Pinterest Projects

  Have I mentioned how Michael loves keeping busy most of the time and since we bought the house, almost a year ago, he is constantly finding new things to improve on? Some of the projects Michael has been wanting to work on include (1) converting Emma's closet into a changing area, (2) building and painting valances to go over the curtains, (3) making an area on the side of the house by Emma's room called Foxtail Cove, which involves planting grass to cover up all the dirt and adding a couple palm trees so he can hang our hammocks for extra relaxation, (4) decorating the dining room and building or buying a small cabinet that can hold our fine wedding china, which has remained unopened at his parents' house for the past four years.. I'm sure he has even more that I forgot or he hasn't mentioned yet. But this weekend is for projects (5) painting the front door and adding a wreath, and (6) staining the deck. I am still off from work for another week, mostly on bed rest/ couch rest, but was able to get some pictures of Michael working because sometimes I feel like his pictures are not on my blog enough. And I don't think he minds one bit when I brag about his multiple talents! ;)

   First Michael sealed off the door area with a garbage bag and painters tape. I really appreciate him using this "cheap" method since it saved money compared to covering it with heavy tarps or cloths. I never realized how much sound the door blocks out until cars were driving by and it rained for a few hours! He took the door of the hinges and began working in the garage. After he took the old kickboard off, we learned that the previous owners once had a taupe colored door, which would have looked so weird considering that is the color of the rest of the house.

  Project (7) includes planting more/ better flowers since these are the only yellow ones left of the five we bought in January. They keep dying and originally we thought it had to do with the cold, but now it hasn't been cold in almost two months.  I really like the purple ones, but he also wants to put some kind of trim, possibly with bricks around the flower beds to make mowing a little easier.

   Even when Michael is doing all the work, he always finds a way to give me credit. He's so sweet like that. He reminded me that I was the one who picked out the new door color from Lowes: Dragonfly. It was several months ago when he first mentioned wanting to repaint the door because it was kind of dark, and dirty. I found the color in one of the pamphlets and driving home thought it looked too much like the color that the door already was, but putting the sample next to it really looked a lot brighter.

    Last month Michael sent me a bunch of pictures from Pinterest of some ideas that he saw of wreaths over blue doors. On Thursday when my mom was here, after taking two naps during the day, the three of us went to Michael's craft supply store so my husband could pick out fake flowers to put together. I thought he would just buy a premade one, but apparently those are uber expensive (around $150), so this way cost us about 1/3 of that. One of the pictures we liked a lot had a cursive decal that said "hello" above the door handle, but he liked the wreath better that had the letter of the family's last name, so he picked up a white G.

Taaa Daaa ~ the finished product!! He says we need a new welcome mat to match better now. Also since it rained for a few hours today, he found about five spots in the patio ceiling that need to be caulked since they were leaking, but he says that is an easy fix. And now he is working on trying to re-wire Emma's bedroom light (after watching an instructional YouTube video) since it can currently only be turned on using the pull string and the flip switch on the wall does nothing. But it works for the fan part of it. *shrug*

   Two other small projects that were completed last week: Michael replaced the two ceiling lights in the back hallway and installed a new faucet and shower head in the guest bathroom. Recently the faucet had rusted into the "shower only" position, so the tab could not be pushed back down for "tub mode". He learned that the hard way, ha! The only "projects" I have been working on include (1) unnecessarily buying more clothes for Emma from a resale shop called Once Upon a Child, (2) upping my calorie, protein, and calcium intake in hopes that it results in Emma's growth, and (3) trying not to stress out about how I will have already used 3 of my 12 weeks of FMLA by the time I go back to work. I'm trying to take that one day at a time and the woman in Human Resources reassured me of an extra option if I run out of vacation and sick time to use. Luckily, with the baby clothes, Michael has agreed that a few of the onezies and little dresses that I picked out are really cute. These are the ones he likes:

    Oh, another quick Emma note: she grew 4 ounces, according to measurements from the ultrasound that my mom came with me to on Thursday! But the doctor said the measurements are most accurate with a 2 week comparison, so I'll go back again on Monday, which will be 2 weeks from the anatomy scan they did on May 1st when I was admitted to the hospital. It's so nice to be out!