Day 301 -- This Renovation Has Been Brought To You By...

Some of you may not know that Brian has been away for the past 8 months. 7 months ago he came home for a brief 4-day visit before heading out to Iraq, but I don't count that as being "home". Today he finally came home. I have to say, next to our wedding day and the birth of our sweet little one, it was the best day of my life. In contrast, the last 8 months were definitely not. I have cried more in the past 8 months than the rest of my life combined. Being pregnant, working full-time, having a 3 year old, and being PM on a renovation project all at once has not been my idea of fun. There are people out there who had/have it way worse than me though, so I'll leave the complaining there.

If there was one silver lining to this deployment it was the $$$MONEY$$$. There is no way in the world we would have gotten this far on this renovation without those military paychecks coming in. Brian was an awesome sugar daddy. He made the money and I spent it. It was a fine arrangement. I also had to make all the decisions which was nice, in a way, but I would rather have had Brian here to give input and to see the final result.

The other great thing about this deployment was the time that I spent with our families. Brian and I have the best families (and friends) ever. I thank my Heavenly Father for them every day. They were so supportive and helpful in every way imaginable. I will always be grateful for being able to grow closer to them during this time. Thank you everyone for everything...I truly couldn't have survived it without you all. Iz and I love you very much.


As far as the events of today, Iz and I went to the airport at about 9:30 this morning to pick Dad up. Delta let us go to the gate to meet him. You should have seen Iz when she first saw her daddy. She went on a dead run half-way across the terminal screaming "DADDY!!! DADDY!!! DADDY!!!" It was the sweetest thing I have ever seen. Then she kept him in a death grip for a solid 15 min before she would let him put her down. The minute she was put down, she asked "Can I have my lamp?" :) She says we're going to have to get a Jasmine costume to go with the cool lamp dad brought back from Iraq.

After the airport we came home so Dad could see the new house. Dad has only gotten 6 hours of sleep in the last 3 days and I haven't slept well in....I can't even remember....so it was a sleepy day spent scuddling on the couch as a family. It was the best. I'm taking the next week off of work and I wouldn't complain if every day was like this one.

Last but definitely not least, Brian, I want you to know how much I love you. I am so proud of you. I am so lucky to be married to such a great man and dad. You are the love of my life and you can't imagine how happy I am that you are back home safe with us just in time to start a new chapter in our life with a new baby and a new home. Thanks for being married to me.

Day 300 -- Who Knew PVC Could Look So Good

We're in the 300's now. Time flies when you're having fun.

Today they put up the beadboard in the kids bathroom. This stuff is pretty cool. It's made out of PVC so it's totally water soluble. No worrying about water damage. The best part, though, is it is already a nice white so we don't even have to paint it. Sweet! I am all for less work. Looks like we are close to being able to install the toilet, sink and faucets. Yea!

Day 298 -- Good Grout

Don't they realize that with a 3 year old running amuck, the blue tape actually screams "Come in here! Walk on me! I dare you!"? Izzypop never really cared that much to go into the bathroom until today. I had to tackle her several times to prevent her from going under the blue tape.

The grout looks great. Pewter gray went on the hex tiles on the floor and white went on the subway tiles on the tub surround. The beadboard is next.

Day 297 -- Some Finishing Touches

Today my mom and dad came up to help me put the finishing touches on Lizzy's room. We put together the picture frames for the West wall and my mom added a little more color to the flowers we bought for the East wall. My dad also put up the chandelier (another Lorraine's purchase which we painted white and replaced the orange crystals for pink ones). This is one girly room for one girly girl. She has already hung her Snow White dress up on her flower pegs.

The final thing we did today was finish upholstering the bench in the closet. And when I say "we" I really mean my mom and dad. I cut the foam and material, but they did all the hard work. I love the fabric we used. You can't really tell from the picture, but it is a blue-green and cream striped chenille that has the texture of corduroy. It looks great especially with the pillows.

And yes, that is the actual view from our closet. Pretty cool, huh? It was a beautiful night here in SLC.

Thanks mom and dad for all the help...again!

Day 295 -- Bathroom Tile

The tile for the small bathroom has been laid. They'll grout tomorrow.

Day 293 -- Sew....

To preface this discussion, let me just state that my mom and I are crazy. We realize this. We have come to accept it. We are not planning on modifying the situation.

After hours of searching on the internet, I was a little more than frustrated with the selection of boys crib bedding. I found a million girls sets that I could have snatched up and been happy with, but I just couldn't find that perfect boys set. I did, however, find some fabric that I fell in love with. So what other option did I have than to make the crib bedding? Settle for something 75% there from Pottery Barn and save a ton of time? No. Not an option. So I enlisted my mom's help to make a quilt and bumper.

This is what we started with. I bought a fat quarter bundle of fabric from Moda in the "Goodnight Monkey" line. It has an assortment of fabrics with retro sock monkeys in a bedtime theme. The colors and patterns are great. We had 35 different fabrics.

Did I mention we are crazy?

I am so glad we're crazy. This is the result of our efforts. It is just what I was looking for. Actually, much cuter than what I was looking for. The quilt is frayed on one side and basic quilted on the other. The bumper is quilted and backed with the blue polka dot. My mom machine stitched the red on the edges to the blue, then I hand stitched the other side down. I'm pretty proud of the result. It actually looks as good as store bought. I cannot wait to see it in a finished room. Grandma also picked up a stuffed sock monkey to go with the decor.



Here's a better look at some of the fabrics. Each time I look at the quilt, I think..."That's my favorite...no, maybe that one."



This little project took us about 2 1/2 days to finish. Well worth it in my opinion.

As if this wasn't enough, I had a specific vision for our master bedroom. I wanted bedding that had taupes, tans and bluish greens. This set from pottery barn was close. I love the stripes. I also wanted a bunch of different kinds of pillows as well. I calculated it out and to purchase this set with all the pillow cases, throw, etc, we were looking at $680. Ouch. I might be crazy, but I'm not that crazy.

I love shopping at Lorraine's. They have much better prices than JoAnn's. Much better. It's so cheap, it's practically free. Actually, it is free. Before you start searching high and low for this amazing craft store. I'm talking about my mom's house. It's our running joke that any time I need some crafty item, there's no need to go to a craft store at all, just go to Lorraine's -- my mom already has it.

Case in point: I was telling my mom about this vision and she said, "Come here, take a look at this stuff and see if you want any of it." She had planned on redecorating one of her smaller bedrooms and had bought all kinds of fabrics, pillows, throws, etc. She never ended up being able to do the room and has since changed her vision. :) Everything she had was perfect. It was exactly the color scheme I wanted and the fabrics and pillows were really beautiful. Sew... we decided to make the bedding for the master bedroom too. Did I mention we're crazy?

I ended up buying some fabric to add to her collection and probably spent about $175 on supplies and fabrics. A far cry from the $680. Here's the pile o' stuff that we started with.









And here is the final product:

We even had enough to upholster the benches and add some pillows there. We haven't done the one in the closet yet, but that is definitely on the list. Not bad, huh? Thanks Mom for everything. I LOVE it all. It is perfect.

Brian, I wanted to make our new bedroom special for the both of us. I hope you like it as much as I do.

Last but not least, they have started tiling the bathroom. Looking good! It is becoming imperative that we get a bathroom upstairs now that I am 8 mo. prego.

Day 288 -- Is That *My* Tub???

Izzypop and I walked into the backyard and I noticed that the tub was no longer on the back porch.
"That's a good sign." I said aloud to myself.
"What mommy?" Iz asked.
"They put the tub in today." I replied.
"Let's go see!!!" We ran upstairs and into the kid's bathroom. "Is that my tub?!"
"Yep, that's your tub."
"Yea!!!" She has a right to be so excited. She loves baths...especially ones with bubbles. But since the only current bathtub in the house is ginormous, she doesn't take them very often. We have forced her to be a shower girl. This new tub is a nice size. Small, but a little deeper than a standard 60 X 30 tub at 20 inches. Sometime in the hopefully not-too-distant future we'll surround the tub with white subway tiles and put 1" white hex tiles on the floor.