Slowly, but Surely...We Will Finish...

We are continuing to work on multiple projects throughout the house! 

Jake's brother Josh came up the other weekend and helped with the Kitchen! He was a huge help and I also think Jake really enjoyed having him around!! We now have a microwave!!! This seems trivial, but we have not had a microwave since June. Reheating food has never been easier!! After the microwave was installed, the final upper cabinet went in, meaning ALL of the kitchen boxes are now empty and out of our house! Jake has been working on capping the cabinets and installing trim! We have light fixtures - which aren't our permanent ones, but since we couldn't agree exactly on what we wanted we decided to put up some temporary lights for now.We once again have a dining room table! I have so much enjoyed eating meals as a family at a table - it has been a long time since this has been possible!

The only things left in the kitchen are the subway tile back splash, the french door, and the remaining trim! We likely will not have this complete before the baby comes as I am due in 19 days. However, I have come to terms with this. The finishing touches are purely cosmetic and our kitchen is not only functional, but awesome and a huge, huge, huge, improvement from what it was. Jake has a winter break with school in which he will have a little more time to hopefully finish up these last few things. 

Fin and the baby's room is basically complete, decorations and all! I am waiting on another dresser to arrive and one more decoration from a dear friend!

My mom came up the other weekend and was a tremendous help in cleaning up our house, getting all of the baby stuff washed and organized, organizing the kids room, and setting up our guest room! We now have a room for guests to sleep!! Although it is by no means finished, there is a bed and a door on the room! Once again this is leaps and bounds from where we were two weeks ago. Jake and I have also managed to organize and declutter our bedroom (construction material free)!! There is room for a baby!! Thank goodness!

We are headed out of town this weekend, back to MN for Thanksgiving! A little crazy at 37.5 weeks pregnant...probably, but we are going to go for it! It is one of two time/year the whole Rouse family gets together! We could not be more excited!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Back At It!

Alright, so I think it is pretty clear that I have not posted an update in a while! We have however been working on the house!

Since the kitchen/dining room is functional, work has been put to the side momentarily while we get a few other parts of the house in order. I had a minor freak out a week or so back revolving around the fact that we have a new baby coming within the next six weeks and our bedroom was so full of construction materials there was not even room to put a child. 

Therefore, we have been doing our best to organize as many parts of the house as possible in order to move things into the proper rooms, storage areas, closets, etc. and clear out space to make room for our new little bundle!

Our bedroom, although definitely not cosmetically finished, is officially organized, put together, clean, and ready for a new baby! Also, a huge positive for me is that I finally have a place to put everything - clothes, blankets, etc.

I have also managed to finally get ALL of our kitchen stuff put away into the proper cabinets and closets. We have a large closet at the base of our basement stairs (right off the kitchen) that is perfect for the storage of all of our specialty kitchen items - stoneware, crock pots, fine stemware, etc. This really freed up a lot of room in the kitchen and made it so that the cabinets are not over-full or cluttered!

Once I was able to put our food away in our new pantry, I was able to clean out the linen closet. This in turn made it possible to organize all of our bathroom and bedroom linens as well as bathroom and cleaning products!

Finally, Jake did begin to remodel the kids bedroom. The bedroom that both children will eventually share was covered in paneling. It did not have a light or light switch and only had one outlet. His plan was to tear down the paneling, install outlets and a light/light switch, then drywall, mud, sand, and paint. A huge project to undertake while also working on the kitchen/dining room. To our luck (finally, a little luck), when he tore down the paneling, there was drywall underneath! There were also four outlets instead of one and the wiring for a light switch! The drywall needed a little patching, but this was much easier than replacing all of it! The room is now painted and the floor is almost completely in! The trim will go up in the next couple days and then we will move Fin into his official bedroom!

Once Fin and all of his belongings are moved into his bedroom, we can then organize the other bedroom as the guest space and office area! 

So, although we have not made much official progress on the kitchen and dining room, we have made immense progress of the house! We are no longer living out of boxes - finally!! Most everything has a "home." I feel much better about bringing a baby home with the amount of organization that has taken place over the last two weeks! I think we are ready! :)

This weekend we will be making even more progress as Jake's brother Josh and my mom are both coming to help us finish some projects! Josh will be helping Jake with the kitchen, dining room, and a few other construction-like projects. My mom will be helping me by watching Fin so I can clean and organize and/or cleaning and organizing a few more areas of the house! 

We are hoping for big progress this weekend as we are officially 33 days from my due date!! Stay put Baby Two! :)