A Life Renovation!

WOO HOO! We did it!! Baby number #1 is due July 5, 2010!!

Sorry we've not updated the blog for some time, but we've not done much with the house or had much to say. However, with the new addition coming, there will surely be some renovation and lots to talk about!!

But first, about the baby!! As many of you know, we've been hoping to start a family for some time. So we are quite excited about this news.

Here is baby at our last ultrasound at 13-1/2 weeks:

This ultrasound was SOOO cool. Baby was jumping around so we will likely have an active kid on our hands come summer. We saw baby's nose, mouth, arms, legs, hands and feet. We even saw the some of the internal organs like the brain, stomach and heart. Baby's heart is beating strong too. It is so exciting. Unfortunately, it was too early to find out the sex -- but we plan to find out in mid-February at the 20 week ultrasound. Must to know how to shop appropriately!!

Everyone who's been "in the know" before today is thrilled. This is the first grandchild on Adam's side of the family, so his parents are over the moon.

Here they are. They want to be called "Gram" and "Pop" so we got them a little gift to announce baby (click photo to see bigger):


On my side, my family was excited as well. However, this will be grandchild #15!! Here are all the Masse grandkids to date at our annual Christmas celebration:


We didn't get to capture the moment when we told my parents because we were too busy hugging, but I've created this reenactment:

Memere and Pepere are very excited too!

So what does this mean for the house? Well of course we'll have to make baby a room. One of the top questions I've received is "Will Adam have to give up the comic room?". The answer is no. We have a large bedroom on the second floor which we'll use as a combo baby/guest room. So the comic room stays put for now.

Here is how the guest room looks today:

The west end:


The east end:
We don't plan on doing a theme for this room, but we have no definite plans yets. I have bought a few pieces of art over the last year:


This one says "Life began when I saw your face" with a baby bunny and parent bunny. So sweet.

So stay tuned for developments with baby's room!

We are also making some changes to my office that will be helpful when baby arrives. We plan to post an update very soon to show these changes.

With this news, we had a wonderful Christmas. Everything we do now, we think "next year, baby will be here with us!". It is so fun.

We went minimal with our tree this year. Adam's parents let us borrow their extra prelit artifical. We hung glass ornaments only:

Tree from afar:


And lit up:


Oh, we did hang one non-glass ornament, in honor of baby:


As you know, Adam is a comic enthusiast. So I've picked up some baby items that will make daddy happy too. Here is a little hat I bought for baby, modeled by one of my creepy childhood dolls:


(Note the outfit. Sorry Pepere. Adam says no Cubs gear within 25 feet of baby!)

And here are a few items we received for baby for Christmas. A cute rattle from Adam's Uncle Frank and Aunt Karen. And tiny baby shoes *awwww* from baby's Uncle Joey (Adam's brother) and Aunt Katie.


We're so happy to finally share this news with everyone! Thank you for your support!! We look forward to sharing updates on this "life renovation" with you, along with updates on the house.


Happy New Year!!
C + A

PS: A disclaimer -- we will NOT be painting the nursery "Little Boy Blue" or "Princess Pink". :)

Look What My Honey-Did!

Every summer, Adam takes time off and tends to things around the house. It is really nice! What a lucky lady I am.

About two weeks ago, Adam began his honey-do week :D Here's what happened:

1. New stoop

The concrete dudes showed up to replace our stoop. Finally! My honey supervised and documented. Here are some pics:

The breakdown of the stoop:

A pile of rubble:

Since they were out, Adam had them look at some other concrete behind our garage that needed some TLC...

And made the executive decision to have them replace a few of the back pieces too. Here they are, forming the front stoop:

And, the work in the back:

And pretty new concrete:

Here's the new stoop:

And a week later, after my honey painted the rails white:

Nice job Adam!

2. New foyer tile

I've been wanting to get new tile for the foyer, so my honey phoned up his cousin Jay, who you might remember from the shower tiling in our upstairs bathroom.

We picked out some tile from Home Depot and Jay came over to beautify. Here are some pics...

Old, smelly tile out (Can tile smell? I think it can. It smelled funky when you walked in our front door. Like hot crayons):

New tile going down:

Adam also got assistance on putting our trim back up:

The finished tile!

Close up:

Awesome job Jason!

3. The deck!
This is a biggie. You might remember that last year, around this time, Adam stained the deck for my birthday. Well, for some reason, through the winter, the stain didn't hold. Adam decided he would try again. This time, we decided on an opaque red stain. And, this time, Adam's bro Joe was roped in to help.

The power washing:

A long day of painting:

And voila!

Red deck, from the yard:


I was afraid with the red siding, that it might be a little too much red. But, I like it. Way to go honey! And Joey too!

4. Tire trampled grass
I was avoiding looking at our side garden because the tire tracks from the neighbors cars made me sad. My honey offered to lay new sod. Isn't he grand?

Sod is hard work.

Digging out the tire tracks:

After:

And this past weekend (working on getting those brown patches in):

5. Bookshelf
Adam continues to work on the display of his pride and joy. Here is a beautiful red shelf he built to maximize the space on top of his comic drawerboxes. I think he might love this shelf more than me.


6. Off topic: The LEDGE

You might have heard about The LEDGE at the Sears Towers... excuse me, Willis Tower. As you might know, I work in the building and last week, building tenants were given a sneak peak. Pretty freaky.

Here are a couple of shots:

I'm floating!

More soon --
C + A
(4780)

We can see clearly now, the crappy windows are gone!

We have windows!! Hooray! Here are some pics:

Our delivery:


The guys get to work... get to work smashing our peonies. Awesome. Thanks dudes.


Bedroom before:


And after:


Ripping out old windows:


Bathroom before... I will miss this style of window -- I won't miss the breeze that came through it in the dead of winter


Bathroom after (almost):


Old dining room windows:


And after:


It is so great to be able to open the windows for fresh air now. I am definitely glad we splurged.

In other news, the stoop continues to crack:


We called the cement company and approved their bid. We think they either a) forgot or b) are too busy with more profitable projects. Hubby will give them a call next week to see what the deal is...

In the meantime, the rails are scraped and ready for new paint.


Also, we finally painted our front door. Here I am, hard at work (I know, you like my style):


Hubby works on the frame:


And the finished product:


We are contemplating a new screen door. I feel the current door blocks the lovely green too much. Maybe something like this instead:


We also could use a new house number and definitely new landscaping. The dying bushes aren't really lighting our fire... though we do like the purpley leafy thorny thing on the left side of the picture. But new landscaping is for another year...

Door is green on the inside too, because I liked the color so much:


Here is another green door. My friend S recently resided her house, as well as got/painted a new front door, got new windows in the front, and added a hand painted sign. Check it out:

Before:


After:

View of front:


The emerald curtain (actually, kind of spring green):


Handmade address sign:


On another note, here are a couple of pics of spring in the backyard:


Barry's growing nicely... also, check out the deck... the next post will probably include an update on this deck...


Another mystery we're exploring...
We've started to get some significant seepage in the basement when it rains. I was tired of wet, smelly carpet, and freaking out about mold possibly growing behind the wall. So a couple of Fridays ago, we did some impromtu demo:


Tore off part of the wall and cut up a chunk of the carpet... This is what we found:


Interestingly enough, the previous homeowners were "not aware of any water problems". Yet there is a patch job and a new piece of wood there... hmmm...

Nasty stained carpet with a fan nearby to help dry the smelly, wet carpet:


We are still trying to super sleuth out the reason for this seepage. Having the basement partially tore up has lit a fire under me to $ave, $ave, $ave for a basement renovation. I have started to sketch out my plans... this is just an early idea...

Before:

After:

Essentially, we divide the non-laundry area a bit, add a room with a wall of closets for storage, and also add a 1/2 bath in the area underneath our main floor bath.

Finally... a tip:
When you paint multiple rooms in your house, mark the top of the paint cans with the room painted. Most people probably do this.

We did not.

Here, we tried to touch up the wall in the foyer, but kept picking the wrong color -- unfortunately light grey, light green and cream all kind of look the same-ish until the color dries:


The repainted foyer will probably be in the next post too!

TTFN!
C+A
(since the photos on here always make us look so rough, here is a cute one)


PS: If you haven't seen UP, stop what you are doing now and go see it.