Bathroom Shelves

If you've seen my post about the laundry room then you may recognize the pattern on the shelves. Yes, it’s the same as the counter top, which was originally part of Pamela’s sister’s IKEA bed frame. If anyone was unaware, I love IKEA. I love IKEA furniture and I love IKEA hacking. Every time we go to IKEA I make Pamela stop with me in the “as is” section to see if there are any good pieces that can be salvaged or pieces that I can re-purpose. So when Kim was going to get rid of her broken bed frame in a move, I quickly snatched up all the pieces I could. I also have her old dresser in our garage. It’s functioning now as storage for my spare cables, sprinkler repair parts, and other various garage goodies. The dresser may be a little wobbly and missing some trim but it’s 100 times better than the cardboard boxes these items were living in before.

Before

After

These shelves were super easy to put up but make the little toilet room look like a fancy spa. Obviously Pamela was in charge of the cute decorations that adorn the shelves. If you recognized the white vase, pot, and fake grass you are an IKEA junkie like us. I simply cut the bed frame side rails to the right length and supported them with a few pieces strategically attached to the wall. I’m sure they’re not the most sturdy shelves ever but they will work just fine for holding decorations.

Laundry Room

I finished this project a while ago, even before Ryan joined us. However, I’m sure at the time we were more focused on keeping Pamela healthy and preparing the house and ourselves for his arrival than documenting this project.  I still managed to take a before picture so you can see the transformation.

Before

Just an empty room with washer and dryer hookups. I suppose sticking the laundry machines in a bare room is adequate for some, but we felt we could make this room more functional and give it some class.

After

We had cabinets over the washer and dryer at our old house so that seemed to be an obvious addition. The countertop though stands out as the major upgrade. Its visual appeal is surpassed only by its functionality. It gives Pamela plenty of space to fold and sort laundry as well as hold the detergent bottles without the fear of anything falling off or slipping between the machines. At our last house (no countertop), we had one incident where an unbalanced washing machine load tossed a full jug of detergent onto the floor. That soapy gross mess was definitely a contributing factor in deciding to add the countertop.

I usually try to be frugal with my house projects and this was truly no exception. The house purchase was only a few months in the past and my mind was probably still going over all the money we had just put down and the new monthly payments we signed up for. I ended up buying the plain white cabinets from Walmart. They look good enough for a laundry room and I didn’t mind a little bit more assembly to save some money. A piece of finished shelf board from Home Depot, cut to size, created the decorative shelving between the cabinets. Then my favorite part was the countertop which is a repurposed headboard from Pamela’s sister’s old Ikea bed. It was almost the exact perfect size, I only had to shave off about an inch from each side.  Pushing the washer and dryer carefully back into place was the finishing touch. A fairly easy and cheap addition turned the laundry room into a functional and attractive space.

Fireplace Mantel

Although most of the blog posts lately have been about Ryan, there is still other stuff going on in our lives believe it or not. It used to be that whenever I would tackle a house project Pamela would be following me around helping and documenting the process with lots of pictures. But now her time is much better spent taking care of our baby than taking pictures of me bent over nailing some pieces of wood together.

So here is a project I completed recently; the fireplace mantel:

Before

After

Wraps around the sides of the fireplace wall

Close-up artistic shot

Nothing terrible about the before picture but I think the addition of the mantel gives some character to that wall. It also does a nice job of concealing all the TV cables. That has been a big difference between this house and last. In the last house everything was way outdated and small changes like painting a room and hanging things on the walls made a drastic change. This house was in pretty good shape to begin with, so my projects have to be more unique and customized to really show an improvement. The mantel project wasn’t all that difficult or time consuming I just needed to set aside a few hours over a couple days and finally knock it out. I think the hardest part for me was choosing the right crown molding and trim pieces to use. My design ended up being pretty simple and only using 3 different boards all together. 1 piece of trim, 1 piece of crown, and 1 flat board for the top. I had just purchased a hammer drill for a different project so making my anchor holes was easy. Pamela helped me keep the bottom trim level as I attached the first board. Everything else went up easily and built off of that first piece. Unfortunately, I don’t have any in-progress pictures but it really did go up pretty fast. I cut out notches in the right side crown molding piece and in the back of the topper board to route the cables through. My step dad let me borrow his pin nail gun that shoots super small nails especially for trim pieces like this as well as his heavy-duty 12” miter saw. Using these tools and some careful planning there was not much finishing work to be done. I just added an extra coat of white paint and was finished. Just in time too. Later that day we broke out the Christmas decorations and Pamela had a perfect place to hang our stockings.

Ready for Christmas!

Ryan - Month 8

Month 8 - here we go!

• Ryan is catching on that he can get a certain reaction out of people with certain actions of his own.  So a funny new thing he started was fake coughing when he wants attention or doesn't want to be put down for bed.  Matt or his mom, Carol, would lay him down in his swing to nap, and he would start doing these ridiculously fake coughs, then, looking at you with a sly smile to see if it was working.  What a turkey!  

• Making some more headway in the crawling department: Ryan started inching forward while on his hands and knees.  He can't go more than one or two paces before he collapses, and he is very selective about what he will crawl for.  This month, it was only for the dog's feet or for stray water bottles left around the house.  Priorities.  

• He has become quite an expert at sitting up without assistance, which has made play time a little less nerve wracking for us since we don't have to worry about him toppling and hitting is head as much.  He also started pulling up onto things, namely the sides of his crib.  Matt saw that one coming and thankfully dropped the crib down to a lower setting just days before he decided to make his move.  It is really funny and also a bit sad to watch him pull himself up to the bars in his crib.  He looks like he's in a little baby prison (and acts like it too if we don't come to get him right away!)

• Peekaboo books are his absolute favorite, so we are accumulating quite a collection.  He likes to open the flaps himself and then shut them again right away.  I think he has a bit of his mama's OCD in that regard - nothing can stay open if it's supposed to be shut :)  I love reading to him and the interest that he shows in books.  I hope that's something he'll continue on as he gets older.
• While picking up our day-after Halloween candy, Matt and I made an impulse bubble buy to see if Ryan liked them.  And he did!  I would blow the bubbles around him and he would look around at them in amazement.  Matt showed him how to pop them with his fingers, and then upped the amazement by making enormous bubbles in the kitchen using his hands and some Dawn soap :) 
• Speaking of Halloween, Ryan wore a puppy costume for the big day and couldn't have looked cuter!  Unfortunately, he had a cold, so we weren't able to go to any of the parties we had planned.  But Jordan dressed up as a baby and the little duo had a fun time hanging around the house together.  When it came time to carving the pumpkin, he loved reaching inside to pull out the guts.  

Ryan - Month 7

Another fun month with the babe, and making progress towards some even bigger milestones.

• Bath time is always fun, but then getting ready for bed after the bath tends to be a challenge since Ryan is so tired by then.  We try to entertain him with toys or the dog while we put him in his pajamas and prep him for bed, but there's always a lot of whining and crying going on.  One night, he was sobbing pretty hard, and I went to close the cover on our thermostat (we hike up the heat during bath time so he doesn't get chilled, then cool it back down once he's dressed again).  I asked him if he wanted to help me close the thermostat and he very suddenly perked up, smiled, and shut the cover!  Matt and I cheered him on as he did this 3 or 4 more times, and now it has become his "job" after bath.  He is quite proud of himself every time he does it, and looks around to find Matt for approval and praise :)  So he has something to look forward to, and it has made our night routine a little easier.
• Another thing that has made our life a little easier is the fact that his hand-mouth coordination has caught on this month!  During meals, instead of whining for me to feed him bites, he now happily picks up pieces on his own.  And, boy, does he love food!  Everything that he tries, he loves.  It is funny to watch him eat so skillfully - he can get food to his mouth faster than I can break it into bite-sized pieces sometimes.  So meal time has become a fun event with a lot less stress for all 3 of us!

• His "talking" has turned to jabbering this month, and he can get out "mama," "dada," and "nene."  Right now, he doesn't have any association with these sounds, he is just trying them out.  But it is exciting to think that soon he will say "mama" and know that means me!
• One of the funny notes for the month I jotted down was that he started making what my sister Kim and I called the "Old Man Face."  I'm glad I wrote it down, because this phase has already passed, but it was a funny one.  He would curl his lips in, squint his face and move his jaw so he looked like a cranky old man without his dentures.  Cracked us up!

In his "Ready Stance"

• He was one step closer to crawling this month - he learned to push up onto his hands and knees in crawl stance and then rock his body back and forth like he was raring to take off.  Then he would get tired or frustrated and plop down onto his belly.  Matt needs to get a move on baby-proofing the house... :)