Guest Bathroom Makeover

We made over our guest bathroom this week! We did our guest bedroom a couple years ago, but I had yet to touch the guest bathroom. When we moved into our house I had no idea even where to begin as far as decorating. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my house, that we can stay here as long as we like, the layout, and what we've done with it so far. But...for the first couple months after moving in, I remember telling Jeff (somewhat joking-somewhat serious) we needed to sell the house and move into a smaller house because I was so stressed out about decorating. In our one-bedroom apartment, I had everything bought and decorated in one day. Well I decided to take take it one room at a time, which is why one room is completely decorated and done, and the next doesn't have an ounce of decorating touch. When will our entire house be decorated? Who knows, give me a few more years :) Oh and then I'll probably be ready to start redecorating, but don't tell Jeff!

Tutorial: Here is a brief tutorial of what we did. Skip over this part if you just want to see the pics :) We are not experts, but we have learned a lot from my very handy brother-in-law, online, Home Depot, and trial & error. If you want more details or have any questions feel free to ask me.

1. We painted the bathroom. The bottom half blue matches the guest bedroom. The top half is the same color diluted by 3/4. **Painting tip on how to get super straight lines. After you tape, paint the tape edge with the color that is under the tape and let it dry. Then paint the color you are painting the wall and voila- you will get a perfect line. For example, our trim is off-white so I taped off the trim and painted the tape with our off-white paint. Let it dry. Then painted the walls blue.

2. We painted the crown molding, crown corner pieces, chair rail, and bead-board. I bought all of these already primed white from home depot, so all I had to do was spray them with two coats of paint using a paint sprayer.

3. We painted the oak cabinets

1. I quickly scuffed up the cabinets using the rough side of a Scotch Brite brush (going with the grain). 220 grit sand paper would also do.
2. Sprayed the cabinets with a quality paint sprayer hooked up to an air compressor. Painted 3 coats of primer paint all-in-one. I lightly scuffed between each coat. The more traditional method is to paint 2 coats of primer and 2-3 coats of paint, but after talking to a few people in the paint department at Home Depot, I was convinced that going with the primer paint all-in-one would save me some time and (hopefully) be just as good.

4. We installed the crown corner pieces using a nail gun. I buy these from Home Depot. You don't have to use corner pieces when installing crown, but I like them for two reasons.

1. They look pretty.
2. They make installing the crown much easy because all the cuts are straight.
   

5. We cut the crown molding to size using a miter saw and installed the crown using a nail gun. We nailed wood wedges behind/under the crown, which is what we actually nail the crown to.

6. We cut the chair rail using a miter saw and installed the chair rail using a nail gun.

7. We cut the bead-board using a miter saw and jig saw, then installed the bead-board on the side of the cabinets. I wanted bead board to add a little extra texture and class. After cutting it to size, we used liquid nails to glue it to the side of the cabinets. When installing a larger amount of bead-board (like our guestroom) we used liquid nails and a nail gun, but since it was just a small piece we felt liquid nails would be sufficient.

6. We caulked the top and bottom of the crown and chair rail. For the crown, I tape off the bottom painted part, but not the top since the ceiling is white. **Caulk tip: if you pull the tape off before the caulk dries, the line is smoother. Note to self, just because it is a bathroom, do not ever use bathroom caulk again unless it is around a shower, sink or toilet. I had to scrub that caulk off my hands using the rough side of a Scotch-Brite in order to remove it. Needless to say I will use regular caulk from now on, which is easily removed from my hands using soap and water :)

7. We used wood filler and touch up paint to cover nail holes. Also touched up any caulk or other areas.

8. We installed the hardware (which you can buy by the piece from Home Depot) on our cabinet fronts (using a drill) and put them back up.

9. Charlotte and I went shopping to find a new shower curtain and rug. I fell in love with this Spiced Palampore curtain from World Market :)

And 5 days later we finished!

So here's our guest bedroom and we wanted the bathroom to coordinate.

BEFORE

(I forgot to take a front on picture of the cabinets until after I painted the walls)

These flowers have nothing to do with anything, except that I arranged them during the course of this project. You can see the painted wall w/out the chair rail in the background. Also, I think this picture reflects more of the true colors of the bathroom. The other pictures make it look more baby blue, which it isn't. Anyway, I love flowers :)

AFTER

6 Months of Beautiful Charlotte

I can't believe my baby is 6 months old today! In celebration of her 6 months I decided to post her birth story. I never thought I would post it, I don't know why. Maybe because it's so special to me, but I know it may not something others may find super interesting. But I love my baby and reminiscing about her arrival, so here goes:

The Waiting Game: As a preface, I thought and hoped I would have her early since my two sisters have had ALL of their babies early. I had my hospital bagged packed a month early, my freezer was full of weeks worth of freezer meals I'd made, and the house was organized and scrubbed from top to bottom. I'd worked up until 3 work days before her due date. So of course her due date came and went... and no Charlotte. I tried a bunch of the tricks to induce labor with no luck. I was pretty bummed out on my due date and I remember saying, "It feels like Christmas with no presents. " That is until I talked to Ruth. She told me that I needed to chillax and enjoy this time I had as a free woman while I could do exactly what I wanted whenever I wanted. Thanks Ruth :) I was still sleeping at night and not completely miserable, so I couldn't really complain too much. We set the induction date for July 17 and I spent the next few days swimming, enjoying long afternoon naps, and Jeff taking me to Sonic late each night for my Orange Creamslush craving.

Well two days before the induction I baked cookies, went visiting teaching, and went swimming with my sisters. That night we met up with our friends Danica and Brennon for dinner and then watched the 7th Harry Potter movie with Anna and Rob in preparation for going to see the last Harry Potter movie the next morning. Well during the Harry Potter movie we ate lots of popcorn (big mistake) and I started to have some contractions. At first I didn't think much of it because I'd had false labor several times before, that went away after several hours. By the end of the movie, around 11 pm, Jeff started timing them and they were hurting bad enough that we decided it was time to go the hospital. I wanted to take a shower first (because isn't that what you do when your in labor)? Well Jeff said no way- we needed to go right away. He grabbed our bag and off we went.

Hospital Time: The drive to the hospital was the LONGEST drive of my life. It didn't help that Jeff had to pull over a few times because... popcorn is not so good the second time around. We got to the hospital around 12 am and we ran (I guess I speedily hobbled) inside between contractions. At the check in we were told their computers were down, so once we got into triage they would only have 1 million questions to ask us (even though I'd preregistered). They checked me and I was at a 7. That was when I decided I was glad I'd skipped the shower :) Triage took over an hour and I was about to lose control of my emotions- I wanted to sob and scream and perhaps say a few choice words, but luckily I had a really good nurse who firmly told me I couldn't lose control. I wanted to cry, but I didn't let myself. Jeff helped me stay calm and in control. He was such a great support and I can honestly say, I couldn't have done it without him.

Finally they moved me to the labor and delivery room. I was getting a little worried if I didn't get my epidural soon it would be too late. As a side note my sister, Wendy, had Presley natural because there was no time for an epidural... or even a doctor. So needless to say I was a little paranoid the same thing would happen to me. Thank goodness it didn't! When the anesthesiologist walked in I told him that (for reals) he couldn't imagine how happy I was to see him and that he's got to be the most popular (and loved) guy at the hospital! I was at an 8 by then and it took him 2 tries. After I got the epidural I could still feel the contractions on my left side, but after a couple hours the pain subsided and we were able to take a short nap.

Welcome to the World Charlotte: The nurse came in and checked me again and I was at a 10. Charlotte was posterior and they tried several times to turn her. They weren't able to. Basically that means a longer labor and a lot more pushing. We met our blonde haired, blue eyed baby girl at 5:23 am on July 16th. I finally let myself cry. Tears of joy.

I never experienced love at first sight until I met Charlotte. She was the most pure, precious, and beautiful thing I'd ever seen. I felt like my heart grew twice as big the moment I saw her and I loved her unconditionally. She was worth every ounce of pain and sacrifice I had and would ever make. She was perfect in every way and she was mine.

Six Months of Joy: In the six months since Charlotte was born we've only fallen more in love with her. I won't say every day has been complete bliss, because we all know that would be a lie. Some parts of my recovery have been very difficult. Discovering my new purpose in life has been, at times, hard. I still dream of the day when I can get more than 5 consecutive hours of sleep. And on a lighter note - did you know abstaining for chocolate is a legitimate form of torture?

But overall, the last 6 months have been some of the happiest of my life. She has us both wrapped around her cute little finger. I feel so lucky that I get to stay home with Charlotte each day. I am so glad I'm married to the love of my life. Jeff is an amazing dad with an infinite amount of patience, tenderness, and love. Charlotte gives us big gummy smiles all day, giggles when we tickle her or toss her in the air, makes us laugh at least 100 times a day, loves to go on errands and walks with me, and soaks up all of our compliments and kisses. She's spunky, she's strong willed, she's smart, she's sassy, she's sweet. I could have never imagined the joy and happiness she would bring us. I love my new life. I love my little family. I love my sweet Charlotte.


A few pictures from then and now:

Newborn Pictures

6 Month Pictures
(Thank you Wendy!!!)

Babymoon = San Diego = Awesome

I'm back. To the blogging world that is at least for now :)

As most of you already know, we are having a sweet little girl on July 12 and I am just starting my third trimester (prego belly proof below). To celebrate our upcoming parenthood, we went on a babymoon to San Diego. I think Babygirl could sense the excitement (or the blueberry muffin I ate) as we drove out of town because she was practicing her kickboxing and gymnastics all the way to Maricopa!

We went to Seaworld, which was a success because neither of us were eaten by Shamu (or the sharks circling behind us), and we got to see some awesome shows!



We went to the zoo and Jeff paid for me to get a first rate foot massage :) Pay no attention that I am the only adult...


We came across a mini people village (aka Japanese garden), Jeff was quite intrigued!



And we went kayaking up at La Jolla and even got to see some seals. Here's a hillside view of where we went kayaking- it was a gorgeous day!



I must admit, I'm scared, excited, nervous, anxious, apprehensive, content, and probably a million other feelings about being a mom, but if there's anything I can give our little girl, it's that I love Jeff with all my heart.

Hmmmm

To blog or not to blog. After about 6 months of blogging (my last post before just recently was in June I think?) I have completely lost any interest to blog. Sometimes it almost seems silly to write about our lives and broadcast it for everyone to see so that people can briefly read through it for their own news entertainment...and then the reader feels somewhat connected with that person because they know everything that is going on in the blogger's life. Does anybody think it's weird that we can know so much about somebody's life, and at the time that person may know very little about what's going on with you?

To be private or open. Then I thought maybe making my blog private could be a good idea. Maybe I've watched to many Criminal Minds episodes (which I am trying to quit because I usually watch them when I'm home alone at night which results in me being freaked out that some serial killer is going to sneak up on me), but I'm not sure I want any random person reading my blog. Does this weird anybody else out? I think I'd feel safer having just people I know and care about reading my blog?

What do you guys think? I'm very interested to know.


P.S. By the way, Colorado, California, Alaska, and Pine were fabulous - maybe someday I'll blog about it-haha. Jeff started school :( I'm excited for Carissa to have her baby. I didn't like Mockingjay. I was sad to say goodbye to Anna. I can't wait for my Granny's 100th birthday party. And I made tacos for dinner :)

It's been....

3 years since this happened...

and I couldn't be happier!

Living it up at Lake Powell

We went to Lake Powell for a week with my family and it was great! No matter how many times I go, I am always mesmerized by the beauty of Lake Powell.

Here's some of the things that I loved about the trip:

Kayaking! I felt so stealthy and swift... like an alligator

Hiking up an awesome slot canyon where we met Fireball and Freddie

Overpriced soft-serve ice cream from Dangling Rope, it was delicious

Painting all the girls toes red. Brett wanted his painted too- but Ruth would not allow it :)

Rainbow Bridge

Spending lots of time with family, my favorite peeps! (and... "it was me!")

We had some new additions on the trip: my floppy hat and Jeff's "mr. mustachio" :) Unfortunately, mr. mustachio was eliminated as soon as we got home from the trip.

Do I Look Stupid?

Warning - this is a possibly boring and/or controversial diatribe - so do not read if you easily offended or if it makes you want to right rude or combative comments on my blog - come back next post after I write about our sweet Lake Powell trip :)

I don't think I look or act stupid most of the time. Ok except when the grocery clerk rings up my ice cream twice and I don't catch it until I get home - but that's probably more just not being vigilant right? (Grrrr happened last night). Or me eating my newly homemade granola until my tummy hurt - but that's more just making unwise eating choices right? Or me buying a gallon of milk grocery shopping each week and then throwing most or all of it away when it expires - I know I really should just buy a half gallon...

Anyway, this weekend we got Jeff's Social Security benefits statement saying what he will get when he retires at this point. On the front middle of the page highlighted reads "Will Social Security still be around when I retire?" and it goes on to say "YES". Most people probably stop reading there - content - and go on their merry way. But, if you read on further (because let's be honest - I was a little surprised) it says if there are not changes made, the Social Security Trust fund will be depleted in 2037. (For those of you who were not English majors, depleted = gone, bankrupt, sucked dry.)Now I must admit I was a finance major and do carry a financial calculator in my purse at all times, but anyone that can do simple math can figure out how old they will be in 2037. Jeff will be 54. The current retirement age is 65 and so far I have not heard of the retirement age getting younger- if anything they are pushing it back older and older. So it appears to met there was a BLATANT lie in the statement that there will still be Social Security Benefits when we retire.

Basically we put in 6.2% of our income each year to a huge ponzi scheme, but it is somehow ok because the government runs it. In my own little utopia - we would do away with any Social Security taxes, let the exisiting funds pay out those who are retired, and privatize retirement savings for everyone else (I know this is a crude outline so please do not debate me over any flaws and how this would be impossible). How nice would it be for ME to decide how I want to invest that 6.2% in whatever investments I please - it is my money afterall.

Anyway, long story short, I do not expect to see a penny of Social Security and we have/will happily plan for our retirement accordingly :)

P.S. Take that Uncle Sam - then we can retire whenever we want!