Progress

Progress is being made on our big construction project, aka the biggest stress in my life right now. When we were looking for houses last year either having a 5th bedroom (which almost none of the houses did) or an unfinished basement where we could build a bedroom was important to us. We knew we would eventually be having another baby and wanted the kids to still each have their own room. When we bought the house we didn't know we'd start trying to have a baby last summer but once we found out we were pregnant we knew building Brennan a bedroom in the basement had to get started. 

Building a 10 x 12 room in the basement seems like an easy enough task and since we were planning to do all the work ourselves (with lots of help from Nate's dad and brother) we thought it would be reasonably affordable. We were wrong on both accounts. The project was difficult, time consuming, and very expensive. It took 3 weeks longer than we originally anticipated, despite hiring contractors to drywall, mud, tape, and texture. It also cost about $1000 more than our high end estimate. Needless to say we aren't in a hurry to finish the rest of the basement though it will get done eventually.

I've also realized I hate painting with a passion. I bought Sherwin Williams paint on sale, though it was still more expensive than Lowe's or Home Depot. They had a highly recommended no VOC brand and since I did 95% of the painting myself I wanted no VOC. The paint quality was ok but honestly not worth the extra money for me. The high end paint at Lowe's seems to work just as well and honestly the sales people at Lowe's gave me much better guidance when I explained the problems I was having. The heavy knockdown texture we have in our house is a pain to paint. New drywall absorbs primer at alarming rates so we needed a lot more of that than I expected and it took longer. The biggest struggle I had was getting a nice tape line between the ceiling and wall. I painted the walls the same dark beige color the rest of our house is and the ceilings the same off white color the rest of our ceilings are. The contrast is dramatic, especially when the line isn't perfect. The more expensive painter's tape didn't help and I was disappointed with the results. Needless to say in the baby's room I am trying a different technique and so far I have gotten much better results even though it has been just as time consuming to paint.

Monday night we got Brennan all moved into his new room, furniture, decorations, 100% set up. The next step was steaming his carpets and moving Phoenix into his old room. Phoenix's old room is tiny and much better suited for a nursery. She also could not fit her full size bed in her old room so we decided moving her and giving the baby the small room was the best plan. Wednesday night we moved all her furniture and yesterday I organized her stuff and put up decorations. She is thrilled to have more space and have her big bed back. It's been in the basement since we moved from Maryland.

Yesterday I was able to get started on painting the nursery. Progress is slow because I am painting the nursery light yellow and it is currently a medium purple which is hard to cover. I have most of today to paint and would be very happy if all the painting could be done by the end of the day tomorrow. The baby's crib is set to arrive tomorrow. I can't wait to move the baby's stuff into their room and get my loft organized again. Baby's guess date (what we call due dates in Hypnobabies) is just over a month away and baby will be full term in 2 weeks so we are in the home stretch. I am really looking forward to wrapping up all these projects and being able to relax a bit before baby arrives. Wish me luck!