Renovations + Pregnancy

John and I have lived in our humble abode for a little over 7 years now. I must say, it is quite the charming home. I've always been one for character and a little history when it comes to houses and definitely not the sleek/modern type, though there's plenty of beauty in those kinds of homes too. For the longest time John and I discussed moving and possibly building new after we got hitched. However, in bringing it up multiple times post-wedding, we just couldn't fathom the thought of leaving the place we built our lives into! We have a beautiful yard with lots of trees and acreage which is wonderful for our animals and a growing family, not to mention a pleasant neighborhood that's in close proximity to both of our families. With all this goodness, we decided that staying here for as long as possible (I mean, lifers) and renovating was the best decision for us.

We had put a lot of work into it already to make it as cozy and 'us' as possible these past 7 years...but there is still a lot of work to be done. As I had said, our home is quite charming, but quite old. With old homes comes the closed-off rooms, coved ceilings, narrow hallways, ancient wiring/electrical work, plaster walls....you get the point. With the arrival of our sweet, sweet boy fast approaching, we knew we had to get going on the renovations ASAP to avoid chaos and dust with a newbie in the house (plus, we all know it would be impossible to sustain motivation to work on a house when there's a perfectly good baby around to snuggle). With that being said, the wrecking bars and hammers were brought out and walls began crumbling down. My husband, being the do-everything-himself type of man, is currently doing just that....almost everything himself, with the help of family and yours truly of course (I'm hormonal and sometimes taking a hammer to a wall just does a little something for me). The first thing we wanted to accomplish was making our first level more of an "open" floor plan where we can see the kitchen from the living room, and getting rid of those dreadful coved ceilings that just make your home look so teeny and broken up. John has also re-wired and installed some lighting in our living room so far (our living room has only been lit by lamps in the past). The ultimate plan is to add a master suite off of the back of our house once first-floor renovations are complete.

With both of us working full-time throughout the week and appreciating our mellow time in the evenings, that left only weekends open for renovation work. Working only on the weekends has made things pretty challenging for us, especially since we decided to begin this project during the holidays. Add family gatherings, work events, and other pre-planned functions to the mix and we've only had approximately 3 weekends since the end of November to get things accomplished with the house. Half of our home is blocked off with plastic to keep dust from getting everywhere and we're living primarily in our room upstairs and in the basement for the time being.  It hasn't felt the coziest in our home these past couple months, to say the least. I mean, during Christmas time I did have a faint view through the plastic 'walls' of our Christmas tree, complete with an inch of dust piled on top of each ornament. I haven't been able to get my desperate hands on the nursery either as it's part of the first-floor renovations, and ohhhh is that killing me. I feel like we have made so much progress, but oh, is there so much yet to do. We've got engineered wood beams coming in next week and some dry-walling will also begin...and next up, tearing down our entire kitchen! Some may say renovating while expecting is stressful and far from a good idea, but I say it's simply putting my "bendy-ness" and ability to live flexibly (literally) to the test. :) The photo below is me and baby in his empty nursery that's going to get all new walls, ceiling, lights, etc.. I will be posting renovation photos and progress as we go along!