Updated Baby Change Table

How's a girl to know she's a stay-at-home-Mom?  She gives furniture refinishing a try!

Pippa's nursery has like 5000 different types of wood in it, so I thought I'd paint over her change table to remove one shade of wood.  Nothing was wrong with it (other than some scratches I'd inflicted), it is a great hand-me-down from Rick & Amanda - thanks guys! 

I don't really have a great 'before' photo, but here we are after Adrian had just started to take it apart.

But wait!  "PAINT OVER LAMINATE?", you say in a crazed voice.  "Yes", I say, not quite sure of myself. 

We got ourselves to a fancy (read: $$$) paint store, and we bought us some super fancy primer. 

The clerk still said we'd have to sand, but we didn't believe him. Look, the paint is called "Stix" - as in it "Sticks" to everything, right?  Um, no.  Not right.  I had to lightly sand.  See below on the left with no sanding - yowsers!  But, like - lightly sanding things isn't the end of the world.  I don't know why I was so shy to sand things.  I decided to put two coats of primer on...well, just in case.  It dries fast.  And I didn't use that much of the expensive little can, so I gave it another go.  

Yaddah yaddah...two coats of black later, and TA DA!

Let us not forget the fancy new knobs.  Which I LOVE.  They are glass with some gold.  Very hot right now on DIY blogs.

A word about "black".  We told the man at the store we wanted shiny black.  He said, "I have lots of different blacks, just like you can choose different whites, pick a colour for me."  I went to the paint colour selection area and LAUGHED because all the blacks were the same.  I chose 'Jet Black' on a whim.

Joke's on me.  It is totally very dark gray, not actually black.  Drives me a little insane every time I see it.  Gray does not work in this room.  I wanted BLACK.  We even have another can of paint (different kinda fancy paint, I have a project in mind to justify it, stay tuned) of DARK GRAY which I deemed entirely unsuitable for this project.  True, this is much darker, but still.... #firstworldproblems.

What's in a name?

Our little baby girl's name is now final!

First name:  Patricia-Rose

My paternal grandmother's name was Patricia.  She was very important to me, I was shocked and saddened by her sudden death in 2006.  She loved her grandchildren more than anything!  I spent a lot of time with her growing up, I think she was a good influence on me.  I hope she would have liked her little namesake!

We added the -Rose because... well, we like it.  :)  Grandma loved roses - she always had some planted in the yard, I inherited what I think of as her most beautiful painting of - wait for it....roses!  We now have this hanging in the hallway, I looove looking at it.  In fact, I could see it while birthing the baby girl!  And as my Dad pointed out - we are from the City of Roses. 

I know Rose is the most overdone middle name ever right now, but I care not.  And anyway, it isn't her middle name, it is part of her first name.  I've always loved double names.  :)

Nickname:  Pippa

While Grandma went by Pat, we wanted a more modern short form for Patricia.  I liked Patsy but Adrian didn't, both of us are a bit soft of Tricia (seems too 80s, right?)...and I finally happened upon the fact that Pippa is a legitimate short form for Patricia!  Excellent!  In fact, I even remember remarking to my Auntie Jan that Pippa was a cool name, but with Pippa Middleton's bum and all it would be too popular.  This is what all the name bloggers were saying at the time.  BUT - they were wrong.  Pippa/Phillipa/Patricia have not really moved very much in the top 1000 names for the last few years.  So we felt safe going with it - we didn't want an overly popular name. And it is hella cute.  :)

Middle name:  Gwaiji

Chinese names are complicated.  There are five Chinese elements (wood, fire, earth, water, gold).  Depending on when you're born (right down to the minute), you are lacking in an element, and your name should make up this element.  Pippa was lacking in wood. 

Gwaiji is really two names - Gwai Ji.  Gwai is her Chinese middle name - all of our future children will share this.  Ji is her Chinese first name.  You could pronounce this Gee or Chi or Tze - it doesn't really translate well into English.

Gwai is the osmanthus bush - which is a lovely floral bush with fantastic scent.  I really like the smell of osmanthus, so this seemed a nice choice from my perspective, although Adrian and his family had the final say on the Chinese name.

Also complicating the Chinese name is that the number of strokes (including the last name) has to be a certain number (like, 56 is good) - due to the time and date of her birth.  Confusing, yes!  Her Chinese birthday is March 14th - see if that doesn't make your head spin.  :)  In fact, because she's born at 11:18pm, that's actually the next day.  Also confusing.

Anyhoo, the name Gwai Ji should confer much success on our little Pippa, and perhaps even soften our Taurus up a bit.  :)

BEAUTIFUL quilt from the EUC Choir!

My super awesome choir family at Eastminster United Church made the baby girl a quilt!  It is SO amazing!  It was dreamed up and coordinated by Marie - a big ideas lady!  Rumour has it she was up late for a few nights before it was done, pulling it all together.

I am just so thankful and impressed by all this.  It really is so special and wonderful.  I can't use enough words to describe it.  We will treasure this always.  I had a quilt made for me as a baby until I was five ("Greenie"), and I LOVED it.  I hope the Appleseed will love this one just as much.

I will apologise for the photography - I did it, not Adrian.  :)
Here is the entire quilt.  You can see Marie co-ordinate all the fabrics BEAUTIFULLY!  She must have remembered somewhere along the line me saying that I think Appleseed likes RED, not pink.  So red and yellow fit in perfectly with our nursery decor (although here shown in our room because the light was better).

And now for the long winded version!  :)
In no particular order (mostly because I can't seem to control the upload on blogger)

The square below was done by Ann!  Marie said the black satin ribbons were the inspiration for the black borders throughout the whole quilt - which is just beautiful!  Thank you Ann!

The square below was done by Maya and Kevin and Marie.  Maya and Kevin wanted to add some African fabric, and Marie added the kimonos.  What turns out to be really cool is that Maya lived in Japan for 3+ years!  Maya has given me lots of appreciated baby tips, and has super cute children herself.  :)  Thanks Maya, Kevin and Marie!

The square below is made by Joy, who also gave us Ugly Dolls (which we love and are super cute, despite the name!).  Love the two little quilted fishies!  Joy is our alto section lead, and has always been so happy for us ever since our announcement way back a long time ago that we were expecting.  Thanks Joy!

The square below was done by Julia.  You can see it has 'tea for two' on it, and ROSES.  Loves!  Julia is a younger choir member, who sings a beautiful Soprano 1.  She is apparently a well educated babysitter - we might be making use of her skills in the next years!  Thanks Julia!

The cool square below is done by Alanna, who is one of my Alto 2 buddies!  She sewed the teether right onto the square - cool, right?  And I have it on very good advice that those are excellent teethers, particularly if baby's teeth come early.  :)  Alanna also gave us some SUPER cute baby hats!  Alanna knows latin, so is helpful to have around to translate the odd latin phrase in choir music here and there.  She is also a famous environmental author, often jet setting on trips around the world doing research.  Thanks Alanna!

 The square below was done by Susan.  Susan is another one of my alto 2 buddies, and the choir president.  What better to put on her square than New York, where our choir recently went to sing at Carnegie Hall?  Susan did a lot of the trip organisation, and I must say, it was the most well-planned trip I've ever been on!  :)  Thanks Susan!

The square below was done by Laura.  How appropriate, a singing lady - I think that's me, singing to the baby girl!  Laura's last name is my first name, it can get very confusing!  :)  We visited Laura's cottage last summer, when I was like 1 week pregnant - she totally guessed!  We hope we can go again, and this time bring the Appleseed with us on the outside!  Thanks Laura! 

 The square below was done by Bev, and it's a beauty!  I got to know Bev and Gord a lot more on our New York trip, they are super fun.  She is a home ec teacher, so of course you expect big things from a quilt square - thanks Bev!

The square below was done by Cathy.  It has LOVE written in the middle - a beautiful square, I LOVE it - just like we already love Appleseed to bits.  Thanks Cathy!

The square below was done by Kit.  Kit is a super talented younger member of our choir, who won our choir scholarship two years ago - and we are so lucky she stayed!  You can see embroidered below twinkle twinkle little star on the piano - awwwww.  How cute.  And ROSES again, eh?  Love it!  Thanks Kit!

The square below was done by Joan and Brianne.  Joan said she can't sew, but she can knit, so she knit the pretty turquoise squares for this quilt square.  Brianne is another highly talented choir member, and you can see she embroidered some gold stars - how fitting, she's a star herself!  Thanks Joan and Brianne!

 

The square below was done by Diana.  She is another of my alto 2 buddies!  She and I roomed together in New York, so how appropriate for another New York City square!?  Awesome!  And you can see some more of Joan's cute little knit squares - probably very good for the Appleseed to touch all these different textures.  Thanks Diana and Joan!

The square below was done by my midwife, Marlene.  We laughed at my last midwife appointment - she said hers was the only square without special adornment - because she had to rush out to a birth!  :)  Fair enough, catching babies is a very honourable job, I would say!  :)   Thanks Marlene!

The square below was done by Barbara.  Barbara and I live in the same direction, and often walk home together, so we usually yatter on for quite a few minutes at the point were we have to walk our separate ways.  :)  There is LOTS of detail in this square, it must have taken her quite some time, and is so pretty!  Thanks Barbara!

The square below was done by Abby, Susan's daughter.  Isn't that lovely!?  She went over to Marie's house to learn how to ... sew/quilt/embroider.  Pretty cool, right?  I hope she had fun!  She did a lovely square, pretty darn good for a first timer!  Thanks Abby!

The square below has the special designation of the only one being done by male member of the choir - Dennis!  Dennis and I are co-chairs of the Property and Maintenance Committee at Church, which is more fun than it sounds (we do our best to keep the roof up!).  :)  Dennis learned how to do embroidery for this square, and there are two very cute sea horses and a little yellow fish there!  Dennis and Adrian have very similar hobbies, so it is no wonder we all get along.  Thanks Dennis!

This next square was done by Ester.  Ester is the wife of Dennis (see above), and another one of my alto 2 buddies.  Three hearts - me, Adrian and Appleseed!  Awww!  And piano and roses - very pretty!  Ester is another midwife in our choir - how cool, right?  Ester always has a calming word about birthing for me, and is fun to talk with on non-birthing conversations too!  Thanks Ester!

The square below was done by Judith.  Judith is another one of my alto 2 buddies.  Judith is super smart and organised, and always fun to talk to.  She's been in the choir a long time, so she has some interesting perspectives sometimes.  :)  Thanks Judith!

The square below was done by Catharine.  Catharine has a beautiful voice, and is an Alto 1 in our choir.  Three hearts, plus a green bow for Appleseed to play with - love it!  Thanks Catharine!

The square below was done by  Leslie.  It is just so pretty!  Elephants are very hot these days, and the piano/roses are my fav!  Leslie is a very cool lady of indeterminate age, and brings a lot of character to the choir!  Thanks Leslie!

Phew!  I don't think I missed any!  How beautiful!  I cried of course when the choir presented it to me, all wrapped up beautifully with lavender from Marie's garden.  Thank you so much to everyone, this quilt is so special to us.

Bathroom done!

Done!  Not 100% finished - we still need towel racks and things.  And more grout on floor?

But I digress....

YAY!  Done!

Window is in!  Standing right next to it isn't even cold!  Imagine in summer all the air we can have in the room - woah!  That is some black engineered stone around it.

And our beautiful custom cabinets turned out faboo.  Soon we'll add decorative things there.  So much extra storage, we don't know what to do with ourselves!

And our new deep tub - it is still begging me to have a bubble bath in it - soon, soon, my friend.  (Hello, LABOURing in the tub!  Should be ideal for it!)

Above is a pic of the other side of the tub.  But really, I love staring at the wall tile, now you can too.

Our new vanity.  Matches the cabinets above.  That is an IKEA sink, actually.  Just the sink though.  We liked how it has the raised edge in the back, so no worry about grout eventually failing and needing to be redone.  Not shown but turned ON is the pot light we have installed over the sink, to provide a squidge of extra light to do one's makeup.  And you can see the conveniently located plug to power one's hairdryer as well.

Also, checkout the rad faucet!  Adrian picked it.  Very cool.  We just saw it lying around our contractor's shop, and we were like - "We want that one".

Man, are you seeing all this storage?  We don't know what to do with ourselves.  We have room for Appleseed's future bath toys x a million!  Wheeeeee!

The above can be titled "View from the commode".  That white slim line thing is our new electric heater.  "Electric heater?"  you ask in a crazed voice.  Yes.  It is fancy and uses less energy than it's other heating friends.  Fanless, so it is more like a radiator.  It has a thermostat so it keeps the room at a constant temp.  Remember, this room had no heating before.  And we tore down the duct that would have come to this neck of the woods by removing the wall downstairs.

An amazing thing - insulated walls, plus heat, plus stronger fan (not shown) - we can shower and the walls are DRY.  Yes, even my super steamy showers!  WOW.  Old bathroom had crying walls at every shower, even Adrian's not-super-steamy ones.  Not tested yet is a long luxurious hot bath (will probably have to wait until after Appleseed arrives, I worry about damaging her).

And what is a bathroom/washroom/restroom without a throne?  Shown above is our new one.  So pretty!  Does not rock!  (Found out part of labour will be on the toilet - we giggled to ourselves thinking of the old one!  That would NOT have been suitable!).  Two buttons for coolness.  No-slam lid.  One piece, for easy cleaning.

Almost there!

But not quite.....
SORRY, am typing this from the airport on the tablet... I will be brief. 

You can see cupboards are up. Sneak preview of the floor.  New window and window sill.  Walls not grouped yet.

Door/Window/Mud

Hello dear Internetz.  

Did I mention we're replacing the back door?  Old door is out, new door not in yet.  Despite our old door being lovely, we do this to keep the heat IN the house, not leaking out through the single pane window in the old door.  And, eventually we're going to knock off the weird little outdoor room thing attached to our back door, so we need a real exterior door - our old door is oddly not an exterior door (no lock).  Weird, right?  So we may rip off that room thing this summer, so having an exterior door ready is key.  This is just your basic WARM, SAFE, cost-effective door.

Bathroom is now mudded.  Tile starts tomorrow.  And new window is IN!  Well, ok, the window sill is not in yet, but the new window is.  So big and luxurious!  W00t!  Look, you can see the WHOLE thing opens!  Also featured is the nice man that is actually doing all the work by his lonesome:

Downstairs is also mudded.  Less exciting, but an important day nontheless.  Also, all our custom cabinets have been delivered.  The room is actually even messier than before, if possible.  MAN, we have a big cleaning job ahead of us.

Oh, and, um... our furnace is sorta broken-ish.  We need a service call, at any rate.  It hasn't been on for... oh, a week or so.  House is freezing.  Well, no, house is 54'F (yes, we roll in Fahrenheit).  Pipes won't freeze.  Just uncomfortable.

Drywall partially up

Drywall is partially up for both the wall and the bathroom.  This guy is a one-man machine!
Do you need to put special drywall on the ceiling of the shower, or is regular ok??  Anyone??

Of course, we don't even really know if he came in or not today - SNOW DAY!  We're here at Ad's parents.  Ad will go over tomorrow though, fo' shizz.  I needs my special Chinese New Year clothes, obvi.  And my Chinese New Year jewellery (one of the few days a year I wear jewellery - my diamond ring and pearls).

Once the mudding is done and sanded - we can start CLEANING!  W00t!  And maybe move home again at some point!

Progress...

Progress!  This is at the end of day 3.

The new bathtub is in!  WOW!  You can see the shower pipe there too!  Still the old window.  Look, new toilet hole!

Barbara, you were right to be wary of the old rocking toilet.  Turns out the pipe was cracked!  AUGH.  Not leaking yet, thankfully.  But it was only a matter of time, no doubt.  Thank goodness we had the urge to remodel before the baby comes! 

Now the kitchen is looking super different!  Look how OPEN it looks!  Sort of exposed!  Great sight lines.  Tea cup cupboard no longer.

Here is the view from the kitchen of the dining room.

As you can see, the dining room is being used as a staging area.  Good thing it was all cleared out!

Look how OPEN it is!  That little bit of wall to the side there (you can see some pipes running) will be covered up with drywall.  That's the plumbing stack, it is staying where it is.  We're not made of money, yeah?

You can see the new framing above the counter - that will be the new little breakfast bar we are adding on.  It will match our ugly counters.  :)

Demo day!

It begins!

I tell you, this guy is a hard worker!  One dude did all of this.  Our bathroom went from this to this:

You may have seen the above on FB.  At this point (like ~10:30am) the bath tub is still there you can see.

SHAZAM!  It's gone!  ALL gone!  Including the tub, which is now in our backyard, if anyone feels the need for a quick wash, help yourselves.  Holy Moley!  By himself!  We are lazy office workers - no way I could do this in 2/3 of a day!

(Ok, old window is still there.  Everything isn't totally gone.)

Well the day isn't over.... time to start downstairs!

Last dining room wall picture, ever:

Down it goes!  Mwhahahahha!  (View from the other side)

You can see the spice cupboard is old news, we've lost a few regular kitchen cupboards as well.  But the dishwasher (aka, Corrie Jr.) STAYS!  

Stay tuned for more updates!

And the walls - come tumbling down!

I really love my spice cupboard.

Look, here it is, pictured closed.

And even more exciting, pictured open:

Why am I losing my spice cupboard?  Well, this whole wall will be coming tumbling down.  (Well, I hope they actually very neatly and tidily dismantle it.).  For a little context - this is the wall between the kitchen and dining room.  They are commonly removed in these sorts of houses.

So, it means no more spice cupboard.  Poot.  Where on earth will I put all my spices??  You can see I just bought some Trader Joe's Smoked Paprika!  I've always wanted smoked paprika!  And now that I have it - soon I will have no place to put it!  And these aren't even all my spices - I have some magnetic ones on the fridge as well.

And see that vent below the spice cupboard in the picture at the top?  Yeah.  That's the heat to our bedroom.  We're moving to electric in our bedroom, all so this wall can come tumbling down.

All so we can see into the dining room so I can see my little Appleseed at play while I am slaving away at dishes.  Not that we're losing our dear dishwasher.  It will stay - the wall will only come half down.  But you know, not everything goes in the dishwasher and all that.

And sure, the spice cupboard doesn't actually close (or good luck getting it open again - it sticks) - but it is so cool to have one, right?  And see how it is a different colour on the inside of one panel?  This is super old paint, and makes me think "DANGER! LEAD PAINT", so maybe it really is good to get it out of there before the Appleseed arrives on the scene.

But mostly it is all about sight lines and whatnot.  Yay!

But what is wrong with your current bathroom?

I'll tell you.

Ok, I will admit, the picture doesn't look so bad, right?  Let's look in more detail!

Starting from the top:

• No insulation.  Not just no insulation, no heating either.  Cold, cold, cold.  See those ugly tiles?  They are freezing!  Also no insulation means hella condensation when someone takes a nice warm shower.  It is flat roof above this room - one would think a little bit of insulation would not go to waste here!
• Window is old and cold and leaky.  AND - look at it!  It barely opens!  On a hot summer day when you want AIR - well, you can have that little square's worth.  Boourns!
• No room for fat people.  Like, for reals.  It is quite tight in there.
• No storage.  Ok, ok, if we hadn't been planning on renovating, we would have put some storage in by now, but for now we still use this (ghetto) plastic bin.  Not super classy.
• Sink is cracked.  Well, ok.... I suppose that doesn't matter.  But it is SO small.  I dislike pedestal sinks, except in powder rooms.  I wear contacts, you have to put them on the edge of the sink when you put them in!  I need more space, man!
• Bath tub overflow drain LEAKS.  This isn't ok.  Remember our rain in the basement?  It isn't nice to rain inside.  If you recall, it was this drain.  Sure, it could be fixed.  But it would be quite a tight job next to our toilet with no space back there.  I will be in labour in about 81 days - I will need a tub to do some of the labouring in!  A nice relaxing tub, which this ain't.  Also, the tub needs re-enamelling.  But whatev, we're getting a soaker tub in the new bathroom.
• Toilet rocks.  You laugh.  Is true.  Not the good kind of rocks.  The kind you hope doesn't mean there is water damage somewhere.  And feels weird when you're doing your business.  Super hard to fix - the floor is not level back there.  Also there is also some old paint/mud on the tiles back there, so it never looks clean.  Poot.
• And finally - the floor is ugly.  Not a reason in itself to tear the entire washroom down, but while we're at it, this will be upgraded.

Starts Feb 4th!  Hooray!  I will be posting some shots as it comes along!  :)

Built in Kitchen Shelves, East Side

While we haven't been doing anything major lately, Adrian did build us these nice kitchen shelves for storage a few months ago.

I love them!  They really do tidy the place up quite a bit.  Storage for some of my teas, my legumes, hippie flours, grains and nuts, and a bit of miscellaneous canned goods (which are super old, I should toss them).  The best part - cookbook shelf!  Every kitchen should have a cookbook shelf.  Unfortunately I had to do a bit of a purge to fit all my cookbooks in (on the ones I really love made it), but it sure is handy having them all there!  Not shown is a small little stool I use to actually reach the cookbook shelf, since it is so high up.

The great thing about these shelves is that this was totally unused space, allowing us to free up some other space and move the island around a bit to make the kitchen more walkable.  And the bookcase we formerly had in the kitchen to hold all these things now is in the living room holding BOOKS - a much better arrangement.

The plan is for the other side of the fridge to receive a similar treatment, with slightly deeper shelves (our bigger jars won't fit on these skinny shelves).

Long Time No Post! Bedroom pics!

Ok, I've been a bad blog authoress.  M'I bad.  I do hope to get back to posting more.  The updates on the house aren't as drastic or come as often, but we're still doing things here and there.

Well, our bedroom has been done for AGES.  I just haven't put any pics up.   The bedroom is really lovely, I think to myself "I really love this room!" every night.  (And I still particularly like the colour, which does not show up well on camera.)

Remember when it only looked like a computer-generated dream?

Well, now it is an actual room!

The bed isn't gray like we originally planned, we bought a wooden bed and Adrian sanded it and we stained it Jacobean like the head board. (Jacobean is our go-to stain, featured anywhere in the house I can talk Adrian into staining instead of painting.)  Since I am a real person and there is a real closet in the way, you can't see the whole bed - sorry!

You can see Adrian did put the switches in on both sides of the bed - we each have a switch for our personal reading lamps, and there is a three-way switch for the backlighting (doesn't show up in the daytime, but is very soothing at night).

Adrian just recently put up the curtains which you can see to the right of the photo - he put light blocking fabric on the back, so it is nice and dark at night.  (There is a street light in our alley which makes our room super bright if we don't take care.)

The shelves turned out to be floating instead of cabinets.  Meh.  They are sorta cool.  There is storage under the bed, so we're ok from that point of view.

We also did put in a cool ceiling fan, which is a lifesaver on hot days!

All in all, I LOVE our bedroom!  I wouldn't change it, but to add more rugs in winter.  We're talking about getting some custom rugs, but we're not there yet.  Now that warm weather is headed here, I am more concerned with talking about awnings!  :)  Cheers!