulk it.

We used a blade to remove the old grout.  Then we wiped it down with a damp cloth and went around the tub with a new line of caulk. Now it looks as good as new. It's amazing what life it brings into the tub again. Here is a close up before we wiped down the new grout.

We also have had a picture gallery going up our stairs.  We have been collecting more pictures to hang but kept pushing it off.  Finally we hung those up too.  It includes the Valentines day gift I made for Tim, a wrapped canvas picture from our wedding that I purchased with Groupon, and a puppy picture of James that my friend Katie took when he was 8 weeks old.

I love that we keep building on this gallery and when Little M comes, I'm sure she will take over very quickly. Until then we have to keep plugging away at these projects.

What projects have you crossed off your list?

Sprucing up the deck

Every year when the snow melts and it finally warms up, Tim and I brush the cobwebs off the deck and get it ready for BBQing and outdoor parties. This year it needed it.

We made the mistake this year of quickly putting the deck rug and furniture out before sweeping and cleaning everything. Then a lot of rain came and we were left with a moldy rug and deck. So we started by moving everything out of the way so we could sweep and power wash the deck. Needless to say, it got pretty jumbled. We were left with a pretty blank (slightly green) slate. Here are some before shots of the deck.

After some patient power washing done by Tim we were left with a much better deck.

A word of caution with power washing: It is easy to get zoned in on removing a bit of mildew or staining from a spot but be careful because if you cut in too close with the washer, it will splinter and eat away at the wood. In the effort of full disclosure, here is a shot of that happening with our railing.

(The extra light half circle spots on the railing is where we got a little too close with the power washer. This could hurt the integrity of the deck so make sure you aren't spraying too close or too long in one spot.)

Moving on to some better before and afters. Here is a shot of our chairs before (left) and after (right). Ahh- much better!

Finally we started putting back the pieces. Unfortunately the rug could not be saved so we are on the hunt for a new rug. I want something with more color and pattern so hopefully we can find it soon.

This is the only shot with cushions but it is pre- power washing.

Next is finding some more greenery to jazz up our deck so it screams oasis. Are you "decking" out your deck this summer? New pillows or furniture? Or are you simply using nature around you?

Bump out plans

Happy Friday Everyone! It's time to reveal our project that we have brewing. It is going to be the biggest construction we have ever done to our house. I am excited. It is much needed but I am a little nervous to have a hole on the side of my house... Let me explain.

This is our living room. I realize this is a Christmas shot but lets look past that, shall we?

Here is another view from the couch area looking at our entryway and kitchen. You can see a table and chair set.

Now let me explain the issue. We NEVER use that table to eat. NEVER. It became a catch all for the mail, coats, purses, backpacks and whatever else we have in our hands when we walk in the house. It is not exactly a welcoming thing for our guests or neighbors to see. One of the reasons that I am ashamed to admit that we never use it is because you can't see the TV from it. (Sad I know) It also feels very cramped since the door is right there. If you want to entertain more than 3 people in that space, it becomes an issue. When we had people over in the colder months, we ended up using the couch, tray tables and whatever else we could get our hands on.

Here is a very, very poor sketch of our front half of our house. *no judging*

It is cramped and the living room is just small enough where it would be tight and awkward looking to put a decent table in there. Believe me- we tried.

So here is our plan that we conjured up with my father in law.

We are going to create a bump out eating nook! It looks big in my awful rendering but we have acquired a round 5 foot table from Tim's uncle (yay free!) and we are going to have built in seating all around it with windows letting in some much needed light. This project will most likely stir up other projects that I have had in my mind on the back burner such as replacing the couch and changing the entryway in a storage, bench, mudroom area but all in good time. And it doesn't help that we can see the TV from the table. :) To get a better idea of what we are looking at, here are some inspiration photos I tagged on Pinterest.

houzz.com

I love the bench seating and that two toned table reminds me of the one we inherited from Tim's Uncle. (more on that later)

bhg.com

I love the light and the fact that all this seating cuts very little into the existing home layout.

Tim and I are in the process of acquiring a permit for this wonderful addition but I am excited to be starting this project this summer (hopefully). We will make sure we keep you all in the loop as we get closer and closer to the first day of demo.

Are you tackling any big projects this summer? Or maybe some small overdue projects? We are tackling a lot of outdoor work this weekend and I can't wait to see some instant changes to our backyard.

Making the upstairs shower usable again!

After all that work we did grouting and sealing the shower upstairs, it was looking pretty bare... pretty and shiny but bare.

So we headed out in search of a fun curtain and shower caddy. We used to have a brown shower curtain and it made everything much darker so we stopped at Walmart and grabbed a lighter and colorful curtain.

taken with my iphone and tweaked on instagram to hide the camera phone issues

*Side bar:You can see the original trim color in the door color vs. the new white trim that I recently painted. See how much darker the old trim was? I gotta get on those doors next.*

Since we wanted our decorative curtain to fall right on top of the shower ledge, we also grabbed an extra long clear shower curtain for the inside of the shower. That will actually be the functional one that keeps all the water in. It is working out pretty well so far.

Finally we hit home goods to choose our shower caddy. We had to keep in mind that Tim and I both have larger bottles of shampoo, conditioner and body wash so we measured each shower caddy level. We were left with this one.

It is a little more decorative than our usual taste but I like that it ties into the shower curtain design and it fits all of our shower supplies. Finally we can use our shower again.

Have you guys done any fun small projects lately? This may be small but its a big deal for us to have our shower upstairs again.