Our master bedroom

Prepare to be underwhelmed, here is our master bedroom.  Please don't mind the cluttered dresser and random stuff on the ground, it's a miracle I got the room this clean!

This is a very modest room, it measures 13x15 and has nowhere near the square footage or storage of the previous masters we've had.  When it's clean, it's not too bad in here.  Alas, it's never clean.  These photos required 15 minutes of carrying crap to Ashford's room to clear it out. 

We still have a pile of framed art in the corner that we're not sure what to do with.  I don't love the Cycles Gladiator print anymore, but I'm not sure if it's the frame or the print.  I do love the curtains, but the (Behr) Aqua Smoke wall color, curtains and rug together make for very limiting bedding options to avoid being too busy.  I really need to find a nice neutral/solid comforter set.

A new addition is the headboard from Wayfair.  I wanted something lighter than the dark brown one we've had, but I wouldn't recommend this one.  Especially at the current selling price of $500, I paid $300 in December!  It's very thin, was advertised as 'cream' when it's clearly a natural/tan color, and it's not super secure because the holes don't line up with the holes on either of our bed frames.  It may be moving to the guest room so I can get a nicer one for us. 

I'm so tired of our furniture.  I've had this set since I was 22 years old, and I'm dying for something new and less matchy.  But it's in good condition, it's pretty classic in style, and I wouldn't get much if I sold it, so I have to live with it for now.  Did you see the 'Keep Calm and Carry On' poster still up on the wall?  YOU GUYS.  Shaun loves it, and won't hear of not putting it up.  Embarrassment.  I'm sorry.  I should at least get a new frame that isn't dingy like that old Ikea one. 

My very small closet does not have any hope of holding my clothes.  The doors are also on pretty wonky since we got our floors done and had to remove them all.  Luckily, the doors themselves are fine looking and I was able to dress them up a little with some beautiful knobs from Anthropologie. 

I also added a couple nice hooks from Home Depot in between them to help keep stuff off the floor.  I loved that they went well with the dark curtain rods and light fixture. 

The light fixture is from Shades of Light, and it was worth the money in my opinion.  It gives a ton of light, doesn't hang down too far for my bed-jumping kid, and the crystal on the bottom ties in my lamps and hooks. 

So, that is the end.  Not a bad before and after, eh?

As far as budget, we had some whole-house work that happened in this room, including the floors, trim, and swapping out fans for lights on switches throughout the house.  The rest of the items that I can remember:
Curtains (fabric and seamstress): 150
Curtain rods: 35 steal at TJ Maxx
Curtain rings: 20
Light: 278
Hooks: 16
Closet knobs: 40
Headboard: 300
Paint: 60
Total: $899
Not cheap, but considering the headboard and light are 2/3 of the amount, I think I did pretty good.  And here is a regular sight in our room....why he wants to sleep on our floor is beyond me!

Our master bath and baby ramblings

While I would love to totally rip our master bath out and start over, there is no way that is happening, so we are making the best of this teeny room.  It's certainly a NICE remodel, but it's nice for someone else.  The travertine/traditional look is definitely not my style.  Here is how it looked when we bought the house:

You can barely see the burgundy valance over the window.  It was coated in dust and was taken down immediately!  I absolutely hate this dark sage green paint, and the previous owners used it in the master bath and bedroom, and the half bath in the lower level.  It felt so good to prime over it!  This makeover is not a WOW or anything, but I think it looks a lot better now.

I used BM Natural Cream on the walls, the same color we used in our Minnesota house main bathroom.  It is a nice warm gray.  I couldn't tolerate painting the walls to match the fleshy/yellow beige of the tile, and there is veining in the tile that matches the wall color, so I think it works ok.  The rack above the toilet is from Amazon, it was so easy to install and give us a nice place to stack a couple towels.  It was hard to find a towel rack because that little wall is only 24 inches, and most '24 inch' racks are actually almost 26 since the measurement only accounts for the bars.  Love Amazon!

The window is bare since there is privacy glass, but I may do a little window treatment one day.  For now, it's fun to be able to use whatever color towels we want.  The ugly wood TP holder is a project for another day!

We had to replace the faucet the first week because the existing one's pop up drain assembly wouldn't open and the sink couldn't drain.  How that got past inspection, I have no idea...it was seriously like it was super glued down.  Replacement drains wouldn't work with the existing faucet because it was all one piece, so an entire new faucet was needed.  What an expensive problem!  We are finding the previous owners used cheap materials and we are now fixing all their mistakes.  I chose the Moen Banbury faucet and got the matching towel bar since there wasn't one before. 

I would really like some hardware on the vanity, since you literally have to claw the drawers open, but I can't find anything I like.  I feel like satin nickel to match the rest of the bathroom would be too obvious, so I'm thinking dark to match the dark glazing on the wood.  But the fancy edges make placing a knob on the door hard, so maybe a large pull in the middle of the door to match smaller pulls on the drawers?  Or, nothing on the door and just pulls on the drawers?  Help!  Another thing I really need to do is update the can lights.

I would love to rip out that dumb soffit and move the box to the wall for a nice normal vanity fixture, but that is just not a priority right now.  In the meantime, I will just get new flush can inserts and call it a day.  I also fight a daily battle with soap scum on the glass enclosure. 

I try to squeegee the water off after every shower to prevent this, but that doesn't always happen, or work.  I'd love to hear any good methods for keeping the glass clean!  So, that is the tiny bathroom we use to shower and (at least for me) basically nothing else.  I wish there was more room, but it's nice to have, anyway.  Life has been very hard this last month.  Zach's face usually looks like this unless he's nursing.

He still will not sleep decently unless being held.  He usually sleeps for one 2 hour stretch per night in the rock n play (the rest of the night on me) and a single 1-2 hour nap in the swing during the day if I'm lucky.  Some days he doesn't really sleep all day long, just little cat naps while nursing.  It's so exhausting and it's not just me, he is also super tired.  But he won't tolerate a swaddle, he won't take any pacifier I've tried, he won't even take any bottles - so I'm trapped at home with him.  He is also so big that it's tiring to wear him in the carrier.  He weighed 14 lbs 4 oz at his 2 month check up!

I was dairy free for four weeks, and we didn't really notice a difference in his behavior or desire to be held/hatred of laying down, so I started eating some earlier this week.  Then he became extremely fussy and cried even while being held, so I'm back to no dairy hoping it will at least cut out some gas.  It's hard, but I still manage to find some happy baby moments to take cute photos of Zach.  I am determined to take as many photos/videos of him as I did with Ashford, I think it's so sad that first kids always have more!  I've committed to doing a 365 book of Zach, the same as I've done for Ashford in 2014 and 2015.  It will be so fun to see him gradually growing in each photo!  Here are some of my recent favorites:

This one has a little glimpse of a new rug we got for the living room.  The living room is in transition right now since Shaun wanted the sectional downstairs.  It's such a mess!

And despite Ashford not wanting to participate in photo sessions with his brother, I managed to get some cute shots for Valentine's Day...

There has been some exciting progress on the lower level, I will try to clean that up and take some photos for you all this weekend! 

Our new addition

Hi, everyone...I'm alive!  In case you were wondering, I had my baby Zachary Brian on December 10th...I hope you don't mind if this is a post about him. 

I never shared my birth story with Ashford, and that is because it was a terrible induction and I didn't want to talk about it...but surprisingly, I chose to be induced again this time at 39w+2 because I was having a lot of pain issues and the baby was big.  My doctor assured me it would go much faster and I wouldn't be pushing for 3 hours like last time.  She was right!  We went in at 6:30am and started Pitocin, contractions were easy until they broke my water at 9, then things got real and I labored on my own until 11am at which point I begged for the epidural.  I was fully dilated and started practice pushes around 1pm, but I couldn't feel the muscles I needed to push, so I frantically told them TURN THE DAMN EPI OFF because I didn't want a c section.  It took 35 minutes to start to feel again, and then I got the treat of FEELING AGAIN just in time to push him out.  I know it was still better than it would've been without the partial epidural, but it was awful and I was blubbering like an idiot for the entire 22 minutes I pushed.  Then he had the cord wrapped around his neck so tight the doctor made me stop for a few minutes while his entire head was out so she could cut it.  It was absolutely miserable!  But Zach was born at 2:02pm weighing 8 pounds 7 oz, and 21 inches long.  I was floored at his size, I knew he was bigger than Ashford but not that big! 

I was lucky enough to have Shaun take photos of the experience, and he did such a great job!  I treasure these and definitely recommend you have someone do this for you...although I'm sure the staff thought I was nuts looking at my camera to change the settings for Shaun while in active labor.  Hey, you do what is important to you!

This is the newborn outfit Ashford went home from the hospital in...it fit Zach for a few days.

My absolute favorite thing to do now is comparison photos, mostly because DUH comparisons are awesome, but also because Zach is huge and dark and the opposite of my fair, tiny Ashford.  I realize this perspective does not demonstrate that, but it's too cute.

So here we are a month later, and this baby is a whole different ball game from my first.  He MUST be held, he sleeps on me and hardly ever sleeps not on me, he nurses every hour and I can't get a single thing done.  Sometimes I'm able to pick him up with the boppy and set him down while still asleep, and that gets me about 30 minutes to do something. 

But usually as soon as the pillow hits the couch, this happens. 

We are all having a really hard time with this transition, having two kids is exactly as hard as I thought it would be.  Ashford wants me to play with him, but I'm stuck on the couch with the baby most of the day.  Usually, I'm listening to a chorus of crying from both kids because I can't help them at the same time.  I also stressed myself out even more by trying to take Zach's newborn photos myself.  OMG, what a disaster.  I was recovering slowly and had many postpartum discomforts.  It was cloudy and dreary for many days after he was born, then when I finally had good light, this kid would not sleep.  No matter what I did.  I ended up with some very amateurish photos that I am not proud of, but what are you gonna do.  The Christmas ones were done when he was 8 days old, and I'm pretty happy with them all things considered.  He at least closed his eyes a while, but wouldn't tolerate being naked no matter how hot I made it!

These are the only decent 'wrap' photos I got.  He wouldn't sleep and wouldn't allow me to pose him at all.  I think he smelled me and just wanted to eat the whole time.  He was also three weeks old at this point, well past the best age to take newborn photos.

This guy is a super chunk.  He weighed 11 pounds 7 ounces at his 1 month appointment!  That is a three pound gain in one month, holy cow!  Here is a hilarious comparison of my boys at one month:

And another comparison that shows not only how different my kids are, but my photography skills, too. 

I wish I could share a 'final' photo of the nursery, but we still have a couple things to do in there.  For now, we are just trying to soak up the good parts of the baby stage - like the snuggability!

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

New trim and some progress

So, while I still have about one million linear feet of trim to paint white, at least it is all installed!  We hired out this job because I just couldn't do it in my condition, and Shaun works such long hours it would've taken months.  At 38 weeks pregnant, I've been slowly sanding, caulking and painting while Ashford is at school, so maybe it will all be done by Memorial Day. 

I love how bright the hallway looks now, especially with my new fixture lit up.  I hate dark hallways, and this light is just as bright as I hoped it would be. 

The Feiss light fixture is available at a few sites, but I found the best price at Wayfair.  I decided to go black or dark bronze with all the fixtures in the main living areas, and plan to switch out all the door knobs and hinges, too. 

The thick trim is just 1x4 primed MDF and it looks so much better than the fluted 2.5 inch stuff we ripped out.  Our trim guy did have to cut the light switch cover near the bathroom door, though!  Oh well. 

The front hall is looking much better without the ugly fan.  This amazing foyer pendant is by Elegant Lighting, and I also found the best price on Wayfair.  Although, it is selling for much more than I paid now.  I snapped it up for $350 in September!  I cannot wait to replace the ugly wood railing with a nice black metal one....someday.  Oh, and a new door.  Someday. 

Our living room is coming along with a huge 120-170" black curtain rod from Crate and Barrel.  Our window is 10 feet long, so it was a blessing to find this rod.  However, I have to say that we almost returned it because its damn near impossible to install.  The brackets slide onto this tiny little piece that actually screws into the wall, so it opens up a whole list of problems from not knowing exactly where the screws should go, to the bracket not sliding on due to the width of anchors (store provided anchors, even).  We also had a broken piece in one of the packages that will need to be replaced by Crate and Barrel.  We made it work, and hopefully the ones for the dining room and kitchen are easier now that we know!

Right now, I have the same cream Ikea curtains I've always had on the window, but they are laughably short and also look terrible with the bright white trim around the window.  I did manage to find 95" bright white panels at JC Penney, so those are on their way!  I chose plain white curtains because I bought a boldly patterned rug for this room....the Berta rug from Crate and Barrel.  I can't wait to get it rolled out, it's been sitting in it's plastic for weeks now. 

Things are laid out pretty much the exact same as our Minnesota house, but this will all change once the sectional moves to the lower level and my new rug is brought up here.  Speaking of lower level....

So obsessed!  Shaun did all of this board and batten himself, and I'm so happy with it!  We didn't have to think about the height since the ledges were existing, so it was as simple as buying 1x3 MDF for the top rail under the ledge, 1x2 MDF for the battens, and 1x4 MDF for the baseboard.  The spacing of the battens was sort of planned to cover the seams in the plywood, but a few are fudged here and there.  They average 13 inches apart if I remember right. 

He also did a great job trimming out the windows.  We had to get a very specific size trim to nicely frame around the window but not go past the 'sill' that was already there.  1x2 were too small and dinky, 1x3 were too wide....so I found a piece of primed MDF that was exactly 2 inches wide at Menards, and it did the trick. 

I love how clean it looks down here now.  The walls above the trim are painted with the main level color, SW Popular Gray.  The trim in the entire house is Behr Ultra Pure White in satin. 

For some reason, the wacko previous owners put solid wood doors downstairs, but fake ones upstairs in the main living area.  I'm torn about what to do here.  Painting them white would be the easiest option, but I do like the thought of staining the doors a better color and keeping them wood to break up all the white.  We are also putting stained shelving in the room, so that would tie in nicely. 

Our last hurdle, and the only reason this room isn't yet complete, is the flooring. 

We had Home Depot come measure the room and give us a quote on nice carpet we like.  A quote that I haven't seen yet because they never sent it to me.  I haven't seen it because when they called me to confirm the quote, they told me they won't install it over this tile until we get it tested for Asbestos.  Sure enough, after paying $120 for testing, the tile and adhesive contain 4% asbestos so now we are stuck.  It would cost 3k to have all the old tile in the family room and downstairs bedroom removed, and we just can't afford that cost plus the $1500 or so for new carpet..so we are hopefully having a family friend install the carpet over the tiles for us.  Sometime in the future when the carpet is dingy, we will pay to have it all removed and put in nice new tile throughout the space, but we can't do it now.  This house is just the ultimate money pit and it's been one thing after another!  Have any of you dealt with asbestos tiles?