Wednesday, September 25, 2013

renovations at the rents


My parents just finished remodeling a large portion of their house.  The major part of the renovations took place in the addition that used to be my grandmother's apartment.  It used to be a self sufficient little house over there with a bedroom, living room, kitchen and bathroom.  Kyle lived there for a period of time and David and I lived there while we were re-modeling our current home.
 
All in all, it looks very different now.  I helped them space plan and arrange the suite so that they had optimal garden/pool views, as well as a circular flow through the bedroom and into and out of the bathroom/closets.  It is also very close to being a truly ADA (wheelchair accessible) plan.  My parents really wanted to be able to plan for the future.  So, after much pushing and pulling of walls and doors and mapping out specific furniture pieces my mom already new she would be buying, the plan was done and they started construction. 
 
We had an amazing contractor.  A family friend and mentor of David's, Jamie Grigar.  My parents loved him.  And my dad is typically a hard one to please :)  And my mom was always striving to be the perfect client :)
 
So without further adieu, here is the new space.  Unfortunately we do not have before pictures.  Also, please excuse my photography skills. 
 
 
{ Master Bedroom }
 
 
 


 
{ Master Bathroom }






 
Then they did some renovations to the upstairs, mainly just replacing carpet and re-texturing walls.
 
{ Side note:  When I was a teenager, my mom let me do ANYTHING I wanted, to my room.  So I thought it would be an excellent idea to try out plaster on my walls.  As an interior designer in training and a bull headed person in general, I just went to Home Depot and got the closest thing I could find to what I thought was the right product.  It ended up being a bunch of spackling basically.  Yes, laugh now.  And then a couple of years later, my mom tried to fix it by doing the real at home wall texture process, but that was a disaster too.  So that room needed a lot of help.  But now it looks great.  }
 
 
{ Old Master Bedroom }

 
{ Old Master Bathroom }
this was completely renovated, tile instead of carpet, new cabinets and countertops

 
{ Kyle's old bedroom }
looks so like him :)

 
{ My old bedroom }
Now mom's workroom and office

 
{ Hall bath}
This was completely renovated.  It only had a shower, and since mom and dad built a closet over the bathtub in their old master bathroom... they demolished the shower in here and added a tub, moved the toilet to a completely different spot, got rid of a sink (there were two) and I just love this little room.


 
 
In addition to these rooms, they also blew out an exterior stone wall, that was actually inside because they had previously enclosed a porch.  That wall being gone now lets so much light into their living room, and its just awesome. 
 
And of course we cannot forget all the landscaping changes that were made outside mom and dad's new master suite.  My dad has an intense green thumb.  When he finally retires he'll probably go work at a local nursery or The Wildflower Center.  So this was a huge part of the project.  I don't have any pictures now of it, but it basically enclosed a large portion of their side yard to be an oasis to wake up to every morning.
 
Have a great week!

Sunday, September 22, 2013

baby WALKER

So, we've made the official announcement.  We're expecting a baby!

In case you missed it on the all so public Facebook, here's how we let everyone know...



I will briefly somewhat briefly go into a little bit of some personal information about our journey in the process of becoming pregnant.  Some may think its not appropriate to share, but I've always said that I'm an open book.  For goodness sake I have a blog about all the things that David and I do in our free time.  And if it helps anyone, then all the better.

It wasn't easy.  But by no means was it as hard as some women go through.  I feel blessed that we didn't have to go to any extremes.  We started this whole process back in May of 2012.  And after about 6 months, I figured I would go to the doctor and see what was going on.  I'm the type of person that doesn't sit around and wait for things to happen to me.  I question and I ask, and I am proactive.  Call it impatient, call it meddling in life's plan, but I'm glad I made a move because otherwise we would not be where we are today.

All in all I found out I had Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome in March after a couple of months working with my regular OBGYN without any success and then moving on to Texas Fertility. 

Side note:  I am no expert... And I'm not going to give you a WebMD definition, but this is how I explain PCOS.  Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is super common and it just means that you have some kind of insulin resistance which messes with your hormones which gets them all out of wack and never tells your body to ovulate.  (Many women have other side effects, but I'm lucky that I did not.)  So I wasn't ovulating.  That was it.   The solution.  Clomid.

Side note:  Again, I'm not an expert, this is just how my mind has chosen to understand how Clomid works.  Clomid is a fertility drug, but its probably the most common one out there.  It sends some kind of message to your brain that one hormone or the other is depleted, I think estrogen.  So the body then says, hmm.  I need to ovulate.  So, other hormones kick into gear and start the process.  Side effect.  Multiple follicles, that potentially mean multiple eggs "hatching", and therefore multiple babies.  Percentage:  about 10% chance you'll have multiples. (We are not having multiples.)

Clomid was the original plan for my OBGYN, but she wasn't comfortable going past a certain dosage, 150 mg.  So, when I started going to Texas Fertility, the plan was still Clomid, but to kick it up to 200 mg.  And after about 3 months, we started seeing results.  Results being follicles.  Follicles in your ovaries that potentially "hatch" the egg, which is ovulation.

And that's what finally worked.  It took some time, but by no means did it take multiple years, which I can't even imagine.  I know friends and friends of friends who have gone through much worse and I commend them for their grace, hope, and bravery through the whole process. 

For me, it felt like it would never happen.  I wasn't hopeless, but it seemed as if it were one of those things that you've always wanted to do, but was so out of reach, it would take a lot of time, a lot of money, the world shifting on its axis, and a lot of hard work.  But I had very supportive friends and family.  Friends who always asked how things were going.  And I wanted to talk about it when asked so that meant a lot.  It was kind of a therapeutic thing really. 

And David was amazing.  Always making me laugh when I'd have a bad day, and definitely amazing during the past 2 months with our little Bowie, who just sucked the life out of me after a day of nausea and work.

So now that we are past that part, I'm ready to have fun with it.  And all my other friends that are pregnant right now.  Because there are a lot, and I'm so excited.  More to come on Baby Walker and our house projects and nursery projects too.

Katie

Monday, September 16, 2013

chalkboards

So, the new "it" thing is chalkboard art.  If you frequent Pinterest as much as I do, then you've seen some pretty cool chalkboard art.  Well... I wanted to get in on the fun, so I bought some chalkboard paint pens, chalkboard contact paper, and an A-frame decorative framed chalkboard on Amazon.  {By the way, Amazon is really great for EVERYTHING you would ever want to buy.}

Here were my purchases.


 
 
 
 
 
{This one hasn't arrived yet, so I started without it}
 
The day these arrived I was so excited, but I waited until the weekend to play with them.  And the first thing I did was transform our pantry cabinet, and created a chalkboard on the inside of our pantry doors. 
 
The contact paper is super easy to cut.  I used a metal ruler and a rotary blade.  (The rotary blade is awesome I just found out, especially with the straightedge ruler.  And, you can cut right on the granite and it doesn't scratch at all.)
 

 
This was the pantry door before. 

 
After contact paper.  Smooth out with a credit card or similarly rigid flat thing-a-ma-jig.

 
After chalk paint! 
{I couldn't think of any groceries at the moment.}


 
{and this will be full by next weekend ;)}
 
And it washes off with water, so it super easy to re-write, erase, and start another list!
 
Then I got really adventurous and found some inspirational chalkboard images on Pinterest, and copied one by looking at it.  This is in our utility room :)

 
 
 
Here are some of my chalkboard art inspirations that I found on Pinterest.  I have tried to cite my sources as best I could.
 
 

(I can't find the source, my apologies.)


 






More fun projects from Katie and David coming soon!

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Do I have wrinkles?

No. Hopefully not for awhile. Because I've started a "regimen". 

I've never really had that habitual process of washing my face, putting on face cream or serum or anti aging miracle cream. I just wash my face with a drugstore soap and then put on the tried and true Oil of Olay. That's what I've always done. 

But then I was invited to an Arbonne party. And thought. Well this is fairly well priced, I'm impressed by their practices and commitment to healthy natural products, and I don't know the first thing about anti aging lotions. (Did you know you should start using anti aging creams/serums at the age of 25?? There goes 4 years of preventing wrinkles.)

It's great for me. I can tell a difference in my skin tone, the way my skin feels and I know I'm helping to prevent aging and all that bad stuff. They also have all kinds of other stuff like shampoo, dietary stuff, makeup etc. 

I won't ramble on about Arbonne. If you're interested here is their website.  Enjoy!

Oh and if you're interested, I know someone who sells it! (Not me, the BFF)

http://www.arbonne.com/international.asp