Progress is the Room Above the Garage

As you all know, we started renovating the room above the garage last October.  I wrote a post about the demolition and progress at that time and said we were shooting for having it all complete by Thanksgiving, but it may be more around Christmas...  How about let's take another 6 months and have it done before the arrival of Little Miss in July?  It's not that this project has truly taken 8 months to finish, but both of us lacked the motivation to get in there and work when we had so much else going on with the pregnancy; however, the pregnancy was sort of a motivation in actually getting it done because we just couldn't lose another bedroom with all of the guests that we plan on seeing once she is born.  :)

Another reason it sat so long without any work in there is because there was no insulation, and it was freezing.  This is Greg and I working one night installing the first layer of the foil faced styrafoam insulation.  We did one entire side, and I had to call it quits because I was too cold and couldn't feel my toes.

Greg also finished all of the work that required someone to be up in the attic.  He installed 3 additional can lights and ran electrical to those in order to have them functioning.

Greg worked another time filling in one of the holes in the floors while I worked on the insulation for the other side.  He worked in there a couple more times after that when I would get on him for not working around the house.  I hated that progress in that bedroom was a result of me feeling stressed at work or with everything else that's going on and taking it out on him.  However, every time I complained he would work in the room, so we had to come to some middle ground so that working in the room was fun again.  Ha!

Needless to say, if we ever wanted to get done, then we needed to bring in some help.  I told Greg that as long as he finished the insulation portion of it, then I could find someone to install the drywall and finish it, we would paint, and then we would have someone install the carpet; although Greg thought we should install the built-in shelves before we install the carpet, so that was going to extend the schedule out quite a bit again, if he was the one building the cabinets. 

So, two weeks ago, I went to the Royals game with a painting company that I have used on all of my projects, except for one, and they asked if they could paint our baby room.  I told them that we had already painted the baby room, but I joked that they could paint some frames that I wanted to hang on the wall.  I mentioned the room above the garage, and the status of our project, and how it was going to take forever before we finished since I was 32 weeks pregnant and couldn't really bend over all that comfortably anymore.  I explained to them that painting wasn't the problem, it was getting to the point where drywall could be installed and finished.  He said he wanted to help us out and would call me tomorrow and come take a look at it.

This is us cleaning up the room before they started the following day.

He stopped over on the following Monday. Greg and I walked him up to the room and showed him the picture of what we had in mind for the finished product with the shelving built into the walls, and he said, "Easy!  Someone will contact you in order to get started."  A carpenter showed up the next 3 days, and a finisher on the following day.  Greg stayed home the first 2 days and helped the carpenter.  We showed the carpenter the upstairs bathroom saying that he could use that if he needed to.  I joked around saying that he could fix our toilet too, because it still constantly runs after we have replaced almost every part in it.  After replacing the flapper again, they both realized that the chain was getting in the way of the flapper, so they fixed the issue and now it works...  Our front door never latched either because we thought the weather stripping was too thick, but he fixed that as well.  He also bought Greg a can on Kilz spray paint so he could fix the water stains in the ceiling above the kitchen from the toilet leaking and the spots above the front door from when our roof had a small leak.  It was so incredibly nice to come home from work that day and see all of this done!

These pictures are progress after Day 1.  He installed all the additional electrical boxes, finished installing the baffles in the small spaces between the joists, finished installing the foil faced styrafoam insulation, installed the pink batt insulation, and filled in the remaining floor openings. 

These pictures are progress after Day 2.  Greg helped him carry up the drywall and hold it up against the walls while he screwed it into place.  There was a 3rd day of carpenter work that I did not get a picture of, but he came back and scraped the ceiling so that we can have a nice new knock down texture and say goodbye to a popcorn ceiling in that room!

Then on Friday, the taper came and spent a half day taping and filling the first coat.  He will return tomorrow for another coat and the knockdown texture on the ceiling, and then sand on the the following day, and paint later on this week!

We are also planning on meeting with a casework company this week for the shelving!  It's all coming together, and it's been exciting to know that it will be done before the baby arrives and just another thing off of our minds.

Happy Mother's Day - Pregnancy Week 32

Happy Mother's Day to all of those mothers out there, and thank you for all of the texts that I have received today as well.  It's a little crazy to think that I'm going to be a mom.  I'm getting really excited for the arrival of Baby Miller, or Little Miss as my mom likes to call her.  

I haven't updated the blog in forever, so let me catch you up!  I'm at the start of week 32 in my pregnancy, and getting bigger every week.  I've been terrible about taking pictures, but I have a few to share.

Week 24... Last 5K.  The Diva Dash.  How fitting!  I almost signed up for another one in May, but I'm glad I didn't.  I had a hard time walking this night.  I finished in 28 minutes and 16 seconds.  Not great, but I was proud.

Week 26...I think...  It's funny looking back and seeing how small I was here, but thinking that it was a big growth spurt at that time.

Week 28... Weekend before Easter raking in the yard.  

I don't have any pictures from Easter at Week 29, but gosh I really grew after that weekend!

Week 30... Going to a bridal shower.  Greg had a 5K this morning that we went to, then we went to some garage sales, and then I went to the bridal shower, and then we went Frisbee golfing and took Abby to the dog park.  I was miserable this evening.

Week 32... And here I am tonight at the start of Week 32. 

So, usually I have Greg take the pictures of me, but I told him we need to start setting the timer and having him get in on the pictures so that Little Miss knows that he was around and loved her very dearly during the pregnancy as well.  

She is kicking like crazy, and loves when Greg touches my stomach.  I think she is going to be a Daddy's girl.  Feeling her kick is the coolest thing ever.  Until I have actually experienced it, I never understood what a neat feeling it is.  And now we can just watch my stomach move as she is moving inside.  It's kind of creepy in a way. 

Everyone keeps asking about the room because I will send pictures from time to time of some of the items in there.  I promise to do an update soon!

With every passing week, the reality is setting in that we are having a baby and our lives are going to be forever changed!  I'm really looking forward to the changes ahead, and I can't wait to meet our little girl!  Thank you for all of the love and support that we have received along the way and for our parents raising us to get to this point in our lives.  We are truly blessed and loving life right now.