Cloffice and the Bump

Hello friends!

We excitedly preparing for baby. As you can see above, Adam is ready to teach baby about all things comics. These awesome finger puppets were made by Grams (Adam's mom) from a pattern I bought on etsy.com. In case you can't tell, from left to right we have: The Joker, Lex Luthor, Spider-man, Batman, Hulk, Superman and Wonder Woman. Superman comes complete with flow-y cape, and Wonder Woman with flow-y hair. And look at Joker's rockin locks!

Here, Baby Daddy is practicing by telling baby doll an epic tale about how Wonder Woman did Superman wrong by going behind the Man of Steel's back with Lex Luthor. OH NO YOU DI-NT!

Speaking of Wonder Woman, here is my pregnancy update (ha ha). I am 17 weeks today and feeling great! Last week, I had my 16 week appointment. It was short and sweet, about three minutes exactly. My belly was measured and we listened to baby's heartbeat. It sounded great! I think I have started to feel the baby move, but it is SO subtle. Like little bubbles popping inside.

Now, it is just the big wait to the 20 week appointment where we'll hopefully find out the baby's sex. Then the shopping and naming fun begin!

For fun, I've throw a poll up top. What do you think the baby will be: boy or girl? Cast your vote today!

And... drumroll... for all of those who have inquired, please enjoy this montage of my growing bump (note: this has sound):



Now, on to the house renovating...

As mentioned in my previous post, with baby coming, we decided to convert my office into a den. And the closet in aforementioned office (which used to house my clothes) into my new office.

To remind you of what the office looked like, here is a pic from the summer of 2008:


That is my friend M's baby, Monte. Lots of room for the little guy to run -- but also lots of stuff for the little guy to mess with. Namely my bookshelf contents and the surrounding technology (precious Mac).

This room is directly off of our kitchen. With baby on the way, we thought it might be nice to have more of a den by the kitchen -- so when we're home from work, one parent can be in the den with baby and the other can be making a tasty dinner. Smart huh?

But the quandary: where would my office go? The basement was an option, but I am on my Mac often and didn't really want to be in the basement all the time. So, I searched for some inspiration on the internet and discovered the "Cloffice" -- a closet converted into an office. This is usually done when folks are short on space. However, we thought this would be a perfect solution for us -- it would give us room for the den, while still keeping my office upstairs. Hooray!

Some inspiration:
supershoppertoo, Flicker
Shawn & Callie, ApartmentTherapy

So, here is our conversion! The beginning:

My closet, emptied:

Painted! Adam's bro Joey comes by to assist with the shelving and desk installation:


Joey is so happy to be using his new drill that he got for Christmas. Thank goodness for our house projects!
Adam working away...
Look! He can saw too! We'll keep him!
The boys hard at work:
The mess on the other side of the room!
Time for a new light fixture!
And, the shelves are up! Success! The big silver thing is a heat vent jobby.
View from the den:
Starting to load in items. Electricians stop over to install a four plug outlet for the technology.
We have power!! (Almost!)
Doors up! Waiting for paint and knobs.
Now.... to convert this into a den... Desk=sold. Bookshelves and silver cart=moved to the furniture graveyard (our basement).
Pretty painted doors! Dark robin egg blue with fancy knobs from Anthropologie.


Inside view of the cloffice!
Interior right:
Interior left:
Me in my cloffice!
Yes, that is a painted portrait of me. Ha. Don't ask. It was an impulse purchase when my friend S and I went to a summer festival. I never smile, so it totally looks like me.
The light fixture. We have this same fixture three other spots in our house. I like the vintage vibe. Plus it is a cheapie at Home Depot.
Hung this in the den. Cool poster by Threadless.
More art, just moved around from other side of the room.

And here is the den! White cabinet is an Ikea bargain. It holds our TV and has two large drawers. Perfect for DVDs, books... and toys and diapers. I like that the TV is there but can be hidden.Cabinet open...
And closing...
Closing...
Closed! Rug is also from Ikea. Strangely, the color looks pretty close to the paint inside of the office.
Left corner of the room with the office closed. Oh yeah! What's that chair you see... Yes! It's official! We're suburban old people... WE BOUGHT RECLINERS! I know, I know. But this was a necessary function-over-form decision. We were going for comfort here. And they rock. Literally. So hopefully baby will dig that. This is my chair...
And here is Adam's chair. Also got a red Ikea Poang chair. Another option for rocking, and also, additional seating.
Adam loves his chair... Here he is, relaxing and reading "What to Expect When You're Expecting", and dressed in true pregnant lady style:
And the reclining action, perfect for napping:
So, the conversion is complete, aside from a little more accessorizing. We're both really happy with it. Next up: my new closet. Right now my clothes are residing in the nursery closet until their final home is ready. I am sure this will be a post in the near future (Joey, clear your calendar!).

Until next time...
C + A

PS: Don't forget to vote in the poll!

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)