Elijah’s Room

Drum Roll Please . . . .the nursery blog has finally landed! I know I have been promising it FOREVER and I can only hope it will be worth the wait for everyone.

I would like to start out by saying that this room would not look as good as it does now if it were not for some wonderful gifts that we received from friends and family. We have received so many wonderful gifts and are so very grateful for everyone and everything!

So without further ado . . . .

ELIJAH’s ROOM

This is a close up of the bedding and theme we selected for the room. When I began looking at bedding waaay back when I first found out I was pregnant I decided that if we had a boy that Nick should really get to pick the theme. So I would take him through the baby department at stores and ask “What do you think of this?” He actually picked this one out at Babies R’ Us and never changed his mind. I would show him other things and he would always go back to this one. I honestly thought it was a little to brown at first, however I think it turned out to be a great choice. I love it! And since it is so brown/neutral heavy it is very easy to match.

Crib, bedding, name letters, diaper stacker, mobile, and car seat (yes, we need to get that car seat installed)

I ordered the letters for his name from a seller/designer on Etsy. Once again it was Nick’s idea to hang them on a bamboo poles so we would not have to drill so many holes. He actually searched the web for the poles and purchased them at Pier 1 Imports. The wall color in Eli’s room is one of my favorites, Christopher Robbin’s Swing, a Disney color you can get at home depot. We actually have this color in our Master Bathroom and decided it would look great in the nursery and compliment the bedding well.

Inside the crib- And before anyone says anything I know that we will need breathable bumpers!  However, until we need them I am leaving up the pretty ones. We also plan to hang the quilt from our set on the wall since it is really to heavy for baby to use.

Brown curtains from Target and matching valance from bed set. Also in this picture is the giant Sock Monkey my Dad got for Eli.

Changing Table/Dresser area- The changing table was a purchase I did a ton of research on. Originally I thought I was just going to put a changing pad on a dresser. Then I found this dresser on amazon.com that had a changing table top that could be removed when Eli got older, so it would just function as a dresser. We spent a little more on it than I would have liked but I think we will be able to use it for a long time.

I love the cubical organizer! I actually put this on my registry and my parents purchased it and the little bins for us. It has already been super helpful for storage and I know it will be functional for Eli for a long time. 

Last but not least . . .finished closet doors on the double closet! Nick worked so hard getting them done and I am so thankful!

So that is our little Eli’s room and of course it is not completely finished.  I opted not to buy a glider or chair right now. I am going to be borrowing a a recliner/rocker from my parents to put in there until I can figure out what I really want. I also have some really cute jungle related wall decals to put up that some one gave me as a a gift.  Although everything is not completely done I am so happy with it and can not wait to have our little man in there!

Spring Flowers!

Happy Spring Allergy Season to all! I don’t know about the rest of you but my allergies have been terrible the last few days. The combination of wind and pollen has given me super itchy eyes. Now despite my overall discomfort some truly beautiful things have been popping up and blooming outside. Here are a few things that happened in my yard . . .

In addition to the lavender and daffodils I also have a large snowball bush that is blooming right now. It is green at the moment but will be white soon. AND the crepe myrtle I planted at the end of fall is showing some buds, which means it survived the winter. WHOO HOO! Can not wait for the crepe myrtle to bloom it is going to be fabulous.

I found one more thing in my yard . . .

You know I had to sneak in a cat picture!

So excited to have so many of God’s beautiful creations in my yard to enjoy!

It’s a New Range!

Yes, here at the Oaks house we are celebrating the much anticipated arrival of our NEW RANGE!!! Okay, so this was probably only much anticipated by me and my Mom, who always said we need a new one. I think Nick was excited about it as well, but not as much since he would be the one installing it.

Now I know some are you are asking- Did the old Range die? What happened? Well, I am somewhat sad to say that I was never able to will the old Range to die. The old Range (picture below) was original to the house as was the dishwasher when we moved in almost 4 years ago. I was able to will the dishwasher to die, forcing its replacement. BUT the range was stubborn and hung in there and “we” ended up literally dragging it out of the house, and when I say we I mean Nick.

Here it is the Old, Ancient, and detested RANGE. This pic was actually taken on the day we closed on our house. That is the original dishwasher in the picture as well. Ohhh how far we have come! This range did serve me well for 4 years, but I will not miss it’s unlevel burners and yucky pans.

So without further ado, the NEW RANGE . . .

It is a stainless steel Whirlpool! It self cleans, steam cleans, has a 5th warming burner and 1 expandable dual zone burner. I LOVE IT. So far everything functions perfectly, and it makes a huge difference in the look of my kitchen. Now if I could just get rid of my dusty rose counter tops!

A huge Kudos to the sales girl at hh gregg who sold it to us. We had never made a purchase at hh gregg and they were super helpful. We had originally planned to make this purchase at Best Buy, since we had Best Buy points. However, the day we went to look I did not see the one I had picked out online and no one ever offered to help us. So we left and headed across the street to hh gregg just to look around. We walked in, the girl asked us if she could help, I said we need a range that is stainless and self cleaning, and she took us straight to this one.  Here is the best part it was ON SALE! I had not looked at anything with a warming burner due to the cost, but this one was the same price as the one I had picked out online at Best Buy that did not have the warning burner. SCORE!

Praise the Lord for handy husbands! We picked the range out and ordered on a Friday and they were going to deliver it on Monday. So Nick came home and began the process of getting the old range out and prepping for the new one. He worked very hard on all of this with little help for me and I really appreciate it.

Here he is making the final push to get the new range in!

So I know some of you are wondering, what was our first meal out of the new range? Well, we did not get everything in till late Monday and I had actually already had dinner so I whipped up something quick for  Nick . . .

Old faithful- Scrambled Eggs and toast! (The toast was done in my toaster)

Muffins too!!!

Nick enjoying the fruits of his labor.

One meal down and many more to come from the NEW RANGE!

Day 8- My Short Term Goals for the Month

Given that this is the beginning of the month this is an excellent time to set short term goals! So here we go . . .

 

1. Complete Nick’s new office.  We decided a couple of weeks ago to replace the carpet in our 2 spare bedrooms, and like any good small home improvement project it quickly snowballed into a Nick office move and make- over. We moved Nick’s office to the back bedroom, painted it green, installed a new ceiling fan, installed a new network and we will be having the new carpet installed on Friday. In order to complete the project we need to get Nick’s new desk, buy some curtains, get a futon, frame some stuff for the walls and get Nick an Xbox TV. Plenty to do! Look for a blog unveiling when it is all complete.

2. Paint closet doors for all bedrooms. We have been putting this project off for 3 years it is really just time to get it done! After we have the new carpet installed on Friday in the spare rooms we will kind of be out of excuses.

3. Stick with Weight Watchers and lose some more weight. Thus far on Weight Watchers I have lost about3-4 pounds, which I am very happy about! I have to keep pushing forward so I can reach my goal weight in order to be healthier and feel better about myself.

4. Get the majority of my Christmas Shopping done. 53 days till Christmas! YIKES! I would love to have all my Christmas shopping completely done by this time next month. Honestly this is probably more of a stretch goal but being a dedicated shopper I will certainly give it my best effort.

5. Start attending church on a regular basis on Sunday night.  This is a habit we have really gotten out of and really want to get back to.

There are the goals! Now it’s time to get up off the couch and get started RIGHT NOW! But wait there is a whole evening of Election Coverage and Poll Closings ahead. Gotta watch America send a Restraining Order tonight! So maybe we can start on all this tomorrow.  :)

Guess who sleep in the Master Bedroom this weekend?

Drum roll please . . .we moved into our MASTER BEDROOM this weekend. Yes, that is right people almost 3 years later we are finally using our entire house. It is truly a wonderful FEELING! As I explained in my post about finishing the Master Bathroom, we put the bedroom on hold until the bath got done. Full disclosure: Our bedroom is not completely finished. We still need to paint and put up closet doors (one of my least favorite chores). But it was at a point where we could move in so we did.

When we first bought our home the Master Bedroom was one of the major selling points for me. It has 2 count them 2 walk in closets and also a linen closest for the attached bath. Being a confessed clothing addicted having my own walk in closet is a dream come true. Sadly, I did not have full use of it for a long time and had to use the closet in Nick’s office. In truth when we first moved into our house the primary residents of our Master Bedroom were our 2 cats. They had there own kitty play land in there and were quite upset when we made them move to start the actual remodel.

The worst part of this particular project was having to live with all the junk that had been in the room. I had to take junk from 3 closets and store them in our dinning room. I felt like I was living in an episode of Clean House! It was horrible!  Don’t believe me take a look for yourself

  Now this picture does not even capture what was on the kitchen table. We literally had a strategic path for walking through the junk. However, on the bright side being forced to live with your junk did force me to really look at what we absolutely needed and GET RID OF STUFF! So I was able to go through this pile and donate a lot of stuff to an organization that was having a charitable yard sale.

I would like to think my dearly beloved Nick for all his hard work on this room. He ripped out carpet, laid a laminate floor, painted, hung lights, etc. He truly put a lot of work into creating a beautiful space. I am so luck to have a husband that is so handy! Thank you sweetie! The room is beautiful!

 

Now for you to see for yourself here are the BEFORE & AFTERS!

 

Master Bedroom BEFORE

Icky stained carpet!

 

 

Vertical Blinds Over French Door

Closets with gray trim

 

Master Bedroom AFTER

New lighting

New laminate floors

Window Treatments over French Door

New Bedding! I love it!

Another view

The room is truly FABULOUS! Nick and I lived crammed in a spare room forever and we were truly shocked to have so much space! We just feel BLESSED! All our furniture is finally where it is suppose to be and we are using our entire house. It is just an exciting time all around!

Now to get the closet doors painted. A home owners work is never done!

Picking out Paint

When Nick and I got married we bought a foreclosure that needed some work. Luckily, Nick is pretty handy and I like picking out new stuff :) (I paint some as well). Thus, we have been able to do most of the work ourselves. We are currently finishing up a master bathroom project and I am prepping for our Master Bedroom by picking everything out so we will be ready to go.

So for about about 3 weeks now I have been trying to pick a paint for our master bedroom, and I must confess that anytime I go to pick a paint color it is challenging. HOWEVER this one has been the biggest challenge yet. I was wanting a beige/taupe/brownish color . . .little did I know that there were SO MANY options on that. Luckily, Glidden (our paint of choice which can be purchased at Home Depot) now has one of the most FABULOUS home decorating/renovating things I have ever seen, tiny bottles of paint sample. They are only about $3.00 and come with a brush! For those of us who are incapable of making a decision and like choices, choices, choices this is FABULOUS!

Despite the fabulous new sample bottles, I have yet to be able to pick out a color. I have tried three samples (see photo below) and have not liked any of them. I have mad some really BAD choices so far:

• Whispering Wheat- looked a bit flesh tone
• Soft Suede- a nice color just to dark for us
• Warm Carmel (had high hopes for this one)- looked like clay mud
• Mixing Whispering Wheat and Soft Suede- just bad
• 

So I guess it is back to Home Depot to get some more little sample bottles and give it another go. I am confident that I will find the perfect color! And then it will be on to picking out floor :)