Final push

Tomorrow begins our 2 day race to the finish before our move in day, Saturday.

Our rental looks like a disaster and there is tons of stuff to pack.

The floors at the house are complete and the stairs as well. We saw them yesterday and it looks great. The final coat of polyurethane went on today so tomorrow we'll tackle painting 2 bathrooms so we don't destroy the floors.
Friday, the plan is to put on the second coat of paint on our bedroom and the play room. Everything we've been bringing to the house is crammed in the garage and basement. There are so many things that are not finished, but I know it will come together with a little effort over the weekends.
Today, I started looking at decorations to transition D from his baby blue bedroom to look more like a toddler room. I have to do this since the star decals didn't survive the 2 moves we made since his original bedroom.

His old nursery.

To make it look a little older and not so babyish here are some wall decorations I've been looking at. They have to go with a sports themed bedding since my sister gave me my nephews toddler bedding that he never used as he climbed into bed with them till he was like 7. It's in great shape, but that won't be put into the room till D graduates into a big boy bed, probably around August.

Here are some ideas I have once he gets into a big boy bed.

I started to like vintage wall art when I was preggo but the $100+ price tag on it made me go with the cheap star decals. What was I thinking? Now Land of Knod and every other place has copied my great idea and are selling the prints below for like $120 a piece. Anyone know of a cheap place that has these let me know.
He needs to learn his states sometime.

My in-laws have a vintage baseball glove they bought for Ry when he was small at a flea market that they will give D to put into his room.

We gotta incorporate some baseball into his room. Every boy needs a growth chart.

These are still ideas but I think it will look cute and will grow with him until he tells us he hates sports and wants to race cars for a living.

We've planned for that as well...

For the playroom we're thinking of going with a car theme, vintage also. Aren't these adorable for the walls to add a little color?

These ideas will get me through the next few days. I'll have a full post after the move next week with pictures of the new place for sure.

Happy Father's Day.

Happy Father's Day to a great daddy!
After some gift giving and lounging in the morning we celebrated today with a late breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa Marron and snacks with Bunia and Dziadzia Z in the afternoon.
D was in a great gift giving mood this morning and it made daddy's day extra special after injuring his back yesterday while loading old brick into our nice dumpster.

Here is your card daddy
What else did I get?
A BlackHawks T-shirt
I did good for a kid

The Star Wars talking card was a hit with D. His imitation of Darth Vader is right on target after some practice.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I would show you great pics of the updates on the house BUT as I was ready to take a picture of the tiles I realized the memory card was left at home. Ooops.

Happy Father's Day to all the Fathers out there and to my hubby who is a great daddy and is crazy about this little man in his life.

Ayyyy Caramba!

So, yesterday I visited Home Depot twice and Lowe's once. There is nothing worse about a renovation than the million trips you have to make to get all the supplies. Earlier this week I went to Home Depot 3 times, Menards twice and Lowe's once....looking for tiles and a vanity.

Oh I found the tiles I really liked at the Tile Shop but for $5 a square foot I would have liked to put my foot up their corporate you know what.

I found tiles at Home Depot that are just as nice for $2 and added the tile baseboards to my order, thank you very much.
We took D's "house" to the new house, where Ryan painstakingly power washed the heck out of it. It is so nice and clean, although with the thunderstorms we've had who knows what it looks like now. I wish I took before and after pics of our patio because after Ry was done power washing it looks soooooo much better. He claims he loves power washing and started going a little nutty in our back yard. I think it was just a way to get the heck out of the house. The floors have been sanded and the new railing is up (no spindles yet). They will be stained tomorrow so look for pics on Monday of the progress.

D and Ry got a head start on Father's Day as they enjoyed getting their hair cuts together today. Only one of them came out with a balloon but daddy got a sucker. If you notice any red dots on him, it's because he has been chewed by mosquitos for the past several days. Armed with bug spray and anti itch cream today, things looked better.

More work tomorrow and Sunday we get off not because it's Father's Day (although a wonderful reason) but because we have to wait for the stain to dry. After 8 samples of stain I have picked the winner. 75% cherry and 25% early American. Sounds just like me. Haha.

Have a great weekend.

A hard day or two or three or FOUR

It's Sunday evening and the only thing that I can think of to relax is to post a blog. Weird right? That is how I chill and "do my thang", I guess.

As I sit at my desk staring out the window watching the rain fall I think of the past few days and it puts a smile on my face!

My niece and Goddaughter graduated 8th grade on Wednesday. As I saw her walk down with her classmates I couldn't believe my eyes, 14 years ago I was at the hospital as my sister was having her first child and now I was sitting in my high school gym (soon to be her high school) as she began a new adventure.

I got teary eyes, time flies so fast, I got scared, scared that in a few years I will be witnessing D accept his diploma and ready to start high school (the same one that I, my niece and nephew had attended).

Buying a house in my old neighborhood became really neat at that moment and I knew we made the right decision. D was a good sport during the entire thing and played with his cars and clapped at the appropriate moments.

The next 4 days after that are a blur, really. We painted ceilings, painted walls, ate junk food to survive and drank lots of coffee so we wouldn't fall asleep with paint rollers in our hands. I didn't take any pics of the house because besides from the wall colors nothing has improved. The floors will be done this week and another coat of paint will really tie things together. According to my brother in law we are about 60% there. This is coming from a man that tore up our fireplace, ripped apart our bathroom (that now only has plumbing exposed). He worked hard on Saturday to save us money on making our place a home, so we are thankful.

D spent the weekend with "Papa" and "Babagaba" (it changes) and had tons of fun.

When we got back from the house on Sunday, I didn't know what to catch up on. As Ryan scraped the 4 paint colors off of his body and caught up on his comic book reading I vacuumed and did 2 loads of laundry.

The missing sock didn't bother me one bit as I looked at the folded laundry in my laundry basket. It felt good to be on top of things. Not that I had any choice, we did need clean clothes.

As one load was dried another one went into the drier, exposing the once "good" pants that were transformed into "working" pants. The cute Wrigleyville tank top, once a top that looked great with jeans was now covered with paint, ready for next the weekend of labor.

Finally, Sunday evening when the doorbell rang and we saw our sweet little man, oh sweet face, the previous 4 days were a distant memory.

I can't wait to see his face as he walks into his room that is now sporting 2 shades of blue! I can't wait to see him play in his new playroom that now has a shade of orange/mustardy color on the walls. I can't wait to snuggle in the morning with him in our bedroom that now has a soft and sophisticated aqua/blueish color. I can't wait to watch him pound on our computer keyboard in our office that now has Kermit the frog green walls. It was a good 4 days, 4 days of slapping paint on the walls and picturing our family in each and every room making new memories.

Reunited were father and son, mama and baby and within minutes we were back to being a family of 3 and "doin our thang".

As the next couple of weeks bring on more challenges it's this face that will get me through anything.Our family has been the BEST! My in-laws taking care of D and giving me a piece of mind that he is receiving the best child care a mom could ever imagine, my parents rolling paint on room after room, my brother in law drilling into brick and things I didn't even know could be drilled into, my sister sweeping the floors during cleanup and bringing me fresh meat for the week when I didn't have the energy to walk into another store to get food for the next day.

YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST!

Progress...

For the past 4 days we have been making changes to the house. Right now I would say it looks worse than better.

Here are some progress pics:

Original family room

In progress family room

Other side of family room where Ryan ripped off the "dry bar" and paneling off

Original living room

Living room in progress

Another view of living room before

And after (slightly different angle)This is our garage with all the "stuff" until we get a dumpster
We've been busy priming doors in the basement

Sunday morning at 6:30 we left for our second annual Run/Walk for Hope. It was a great turn out to support my cousin Liz and her husband Ted and a great way to remember our sweet angel Leo. D did not come this year as after the walk we went back to the house to do more work. Ry ran this year and I was very proud of him considering he worked hard for 3 days straight and ran the full 5k.
D on the other hand did not have to breathe any dust, he spent the weekend with "Papa" and Grandma enjoying trips to the museum and Safari land. We missed him terribly and we were reunited yesterday. My sweet baby boy looked so much older already! 3 more weeks of this, we can do it!!!

Weekend in pics

This long weekend began with a girls night out for mama. Friday night I went out for a drink and appetizers with two great friends. Afterwards, I was excited to see Sex and the City and was very disappointed in many ways. The plot, the character lines, and about everything else was just a mess. HA!
Saturday we had our final walk through of our new home. Besides the work starring us in the face on the inside of the house we really don't have much to do in the back yard.
The perfect tree for a tire swing
There is plenty of room for a veggie garden. I can't wait to sit in the back yard and one day watch D try to catch lighting bugs or giggle in a tent on his first night camping out. I can't wait to hear Ry teach D how to "watch the ball" as he pitches D a baseball. I may have seen him practice this in a perfect spot. :)
As our last weekend of freedom loomed upon us we wanted to take advantage of the great weather we were having.
Saturday afternoon we went to a BBQ at my cousin's where D enjoyed his first slip and slide. I didn't get a chance to change him before he went wild.
We enjoyed family, friends and tons of food. D had a sour apple ice cream that left him looking like Hulk for the rest of the night. Did you notice something? Yes, I got bangs! I think I like it, I think.
Sunday morning we felt wild and went to a local forest preserve, where we walked 5 miles...with frequent stops.
D met a new friend
and enjoyed the scenery.He cooled off by splashing himself in his own private stroller pool
and washed his car in it as well.
Monday as Ry moaned from his sunburn we went to Home Depot to get supplies for the next few weeks of painting. Ry got a new tool box that D helped him organize and we packed the car with things to drop off at the new house after our closing.
We are ready for this new adventure and I can't wait to take before and after shots.
The plan for this week: electrical update, start priming trim, peeling wallpaper, ripping off 70s paneling, the list goes on and on.
I will try to blog as much as possible but it may be hard to type if my fingers are numb from work! HA!