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Maternity & Parenting Center
Living room
Kitchen
View of dining room & living room from kitchen
View of dining room and kitchen from living room
First Floor Powder Room
Stairs to upper floor
Baby’s bathroom
View of upper hallway into baby’s bathroom
View into baby’s bedroom
Baby’s bedroom
Upstairs Hallway View towards Master Bedroom
Master Bedroom Closet
Master Bedroom
Master Bathroom
Stairs to Basement
Laundry Room
Door to utility room
Rec Room
View to Office
Office
Office Closet
Office Bathroom
It’s official – we are in the midst of moving hell. I’m so tired I can’t see straight, my feet hurt, I’m contracting like crazy, and I swear it feels like the baby is shoving a sharp pointy object into my cervix just for fun. I’ve spent most of the week trying to pack up – I took care of the linen closets, kitchen, pantry and vanities (thanks to help from my organizer, Leslie, and good old Mom & Dad)! We moved all that stuff over to the house today and unpacked it. Elliot moved the new rugs in, and we had a cleaning service come through today. There are still issues with the floors, and a missing vanity, and a hole in the shower wall, and a bunch of other things that are still unfinished, but for now, it is livable. We still have SOOOO much left to do before tomorrow morning – we are just trying to shovel out from so much crap it is unbelievable! We have to clear out all the garbage before we can even pack up, and I have no idea how the mover is even going to get to all of our stuff. Tomorrow is going to be a LONG day. After a long week of running around hunting for rugs and all kinds of other odds and ends that we needed. I’m so far behind on my work right now. Ugh! What a week!
We have officially started packing. We are starting with a huge mess, so trying to pack up a disaster zone is . . . complicated. We have been working with an organizer, Leslie, over the past 2 years, first to help empty out Elliot’s house and combine our houses into my place, and now to pull all of our stuff together here and get it to the new house and put away. The biggest bone of contention in our marriage is cleanliness. Elliot is a collector of junk (although he gets upset when I call his “stuff” junk), and tends not to put things away. I, on the other hand, believe everything should have a place, and most things should be either completely put away every day or two, or at least never exceed a small neatly stacked pile in 1 location of the house. The problem is, since Elliot emptied his house and moved all his stuff into my place, things don’t have a place anymore. We never did manage to put everything away. So, it makes it difficult to ask him to clean up when there is nowhere for it to go. We also had to cancel our cleaning lady, because with stuff all over the place, it was not possible for her to come and clean. Back in May, I sort of gave up the fight – I figured we were moving in a month, so why bother any more, right? Well, 1 month has turned into 6+ months, and let’s just say that my house looks like a tornado swept through here.
Since I am really supposed to be taking it easy (and packing and heavy lifting are things I’m supposed to be avoiding), we enlisted Leslie’s help to get things packed and sorted. Last week, we packed up the linen closets, my knitting/crocheting, my baking stuff, and the bathroom vanities, and we moved all the boxes over to the house and stored them there. Today, we tackled the kitchen and now she is upstairs trying to pack up Elliot’s office.
So, assuming the contractor completes the work he is supposed to complete by Friday, we are all set to move in on Sunday. We have too much stuff (and I’m too afraid of creating another messy situation like we did when Elliot moved his stuff here) to move everything at once. Instead, we decided to move in shifts. We are only moving what is necessary for us to start living in the house. We are going to move our kitchen stuff, clothing, linen closets, and vanities. We will be taking the bedroom set and any other big furniture that we are certain will fit in the house. For now, we are leaving behind a few decorative tables (we aren’t sure where/if they will fit) and some file cabinets, and a tv armoire, and my office stuff. We are leaving all of the artwork/personal items behind for now, too. We will slowly move those over when we know where they are going. We also need to deal with our storage unit, but that is definitely a challenge for another day.
I can’t believe it looks like we are finally moving! I’m so ready to be moved into Elliot’s house already! I have an appointment with a place that does blinds tomorrow (hopefully we can have blinds put in soon) and we have a green cleaning service coming on Friday. Elliot is trying to arrange our phone/internet, and I guess we’ll figure out the rest as we go. We are definitely going to need to buy more furniture items, but I just am not sure exactly what yet. Our living room couch will arrive on Tuesday, and we are still waiting for the basement couch and the dining room table top, both of which should arrive by mid-November. We still need to buy some area rugs for the living room, dining room and master bedroom, but we think we might have found what we need. That puts us in great shape for the baby’s arrival!
According to our contractor, our house will be finished this weekend. Now, we’ve been hearing this since . . . May. But for some reason, this time I think it really might be true! I would love to finally be able to move into our new house and settle in. We shall see if the contractor is telling the truth this time.
I’m feeling okay today. Frank seems to be sleeping right now (he was awake and contracting most of the night), so let’s hope he stays quiet. The nausea is what is making me feel the worst today. According to the scale, I’ve lost another 2 lbs . . . I cannot for the life of me figure out how that is possible. I swear, this baby must have Elliot’s metabolism (which is much better for him in the long run). I’m sure going to miss eating with impunity.
So, here is the “tour” – these pics were taken a few weeks ago. We are really hoping this will be finished next week . . . but I’m not holding my breath. I called the contractor and yelled at him from L&D at the hospital! When you walk in the front door, the stairs leading upstairs are right in front of you.
If you look down the hallway to the right, there is a closet and it leads to the 1st floor powder room:
Powder room:
To the left of the powder room is the kitchen:
We removed the wall between the kitchen and dining room, so now it is more like an eat-in kitchen:
The dining room connects back to the living room (here is a view of the dining room/kitchen from the living room):
The living room is just to the left of the front door:
When you go up the stairs, the baby’s bedroom is the first door on the left at the top of the stairs:
Just across from the stairs (and immediately outside the door of the baby’s bedroom) is the baby’s bathroom:
There is a long hallway upstairs (view with back to baby’s bathroom) – there are two half-closets that will be linen closets on the left, there is room under the window before the closets for a window seat, and the door at the end of the hallway on the right leads to the master bedroom:
When you enter the master bedroom, the main room is to the left, the master closet is to the right, and the door to the master bathroom is straight ahead. This is a pic of the entranceway to the master bedroom from inside the room:
This is a picture of the master bedroom from the back end of the room (the entranceway would be to the left):
This is a picture of the master bedroom standing in the entranceway with the master closet behind:
Here are pictures of the master bathroom:
Here are pictures of the master closet:
From the main floor, just across from the powder room and before you enter the kitchen, there are stairs leading to the basement. The basement is pretty open, with the laundry room to the left, a rec room area and a bedroom to the right:
Rec room:
Bedroom:
Bathroom:
As you can see, we still have painting, carpet, cleaning, and we have to finish the wires/lighting and vanity tops.
Tonight I am sitting here and watching my belly . . . the baby is making my belly dance!! He seems to be kicking and punching, and my big ole’ belly is moving all over the place. I’m quite amused by this, and I can’t stop smiling. Now if we can just get him to play when my mom is in the room, he’d have a happy Grammy!
What else can I report? We are finally making progress with our house – for the first time, I have hope that it will be finished in the next few weeks. We have ordered the baby furniture, and we are actually planning to go and start registering for stuff this week.
Other than that, I’m feeling well, but still not over the morning sickness completely. Suddenly, this week the indigestion has kicked it back into high gear, and every time I eat anything, I’m feeling over-full, like there is just no room in my tummy anymore. I have my next appointment in two weeks, and I’ll be having the gestational diabetes test done. After that, I start going in for appointments every 2 weeks!
As you may know, we are in the process of renovating Elliot’s house, and are hoping to move there in the next few weeks. At present, we have been crammed into my townhouse, and the mess and *stuff* has taken over. I had previously given up any effort at order or cleanliness, because we have been on the verge of moving for 3 months now.
This week, however, I hit my limit. I have been all over Elliot to clean up all the crap that has taken over our lives at my house, and I’ve been all over him to come with me and make decisions about furniture for his house. I think it dawned on me that it can easily take 8-12 weeks to get furniture once we order it, and with that time frame in mind, we’re running out of time before the baby arrives. On Thursday night, we went up to Great Beginnings to look at furniture. We have it narrowed down to 2 possible bedroom sets, but we just can’t decide which of the two. This is definitely progress, however – we do know that we will purchase one of the two sets! The first set I think is far more interesting in terms of wood texture and design, but the second set is a little less expensive and simpler (which a boy might prefer). I’ll post the pictures here for any comments/feedback – but note that the pictures do not necessarily reflect the pieces we are considering:
We also finalized which car seat we intend to purchase, we think we may have decided on a stroller as well, and we narrowed down our bedding options and glider options. Here are the 2 different beddings we are considering:
You would think with these big decisions out of the way, I would relax a bit, right? Of course not! I then felt the need to point out the baby’s room is only ONE room in the house, and we still need to deal with replacing the dining room table Elliot broke (long story short, he thought ironing on the glass table was a good idea – until he left the iron face down on the table and walked away without turning it off – naturally, the glass top splintered, and we do not currently have a functional dining room table), and we need new couches for the living room and the basement rec room. So, Elliot humored me, and today was furniture shopping day. We went to Marlo and Top Drawer (and we will be hitting Crate and Barrel tomorrow) and I think we have it narrowed down to 2 different couches – one from Top Drawer, and one from Crate and Barrel. We need to figure out exactly which pieces will fit in the living room, and the best shape for the basement rec room, but we think we are all set in our selections. We also found a new glass table top at Top Drawer that we can purchase to replace the broken one.
Not bad for a weekend, right? I am hoping to order the couches this week, and then I’ll focus on accessories (we’ll need a new coffee table, a plant stand, perhaps a filing cabinet and some storage shelves, and I’d like to get a storage bench with a cushion to serve as a window seat in a few of the house’s alcove areas). So . . . I’d say we are making progress! If we can just get them to install the toilets and finish the cabinets and lighting, we could actually start the process of moving!
This weekend was really relaxing . . . Elliot & I went to a concert at Wolf Trap on Friday night, and had a picnic dinner. I have learned that pregnancy requires better back support when hanging out on the ground for several hours! We had a baby naming for Madison on Sunday, and it was great to see so many family friends. We are getting excited for the next week . . . I leave for a business trip to Salt Lake City, then when I come back, we have our big ultrasound! Elliot is hoping for a boy . . . I kind of think it is a boy, too. I want one of each, but always thought of having the girl first. I think that since we are having such a hard time thinking of boys’ names that it will definitely be a boy!
The good news is both the AFP and my glucose test came back normal, which means so far, both of us are doing well! I can’t believe we are rapidly approaching the 1/2 way point. Now, if we can just put an end to this morning sickness . . .
On the home front, we are finally making some progress on our home renovation project. The bathroom tiles are all done, I’ve picked out all the paint for the house, the granite has been decided – we just need to deal with hardware now. I can’t wait to finally move in and start getting ready for the baby.
Today I am 5 weeks 2 days pregnant, and the beta for the day was 4538! I am so excited that this little bean is growing so well, and I am so hopeful that we will see a perfect little sac, fetal pole, and heartbeat at the ultrasound next week! As I think I keep saying, I still cannot believe this might really be happening for us.
We are currently in the process of renovating Elliot’s house. We have to start picking the paints soon, and I am eagerly looking forward to decorating the baby’s room. I’ll probably have to pick a gender-neutral color since we will have to paint the nursery long before we will know if we are having a boy or a girl. I am currently thinking either blue or green, since both of those colors would make a great background for other decorations that would work for either a boy or a girl.