The Domestication Project

fashionably late

jax — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 03:52:20 +0000

Well, well, look who decided to join the party — and only 16 days late! Sophia Lois was born at 7:47pm on July 4 (to her uber-patriotic daddy’s delight) after a long day of laboring at home with my supportive husband and wonderful midwives. She was 8 pounds, 10 ounces + 21 inches long. We love her pudgy cheeks, roly-poly arms, and little chicken legs. She has a lot of dark hair, squinty little eyes, and pretty lips (that are almost always looking for food).

This birth was, to my surprise, much longer + more difficult than Eli’s, but there were no complications and we really loved being at home for all of it. Especially the part where the midwives left and we all drifted off to sleep in our own bed to the sound of far-off fireworks. Perfect.

halfway there…

jax — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 21:34:42 +0000

Welcome to our foyer, halfway through our renovation. Please note the freshly drywalled walls + ceiling (previously beyond-repair cracked plaster), carpeted stairs, and really scuffed/dirty wood floors.

Here’s our foyer now. I feel the need to preface ALL “after” photos, especially in this post, with the disclaimer that we are nowhere near finished with these areas. The foyer is looking forward to a new light fixture (already picked out … but it’s a surprise), a large mirror (already painted + in the tool shed awaiting hanging), trim around the stairs rehung + painted, and more. I really love the gray color of the walls with our new front door color — and the gray will be showing up again in a future “house tour update,” as we’ve painted the living room in the same gray you last saw it.

This is our upstairs “foyer” … it’s very small (smaller since we cut into it when remodeling our bedroom — but that’s being saved for last). When you walk up the stairs, you encounter a landing surrounded by four doors (previously five); from left to right: our bedroom, the bathroom, the guest room, + Eli’s room. This photo shows the middle two doorways.

And in this one, you can get a feel for how the upstairs colors tie in together. The gray from the foyer carries on up the stairs into the hall, the bathroom is a golden yellow (which I love at some times of day, and am repulsed by at others — it’s all in the lighting…I’m considering repainting), and the guest room is the pale green you saw earlier in the tour.

Both of our bathrooms are challenging spaces — this one especially is very small. I haven’t done much to it besides painting the walls + trim, taking down the glass shower doors + replacing with a shower curtain, and replacing the ugly medicine cabinet with a mirror (which I bought at a thrift store + spray painted white).
My plan is to bring in more gray/silver accents to temper the gold color of the walls. I’m going to paint the vanity/cabinets gray, find a new light fixture (pronto — not a fan of those “hollywood” lighting strips that seem ubiquitous in dated bathrooms + apartment complexes), and hang some sort of shelf above the toilet for storage (which is sorely lacking in this bathroom).

Stay tuned for either the next stop on the house tour (Eli’s room!) OR a birth announcement…?

most improved?

jax — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 00:25:48 +0000

Don’t even get me STARTED about the living room. Sure, it looks pretty bad in the above photo. But at one point, it looked like this:

Yes…if you were wondering, THIS is the stage of the renovation that brought me to “we’re-never-going-to-be-able-to-move-in” tears. Of course, I blame a little of it on the pregnancy hormones. Mostly, though, I blame it on the six-foot pile of rubble in our living room (mostly the product of the demolition going on in our upstairs bedroom … more on that in a few days). But a couple of months later, here’s the current state of the living room:

Nathan constructed these gorgeous built-in bookshelves for me, with absolutely no cabinet-making experience. They are super-sturdy, have TONS of room for our books (which have been in boxes/storage for quite a while due to a lack of adequate shelving in all previous residences), and look straight-up professional, if you ask me.

We plan on putting the crown molding (which was originally on that wall) along the top edge of the bookshelves, as well as doors on all the lower cabinets. I’m going to have a cushion made for the window seat (which hinges open and has storage underneath!), and am still working on the styling of the shelves. Still, I love them already!

Here’s a better shot of the couch, for my mother. It’s an antique I bought at a closing (now-closed) furniture store downtown. I got a great deal + love the shape and the way the yellow ties in with the yellow chandelier in the dining room. The two bamboo armchairs are a garage sale find and I plan on painting AND reupholstering them. At some point.

I had to include this shot of the boys, who I shoved into a corner while I took the room pictures (and they watched the World Cup). Those doors behind Winston lead to a coat closet + the basement. The coat closet is currently full of ALL my framed art and mirrors, which are just begging to be hung — I’m trying to be patient and make sure the furniture is where I want it before I hang art. And I haven’t even painted the living room yet…or bought a rug…or a light fixture… There is a lot to do in here, but I love the way it’s turning out so far.

house tour, part 2

jax — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 22:00:27 +0000

Next stop on the house tour: the dining room. This before picture doesn’t even show the previous horrendous light fixture and acoustic tile ceiling, which we tore down and replaced with drywall. And by we, I of course mean I didn’t do any of this. But I DID occasionally walk through and make encouraging remarks. And at one point, I walked through and cried because of how my living room looked (but I will save that for tomorrow’s room reveal).

And here it is now:

Here’s what we did:
–refinished floors
–replaced truly horrible crumbling tile ceiling with drywall; primed + painted
–patched all cracking plaster on the walls
–painted all trim and walls
–built a box around some plumbing that was going from the basement to upstairs, right through the corner of our dining room
–bought a cheap brass chandelier on Craigslist + spray painted it as a temporary lighting solution; replaced typical tapered bulbs with more modern-looking round ones
–painted a dining room chair white (ran out of motivation + spray paint at about the same time — hence the 5 still-brown ones)

Still to do:
–finish painting dining chairs
–find a piano bench (and possibly move piano back to living room. sorry husband.)
–recover all dining chairs
–buy curtains or roman shades for windows. the blinds just aren’t cutting it.
–eventually buy a real, grown-up chandelier (I love this one)

This was one of the first rooms in the house that we “finished” (painting + major-project-wise), and it was great to be able to sit down in a nice room and eat dinner together, even when much of the rest of the house still felt like a construction zone. Also, this room has my favorite paint color in the house. (For the curious + the copycats, it’s a Pottery Barn for Benjamin Moore color that I had color-matched at Lowe’s — it’s called Wedgewood Gray.)

happy birthday, husband

jax — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 02:11:42 +0000

Yesterday was Nathan’s 27th birthday. That sounds a lot closer to 30 than any of our other ages so far. But we’re not scared of 30. Bring it on, 30. (In a few years.)

For his birthday breakfast, I made him this baked French toast from the Pioneer Woman. It did not disappoint. The topping + outside edges were crispy and cinnamony, and the inside was smooth + eggy, like bread pudding (but in a breakfasty way). On an unrelated note, it’s probably not a good idea to stick birthday candles into a piping hot piece of baked French toast. The bottoms of the candles might melt and fill your special breakfast with wax. And then you will be glad that it made 8 servings.

Unfortunately, even on birthdays, there are responsibilities. Zulu got particularly dirty at the park the other day + had been banished to his kennel on the front porch until we had time to bathe him. It’s been getting up to 100 degrees every day, so we couldn’t put off cleaning him up any longer — the poor guy needed some A/C. Eli wasn’t too excited about helping to wash the dog at first:

But he came around eventually and helped his daddy out a little:

Nathan was a little distracted while he was washing the dog … bet you can’t guess who he might be spraying …

Eli got a little pool for Nathan’s birthday and he had a blast splashing around, drinking the water, and doing all the other things he’s not allowed to do in the bathtub.

I was making Nathan’s birthday dinner (steak, corn on the cob, and green beans) and cake while all this was going on, but eventually I let them come back inside:

Eli had to go to bed right after our late dinner, but Nathan and I stayed up to watch a movie and eat this:
Nathan requested a chocolate cake + I remembered seeing this recipe on one of my favorite food blogs, Smitten Kitchen. (I’ve made quite a few of her recipes; they’ve always been perfect.) It was delicious + it was fun to make Nathan try to guess the secret ingredient. (Hint: After hearing what was in it, Winston said the cake gave him the hiccups.)

Happy birthday to a truly great husband + friend. I’m not sure why I am putting this message to you on my blog — you rarely read it and NEVER comment (even though you convinced me to start writing it). I love you anyway! :)

door #1

jax — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 05:34:31 +0000

For the first of my house updates, I’m showing off this little bedroom. We’ve decided to make it our combination guest room + nursery for now, with plans to later turn it into a room for both Eli + Sophia. At that point we’ll relegate the guests to the smaller bedroom (sorry, future houseguests).

This is the picture I took when we first walked through the house. It was a really difficult decision to finally get rid of the pink lacy curtains in this room, but we eventually decided they had to go.

Here are some before + after shots of the room…or really I should call them during + during shots, because the first of each photo is after Nathan started working on the house, and the second is what it looks like now — but we’re still decorating and putting on the finishing touches.

This is actually one of the rooms to which we’ve done the least. Here’s the breakdown of what we’ve done so far:

–refinished floors
–painted trim + walls
–painted ceiling
–installed basic (IKEA) light fixture
–updated electric wiring + added some power outlets
–brought in minimal baby furniture + guest bed

Most of what I’m planning on doing in this room is purely decorative and is definitely on the back burner until we finish more pressing projects around the house. But here’s the plan:

–find that piece of trim that’s missing from behind the rocking chair (it’s probably deep in the bowels of the shed)
–hang art on the walls and fabric bunting (similar to this) over crib
–turn closet into baby/kid closet (add an extra hanging rod and some shelves)
–add some sort of window treatment
–add a rug (probably just another IKEA sheepskin in front of the crib)
–come up with more appropriate lighting (one lamp doesn’t work and the other is huge — borrow from the living room)
–speaking of lighting, possibly replace $3 IKEA light fixture with small chandelier (down the road)
–replace bedding with what’s currently in the master — a pale green wallpaper motif duvet (it’s a little more sophisticated and will also be easier to coordinate Sophia’s decor with)

41 weeks

jax — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 22:00:13 +0000

Congratulate me; baby Sophia and I have officially made it to 41 weeks. Besides being psyched out by an entire day of consistent contractions (and on my due date, no less), there hasn’t been much action around here. Being called overdue makes me feel like a deliquent library book, but the good thing about it is having absolutely nothing planned. After all, I thought I’d be lounging around with a newborn these days.

I’ve still been showing up for my regularly scheduled programming (church, Bible study), but other than that, I’ve been doing a lot of reading, walking, laying by/in various friends’ pools, and drinking slushees. The hundred-plus degree weather has inspired sympathy from a lot of people, but I’m actually feeling great overall and just waiting it out until she’s ready to make her entrance. Babies have to come out sometime, after all.

sneak peek

jax — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 00:02:18 +0000

About a week ago, we thought I was going into labor, and we finished up some of the big projects around the house + got it all cleaned up. It would have been a great time to take some pictures for the blog. We missed our window, however … and not only have I still not had that baby, but the house has gotten progressively messier as I’ve procrastinated doing things — after all, surely any minute now I’m going to kick into labor and my mother can come do my laundry/dishes/tidying up. :)

Until then, these little teaser photos will have to do. I’m excited about how much we’ve gotten done — Nathan finished constructing our built-in bookshelves in both the living room AND our bedroom, we’ve painted 7 out of 11 rooms, and most of the original trim is back up and repainted (we had to take a lot of it down to sand and restore it). We’ve still got loads to do, but the house is in a state that I can feel good about bringing a new baby into, and more importantly, that I can sit in any given room and nurse the baby without staring around me in horror at all the unfinished projects. That was a real concern.

moving day

jax — Sun, 23 May 2010 04:21:40 +0000

You might think that since it’s been over a month since we moved into our house, I would just give up on posting about it and move onto more current things. Au contraire. The elusive camera cord has finally shown its face and I refuse to have my blog content be determined by such TINY, INSIGNIFICANT piece of technology. (But please don’t run away again, card reader, I actually really do need you and I missed you a lot.)

We don’t have a lot of pictures of the day we moved in, as we were a little busy emptying a very full 900-square foot apartment and bringing it all over to the new house … and then repeating the process with our very full 8×10 storage facility. Pulling everything out of storage was like Christmas … if everything you get for Christmas is used, has mold on it, and smells like someone else’s attic. There are a few pieces of furniture I’m very happy to have back in my life — the rest are headed to Goodwill + some very lucky folks from Craigslist.

If credits rolled at the end of moving day, it would mostly just be my husband’s name making its way down the screen over and over again. He was amazing, worked super hard, and also, his pants look a little MC Hammer-ish in this shot, but I promise they are not drop-crotch harem pants. Just regular old Adidas.

Okay, so the dresser was actually being hoisted by this nifty piece of machinery. Turns out when you buy a “quaint” home with “character,” “history,” and “personality,” what that really means is that your stuff isn’t going to fit up the staircase. We had to send most of the upstairs furniture up to the roof to be brought in through our bedroom window. No biggie.

I was taking pictures to keep from shouting out “BE CAREFUL” every five seconds. It was nerve-racking to have Nathan and his friends, who were all having a little too much fun with the machine, if you ask me, taking my favorite furniture 20 feet in the air. Not that I don’t trust my husband….

While the guys were emptying the dumpster storage facility, I went back to the apartment with a friend to load up some of the “stragglers.” It was definitely our most disorganized move (especially compared to last time, where I numbered each box and had a corresponding computer document listing the contents, including each and every book by title + author…), so there was a lot of little stuff hanging around still. When Nathan saw that we returned with the SUV filled to the brim almost exclusively with my shoes, he insisted we use the lift to transport them to our bedroom closet. He asserted that it would be a great time-saver, but I’m pretty sure he just wanted to get this picture of me riding to the roof with my entire shoe collection:

(not at all embarrassed)

…and only one beloved pair ended up in the bushes. Although I think my pride ended up down there somewhere, too, as for some reason I found the experience a little humiliating. (Not humiliating enough to make me rethink the size of my shoe collection, however.)

Thanks to my hardworking husband, some great friends (thanks Ben, Jason, Josh, Libba, Amy, and Angie!), and too many Coke Icees to admit, the whole move went pretty smoothly + we had a great (if exhausting) day. We are so excited to be in our new home! Stay tuned for some updates of what we’ve done since we moved in. (Hint: a lot.)

oh where, oh where can my camera cord be…

jax — Tue, 11 May 2010 15:20:51 +0000

a happy surprise -- a tiny rosebush next to our driveway

If it’s possible to get tired of a picture of my adorable son covered in chocolate … you probably are. I have so many great pictures/posts planned for this space, but the little cord that magically moves my pictures from my camera to my computer has been in hiding ever since we moved. This is frustrating, since I have moving day pictures, house update pictures, Eli pictures, food pictures, and pregnancy pictures to show you.

For now, I’ll just give you a verbal snapshot of what our days have been full of, along with some crummy phone pictures:

–beautiful weather
–open windows
–painting projects (walls, doors, trim, cabinets, chandeliers, mirrors, + planters)
–walks to the park with Eli and Zulu
–washing baby clothes (thank you Brite for the hand-me-downs!)
–summer barbecues with work + church friends
–inexplicably waking up earlier and earlier (thank you Sophia for the restless sleep)
–house projects distracting me from other house projects
–strawberry picking with Eli and some friends

just a few of the paint swatches i've brought home + considered

eli discovered the fan

the first (and only) room i've painted -- had to have my green kitchen

husband working on our bedroom windows

sanding + painting the front door -- a very satisfying project

our most time-consuming + important project

Stay tuned for better pictures and more house updates — I’m sure the camera cord will turn up eventually!