Weekend Fun

We have decided to spend the little time we have left before we turn from just a married couple into parents relaxing and having fun! Now if you know Ryan and I relaxing does still mean getting things done around the house but we've put most of our big projects on hold for now because by the time the weekend comes we are both exhausted. Today is officially my first day of maternity leave, and instead of tackling the basement I'm going shopping with my mom!!!! This weekend we spent Saturday morning relaxing and in the afternoon we headed to my brother and sister in laws apartment for some swimming! Alas we got there and the heater on the pool was broken so it was COLD... BUT that didn't stop us from taking a quick dip!!!

We even tested out the underwater feature on my camera which was fun!

I was FREEZING but it was still fun AND it got rid of my aches and pains that I had been having. I NOW understand why everyone says the last month of pregnancy is awful... you are perma uncomfortable. My advice, go swimming!!!!!! It makes everything better!!! (isn't my belly scary!!!!!!)

Me and my brother freezing our butts off! (ok so the pool wasn't THAT cold.... I think it said it was 62... which is COLD compared to the usual 80+ that this pool is!)

Other than swimming we went for a long walk to feed the ducks by the lake on Sunday and installed the car seat in the super clean car!!! We had our car detailed last week to get it ready for babies arrival.

We both agreed that if this was our last weekend before being parents it was definitely a fantastic weekend!!!

Our Weekend

Not much was completed around the house this weekend because it was Ryan's birthday and a bunch of family and friends went tobogganing on Saturday!!! I watched from the bottom of the hill but this was our weekend!

And a little video from all the fun!

Then Sunday Ryan and I assembled the rocking base to the bassinet that my mom brought over on the weekend. This bassinet has been in the family for 62 years and has had 17 babies sleep in it! I can't wait to see our daughter sleeping in it!!!! We got the Jolly Jumper bassinet base for it as a shower gift and it fits perfectly!!!! My mom spent many hours updating the bassinet as it was a little bit 1980's with frills and the paint was yellowing prior to its mini makeover!! THANKS MOM!!!

Makeover Magic - My Parents Family Room

Ok so yes it is 5:30am... I am once again awake and can't get comfortable so apparently that means its time to update my blog!!!

My parents redid their family just before Christmas and it looks absolutely fabulous so I had to share!!! They had someone in to do all of the work and it looks GREAT!!!! Now I couldn't find a good before picture so you're going to have to make due with these...

You can see the brick fireplace pre-reno. Nothing is wrong with it.. it just needed updating (this is a pic from the Christmas party when Ryan proposed to me).

Ok I know it is dark (and that my friend Jen will probably kill me for this) but this is a view of the fireplace and book shelves before.

This was the other side of the family room. Once again ignore all of the people, I only seem to have pictures of this room from Christmas parties!

This is what it now looks like! Don't you just love the new fireplace and mantel!!!! It looks so updated and so much better!!!

Plus the new chairs and couch do a LOT for the room. No more green and maroon plaid chairs... well at my parents anyway... we inherited that set and it is in our basement now... I'm still on the hunt for a slip cover for them!!!!

Doesn't it make a HUGE difference! I just love the fireplace!!! There was originally stencilling around the border of the family room (which my mom did way back when) and now that it is gone the room actually appears to have higher ceilings and to be larger because of the fireplace. I love this room!!!!

Look What Dad Made - Porch Swing

Technically I'm a little delayed with this one. Over the summer/fall my dad took on the task of making my brother and sister in law a glider bench for the front porch of their new house. I can remember calling my parents house and talking to my mom and asking her what dad was up to... she would laugh and say he's out in the garage playing with his tools and working on the bench!! Oh he's so cute!

He worked so hard at this and it definitely paid off! Its gorgeous!!!!!!

I know my brother and sister in law are super thrilled with it!!! I would LOVE to have one of these... but I have no where to even put it!!! I do have a few other projects that I have been thinking about for this summer for my dad... we'll see!

Monday's Rant

I'm going to start off by saying I'm 36 weeks pregnant and I'm EXHAUSTED! (I sound like I'm going to AA or something!). I have a LONG list of things that I want to get done before the baby is born but have ZERO energy to actually get them done!!! When you're belly looks like this its VERY difficult to stand up let along actually finish projects!! (Ok so my belly doesn't always look like this... my girl friends decided they wanted to decorate it... this is what you get on a girls weekend up north! haahaaa)

Onto my list of 'To Be Completed":

#1 - Remember my lovely kitchen makeover

Well I have to say it is holding up very well EXCEPT the one door above the sink... that door is the most used door and somehow we have 3 small chips on the bottom edge that are driving me nuts!!!!! I have been meaning to pull out the sandpaper, primer and paint and fix it but honestly the thought of going all the way downstairs to get those things and set everything up exhausts me!

#2 - Painting the basement.

This is how the basement looked about 2 weeks ago when I primed the wall. Well it still looks like that... nothing has changed other than Ryan moving the couch back into place. It needs another coat of primer and a coat of paint.

#3 - Basement Bathroom

Other than being grouted last weekend it more or less still looks like this... it needs marble in the shower and mudded drywall and paint and fixtures and of course a door!!!

#4 - Bathroom Cabinets

Remember awhile back when we organized our bathroom cabinet here.

Well it doesn't look like that right now!!! The towels seem to be a disaster right now and I keep losing wash clothes down the hole that is in the cabinet (on the left side of the cabinet there is a vent that goes up to the roof and there is a gap between the pipe and the actual base of the cabinet where things can fall behind the wall and be lost forever). I thought I had covered it but apparently not, I lost 3 wash clothes down the hole and a bottom of lotion in the past few months! Plus all of my labelled baskets are a disaster and nothing is in the right place (for that I blame Ryan... he can't seem to read the labels and just throws stuff everywhere). SO I have to spend some time reorganizing because its driving me crazy!!!

I have a million more things I want to have finished but they are minor and I am ok if they don't get completed!

This past weekend the only thing I managed to check off my To Do List was to actually clean the house! I hadn't vacuumed or dusted in about 3 weeks and I'm convinced those dust bunnies were about to gang up and attack!!! While Ryan shovelled out the driveway Saturday morning I spent the time cleaning and felt a little bit better about things. I also managed to knit Ryan a super awesome hat to match the scarf that I knit him for Christmas.

With Ryan's 35th birthday (shhh I didn't tell you that) this weekend I know we won't get much done this weekend either... lets just hope the baby stays in the oven a little bit longer so we can get these completed!!!!

Updated Progress... Or Lack There of it!

I thought I would take a minute to inform you of the progress on our current projects.

First lets start with the basement bathroom.
Tiling: the tiling is basically done, there are few tiles in the entrance to be done but we have a little dilemma that we haven't figured out how to rectify just yet. Nothing major, just don't know which way to put the tiles so they look the best. Long story short its a weird entrance and either we make it look nice but the tiles don't match up with the rest of the bathroom (ie the grout lines don't match up) or we match the grout lines but it looks slightly off. Either way its going to look slightly funny.

Grouting: Since the rest of the tiles were finished Ryan and Dave spent last Saturday grouting the bathroom and I have to say it looks fabulous!!!!

Heated Flooring: Is connected and pumping out the warmth!!!! We are very impressed with it and have it set on a schedule to turn up when we're home and down in temperature when we are not home. LOVE IT!

Drywall: We have yet to finish mudding the drywall... which means no painting just yet.

Fixture Installation: We still need to install the fixtures... nothing really stopping us other than finishing the mudding and painting.

Door: Yes we still need to put a door on the bathroom... kind of a key for a bathroom. We have a door we just have to get around to dealing with it.

So as you can tell the basement bathroom is close but still a little ways away from being completed!!

Painting the Basement Fake Brick Walls
Well... one wall has been primed with 2 coats and has one coat of paint on it and its looking great!!!! The other wall however has one coat of primer on it... So hopefully this weekend I can finish the 2nd coat of primer and a coat of paint on that final wall plus on the missed wood panelling that is around our built in shelves down there. Once the painting is done I can put the basement back in some type of order and it will look a lot less chaotic!!!

New Flooring Installation Upstairs
Currently the new flooring is being stored under our spare bed... which means this project will not be getting done anytime in the near future!! Which is fine with me!!

I've just been so exhausted lately that when I have a free moment I sit on my butt and watch tv!!! I still need to tidy up the babies room before she arrives in approximately 4 weeks. Plus I haven't cleaned the house in 3 weeks... its getting furry with dust bunnies!!!!!

Hopefully, I can finish the painting this weekend and get the house clean! I have a day to myself Saturday which will be good as Ryan is out and Sunday other than a maternity photo shoot we don't have much going on. Fingers crossed things come together easily!!!

Beautiful Shower Ceiling

Yesterday I came home from work to find we had a shower ceiling... and not just any shower ceiling... a super amazing 45 degree angled tile ceiling. Now I know this must have taken Calvin forever because of the complications with cutting on angles!!! It looks AMAZING!!! Now these pictures DON'T do it justice... I was having difficulties with my camera but was cooking at the same time so I didn't have time to figure it out. I'll try to take more tonight.

And the white tiled trim is also mostly done which was very exciting!! I love how it looks!!! To think we picked these tiles up at The Restore on a whim.. I really like the look of them!!!

SOOOOOO close!!!!! We have been trying to figure out what colour to paint the drywall above the tile. We didn't want anything dark because the ceiling is going to be white and it is a basement bathroom. But I didn't want anything that clashes with the tiles either. The tiles have a pinky hew to them. SO at the end of the day we have opted to just paint it white and add colour with towels and art on the walls! We actually have this amazing picture a friend gave us that I plan on getting framed and will go on the long wall across from the toilet and sink. Its going to look amazing!!!! Plus we already have a can of white bathroom/kitchen paint SO we don't have to spend more money on paint which is a bonus!!!!

I'm going away this weekend with a few ladies and I'm hoping when I come back on Sunday we will have a fully tiled bathroom PLUS fixtures installed and everything painted AND the heated flooring hooked up and working!!!! I may be dreaming... but its a pretty nice dream!!!

Oh and the progress on my painting of the basement has come to a halt because I've been too tired... maybe tonight I'll tackle that project!

Basement Progress

We have a little more progress on the basement. Ryan and I worked on the second coat of primer... we had planned to paint one coat of paint on it too but never got around to it because we had too much other stuff to work on (aka catching up on sleep). I may get around to a coat today if I feel up to it! GOODBYE ZEE BRICK WALL!! (well technically it is still there but looks soooo much better!!!

And the basement bathroom has had huge progress!!! Ryan's brother had been busy with the tiling, there have been lots of funny cuts and angles in this bathroom so its taking a little while. BUT finally its soooo close to being done. All that is left is the ceiling in the shower and the white trim tiles around the bathroom. Its VERY exciting!!!!

Here is the shower, you can see our built in shelf on the right side for all our shampoos etc.

Ryan is so excited for his bathroom!!

SO CLOSE!!!! After the tiling is done we just have to finish taping the drywall and then paint and install the fixtures and we have a second bathroom!!!! SO EXCITING!!!