A tour of Eddie's room

Yesterday Eddie was hamming it up by his tool bench.


He took off down the hallway to his room and I followed. Now that the last picture has been hung in his room, I thought it was time for before & afters. So here is Eddie's completed room...it's only taken 13 months. Actually I started planning it while I was still pregnant, so that makes it about 19 months. At this rate, we will never finish our home! :)


This is what it looked like when we toured the house. I don't have any other angles, because it was impossible to enter.


This was the night we moved in. I cleaned the walls and painted them before we moved in. We used it as a guest room until Eddie arrived. I couldn't find a more recent photo so this will have to do.


And here it is now. His room was re-painted and got new carpet to replace the stained one.



Eddie really likes the fan.

staycation and great friends

We have been looking forward to a camping trip with the 3 of us all summer. We planned to leave on Tuesday and had our campsite until Friday. Because we stay in a tent, we had been keeping a close eye on the weather. When Tuesday morning arrived, the radar was showing storms heading straight towards our destination.

After much debate, we canceled our site and decided to have a 'staycation'.

We are so glad that we did.


By Wednesday morning after watching the rain come down Tuesday afternoon and throughout the night, I became concerned about Eddie digging in his ear. A trip to the Dr's confirmed an ear infection. It would have been a loooooong trip in the rain with a sick child!

We stuck to our plan to spend our time together and had a lot of fun, despite a rather grumpy Eddie. (Who is now feeling loads better!)

Daddy and Eddie reading Eddie's favorite book...


Maddie came to stay with us for a few days...


Eddie wanted her by him at all times and when Maddie got sick of it, she would get up out of his reach. This was so cute because while she was trying to get away, Eddie was putting toys on the chair for her while jabbering at her.


Mark has been talking about putting up shelves in the garage and we figured now was a good time. While Mark was picking out lumber, Eddie and I went and played on the toys at Menards. Eddie found a pink shovel and carted it around until I had to pull it from his hands when it was time to go.


Here is the garage before...


We had a fun building the shelves together. Mark did most of the work, but kept telling me he couldn't have done it without me. Once the top shelf and the supports were up, it was basically clear sailing from there. Mark did almost take a chunk out of my arm when the drill slipped off a screw, but in the end we finished the shelves and did not need to make any runs to the hospital.


And the finished shelves. Look at all that storage!

(Please ignore the pile of junk in front of the shelves, the contents of our basement are still living in the garage.)


Even though we had planned a few fun filled days by the water, we had some wonderful days at home, just being 'at home'. While we did dive into a few projects, overall we were just together. And that is really what family vacations are all about.


Saturday Jim & Lisa came up for a visit. We had hoped for a nice day for a boat ride. When the day started off cold and overcast, we were worried, but decided to at least try for a cruise. It was a bit choppy when we first got on the water and really bad in the big lake. We left the big lake and decided a choppy ride was better than braving 5 footers. The longer we were out, the more the water seemed to lay down and we decided to try the big lake again.

Our second time exiting the channel we discovered the waves were now 3ft rollers. And SO much fun!






Auntie Em had come to play with Eddie while we were on the boat. I was SO thankful! I know the rollers would have been too much for him and I was glad he was having fun at home. Once we got off the water, our evening was spent having a cookout, playing games outside and staying up late talking by a bon fire.

In the morning we went out to brunch. Jim put a crayon behind his ear and Eddie thought it was a riot. When Jim put the crayon behind Eddie's ear...he was rather confused. Once Eddie caught on, a new game was discovered!


It was so great to catch up with Jim & Lisa. We met back in college and it is hard to believe that we've known eachother for 9 years! We wish we lived closer, but are looking forward to getting together with them soon!

Musical Bedrooms

We have been moving things around a bit lately. When
our friend added a closet in the back room a few months ago, we became very excited to turn that room into our bedroom. Eric was very careful to pull the carpet back so we would be able to keep it.

When we moved in 4 1/2 years ago, we could smell that the previous owner's pet had a few 'accidents' in that room, but the floor looked like it was in good shape and we had it cleaned...so we thought we were good. It wasn't until the carpet was up that we saw all the stains. It was so gross. It didn't take us long to decide to get new carpet for the room we began to refer to as, 'the litter box'.

Carpet was laid on Wednesday and we have moved our room over. Once our room was cleaned out, we moved Eddie's furniture into our old room. As Mark set the crib back up I noticed this...


Teeth marks!! I couldn't believe it! I took a picture just for my mom. She has told me all my life how I wrecked the crib. It had been passed among family members and I was the one who gnawed on it to the point that no one else wanted it. Oops! I think I've been paid back. But how can I be mad at the kid? I'm impressed that he is able to stand up while still wearing his sleep sack.


Anyway, Eddie has temporarily been moved into our old room (which is going to become the guest room) we figured while we were getting new carpet, we would get some for his room too. This is what his room looked like when we first moved in.


Crusty, junky, stained floors. Actually while Eddie's room was the worst, most of the floors were gross when we moved in. When the old owners finally left and Mark & I were able to enter our new home, Mark was carrying me over the threshold when he spotted the diningroom carpet said, 'oh sh**' and he dropped me. Cleaning did wonders, but the stains just keep coming back.

This is what Eddie's room looked like when we toured the house. This is on our inspection day and it's the best that this room looked on all our visits.


I now understand why Mark thought I was nuts when I told him I wanted this house. I saw the mess when we toured it. But I didn't see it. When I looked in that room, I saw the perfect little nursery. Looking back at photos now...wow. Thanks Babe for trusting me!

We pulled all the photos out this week to see the before and afters of the house and it's been a lot of fun. I'll post them as we finish up projects that have been in the works since we moved in. It is exciting to see them come together!