the bathroom blog... and other hodge podge.

my fabulous friend charity found a "before" picture of our hall bathroom on facebook and asked if we had changed it.  here is a picture of the bathroom when we moved in:

i'm actually a fan of the black and white tile, so we want to keep it.  there were some areas of tile that were cracked or missing, mostly along the walls, and my dad replaced those for us.  there was also a very special touch in here that you can't see in this picture, and that was the lighting... which consisted of a blue strobe light above the bathroom mirror. it was extra special!  we removed that.  here's the bathroom now:

billy's sister wendy gave us some great overhead light fixtures that they were no longer using, and dad installed one of them in the bathroom:

it makes the lighting a lot nicer than the blue strobe light did. believe me, you did not want to get a look at yourself in the mirror first thing in the morning before your coffee. it was full on crack head smurf. 
so, not too shabby right?  well, there's a part that is too shabby. it consists of the medicine cabinet and the really special fluorescent bulb light fixtures on the side. 

isn't it breathtaking? (ick!) we plan to replace these in the very near future.  it's actually next on the list.  we're looking for something kind of restoration hardware industrial.  i'm gonna head to the outlets next month and scope it out.  i don't mind the sink for now.  eventually we would like to get a new faucet though, for the sink and the shower.

so there you go charity!  that's the current bathroom situation.  after the medicine cabinet and light fixtures, the next big projects are baby room and master bathroom.  if you want a sneak peak of what those two looked like "before" so you know what we're up against, here you go:

the sweet sweet baby room:

 nice!
and the super sexy master bath:

 yowza! and you can't even see the inside of the shower!

see what i gave you to look forward to? the after pictures are going to knock your socks off!

just to make this blog even more random (hey i warned you... hodge podge!) here is a current picture of the outside of the house. 

the main things we are working on out here right now are as follows:
1) see those disgusting bushes that are blocking all the light from our lower level windows? they are going bye bye!
2) we're painting and replacing the shutters that we had to take down for closing (they apparently don't like chipping lead based paint... nomnomnom.)
3) we recently discovered a stone walkway that goes from the front patio all the way around the side of the house to the back by the pool!  it's completely covered with grass right now, but promises to be oh so pretty!

i also had a really pretty american flag hanging out front, but tucker decided to eat it one day while i was at work. *sigh*

and, last but not least, what i'm working on today, is turning the front bedroom into not only the cutest guest room ever, but also a functional home office.  here is what my creative process looks like half way through:

hey! how'd billy get in the middle of my creative process? :)
messy!  this room will be complete before we leave for mexico on friday night, except for the sweet bohemian duvet cover i still have to order from urban.  i'll post pictures when we get back! 

in the meantime, stay tuned for vacation shots (i foresee a sunburned billy blanco in his trademark all white with obnoxiously fruity beverages and sombreros!) love!

etc.

tricia informed me that my previous blog post was only accepting comments from "team members".  i don't have any team members, i actually don't even know what that is.  but i think i fixed it, so you should be able to comment now. yay!

my appointment went great today!  i've gained two pounds since my last appointment, for a total of five.  apparently this is right on track and i got a big high five.  my bloodwork from my last appointment also came back and got high scores, and i'm "not even the slightest bit anemic!" which is good news since i've still been maintaining my vegetarian diet.  my midwife also thinks that i am a little further ahead of schedule than we originally thought.  since we could hear the baby's heartbeat as early as my "8 week" appointment and my cycle determining my due date was random at best, she said she wouldn't be surprised if bambino showed up earlier than the end of february. ok by me!

the best part about appointment days is that billy works from home! yay!  so we are managing to squeak in a trip to the farmers market together this afternoon... something i do every wednesday, but billy has never been able to!  we're looking forward to it.

in other news, here are some of the promised "before and after" pictures of some rooms in the house.  i like to say "before and during" because there is still more work to be done.  we haven't done a lot of picture hanging or decorating, but things are finally CLEAN at least.  here we go!

family room:

before:

current:

upstairs hall:

before:

current: 

guest bedroom 1:

before:

current:

guest bedroom2:

before:

current:

master bedroom:

before:

current:

there are plenty more but that's enough for today!  there is also a fourth bedroom that will be the baby room, so we'll leave those before and afters for when it's all finished! 

aren't these before and after pictures so much more exciting than ones of my stomach!? seriously!

closing on a baby note, my next appointment is september 15th and that's when we'll schedule the sonogram to determine boy/girl.  the birth center does not do routine sonograms, (they only do gender sonograms by request) so we'll only have one picture of baby en utero!  we're looking forward to the end of september! :) but, as you can see by the house pictures, we are keeping busy in the meantime!! have a great day everyone!

and baby makes three.

well, four if you count tuck.

hey everyone! i started this little bloggity blog to post some pictures of me getting fat over the next six months. aren't you excited?!

we figured we'd post the sonogram pictures and belly shots here so it's a little more private than facebook.  we love you guys and we're so excited about our new addition!

tomorrow is my 13 week appointment... here's a poor iphone shot of me today and the five pounds i've already gained! thanks baby! glad you're comfortable!

don't worry. i'm not alone in this. billy promises he will get fat too...

yeah right.

moving right along!

some general information for all!

we are due at the end of february. (hopefully the weather will be a little more accommodating this winter, or billy's going to have to pull a little house on the prairie.)

i feel much better now, although i was lucky enough to not be puking my way through the first trimester.  just lots of nausea and extreme laziness.  there were handfuls of dry cereal in our bed for 8 weeks... billy's glad that's over with! crunch crunch.

we decided to go the more traditional route, and i have an amazing group of midwives, nurses, (and even *gasp* doctors!) at the fantastic bryn mawr birth center, where i have always gone for my regular gal services.  we just love them there!  don't worry, it's not a log cabin at the end of our creek, and the highly ranked bryn mawr hospital is right across the street in the event that something serious happen, like i break billy's hand during labor.

mandy was amazing enough to give me a yoga membership and i have traded in my daily runs for daily yoga sessions.  i absolutely love it, especially my prenatal class!  

billy of course is phenomenal and excited as well! he has always been the most patient man ever, but his tolerance never ceases to amaze me.  he doesn't even question it when we have crab legs and spaghetti o's and french's onion rings for dinner.   what a trooper!  we rented a little baby doppler and dr. billy is a pro at finding the baby's heartbeat for us to listen to every night! although, this kid is either really shy or really hyperactive. we literally have to chase him around my abdomen.

well, we don't know if it's a him! but we will be finding out next month! don't worry none of that gender neutral baby clothes business.  mostly we're finding out so we can start asking for prayer early if it's a girl. *shudder*

in non-baby related business, our house is coming right along thanks to mom and dad who come up here most weekends and motivate us into tackling projects, or just tackle them themselves!  i'll post some before and after pictures up here in blogs to come so we don't all get tired of froo froo baby stuff.

love!