Sunday, October 27, 2013

Before the Crazyness Sets In Photos

Everything I have learned so far about home renovations, I have learned from my favorite blog Young House Love. Not even 5 years working at Home Depot in the past taught me as much as those two! Justly- everything I have learned about home renovation blogging I have learned from them as well. We have made a lot of progress in the 3 short weeks we had between getting the house and moving in (something you are already familiar with if you follow me on instagram) but I think it's best if this post is all about the "before" photos and our plans to update our house. We live for this stuff. Seriously.

So lets start the house tour....

The Living Room



 
To Do List:
-Tear out all carpet
-Block off the doorway by the double door
-Paint
-Lay hardwood flooring
-New windows
-Add curtains
 
Dining Room
 
 


 

To Do List:
-Tear out carpet
-Paint
-Replace outlet covers (in this room they are painted over so many times you cant plug anything in)
 
 
Kitchen
 
 



 
 
To Do List:
This is the biggest task- all the cabinets are literally falling apart so they must go and the stove faces a weird direction, that's not something we can change because of the gas hookups so we are going to close the wall next to it and turn this space into an L shaped kitchen.
-Close Doorway to Living Room
-Paint fridge (until we can get a new one)
-Tear out all cabinets
-Install new cabinets/sink
-Get rid of portable dishwasher and install dishwasher into new cabinets
-Lay new flooring
-Install back splash
-Paint
-Encase fridge with a cabinet on top to make the side of the fridge usable space
 
 
Guest Room
 
 





To Do List:
This room is kind of odd with so many windows on every wall and a huge closet on one of them. There are literally no blank walls in here. Originally we thought we would use this as Averie's "big girl" room because it has its own bathroom. Now, we're thinking we'd rather keep it as an office/guest room and maybe build on another bedroom down the line. We are leaving the cork flooring because its brand new and I really like it.
-Paint all walls
-Maybe take out closet and add a new smaller one
-Add chevron stripe to wall with 1 window
-Add curtains
-New windows
 
 
Guest Bathroom
 
 



 
To Do List:
This is my favorite bathroom of the 2 (The layout is smart and spacious) and I LOVE the mirror and cabinets. The cork flooring from the guest room carries to the bathroom too so we won't be touching that either.
-Replace toilet
-Add curtain to the window
-Change shower curtain to glass shower doors
-Add wainscoting to the lower half of bathroom
-Paint
-Change out fixtures
-Change light fixture
 
 
Hall Bathroom
 
 


 



To Do List:
I hate this bathroom. It's just a dark hole of a space and everything is so cramped. Everything in here is changing except the shower.
-Replace toilet
-Get rid of the 2 identical sinks and replace with one big double sink counter
-tear out the 2 medicine cabinets
-move large mirror from above toilet to above double counter and frame in
-remove towel bar and replace with artwork
-add overhead lighting with either a skylight or can lights
-get rid of extra vanity
-replace flooring
-PAINT (Ill never understand painting a bathroom the color of poop)
-Replace light fixture
-Reverse door swing since the light switches are behind the door
 
 
Our Room
 
 



 
To Do List:
The master doesn't have a bathroom... one day we will fix that or add on another master suite with a bigger walk in closet and a bathroom. For now, we have sort of an L shaped room and are having issues with how to furnish it. I'm thinking the nook by the window that shares a wall with the closet will be a beauty corner with a floor length leaning mirror and a vanity... but we'll see.
-Remove carpet
-Install hardwood floor
-Change door to closet
-Get rid of poop brown paint
-Add curtains
-New windows
 
 
Averie's Room
 
 




 
 
To Do List:
-Remove carpet
-Install hardwood
-Change or paint ceiling fan
-Install bi fold door on closet
-Add curtains
-New windows
-Paint
 
 
Laundry Room
 
 


 
To Do List:
This room is at the very back of the house (it leads out to the yard) but I am so excited! I've always wanted a laundry room!
-Washer and Dryer (obviously)
-Paint
-Change flooring
-Frame in washer/dryer with custom cabinets
 
 
Hallways
 
I know it's probably weird to include our hallways but I have big plans for them haha... so here they are and their orientation of the house... 
 
From the hall bathroom TO the front door. I am going to paint this a deep purple. I love a colored door. All this flooring is going to be replaced with hardwood as well. The 2 white cabinets to the left of the door are going to be removed once the kitchen remodel is done. There is not storage in there right now, so the previous tenants were using them as kitchen storage.

Same view from the hall bathroom to the front door, just a few steps back. These are our linen cabinets but the top left is useless because it holds a huge heater duct. It's closed off from the rest. We are going to make the one below it the cats litter box (they are super into hiding in cabinets anyway). I am going to remove all the handles, fill them and add moulding to give them the same look as our kitchen cabinets. They will get painted as well.

This is the cabinet in the middle of our stairs. They will get the same moulding face lift/paint job as the hall cabinets. The bottom will be used for games/toys and the top for cleaning products and laundry stuff until my custom laundry cabinets are built.

These are the stairs from the laundry room to the entry/kitchen/ Averie's room is to the left and our room is to the right. I am going to add a chevron pattern to the stairs and probably some kind of paneling to the walls of all the hallways. They'll get painted as well. Kev is working on removing all the carpeting from this area to replace it with hardwood.

This is the reverse view of the photo above- looking into the laundry room (just to show a different perspective of this hallway)
 
So there you have it, our new house and all the plans we have for it. Some are already done, some are still in progress. I'll try to share them as we complete them. As far as the outside goes, we don't have solid plans for any of it, so I'll wait to share those pics. We have lots of plans though, we just need to figure out what is actually do-able. We are learning our way through this, but loving every minute of it. I can't wait to show some killer before and after pics!
 








Saturday, October 12, 2013

Pumping At Work

If you had told me two weeks into my breastfeeding journey that now, 7 months later, I no longer dread each and every bf'ing session... that I in fact LOVE breastfeeding and go through great lengths to continue my bf'ing relationship I would have laughed in your face. Actually, I was so sleep deprived and suffering from sore nipps I probably would have slapped you across the face for saying such dirty words.

In the beginning I kept telling myself "Just make it to two weeks and then we'll see" once I made it to 2 weeks I sad "Ok, just make it to a month" then "the magical 6 weeks everyone keeps talking about when everything is supposed to click". That's around the time I wrote this post on breast feeding Everything wasn't coming up roses at 6 weeks so once again, I gave myself another goal- 3 months. Somewhere around the 3 month mark everything clicked and I fell in love with bf'ing and now I can't imagine my life without it.

It's so funny to think back on when I was pregnant and I knew nothing about bf'ing but I knew seeing other people doing it meant I would giggle and look a little too long. I was super immature because I didn't really understand how important it was. I also got weirded out thinking of this little person looking up at me while bf'ing. Now, those are my favorite moments. I kept telling everyone who was trying to shove bf'ing on me "I'll only do it for 3 months, longer than that is just weird." Boy was I wrong! I'm not afraid to admit, I was ignorant to the subject and I flat out had no idea how I would feel now.

The goal is to keep it up for a year, like the medical community recommends, but we will see how it goes. I've heard of many babies weaning themselves before the year mark. I can say with certainty I won't nurse past 18 months because for me, that's an appropriate time to stop. I will say though, the day Averie wants to stop bf'ing my heart will be broken into a million pieces.

I now understand why so many moms stop bf'ing when they go back to work. It's extremely difficult to continue the bf'ing relationship once you have to add work into your life balancing act. I'm lucky because I live in a state that has my back but that doesn't mean my pumping life is easy. I have to pump every 2-3 hours in order to keep up the supply my daughter is used to. That means I have to get up extra early to make sure I can get ready for work before it's time for her morning feeding. I have to time our feeds so it's right before I leave the house.

Every day when I get to work I get to have the fun uncomfortable conversations with each of my co-workers to try and negotiate a time when no one else will be using the break room so I can make sure I don't piss any of them off while simultaneously making sure to stay within my 2-3 hour window. Every day I go home for lunch so I can feed the baby. I am fortunate enough to work within 10 minutes of my home, when we move I won't be so lucky and I'll have to add another pumping session during my lunch. When I get back to work I get to go through juggling everyone's breaks and schedules to make sure I get in my afternoon pumping session.

Despite the law being on my side, my co-workers are somewhat selfish people and don't always make my pumping life easy. The room I pump in, is the only one without cameras which happens to be our common lunch room. There is a door, but everyone has access to it. Despite me putting a large DO NOT DISTURB sign on the handle, I have been walked in on twice, interrupted for frivolous things countless times and have even had some of my pump parts go missing on me. The real kicker is that we are short staffed, which means I have to spend my pumping sessions worrying that someone is going to interrupt me to come help (which happens ALL THE TIME), watch the cameras for the same thing, and keep a cover close in case someone decides to ignore the sign and walk in on me again. My sessions are supposed to be relaxing so I can produce more milk, but I have yet to experience this kind of pumping session.

I'm not trying to say that they're all idiots (granted, some of them are haha) but they just don't understand. Not one person in my office has ever been in my shoes, so when they interrupt my session because they 'want a glass of water' (despite the fact that I walk around 5 mins before each session to remind people to get what they need out of the kitchen to avoid this) or they have a question or they just ignore the sign... it's really discouraging and every day I contemplate quitting this whole charade to make my life easier. In the end I tell myself "maybe tomorrow will be better", it never is but it  helps me keep going.

There have been times where I completely forgot my pump at home, or a part that I cleaned the day before and left in the strainer... there were even times I remembered all my pump pieces but I didn't bring anything to pump it into. Luckily, there has been someone home to bring it to me, but I also work next to a baby store so I've been able to get things on the fly. What I've really found to help is having an extra pump. One stays at home and one stays in my car. That way I only have to remember to switch pieces after I clean them. With insurance paying for one of them, I didn't mind the expense for a battery powered one. True, they aren't as powerful so you may spend some extra time pumping (or just turning it to full power) but it's what is working for me.

My work wardrobe has proven to be interesting too. At my job we have to wear 'business casual' and it's super cute but a lot of it isn't really wip-out-a-boob friendly so I started bringing a small blanket with me to sit on in case I have to hike up the bottom of my dress. I get cold easy too, so it's nice to wrap around my shoulders while I pump too. Warmth helps the flow of milk, so it's a win/win.

I tried a few milk producing products when I first returned to work because I was convinced that I wouldn't produce enough but nothing worked as well as keeping hydrated. I drink so much water in a day I feel like I'm always in the ladies room, but it's worth it when I get 6oz in a 10 min pumping session. I've also come to realize that I will always pump more milk during my first session, than in my last.

I don't know if I'm the only nursing mom to realize this, but I know which boob is my 'power boob' so I try to plan my actual feedings with the baby on the opposite side so I can pump with my power boob and get more milk. I haven't had any issues with leaking or engorgement, but I also have a regular work schedule.

Despite all the things I find annoying, pump pieces being stolen and all the extra work it takes at night to make sure I am ready for the next day, I am happy to do it because it means I get to keep nursing. My daughter doesn't have any issues anymore with latching after a bottle feed, so it's smooth sailing when I'm with her and I get to enjoy our bonding time. I could change everything and make my life easier, but in reality I wouldn't change a thing because it makes my life better.