Nesting-a-hoy!

I cannot believe how strongly the nesting urge has kicked in already this time around. I am possessed with the urge to fix up, decorate, clean and prettify every room in our house immediately. Never mind the fact that I don't have a) the energy b) the time c) the money do to this all right now. As with everything to do with this house, baby steps and a bit at a time. The priority on moving in was always fixing the roof and the electrical wiring, both of which were done (yay) last year, and of course re-doing Lexi's bedroom and buying her furniture (a generous gift from her grandparents). We always knew there was work to be done on this house and property upon buying it. The location, layout, the property itself and the work that HAD been done (new hardwood floors throughout, major kitchen and bathroom renos) were what sold us on this place. We were always willing to put work in to make it our own. Major work to be done still includes a total deck redo (hopefully to be done in the spring before bebe comes), some major landscaping out front, new paint, new carpet in the kiddie rooms (not til we get through the potty training years AT LEAST we figure) and adding a shower and/or tub to the downstairs bathroom to make it more guest friendly.

And so, I've started generating a list in my head (and now, for all the internet world to see, God help me) of all the "little" projects I'd like to have done over the next six months. Many are easily do-able, some a bit more ambitious. Here we go:

1) Jazz up the 2 upstairs bathrooms by adding some plants and art work on the walls (new towels, check)

2) New main light fixture for the kitchen (to replace the terrible fritzy track lighting that shuts off after exactly 1 hour and 20 minutes of being on) and have the back large burner on the oven fixed (curse you, previous owners)

3) Make some new throw/decorative cushions for both upstairs and downstairs sofas

4) Replace the GOD AWFUL window coverings in our room (I have a serious HATE ON for the hideous sage green organza-y curtains the previous owners covered everything in our bedroom with, including the closets, which are now exposed to the world). The high windows near the ceiling in our bedroom present a bit of a problem. Doug fashioned some cardboard covers to shove into there for now. We looked into motorized blinds, but they are expensive. Hmmm, will have to think about that one.

5) As mentioned above, buy some doors for our Pax wardrobes so my lingerie collection (as meager and tame as it is) is not exposed to the world. Willing to go second hand on these, so have been trolling Craigslist for months. If you see Pax stuff on sale at IKEA, please text me immediately!

6) Have hot tub fixed, but not until Uncle John can come and do it for a case of beer (and Mommy can actually sit in it). We had even made an appointment for a repairman to come to fix the tub in November so we could use it this winter, but then I found out I was preggers (and therefore wouldn't be able to use the tub until after the birth) so we decided to wait until either John could visit and fix it cheaper for us (as he just did a total rehaul of his own tub in Alberta) or pay someone to fix it later when we could both enjoy it.

7) Add a few finishing touches to Lexi's room including some homemade wall art, a new clock for her bedside table, and some curtain panels and valances for her windows

8) Change the towel racks/hardware in the bathrooms - in our ensuite they used a toilet paper roll holder as the hand towel rack, and it just doesn't work

9) Convert 2 downstairs "rooms" to a guest room and a storage/exercise room. We'll move the furniture from the current upstairs spare room downstairs, and we've been looking for secondhand weights/treadmill for the other room (which is how the previous owners were using it)

The big to-do this year of course will be re-doing the upstairs current "guest room" as bebe room. I once again shake my head at the previous owners. They had amazing taste when it comes to certain things (the hard wood brazilian cherry floors they had installed (expertly I might add) are stunning and must have run them a pretty penny). But then, as I've mentioned before, they have butchered every closet in this house, did NOT install fans in ANY of the 3 totally remodeled bathrooms (which they tiled ceiling to floor I might add), and have the most bizarre taste in window coverings I have ever seen.

So here are the pictures of how it currently looks. Don't ask me why in a room with 3 smallish and narrow windows, they decided to cover them with weirdo dark self fashioned panels that make the room even darker. I understand the choice of a neutral tan color for what was obviously a guest room for them (they only had 1 daughter), but this room just seems very boring and dead to me.



The carpet is in a bit of a state (a few odd stains, but it's good quality), but it's not worth replacing while the kids are young, so we will deal with it. These people also loooooved floating shelves (we removed at least 10 from Lexi's walls).


We will be reusing Lexi's nursery furniture (although I am less than thrilled with Storkcraft after Lexi's crib was recalled TWICE). I'm telling you people, NEVER buy Storkcraft. And the amazing Shermag gilder I scored for $100 off Craigslist when Lexi was a month old (and I spent MANY MANY hours rocking and nursing her in) will be a fixture as well. I'm leaning towards a turquoise, white and chocolate brown color theme for either gender, keeping the brown to an accent color to lighten up the dark room. I will kindly ask all my friends and relatives to not gift us with any more baby quilts or blankets for our new arrival. We were given at least 5 beautiful homemade quilts when Lexi was born, and plan to get use out of them again this time around.


This closet needs to be fixed as well. They divided it in half to make shelves on one side, hanging storage on the other. I'd like to see it back to to typical closet with hanging storage all the way across, maybe some storage at the bottom, and, gasp, normal CLOSING closet doors. I'll have to find another place to hang my wedding dress though (dang).

It looks like Lexi's first year scrapbook will FINALLY be finished very soon (I've been using my Cricut to cut out the lettering and only have a few more layouts to tackle before I'm finished), and I've started on making Valentine's cards with Lexi's help. So much to do, so little time...