No, seriously.
Jack & I wake up in the morning, get ready, drop Daddy off at work and head straight to the house.
We stay there until dinner time when we take a mini break to eat.
Then we head back over and stay there until 10-11pm.
It's exhausting, I tell you!
I haven't even exercised in over a week.
Seriously, I'm a little bit beside myself about it.
Since having Jack I've exercised 5-6 days a week so this is a little cray-cray.
But then I pat myself on the head and tell myself it's okay
because I'm getting a workout while renovating.
Seriously, scrubbing kitchen cabinets until you feel like your hands will fall off gets you a really good arm workout.
Going up and down the ladder a million times to paint the tops of the walls and the ceilings gets you a really good leg workout.
Standing on your feet all day...well, that just gives you foot pain but I guess we can call it a foot workout.
Considering I don't usually work out my feet, maybe I can go as far as saying I'm over-exercising.
Haha. Not.
ANYway. Proof that all we ever do is renovate comes in the form of all the pictures from my camera and iPhone. 90% of them are of our projects.
Therefore, 90% of this blog post will be about our projects.
Sorry in advance!
First things first.
They let me use power tools.
Okay well it is just a sander.
And it's mine. So they can't very well tell me no.
And anyway nobody else was even there.
And on top of all of that...I'm honestly probably more experienced in using power tools than my husband.
[Don't tell him I said so!]
I pretty much spent one entire day last week sanding the walls of the messed up paint job in the hall bath.
And then I had to scrub off every last inch of paint.
See the little bits of paint leftover in the corners/edges?
Yep, had to scrub off every last little piece.
As soon as you got it a little bit wet it would start peeling off so I knew I would regret it if I didn't take the time to scrub it off before attempting a re-paint.
Ugh.
Oh and PS my bathroom was a dusty MESS after all that sanding and scraping.
After all my hard work
[and some cleaning because I couldn't stand the mess]
I made it back to square one.
Yellow bathroom which seems to be undisturbed.
I wish.
Then came bonding primer in hopes that the paint would actually STICK in round two.
And then when I started painting
THIS HAPPENED.
This, my friends, is exactly what was happening the FIRST time I painted!
The paint just refused to stick!
Except the first time it was happening all over the wall.
In round two it was happening just in the edges.
I really thought I was going to cry. Or throw something. Or scream. Or put the house back on the market.
Okay I would never do the last thing but I really hated this bathroom.
After my mini tantrum...to myself...I pulled out my trusty sanding block and sanded the edges where my orbital sander couldn't reach.
Primed the edges again and...IT STUCK!!!
Hallelujah.
A coat of paint 4 hours later and voila!
It's supposed to be gray but it turned out more of a gray-green.
I don't mind though.
There is still one last surprise coming to this bathroom.
You will be in suspense for a few more days.
After my horrific bathroom re-re-do I looked like this:
Pooped.
I'm pretty sure this is past midnight.
On a happier note I am 100% completely in love with Jack's bedroom paint.
This is one of my inspiration photos for the nursery colors.
I especially wanted to match the wall paint.
This is what we came out with.
It looks a little more green in this picture but it's really not.
It's the perfect beige.
I really think it almost exactly matches the picture.
Better pictures to come, I promise!
- RENO BREAK -
*for pictures of this cute kid!
I am borrowing this walker from Grandma Wallace's house.
It's the best toy for an empty house because Jack can walk around everywhere
[no furniture!]
but he can't get into any of our renovation projects/tools/paints.
Last week Jack had his very first, very own In N Out burger.
Okay so it was just a meat patty, no salt, with cheese.
He la-la-LOVED it.
He ate the entire thing.
- END RENO BREAK -
...for real, though.
That's how long my breaks last.
Kitchen cabinet progress!
They are actually more done than this.
Now they have two more coats of paint and are super dark, almost black.
Remember they used to be pale yellow with red trim?
I would show you a before/after but that will be saved for another day.
I don't think I'll share the finished project until we get our granite counters in.
Soon, hopefully!
I just want you to have the full before & after effect.
Family room is painted!
If you didn't know, finding the perfect gray is close to impossible.
It is so hard to find one that looks GRAY and not purple, green, or blue.
Ask anyone who has painted their house gray.
I bet they went through more than 10 sample paints to find the perfect color.
We settled on Benjamin Moore's classic gray.
It's pretty light but I am in love with it.
We used it for the hallway too and will also be painting the kitchen the same color.
I've also heard amazing things about Benjamin Moore's Revere Pewter and Gray Owl.
Gray Owl has a little more of a green undertone (not bad though)
and Revere Pewter is supposedly "the perfect gray" but when I painted my swatch on the wall I wasn't completely sold.
Maybe for another room.
Hallway painted...we are making PROGESS!
Aaaand the master bedroom and bath have both been painted!
Sorry this picture is pretty lame.
-RENO BREAK 2-
Before Jack fell asleep the other day he screamed bloody murder for at least 30 minutes.
For whatever reason he hates his new crib.
Remember when I first set it up and told you he loved it?
I was wrong, wrong, wrong.
I think he's finally getting used to it but we went through a few days of you-know-what.
Anyway. Once he finally stopped crying I went to check on him and found this:
I've concluded he was praying his mean mama would come get him.
...and then he fell asleep.
Jack Jack had his first icy pop (icee pop?) the other day.
He definitely deserved this after all he has had to put up with the last couple weeks of reno.
Warning:
the following picture might be the most hideous you have ever seen.
BUT.
I must document Jack's vampire-ness.
Two bottom middle teeth.
Two fangs.
See them?
On Saturday morning (way too early) I went yard-saling.
I was on the hunt for solid wood bar stools I could refinish
and a kitchen table.
I found neither of those
BUT
I did find this adorable mini Jack-sized rocker!
How adorable is it!?
It's 55 years old which is so cool
and guess the price?
Listed at $10 and I got it down to $8!
Whaaaat!
A little sanding. A little paint.
It's going to be just adorable in his new nursery.
Clearly Jack isn't so sure what he thinks about it but I promise one day he will love reading his books while rocking in that little chair.
Dates are few and far between these days with no time for anything but reno.
So I'm considering our outing to look at granite a date.
With Jack. Haha.
See the middle color?
Our dream granite.
Hopefully you will be seeing that or something similar in our kitchen soon.
Swoon.
I pretty much have a lot of mishaps when it comes to renovating.
Most of them involve my hair.
First of all. I caught my hair on fire [kind of] while painting the hallway.
The story probably isn't as interesting as it sounded when I posted on FB that I caught my hair on fire.
So be prepared for disappointment.
I was on the ladder painting the top of the wall in the hallway.
Suddenly the hallway went dark(ish).
I thought clouds had covered the sun and was craning my neck to see out the master bedroom window trying to figure out why it suddenly got dark.
Then. My head started to feel really hot.
And then I smelled smoke.
And then I realized my hair was burning.
AHHHH.
I started freaking out and jumped off the ladder swatting at my hair like crazy while running to the bathroom haha...I really made a scene.
My bun had been pressed up against the lightbulb in the hallway hence the sudden darkness. Bahaha.
I was so worried I would look in the bathroom mirror and see my whole head on fire.
But no. The story is really not that interesting.
Just a few fried and blackened ends.
Jamie & I just about died from laughter after I confirmed my head wasn't completely aflame.
Obviously I didn't stop to take pictures so...there are none.
You will just have to believe it happened.
And yes, now I have a few fried ends of hair. It just adds to the cuteness of my crazy baby hairs that are still growing in post-pregnancy.
Who wants to trade hair?
And my second hair mishap?
I was painting the trim on the ceiling while Dad Wallace was rolling.
Apparently I really shouldn't wear my hair in a bun because it rubbed up against the ceiling paint and I sported a Cruella de Vil look the rest of the day.
[PS. Yes, that is how you spell Cruella de Vil. I looked it up.]
Aaand last but not least...today is Mother's Day!
And our biggest reno break of the week!...yay for Sundays!
I'm so grateful for both of my mom's!
My mom is the best mom a girl could ask for.
She's the first one I consult for advice on parenting, marriage, house reno's, and life in general. Even when her life is busy & full she always finds time to listen to my stories & rants and offer opinions on anything and everything.
She's probably the best listener I know which is a perfect match since I might be the most talkative person I know.
She even sometimes lets me drag her along on shopping trips when shopping is the thing she hates most in the world.
That's a loving mom for you.
And then there's Mom Wallace.
She's the best second mom I could have picked.
She is so selfless and thoughtful.
You wouldn't believe the amount of stuff she has done for us the last few weeks during reno.
Watched Jack on multiple occasions, fed us dinner close to every night, brought us lunch in the middle of our work day, made us strawberry shakes after long work days and the list goes on.
It's nothing new, though. She is always so thoughtful.
I'm so grateful to get to be back in California and living just minutes away from both of my mom's. We are loving every minute of family time.
Oh and PS They are both easily THE best grandmother's Jack could have asked for.
We are so lucky!
Love you both!
And then...it's my first Mother's Day!
I am so lucky to get to be this little boy's mama.
He fills my days with smile, laughter, and lots of love.
We're best friends and I love this little boy to pieces.
Being a mom is the best job any woman could ever have.
President Gordon B. Hinckley said it best:
Let every mother realize that she has no greater blessing than the children which have come to her as a gift from the Almighty; that she has no greater mission than to rear them in light and truth, and understanding and love; that she will have no greater happiness than to see them grow into young men and women who respect principles of virtue, who walk free from the stain of immorality and from the shame of delinquency. . . . I remind mothers everywhere of the sanctity of your calling. No other can adequately take your place. No responsibility is greater, no obligation more binding than that you rear in love and peace and integrity those whom you have brought into the world.
–Gordon B. Hinckley General Conference, October 1993
I feel especially blessed to be a mama and a wife to my two favorite boys.
I love staying home with Jack and am so lucky that T works especially hard to support our family on just one income.
T's gift to me today?
Playing Mr. Mom.
He did all the Jack duties today
aka every single diaper change, dressing, feeding (besides nursing, duh), etc.
Although I don't mind doing all those things on a daily basis it was nice to have a day off from a million responsibilities!
I even got a nap in after church!
Even though today was supposed to be a "day off" I pretty much supervised a lot of what was going on like nap time, lunch time...
I realized it's impossible to really take a day off.
I wouldn't even want a TRUE day off.
My kid just is too much fun. I'm attached.
Found these gems [from a few weeks ago] on T's phone last night:
Love that boy!
Happy Mother's Day to all the women in the world who take part in caring for children and raising them up to be respectable young men and women.
Until my next reno break...
