Remodeling Take 2

We have been really busy around our house this last month. We are spending our time preparing our home for Cole. There are lots of projects we want to do, but we had to sit down one night and decide which were top priority before his big arrival in July. I have included lots of pictures in this post so everyone can see what we have been up to, mostly in slide shows. I included one for each major project.

First, here is my latest belly shot. I am at 22 weeks and 3 days today. I am feeling well for the most part. Some nights I wish for a little more sleep but I guess you can look at it as I am being prepared for less sleep in the future? I like a lot of sleep so preparing me for less is probably a good thing. :)



By request (from awhile ago, sorry Cliff), here is the finished product in our master bath for the time being. We would LOVE glass doors, but glass is pricey and other projects needed to be finished first. So for now, we just have a regular shower curtain. Click here to see the master bath remodel complete slide show.

The three main projects we have finished over the last month include the guest bath, replacing the carpet, and Cole's room. When we bought this house we knew it was going to need alot of work, so slowly and we had some extra cash, we have been doing these projects.

The guest bath was an easy one to complete. We had tile left over from the master bath, enough and some to complete the guest bathroom and all the materials that were needed for tiling, so no expense there. We have a wet saw, but with all the work done in the master it required a new blade, we replaced the trim board (some of which was left over from the master), and replaced the old toilet. There were sliding doors on the tub which we took down for the baby and just in general they were dangerous. I won't mention some of the injuries that happened but they needed to come down. When we were looking for a curtain for the master at Ross, I ended up not finding one for that bathroom but the guest bath instead! That was super! It was striped which I love and pulled in all my existing colors in the bathroom. Perfect!

The new carpet was a must and one of the only projects so far we have not completed ourselves or with help from our family. We decided to have this one done for us. We just got it yesterday and it is beautiful!! I love it! Brent picked it out and it is perfect and it fit our budget! If you have not been to our house before, then you will see in the pictures and one of the reasons it needed replacing. It was old, green, and nasty. The second and more important reason to us, (I mean green was a HUGE reason) but we bought the house from smokers. We have done a lot over the last 2 years to remove the smell, but removing all of the flooring will help even more. I don't really smell it anymore, but if we have been out of town for awhile or when there was carpet in our bathroom/closets we could really smell it in our clothes. We did not want to bring Cole into that. It is not good for our health but more so his, and he will be crawling around on the carpet way more then we will be or did until he arrives.

On to Cole's room! This was a two weekend and week between kind of project that was just for the walls! While Brent laid the tile, I started taking all the wallpaper/"hairy" material off the walls. It looked like the stuff on cubicle walls to me. Fine for an office, not for Cole's room, but also another thing that would hold in smoke. This material was in almost every room in the house when we bought it and this was the last room we had to complete and the only room out of all of them that we did not have to TEXTURE! What a blessing! We have gotten pretty good at the texturing business, but it was awesome not having to do that step too. We wanted to get all the messy work complete before the carpet came in so we could make a mess and not worry about it, because stripping wallpaper is a dirty job. Then when Brent was finished tiling, we switched projects. He started peeling the paper backing and I started painting the guest bath. I finished that up and went back to Cole's room. There are so many steps to take to get the walls ready to paint: tearing down the wallpaper, peeling the backing, scrubbing off the glue, washing with vinegar, and then finally priming. The vinegar was for the smoke, a tip I picked up from Larra's mom, Tina. My parents came for Easter weekend and help us alot with the priming and painting. My dad primed early Friday morning and painted all the trim for me. He did not want me on the ladder and the fumes from the primer were too much for me to take in. He also knows how particular I am so he worked very hard at getting the edges just perfect for me. It looks great dad, thank you! We definitely have more work to do in Cole's room and updates will come but the walls were the major project that needed to be conquered before he join us at home. We will keep you updated on the progress of his room and post new pictures.

(If you scroll over the pictures, then it should show the caption.)

The Guest Bath:

New Carpet:

Cole's Room Remodel:

134 days to go or 19 weeks...

Our appointment was moved to FRIDAY instead of this morning, how awesome was that. It was fun because we were able to surprise our family with the news we are having a BOY!!

His name is Cole Allen Palermo!!

We would love for each of you to call him by name and pray for him by name. We have 19 weeks to full-term and my doctor said she does not let it go past 41 or 42 weeks but hopefully he will be on-time or a few days early. We are anxious to meet him face to face but we also want him to be fully healthy and developed before making his debut.

The doctor said for the most part everything looked great. He was moving around so much that is was hard for her to hear any more then 3 heartbeats at a time but she was okay with that. He is very active in there, but I probably will not be feeling him for a few more weeks still. Please pray for his health. The doctor did mention she something in his heart, I think, that she referred to as Trisomy 21, which is Downs Symdrome. She did not say Cole has Downs, but that there is a 1 in 5000 chances that he does. She said she sees it all the time in normal babies and babies with downs. She asked us if we were freaked out by that and if so then she could do an Aminosynthesis test to know right now, but there is a 1 in 200 chance of miscarriage with that test just to know now. Either way it would not change our minds from having Cole, so it was not worth the risk to me or Brent to have that test done to just know right now. Please pray for good health for Cole and pray for us as we prepare for his arrival this summer.

Here are a few pictures from our visit that we wanted to share with everyone. It was so amazing to see him moving around so much and that we could see his little features already. Our first picture of him was a tiny little black dot.

(Cole's profile at 20 weeks and 3 days.)

(His hand waving at us.)

(He likes sucking his thumb already. Super cute!!)

(His arms and legs moving fast.)

I have been tagged...

10 years ago:
I was in 8th grade. It was my first year in Tulsa, Oklahoma and a bit of a rough one. That was a hard age to move, but once I got settled in, I loved and still love Tulsa. I had some really great times there and met some wonderful people, who I still think about often and try to see when I go back and visit. Was I cool? I don't know. I probably thought I was cool. :) We were the only kids in the school. It was called the 8th Grade Center, so it was nice in the sense that was my class and it was easier to meet people since I was new, but the building on the other hand, we considered a prison. There were not any windows in the whole building except for in the commons area, so my friends and I always sat in the table closest to the door at lunch. Okay that was random, but where I was 10 years ago.


Things on my to do list today:
At work: get all my accounts payables in so I can get checks ran and mailed out
After work before Brent gets off: probably a nap in the Jeep (we carpool if you don't know that)
At home: help Brent demo the guest bath so we can start tiling on Friday

What would I do if I was suddenly became a Billionaire?
Invest in retirement, set-up college funds for our future child/children's education, give to the Church, pay off our cars and home.

Three of my bad habits:
1. Always thinking my way is the best way...it's not...

2. Over planning sometimes and then being disappointed when it doesn't go as plan. I need to remember it is not always my plan that is the best plan.

3. My addiction to chapstick. I am so serious about this. I have used the same kind since 10th grade, can't use any other or my lips freak, and can't go even ONE day without using it. Brent has now resorted to ordering online for me because it is rare to find it in stores.

Five jobs I have had:
First job, TCBY at the Woodland Hills Mall, Tulsa

Second, Dizzy's Play Place, like Discovery Zone, I was the kitchen manager, Tulsa

Third, Pepper's Grill, waitress, Tulsa

Fourth, Loupot's Bookstores, College Station, where I met my husband :)

Fifth, YMCA, internship for college, Houston

Five things people don’t know about me:
1. I moved every year or sometimes every semester in college, even if it was just across the yard.

2. My first car was a red Ford Ranger that I named Roxy. It had some character and a very decorated ceiling. I could have lived in that car.
3. I have never had a dream job in mind such as an astronaut like most little kids. I truly have always and only have wanted to be a mom, so that is my dream job. Yes, I went to college for an education because I had that desire and God does grant our desires but maybe not always in our time frame, but it was hard to choose a major when I knew all I have ever really wanted was to be a wife and mother first. I am thankful to be at that point in my life.
4. Brent was the one and only guy I dated in college and that was not until the middle of my junior year.

5. I graduated from A&M in 3.5 years.

Sorry some of these you may know, but it is hard to come up with stuff.

I tag: Larra

MOVEMENT!

I just felt the baby move for the first time! How exciting! Just wanted to share with everyone!!

"RC" is growing and so I am...

(18 weeks and 5 days)


Not much to update. We go back to the doctor on the 17th and find out if we are having a boy or a girl. We are so excited to know and finally be able to call our baby by his or her name. I really have no idea at this point what we are having. I had one of those dreams in the very beginning that you don't really remember all the details and we were having a girl. But about 2 weeks or so ago, I had another dream and it was one I do remember and it was so real. It was about our next appointment and we were having our ultrasound and it was a boy and his name was used in the dream. WOW. I really don't know what to think about that, so I am just waiting and will be happy and thankful either way.

We did lots of shopping this weekend. We are trying to get things around our house that need to be done before the baby comes and we weren't planning on getting this yesterday, but we bought the baby's crib!! I am so excited!! I made a budget last week about all the things we were going to be doing and everything we did yesterday came in UNDER budget! God is so good to provide our needs.