In Our Backyard

So I haven’t really shown you guys pictures of the backyard of this house, and it is one of my favorite features of the house! Although moving into a house with a pool in December is torture… especially when we haven’t had weather above 35 degrees until this week.  So every morning I sit and look out our back windows and think about how nice that pool will be to dip into when the Texas temps inevitably hover above 100 in late summer.

But since we have had a day or two now where it hasn’t been raining and standing outside for more than 5 minutes doesn’t feel insane, I finally went out and snapped a few photos for you guys.

newhouseoutside2

We obviously haven’t set up our hammock yet, and we are in serious need of some quality outdoor furniture, but as I mentioned in this post, that is the gift my parents gave us for Christmas, so when it warms up a bit we will be purchasing a grown up table, chairs, umbrella and two lounge chairs for sitting poolside.

The picnic table you see just at the edge of the bottom of the picture below was one of the first projects the husband and I ever built.  And you can tell.  We didn’t know quite as much as we know now about securing things down, and some of the top boards come off when it is lifted, so it needs some rescue work if we are going to keep it… which we are still undecided on.  But the movers basically wrapped it all in saran wrap (the moving version) and moved it over here, so for now we’ve left that on there until we decide what we are going to do with it.  

newhouseoutside1

This space is already pretty well landscaped and taken care of, so our long term plans other than adding furniture are minimal.  We do plan on adding some better lighting out there (there is one VERY weak light), getting the already wired up sound system working (apparently we need another receiver or thingamajig or something), and maybe long term staining the fence.  The fence is in pretty good shape, just looks a little rough.

As far as the plants, you know I love flowers, so I’ll be adding a few flowers around to add in some color, but mostly I’ll be waiting to see how everything looks in the spring and going from there.

Oh and as far as pool maintenance? We’ve hired someone! And in one week of coming the pool is already clearer and cleaner, so well worth it in my book.  Plus Reese and I will be navigating learning how to take care of a newborn right around the peak time for pool care, so we decided having someone else responsible for this at least for the first year was worth being able to just jump right in when we are ready.

Now I am just watching the months tick by until I can dip my toes in the water!

Dismissing the Two Tone Island

One of the things that drove me nuts in this house was that the kitchen island (at the center of where we spend most of our time) was two toned celebration of all that is the 90s.  And although I love me some 90s, the two-tone had to go.

PS… the theme for this year’s high school dance party during the youth ski trip that my husband leads was 90s.  It is awfully hard trying to explain to girls born in 2000 the point of early 90s fashion. I’ve never felt so old in my life.

Anyway, back to the two tone monstrosity in my kitchen:

islandbefore

Sorry for the crappy picture, it was taken at night because that is when I have to get all my work done these days! The island was pretty scuffed up and in bad shape.

islandbefore1

We decided to go back with a simple white color, I chose Behr’s Quiet on the Set out of their Marquee line.  I wanted to try out their Marquee line (their highest grade) and to be honest? I didn’t see any difference in it and their Premium Plus which is my typical go-to.  They guarantee that with the Marquee paint and a Marquee color it will just take one coat.  I’m not sure if it was because of the texture of the bead board or what, but I definitely had to go over it a second time in most spots, which has been my experience with the Premium Plus as well: good coverage, but still requires a second coat in spots. But even with the second coat, this whole project took me about 30 minutes to complete.  (And for those of you worrying about baby, my doctor assured me that it was safe to paint as long as it was low VOC, but just to be safe I wore an awesome looking respirator the whole time anyway).

Other than missing a spot (painting in the evening with poor lighting is usually a bad decision… and this is why) which I’ll have to go back and get at a later date, I think it turned out great!

islandafter1

It is definitely cleaner and fresher and makes it look a tad bit more updated.  Now all we have to do is paint the walls, rehang our favorite light fixture from the old house, and hang a few more photos and the kitchen will be done–until we decide to upgrade some appliances later on.

islandafter2 On a totally unrelated note, I made a lot of progress on unpacking, so the nursery that did look like this:

newnursery1

Now looks like this:

nurserycleanup

 

I think I’m going to like this whole 2nd trimester ‘nesting phase’.

 

Baby Update Week 15

You know, this whole pregnancy thing is a very surreal experience.  I mean… you don’t really feel any different than normal you, but at the same time you don’t really feel like you. I know… profound huh? This is one of those weeks that I really feel pregnant.  If you can’t tell by the picture… I definitely have a bump now.  Although can I say, I don’t know if it is the angle or the lunch I had, but I don’t feel like I really have as big of a bump as that picture shows.  But since I picked it out of the 15 or so pictures I made Reese take of me Sunday… it is probably more accurate than my mental image of myself. (although I’m still going to claim bad lighting due to sleeping through the good lighting hours to take this picture… I am really ready for it to stay lighter longer!)

week15

Alright, weekly update time:

Week 15 Recap

 

Baby’s Size: an avocado (or a grenade if you follow pregnant chicken’s weekly updates)

Baby’s Progress: Baby can now hear! And baby is about to double in weight and add several inches in length.  Baby is also pumping 25 quarts of blood a day… which feels like an enormous amount considering that baby is currently 4.5 inches long.

Weight Gain: 0lbs… and somehow this feels like an accomplishment! Back to my starting point… although part of me is wondering what that whole bump thing is made of since I haven’t really gained any weight, but DEFINITELY look pregnant!

Sleep: Other than my nightly trip to the bathroom, I am sleeping pretty well, although I can tell that rolling over to the other side is going to be a huge chore in just a few short weeks/months, so I’m trying to enjoy the sleep while I can!

Milestones: I bought and wore my first pair of maternity clothes- a pair of black dress pants. And speaking of, I’m going to add a new category–favorite clothing item of the week:

Favorite clothing item of the week: definitely the black dress pants (these from Loft) because I love the combo of petite pants for my short little legs and the awesome stretchy band to hold them up.  Although I’m sure I’ll get tired of them by the end, I’m a fan right now!

Symptoms: Right now my only real symptom is that I tire out much faster than I used to… I’m hoping a little exercise in my future will help with some of that, but for now I’m just trying to do what I can do!

Workout: I bought a new DVD… does that count? I plan on starting it this next week, so hopefully next week will have a more productive answer for this question.