The Complete House To-Do List

Here we have to complete list of things that need to get accomplished before the baby is born. We have 84 (probably less) days left to get it all done. I think we can handle it :) But I'm trying to stay positive. You can read about why the list is so big here.

Full Bath

Fill in scratch marks (from Annie)

Paint room light gray

Hang towel hooks/ring

Replace middle part of the toilet paper holder (from Annie)

Re-organize drawers and under sink

Make room for baby items

Buy/build cart

decorate

Half Bath

Deep clean - including walls

Hang full mirror on door

Hang more art

Touch up paint (from Annie and Kitten) ((you can read for about that here))

Hang towel hook

Add new rug

Staircase

Fix HELLO

Hang gallery wall

Upstairs Landing

Hang art

Touch up paint on doors (from all animals)

Add more storage? Still not sure how or what

Linen Closet

Organize shelves

Purge

Make room for baby items

Entry/Dog crate area

Replace dresser? Possibly

Organize dresser

Organize coat rack

Fill in art

Add shelf above crate

Create "pet" area

Decorate

Living Room

Touch up painted wall (don't ask...)

Hang curtains

Add art

Decorate

Kitchen

Add long shelves over table

Hang art over coffee bar

Style shelves

Fix pantry door

Deep clean everything

Hang curtains over sliding door

Organize cabiets

Make room for baby items

Laundry Area

Add shelf over washer/dryer

Organize cabinet

Hang ironing board

Master Bedroom

Hang curtains

Move bed

Buy/build dresser

Organize dresser

Organize closet

Move bookcases

Paint

Hang art

Remove shelf/vanity

Repaint small dresser

Add mirror

Decorate

Nursery

Repaint dresser

Organize dresser

Add art/shelves above changing table

Buy/build crib

Add mobile

Create under crib storage

Add art

Hang curtains for canopy

Story's Room
Move bed
Rearrange storage units
Purge, purge, purge
Organize clothes closet
Organize toy closet
Hang curtains
Hang gallery wall
Add rainbow stripes?
Update lighting

This is all I have thought of so far. I've gotten a lot done in the master bedroom/nursery. It's been my main focus after we put the house back together. I feel like I'll be able to almost finish the room after the shower. Which is in just a few short weeks. Eeek.... Don't even get me started on that. So many projects to do and not enough time (or warm enough weather) But back to the house list... Once the nursery is completed I plan on focusing most of my attention to Story's room. She needs the added attention. We talk a lot about baby and getting the baby's room ready. I think she's feeling a fit neglected. The other rooms should be fairly easy. There are just a handful of small projects that I think Jordan and I could accomplish together in a weekend. You know, the whole weekend we get to spend together. Not.

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly : A Life Update

Fair warning that this post is going to be long winded, with little to no photos. You have been warned :)

I think it's about time I let you all in on what's been going on.Okay, a little timeline for you : We moved into the townhouse in July 2013. Adopted Annie, rescued Kitten, and found out we were pregnant in August. Spent all of September with horrible morning sickness. The kind where I just slept all day and didn't do anything. Then comes October.... I'm still dealing with morning sickness, we finally make it into the second trimester so the stress lets up a bit. Keep in mind we still have a rambunctious puppy and a new kitten that are trying to adjust. I keep getting these bites all over my hands and I can't figure out where there coming from. I thought they were gnats. You would not believe the gnats we had last year. They were in our master bedroom. That room is over the kitchen of the townhouse next to us and shares a wall with the townhouse two down. The person who lived right next to us (and who's kitchen we lived above and who's backyard we had to look at) was a complete slob. I mean, like I can't even begin to imagine how disgusting that house had to be. There were also two, bigger, dogs that lived there. They were kept inside all day long, and not in a crate. They were only allowed in the fenced in backyard and were only taken out once a night. Now, we don't mind dogs. I mean, we have one. But I never heard a vacuum. I can only imagine.... So, back to the gnats. They were in our bedroom (which is gross). There was also a nasty smell in that room as well. We affectionately named in "muskrat". When we moved in the smell was all over the house but management assured us it was coming from a dead animal in the attic and it would go away after they got rid of it. The smell did go away, everywhere but in our bedroom. So, we called multiple times to complain and had them bring out an exterminator to get rid of the gnats. He did what he could but the smell was still there and I was still getting bitten.

The neighbor's yard that was directly under our bedroom window

A week after that, I really started freaking out because I got pulled into the internet and all the weird things that could possibly be happening. I started looking into bed bugs. The symptoms were there, but I didn't find any evidence of them being there. Then, one night I found a molting, and then a live one. Just one. But it was enough for us to shut the door and sleep on the floor in Jordan's office. We called management the next day, a Saturday, and they said someone would be out on Thursday. THURSDAY?! That's way too many days away to be sleeping on the floor. Mind you, I'm like 14-15 weeks pregnant. So we buy a air mattress and rough it until Thursday. The guy comes and we show him what we've found. He says, "yep, it's bedbugs" and leaves. Management is then supposed to follow up with us later. At this point I went into complete denial mode. There's no way we could have gotten them. They must be from one of the other houses. I mean, we hadn't gotten any new furniture, hadn't stayed in any hotels or anyone other houses. And we had only seen one. Normally they infest. Management sends us a timeline of what the treatments will look like. The first one is the second week of November, the second is is the first week of December and the third isn't until December 19th. To treat them, we had to get the house ready. To do so, we had to take everything off of and out of every piece of wooden furniture. That's dressers, bookcases, cd stands, toy bins, almost every piece of furniture we own. We are to either box or stack everything in the kitchen and the two bathrooms. So, we have to shove almost everything we own, that's 3 bedrooms and one living room's worth of stuff. Oh, and we also had to empty all of the closets. We were to take all of the linen in the entire house and dry it for at least and hour and then seal it all up. We were only allowed to keep the clothes we would need for the next six weeks out. Now I enter panic mode. We have to pretty much move out of our house and keep it like that all the way until a week before Christmas! I was mad. I mean, I was really mad. We went to management and asked if there was anything they would do. They pretty much laughed at us. I kept repeating that I didn't think it was coming from us. It had to be one of the other houses that ours connect with.

We go through the first treatment and I still kept on them about checking the other places. They finally check the neighbor under us but don't find any bugs. They do find that the place is awful and give them a final warning to either clean it up or they would evict them. So, small victory for us there. I remind them that we also share a wall with a house two down. They finally check them out. Turns out they were completely infested and had been for months. They didn't know what it was and they were trying to treat it themselves. Which is something you can't do with bedbugs. They have to be professionally treated. Management called us to let us know that it was in fact caused by the other tennents.

Because there were now two places that had bugs they would do a different treatment. This would be a one time thing, thankfully. The worst part was all of the instructions were almost the complete opposite of what we had been told to do for the previous treatment. Everything had to be moved to the center of each room, all the blinds had to be taken down, all the linen had to be out where they could get to it. And it would take all day. The treatment was pretty much the equivelent of putting our entire house in a dryer.

Finally, by the end of the first week of December, we were officially bug free!!! Just in time to get everything ready for Christmas. It's been an extremely slow process of trying to get our house back in order. We pretty much "moved" but without any boxes. This has been a great learning experience for us. For one thing, we will never live in an apartment/condo/townhouse/duplex. We will never be put through so much stress because of someone else's grossness.

So, that's why there hasn't been any house updates or fashion posts, and why the pregnancy updates have been in terrible light. But, we are getting things back in order. Right in time for baby! :) I have a to-do list that is several pages long. I've been slowly marking things off. The bedroom/nursery is almost completely finished. Which is a huge relief.

Thanks for hanging in there with me though all of this!! Onto the good news! :: Both of the neighbors, the stinky one and the ones with the bugs, have moved out!!! We have no neighbors for the moment. Yay!!!! :)

Pregnancy Update :: Week 25

Pregnancy Update :: Week 22-24

Okay, I am the absolute worst at taking these photos!!! I really thought I had managed to squeeze one in in these past few weeks, but I didn't... I really hope I can get back in to the swing of things soon. So no "official photos" of the bump, but I did get a few.

Week 22

We finally decided on a first name!!

Baby Pike is officially named Finley :)

Middle name tbt

Week 23

Christmas time!!!

Unexpected hospital visit

Heartbeat at 155

Finally got a flu shot

Week 24

Family Christmas!!

Our house flooded...

Caught a cold

Gearing up for a huge winter storm