Master Closet Project

So we are pretty much done with the master closet project. I want to add a few more shelves here and there (winter sweaters, stacks of T shirts, for pants), but I would say we are 90% done and it is very usable. So happy to finally have the closet mostly done!

We will add flooring when we re-do the flooring of the upstairs. Dealing with sub flooring right now - no biggie.

Our closet before hand. Very tiny tiny - the size of a coat closet. I absolutely hated it. I could only really fit my clothes in it and Nick had to use one of the spare bedroom closets - which gradually migrated to our bedroom unto the rack I put up to store foldables and such. The picture is kinda spotty - I had to grab the camera since I wanted a before picture, I think it was dirty and covered in drywall dust.

Here is Nick and his dad working on the framing - and a picture of the framing with a wall behind it! (pictures taken in February to give a sence of how long this project took)

Then they put up the walls! Really made it feel real. These pictures are after all the spackling, sanding, more spackling, more sanding, priming, and painting! These were taken in early April

We started to add shelving in mid April and gradually added more as we decided what we wanted. We have been using the closet for over a month and so love it, just never added pictures. Today I found all of our clothing and put it in, as well as organized the shoes (put off season under the bed). As stated before, we have ALOT of T shirts. Need to go through them - but so many sentimental ones.

This is what the closet looks like as you enter. We have an entry way where to the left is storage for off season clothing. Yes not totally cleaned, but been wanting to get pictures up! The shoes on the ground, I need to get another shoe rack for that wall. We may add a high shelf, but not sure. Kinda cramps things if we put something there, I think.

More pictures of the main clothing wall, and the main shoe rack! Off season shoes and fancy shoeshoes are in a container under the bed. Thought if I don't need them now or if I don't wear them often I don't need them out! I like the idea of only keep out what you use/need.

On the wall opposite the hanging clothing, we put up drawers. These took longer to do than we ever thought. First only bought 1 to see the quality and see if we really were going to use it. Then we bought the other 3. One of them came broken, so we had to return it. And you know how things go - took about 2-3 weeks to return it. They hold undies, socks, tank tops, etc. (wow I need to clean my camera lense). We are adding a shelf to the top to stack more things (Nick's jeans, shirts). I will use the shelf that the drawers create since I am shorter :) . The top shelf will be where that top bar is.

Nick is using the area under the drawers for his shoe storage - need to get another shoe rack for here. You can see the hole in the wall. This is a crawl space access. We are going to keep it accessable by building some removable shelves (with a back to close it off) that recess into the space. Why waste usable space?

Oh this project is taking forever. Started around January and is almost complete! Just was a lot bigger project than we thought - Nick's first drywalling experience, took us forever to figure out how we wanted things orientated in there, just took forever putting things together. Was also hard to time with Easter, Baby stuff, etc. But hey it is usable and that is all that matters!

But I love it and completely worth the wait!

So the list to finish the project:
Get floors installed...eventually (ok this may be a while, maybe a year when we do the whole upstairs)
Close up hole with removable shelving unit
Add mirror to back of door
Get shoe racks
Little more organization - especially for the top shelves
Add a few more shelves here and there.
The entry way where we are storing off season clothing - add a bar for long hanging items (dresses I don't wear often)

Oh and the room only has one light bulb - I am surprised how well it lights everything up! And the closet does have sky light. Makes it nice for looking in there during the morning/day. Need to make something to put over it to block the uv lights so they don't fade our clothes and shoes.

I am an oddity..

Most pregnant women hate the heat. But I have always loved the heat! Love it! I would take a 90+ degree day over a day under 10 degrees any day! The only thing that kills me recently is the humidity. But I still love the heat. Today it is going to get up to 90 and I am excited!

The funny thing is - pregnancy is supposed to make you hotter, but I tolerate the heat much better than Nick. Hmm...

33 weeks!

How Far Along: 33 weeks

How Big is Baby: Around 4.5 lbs and 19 - 19.5 inches long

What is Baby up to: Things are heating up inside as well: Baby may grow up to a full inch this week alone, and his brain is developing like crazy. Pretty soon, he'll be able to coordinate breathing with sucking and swallowing. Also, his bones are hardening, and he's started to keep his eyes open when he's awake.

Total Weight Gain: +9 - 9.5ish

Best Moment this Week: Always love the kicks!

Movement: Starting to be during the middle of the day when resting my arms/hands on the bump. Also feel a lot when laying down in the evening

Belly Button: Inny. Getting shallow!

What I Miss: Not much...

What I am Looking Forward To: Baby shower in a few weeks! Labor Series class this weekend!!!

Gender: No idea... But thinking girl lately. Baby feels like it is up higher.

Dr. Appointment this week. Was with the doctor I don't like. I am not seeing him any more tho! But the baby is head up. I think he/she likes to flip around a lot. Lately I think I have felt its head. And today during a meeting I swear I felt an elbow or knee poking out! Was very exciting!! Right now I am getting some awesome kicks real low.. Way of the baby saying HI to the world!

Also want to do some shopping for the baby, but wanting to wait until after the shower. So hard wait! I think I am going to start buying some cloth diapers online! Have some added to my amazon.com cart, just haven't purchased it yet.

Want to start going to church again. I really liked growing up religious, and want to do the same for this baby. Just having a hard time figuring out the god parents thing. And find a church that we like and want to belong to. Such hard decisions....

Luna was great at agility last night!!!!

Luna made me so proud at agility last night. She is a scardy dog and has to take everything slowly, in many small steps.

I was able to take her leash off since she is building confidence and I can recall her ok. and keeping treats in my hand does wonders for keeping her around and not wondering. I think this helps a lot with her confidence building.

I was able to send her to a jump from 2-3 feet away!!!!!! HUGE HUGE HUGE accomplishment! Yes the jump was only 4 inches, but still a big achievement! I threw the biggest party for her when she did that! She was so proud of herself!

We are also working on our serpentine move (ok putting their collar in your hand). We have done so many reps at the first step and she is starting to get it and if I hold my hand out she puts her neck in it! Love it! She does catch on fast. She is a smart dog!!!!! So in class I did it and she came right up to my hand in the right body placement!!!!!

Then I sent her over a jump that was higher than 10 inches (trying to force her to slice the jump at an angle). And she did it eventually! We were using the cookie jar game (high value treats in a glass jar - this time roast chicken, sometimes leftover lunch meat). Once she got it we ran to the jar and she got a huge happy reward!

Still having issues with the dog walk, and the same issue has translated to the A Frame. Ugh. But the dog walk was really low. We did a lot of work on it - She gets so afraid of that thing. Once she gets going she is fine, but it is the get going part that is hard. We found that the cookie jar game helped with this also. Getting better but not great. I really see her as a jumpers course runner - she is starting to love jumps, loves tunnels, loves the tire jump, looooves the shoot, loooves weave poles.

Oh here weave poles are looking good. She knows what to do and does a good job!

So for a scardy dog - she is turning into a good agility dog! She has fantastic muscles and is so fast. I know once she gets used to everything and builds confidence, I wont' be able to keep up with her!

What to watch now...

So Nick and I have been watching Angel the series on Netflix watch instantly. We both have thoroughly enjoyed it. Season 4 and 5 wern't as good - but still enjoyable. I heart Joss Whedon! We found it interesting on how many of the actors that are in firefly are in Angel. He does enjoy to use the same actors - or is it the actors who love to work with him?

Overall, the series is not as good as Buffy (which I want to re-watch now!) but is still really good. Has some awesome dialogue, fun makeup, and in general a good story. Yes it is about vampires and deamons, other dimentions, etc. But makes for a good story.

It was nice to get caught up in the series. I didnt' watch it much once I was in college - so I watched the first two or three seasons at home with my parents and sister. The last few episodes I didn't watch much - was messing around with my computer or working on cross stitch. I do need to re-watch the last episode. But, I love the last line of the series - Angel saying "I don't know about you but I wanna slay the dragon!"

Now since we are in the summer, we have to find something else to watch. Any suggestions? I know I so want to see Glee - but it is on the "Very Long Wait" list on netflix. True Blood Season 2 comes out next week and I hope to watch it - going to hold onto our disks to return so we can hopefully get more than one disk at a time.

Oh and I know Eureka starts in July. As does being human (a bbc show about a vampire, warewolf, and a ghost), which I highly recommend to watch - entertaining. Cannot wait for Eureka to start -- July 9th!!!!

So what other shows should we be watching or put on netflix queue? Other shows I love are Bones, House, The Office, 30 Rock, Ugly Betty (so sad no longer on), Pushing Dasies (so sad got canceled), The Terminator (another sad it got canceled, was getting good!), Dollhouse (another one that got canceled as it got good - GIVE JOSS WHEDON TIME HE WILL DELIVER!), Dirty Jobs, Deadliest Catch. Not a fan of reality shows...

Not a bad weekend...

Even tho this weekend was another in a row of rain/overcast/cold, I did enjoy it. We did some relaxing (which seems to happen with a gloomy day).

Saturday I organized our linens for the dining room. Pretty much realized I was keeping platters in different places and moved some out of the closet to be combined with the others above the coat closet area that really isn't a closet. I need to get a little ladder to store over there ot make it easier to get things out of it and not use the bar stool... No I am not climbing on the bar stool anymore. I also finally put all the things away that were sitting on top of the dryer for months. Still need to organize recipes/cooking magazines/cookbooks. Took the dogs to get their nails trimmed. We also went to lowes to return the storage container(shelf/drawers) we bought for the closet that was broken - simple and easy. Went to Target to get some picture frames. Stopped by Nick's grandparents and dropped off wedding photos almost 2 years after the wedding.

We were supposed to meet Nick's cousin for dinner, but that fell through. Went to a bbq joint - over a 30 min wait - no thank you. Went to a mexican place. Was yummy. Not sure if I would get what I got again (chicken in a chipolte sauce - wasn't spicy and very oily). Nick got what he always gets - fajitas. Opted to get sopapillas for dessert - was a total dissapointment - they were like fried tortillas - not the billowy sopapillas I have had before.

Did a lot more on Sunday that I did on Saturday - Put away a lot of laundry. Nick put together the drawers, I put things in them. Hung up all our clothing. Realized what else we want to do with the closet (how many more shelves). Made blueberry muffins. Made a lemongrass marinade for chicken for dinner (was really yummy). Vaccuumed upstairs and the bedroom walls, and surfaces. Oh we also painted the alphabet for the baby's room - base coat done! Now to start decorating the letters!

What I didnt' get done:
weed - too rainy and cold and gloomy
freezer meals - just wasnt' up for it - may this week
cleaning - got preoccupied doing other things and the weather just kinda killed my motivation

Things I realized I need to buy over the weekend
Storage thing for shoes under bed - going to put off season and dressy shoes in it - ones I don't use often
Mirror for closet
Mirror for our bathroom
Decoration shelves for living room (floating shelves)
Frames for retro cocktail prints for living room

I hate carpet

OK, after Luna having diarrhea, I know I want to get rid of the carpet upstairs. I hate cleaning carpet. It is so gross since you never know how clean it is. We have gross Berber carpet. I want hardwood so badly up there. I will probaby get some rugs to put down in the hallway and in the bedrooms. I am hating the carpet so much I almost want to rip it up and use subfloor - like we are using in our closet.

Time to start saving for it!

I hate carpet - it isnt' much of a price difference than hardwood - well depending on what you get. Why do people use carpet anyways?

But the only reason to keep carpet is that it is soft in the middle of the night, the dogs like to play on carpet more than hardwood, it is a bit cheaper and cheaper to install...

Oh the list of things I want in the house are never ending... And I soooooooooooooooo want a fence!