Home Improvement Reality

While others are remodeling kitchens, updating paint colors or replacing carpet, we at the Bulloch household had a major home improvement over the weekend.  It was the kind that only a parent of a toddler that they are potty training can appreciate.  Yes, the photo below is of our brand new toilet seat that will hopefully be changing our lives in a few short days.  This my friends is Belle's seat or as she refers to it as "ME, ME, ME!"  May our daily diaper count start to dwindle!

Ooh la la... concrete!

Who knew I could get so excited over concrete being demo'd and poured?  It has been the big home improvement project of 2013 thus far.  My superman husband, father in law and brother in law demo'd our old driveway in a weekend.  I just think they were really all curious to see what it felt like to run a jack hammer.  After phase one was done, then the hauling of the concrete into our dumpster began for a few days.  Scott would come home from work and haul all of the pieces by hand down the driveway until darkness fell.  Belle helped a bit too.  Our contractor arrived and phase three was excavating the driveway so we had less of a steep pitch and pouring brand new concrete!  It has made such an improvement to our curb appeal.  In less than one week we can finally park on it since it will be completely cured by then.  Three cheers for concrete!

Here we go!

Ready for concrete

Ta-Da!

Belle broke the driveway in this past weekend with sidewalk chalk

Here is our little helper picking up rocks

Home Improvement: Entryway Tile

Ever since we moved into our home two years ago I wanted to tile our entryway. The carpet was old, stained and I never felt it was clean. Today my dream came true and we have a new entryway floor. Our contractor, Jeff, is such a professional and a perfectionist, which I truly appreciate. My original idea of having our house numbers in the tile did not work, so Scott and Jeff came up with an even better idea. Time to save for the next project on my list!

Original Inspiration:

Before:  Old Carpet 

During: Old linoleum under the carpet

After:  New tile!

Neighborhood: Hollywood Theatre

Help Support our local theatre's fundraiser for a new marquee!  Donate just $1 here.  The goal is to raise $55,000, but I am positive more than that can be raised.

 

Neighborhood: Paradise Periodicals

My new favorite shop in our neighborhood is Paradise Periodicals.  I just stumbled upon it last weekend and have already been back for more due to their buy one, get one free sale.  It is a small shop jam packed with magazines and books that are anywhere from a few weeks old to vintage.  My purchases made thus far have been three Life & Style magazines, three 1859 Oregon magazines, one Cooking Light and one Rachel Ray all for $5.75.  Yes, you read that price right!

From the owner: “Thousands of magazines, hundreds of titles, sorted on magazine racks and book cases. Current to vintage, most in very good condition. Also hardcover and soft cover books, comics, and maps.”

Home Project: Adirondack Chairs

Our neighbors moved to Amsterdam a few weeks ago and they gave us their adirondack chairs for free.  I love that price!  They are a little beat up after sitting outside in the rain for a few years, but they just need some tlc.  Silly us, we thought we could take both of them apart, sand them, repaint them and put them both back together in one weekend.  WRONG!  Scott and I put the chair on the right back together this afternoon before he flew out for his next work trip that requires him to be away for 11 long days.  I hope to find some fabric to make pillows to brighten them up and then we will work on the second chair upon his return.  I can't wait to sit back in them, drink a gin and tonic and enjoy the warm weather this summer.

Storage!

Even though I am trying really hard, I am finding that I have a collection of baby related items stashed in various parts of our home.  After looking at some homes on the market in our neighborhood for storage ideas, I decided my best option would be to add some type of wall with cabinet doors for the full length of Belle's room.  After receiving various quotes and trying to explain my vision to several contractors, I met Jeff and Bobbi and everything clicked.  Not only did they understand my goal, they also understood my price range.  Fast forward two weeks later, we have storage in Belle's room!  I love the end result!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

One happy baby girl in her new and improved room.  The long skinny room appears to be even skinnier, but I know we will get use to the look and it is still the perfect room for our little girl.

Recent Craigslist Purchase

I have been scanning Craigslist for months to find a similar chair to the one I inherited from my Grandma.  I love the smaller size and I am now considering using them as our head chairs with our new dining room table.  Lucky me, I found one just similar enough and I patiently waited for two weeks for the seller to bring it down to my price.  It now has an appointment at our local upholstery shop next week! 

Belle was my model this morning in her new Osh Kosh overalls.  Heart.

Our New Favorite Breakfast Spot

We love going out to breakfast on the weekends, it is the Portlander thing to do, so much so that even an episode of Portlandia spoofed it.  Our new favorite breakfast spot is Alameda Cafe in our neighborhood.  It took us over a year and a half to try this place out, but in the past month we have been here three times!  Here are my reasons why I love it: (1) they don't blink an eye when you walk in with a stroller; (2) the friendly staff; (3) they serve Stumptown coffee; (4) the hot sauce (see photo below) and (5) the food is fresh and local!  Give it a try and call us, because we will join you!

Cozy

Christmas has come early to the Bulloch household!  Scott and I gave each other a gas fireplace for Christmas and it was installed this week.  I look forward to making lots of memories in front of the fire as a family and with friends.  Now we might just use our living room. 

Belle update:  She loves looking at herself in mirrors and I love watching her expressions.

Can you tell that she has a full belly in this photo?

I tried using my tripod and timer this week to take a few photos together and as you can see, Belle was NOT having it.  Oh well... hopefully we will get some shots together soon and she won't be as upset.

The Nursery

Well, I think we are all set for Baby B's arrival.  Not only am I 37 weeks today, which equals full term (yea!!!), but I am feeling physically and emotionally prepared for this new chapter we are about to embark on together.  I have been asked by a few people to post photos of the nursery, so here you go.  I went with a grey, white, khaki and soft pink color theme and I love it so far.  I can't wait to add more treasures to the room as our daughter grows up!

Rocking bear was a gift from Scott's aunt.  The chair I ordered from Goodnight Room and you can supposedly wipe anything off of it with a baby wipe and it won't stain.  We shall see...  My Mom found the ottoman at a yard sale for $5 and I had a slipcover made for it by the upholsters down the street from our house.  The moses basket (Craigslist) and stand (Amazon) will be transferred to our bedroom when she arrives and will be stationed next to my side of the bed.  The bookshelves Scott and I installed and are filling up with so many wonderful children books and some of our own from back in the day.

This toy car was my Dad's as a child and he had it restored by our neighbor in eastern Oregon for us.  When I was a child it was yellow and we hauled all sorts of rocks and toys around with it.  It now stores my childhood Cabbage Patch Doll and a few new friends.

The picture on the left hung in my Dad's bedroom as a child and then mine.  It was cut out of a magazine by his Grandmother and I have the original letter she wrote to him when he was a baby.  She always wanted a red headed child and my Dad just happened to be a red head, so she was very pleased her wish came true a generation later.  The picture on the right hung in my bedroom and I just happened to come across it when going through items.

Above the changing table I have Scott's baby photo from around 7 months old and mine at about 9 months old.  I look forward to comparing our daughter's features to our own as she grows up.

The crib with the bedding I so badly wanted because it has stripes (my favorite) and had small touches of petal pink.  Thank you again to my friend Jenny for allowing me to use her designer discount.

The guest room potion of the room.  The room is long and narrow, so we still had plenty of room for our queen size guest bed.  I am sure I will spend plenty of nights in here so Scott can sleep across the hall in our own room.  The quilt was made by my Aunt Wendy and the "Mr. and Mrs. Bulloch" shams were a wedding gift.  Scott is still deciding if he likes them.

Snow!

We awoke to a light blanket of snow around our home this morning, sadly it melted in a matter of hours. 

Scott the Arborist

Over MLK weekend Scott decided to attempt to give me a heart attack by climbing up the tree and onto our garage to do some tree trimming in the backyard.  Thankfully he did not fall out and he did a pretty good job.  We still have a pile of branches in our back yard, but he found a special use for them a few weekends ago when we had a little visitor.

Scott standing on top of our garage

Just the beginning of the pile of branches

I wonder how many bags of yard debri it will take to get rid of this pile?

Uncle Scott made Logan a fort during his visit, perfect use of those branches.

Out with the Old and In with the "New"

Yesterday was a big day for me.  I finally found a hutch that I liked and was in my price range.  My go to website for furniture is the ever so popular Portland Craigslist.  If my memory serves me right, it is the second most used Craigslist website after San Francisco and I love selling and buying off of it.

When we purchased our home it came partially furnished and some pieces are wonderful and fit my taste and some not so much.  Case in point the buffet in the photo below.  Thankfully due to my bargain pricing, I sold it a few hours after posting it on Craigslist to a couple driving through Portland from Boise.

Now after renting a Uhaul cargo van, driving down to Sherwood in the pouring rain, having two wonderful friends help me unload it (thank you again Adam and Sybil), I can now store all of our dishes in the kitchen!

The buffet that was left by the previous owners

My "new" hutch

Our kitchen (the island on wheels, bar stools and rug also came with the house)

The eat in area

Where was Scott during all of this?  Golfing at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, it is his annual guys weekend and it appears there was a touch of wind yesterday.

Christmas Cactus Right on Time

Thank you again to Cory and Lindsay for our Christmas cactus!  It looks like it is going to be in full bloom right on schedule.

Our Home

For those of you who have been asking for photos of our home.  There are still plenty of things I would like to change out or acquire, but it is starting to feel more like us with each passing day.

Our living room.  Unfortunately the fireplace is currently not in a working state, but we hope to install a gas fireplace next fall.

The TV room

Entry way

Our dining room