Passing the Time

 

I paid our contractor for the final time this week! Also I'm now four days past the official due date, which I know is an educated guess at best, but still...waiting for things you want is hard sometimes. I've spent quite some time playing this awesome puzzle game and sadly finished it, which means I'll have to resort to my old-school 1000 piece cupcake puzzle I haven't had time to open yet:

 

With this pregnancy I decided to count renovating our house as the ridiculous labor project, so I haven't bothered making crafts or blankets or anything like that. But then Austin wanted to do a belly cast, (which I've always thought are a bit silly, because what do you do with it once you make one?) so now that has definitely turned into the ridiculous labor project. Not just because I felt so ridiculous making a plaster cast of my very pregnant belly, but then it needed plaster touch up and spray paint and decoration, so it's a very high-maintenance useless item. No picture. Not happening.

 

Last but not least, I have some pictures of our house now that we are done with it for a little while. For a quick look back you can go to New House Renovating.

 

We finally got the front doors switched out, I can't wait to get going with the landscaping in a couple months.

 

Master bedroom with birth pool waiting in corner...

Master bath, note small bonsai tree, which means I'm committing to this house for a while! 

Front room with completed fireplace

Kitchen, all done!

Kitchen, looking into dining area

 

 

Next on the list, working on a yard overhaul. Austin has already started chain sawing trees; I have to keep an eye on what he's cutting because it's just way too fun for him.

 

Also hoping for a baby soon. I'm not a huge fan of February so I could wait for March. Then again I would be happy to go into labor right now.  

 

 

 

Charlotte on her Birth Day. I need another one!

 

Looking Back

So it's been less than two years and we've taken on two intensive renovations during that time...we have to stay busy somehow! This week our realtor finally got me the pictures he took right before our cute old colonial house sold and I wanted to share them before I shared the "after" pictures of our current mid-century modern house. Just so we can all get some closure.

For a refresh, here are a few old posts about the renovation process: Destroying a Very Large Purchase, Little House on the Prairie, and Kitchen Reveal No. 1!

Here's what we accomplished in a year of living in the house. It was a lot of stress and a lot of hard work. We didn't have time to do everything we wanted to with the house, but I feel good about what we accomplished in the little time we had.

Cut down a tree attacking our water line, put up new fencing, put in new landscaping

 

Re-plastered a large amount of wall in the main living area, painted trim, added charm/décor

 

Put in new kitchen and laundry room and new floors in kitchen and dining room

 

 Transformed yucky storage area into kids' playroom

 

 

Refinished original hardwood floors throughout whole house, put in new lighting and painted

Repaired and refinished stairs and updated upstairs bathroom with new vanity, mirror, and lighting

Repainted the upstairs and made it cute

Fixed large sections of fence that were falling down and chopped down multiple dead and overgrown trees

 

 

We also let the lawn turn brown, but we won't talk about that. Coming up next, more renovation pics and hopefully a new baby. My due date's February 23, but I'm guessing I'll go into March.

The Disappearing Year

In 2014, we started off our year by finishing up the renovation projects we had let sit over the winter. Then we travelled a bit, then fixed up our cute old house some more, then decided to fix up a gutted 70s house, then sell our old house, then we went on more trips and kept working on houses until....hey! It's 2015 already! I'm supposed to be having a baby in 46 days! Where did the last year go?

On the bright side, I spent a large portion of 2014 thinking I was 28 years old, when in fact I'm only 27, so it's kind of like I get a do-over.

We just got back from 3 weeks of Christmas travelling last week, and this week we're getting our house appraised, so my mind has definitely been on unpacking and getting sorted. You know those puzzles where you have to slide pieces around to finally make the right picture? I'm not sure I've ever successfully completed one, but that's what unpacking feels like. I keep moving things around until it all ends up in the right area.

Starting with Austin and I's week vacation to Hawaii over Christmas break, I've also tried to start concentrating on Baby #4 coming. I'm planning on doing home water birth again, and I really feel like planning for a natural birth is like planning for a marathon--you want to train hard and peak physically, emotionally, and mentally at the same time as you are supposed to run the marathon. With the added aspect of bringing a human soul into the world, I would add being spiritually prepared as an important component to being ready for natural birth.

So how am I doing? Embarrassingly bad. With all our moving and travels and three small kids I've had fun but also been treading water most of the year, trying to meet my family and I's basic needs and keep it together. Keep it together! Keep it together! Time to train. Having Charlotte was a wonderful experience, but wonderful experiences usually take effort and work. I think it would be unrealistic to expect another great birth without working to prepare physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

Here's to 2015. May it be a wonderful year to prepare for your dreams coming true.

Life Rolls On

 

 We've had some beautiful Fall weather.

 

It took me a few months but I finally painted the house and deck! Another week and my paint pants weren't going to fit, so it kind of came down to the wire.

 

The cabinets are in the kitchen and baths, still waiting on a couple doors.

 

 

 Master Bath

 Fireplace upstairs

 

And downstairs fireplace, thought it turned out well though its hard to see from pictures. Now I just need all my mantels put in!

 

 

This process has really dragged on, but life rolls on!

 

Family Photo 2014

You know this one's going over the fireplace!

Time for a Trip

In the middle of all the fixing up and cleaning of our old house to sell and the renovating our new house to move into we had a trip to Spain that had been planned for a while. Austin's mom flew into town to watch the girls and off we went! I felt like it was really bad timing as we had a lot on our plate, and it took me about half the week to relax, but on the plus side we went to Spain! We also got an offer on our house while we were in Spain and I got to practice my Spanish with Austin's old mission companions and families. (Okay, actually I was super nervous about this and it was one of the reasons I was stressed about the trip. I thought it went well though). I fell in love with the Alhambra and Austin and I soaked up the sun on the beaches of Southern Spain while trying to avoid the naked old men also enjoying the beach. As a fun bonus we got lie-flat airplane seats going there and back! I feel like I'm in the Golden Age of airplane travel with those bad boys. Also I'm pretty sure some famous/rising-to-fame band sat in our section on our flight from Madrid back to L.A....only musicians could get away with that hair and those outfits.

.

Beach day in Spain...they have historic buildings all over the place so we walked out on a causeway from the beach to this old fort.

 

 

We stayed for a few days with Austin's old mission companion Israel and his family. (On the left). They were very nice and hopefully our 6-year-olds meet someday! I also got to meet Austin's other companion from Southern Spain, Jose, and his wife and baby.

The Three Amigos

 

The Alhambra. I'd like to go back sometime.

 

I wish I could read Arabic.

 

 And I wish my sister had been there to take some gorgeous pictures. My little point-and-shoot only goes so far.

It's Spain, but it felt kind of like Agrabah from Aladdin.

I think I loved the Alhambra because it was so cool and restful after hot tourist-y activities. (Although obviously still a tourist attraction). There were shady courtyards and fountains and gardens all over the place. Austin actually stepped in one of these fountains...I would have gotten a picture but I was too busy pretending like I didn't know him.

 

 

Another successful trip instigated by Austin!

 

New House Renovating

 

The new renovation project has been occupying a lot of my thoughts recently, so I'm going to post more pictures. Now if I was going to do flip houses as a thing I wouldn't do any of the work myself, because with Austin gone most of the time and three little girls I didn't have as much time to help out as I thought. I had to put the girls down for naps at my mom's a lot then run down to the new house, paint and stain my little heart out, then run back about the time they woke up. I missed a lot of afternoon naps, which as a pregnant woman made me grouchy because I like/need naps. On the plus side, I did get a lot of sunshine and fresh air and alone time.

 

 

Covering up the blue on the wood siding.

Dad putting in new deck.

 

New garage door

Master bath

 

Fireplace with old rock off and drywall on top half

 

Rock going on

 

Trying to find the perfect beige to paint the whole house

 Kitchen a little more put together and opened up

And Everything Nice

And now for an important part of The Flip House story:

We have three girls who are all so very different but all wonderful. Raising them is hard work sometimes, but I consider them our most worthwhile investment. In February we will be adding another girl to our family, bringing the grand total to four!

New Baby Girl

 

Usually I just get one ultrasound to check for medical problems and gender, but this time I got an early gender ultrasound before I told people. (And I just went in for my full one today). When I told people I was pregnant with Charlotte I had to endure a lot of annoying comments like, Family member: "Let's hope it's a boy!" Me: WHY, DON'T YOU LIKE GIRLS??? or Family member: "We need a boy!" Me: WHY, DON'T YOU LIKE OUR GIRLS?? I didn't actually yell these responses, although I probably wanted to, but as a pregnant woman I am a little more on edge emotionally and sensitive to things such as gender comments. Earlier this week I saw the first leaves of autumn falling and it sent me into dry-heaving sobbing mode.

Anyway, I figured I'd dodge the annoying comments by just telling people it was a girl at the same time I told them I was pregnant. (Or that it was a boy, but that was always a slim possibility). This wasn't actually 100 percent successful, but it did go better than last time.

I had to wait 4 months to find out the gender so we kept the pregnancy under wraps for awhile. My brother Ammon was actually the first to guess, kind of. We were sitting around chatting talking about clothes sizes for kids I think, when he suddenly joined the conversation, "Wait, are you pregnant?" Me: Ammon! You can't just ask women that! Him: "Oh, I thought you were talking about pregnancy clothes." Me: No! We were talking about kids' clothes! (Or a similar topic, I can't really remember now). Notice how I sneakily didn't answer his question?

Me getting ready to skydive at 4 months pregnant. I was horribly nauseous on the way down because my dumb instructor thought it was cool to do loop-de-loops and flip upside down even after I told him it was making me ill. I didn't tip him. We also had to pull over a couple times so I could puke on the way home. I was denied the satisfaction of sharing this with people at the time so I'm sharing it now.

My pregnancy is an important part of The Flip House story because it's one of the reasons we decided to move out of our cute old house into what shall now be known as the New House. The extra room, (Charlotte can move out of her closet!) absence of stressful problems, (What's going to break next?) and financial wisdom of moving (Good-bye money pit!) are/will be great things about our new place, but I am still really emotionally conflicted about moving out of our old place. I'm pregnant. I can be emotional.

More on that and the After pictures of the Old House later.

A week before I told people about the new baby my sister Charity called to chat and asked me if I was pregnant. (Not sure why? Because we were moving?)  Me: "Charity! You can't just ask women that! A woman's age and if she is pregnant are the two forbidden questions!" Unfortunately sisters are not put off as easily as little brothers...she seemed to think that she could ask me that because she was my sister.... It was nice to finally be able to tell someone the exciting news.

 

So the upshot of all this is, I still can't tell you if flipping a house is everything I thought it would be, because we are no longer flipping a house. (Austin's devious master plan? He's never really liked our old house...) Now we are redoing it to live in ourselves, which is a different beast entirely. I know this, because guess what I was doing last year at this exact same time? Yes, renovating a house to live in. Aaargh. Can I just live in a house for a while?