more ainsley pics

creative title, uh?  here are some pictures of the little bug -

hanging out after bath time ...

shelby and ainsley checking each other out ...



chad snuggling with his little girl ...

lovin' a little naked tummy time !



celebrating thanksgiving at talena and chad's house

hope everyone had a great thanksgiving!!

ainsley's firsts

the third week of life held some firsts.  a first real bath in the whale bathtub, a first shopping trip, the first time mom and ainsley ventured out alone together, a first bottle and the first time to meet chad's grandparents - mema and papa.  i guess when you are less than a month old there will be a lot of firsts, right?

ainsley really enjoyed her first bath....

until she didn't anymore.  which thankfully was when we were just about finished anyways. 

ainsley, mom and nana went on their first outlet mall shopping trip.  who says three weeks is too young (well, mom was thinking this actually but it turned out to be an okay trip.)  mom didn't realize that she had her camera with her the whole time so all she got was a picture of ainsley's loot. 

and ainsley met mema and papa, chad's grandparents, for the first time.  they were in love - and who can blame them? 

ainsley at two weeks

for friends and family near and far...here is an ainsley post for you. 

two weeks (almost three) into this beautiful life!  we returned from the hospital very late, almost midnight, on a thursday evening.  the next week mama (chad's mom) came to stay with us to help out while chad was away at work.  the week after that nana (carmen's mom) helped out.  both grandmas were extremely helpful in assisting with the baby and house duties.  not to mention all of the wonderful friends, family and neighbors that have brought food and other goodies to the house.  we would have starved without all of the cooked meals you provided!

ainsley is a good baby overall.  i believe she mostly has chad's disposition - very laid back about most things.  she does, however, seem to have carmen's short temper in some situations (like when she decides she is hungry - from zero to sixty is how mommy likes to describe it).  she also tends to have some of carmen's looks come across her face (kinda like she is thinking: what the hell is going on here?)

she sleeps well, anywhere from 2 1/2 hour to 4 hour stretches at a time.  last week, however, for a few days we had a growth spurt and she only slept for about an hour at a time and wanted to eat, eat, eat every time she woke up.  i won't go into details here but...ouch.  that's all i'm going to say.  on saturday she lost her cord stump (gross), so tonight she gets her first "real" bath in her whale bathtub. 

this is what ainsley looks like right after she eats.  we call her "punchy" or punch drunk love.  she just gets so sleepy!

some of ainsley's favorite things right now:

• sleeping
• eating
• her flannel blanket made by mama
• going for walks
• music (baby mozart and rockabye baby U2, Led Zep, and Pink Floyd.  she has good taste.)
• her swing (or maybe mom and dad love it when she is in the swing)
• her daddy
• whiskers felt on her face from her big sister, shelby
• being held
• singing (by her daddy)
• did i mention eating???
• car rides

and never to forget our first baby.  this is what poor shelby looks like in the middle of the night when the crying and feeding frenzy ensues.  i love this picture.  i feel like shelby is thinking: can we get some quiet here so i can sleep?

till next time!

changes to irvington bungalow blog

since everything else in our life seems to be changing, i've decided to change the blog a tiny bit.  from now on i'll be posting about our daily and family life on this blog as well as our house.  with some of our family living far from indy, i thought i would post about ainsley and our trials and triumphs as our life changes.  of course, the house will still be a main focus too.  so as we progress with our projects at irvington bungalow (can anyone say: bathroom??) i'll still be posting about that.  hopefully there will be changes to the overall look as well, but this might be a bit ambitious.  stay tuned!

home improvements and baby have arrived!!

so a LOT has happened since my last post.  the most important is that baby arrived on october 19.  coming in a very close second and third is that the floors were refinished and we now have painted walls in ... (wait for it) ... not one but three bedrooms and a hallway.  some people might be like: what's the big deal, paint?  but seriously, i have waited six and a half long years for these precious moments.  and we're enjoying the baby too, thank you.  :)

here are some before and after pics

living room before:

 living room after:

dining room before (sorry for the poor quality):

dining room after (during, actually.  this was after the first coat of polyurethane, hence why the floors are super shiny in this picture).

this is a pic of the nursery in late july:

this is what it looked like about two weeks ago.  it actually looks a little better now but i haven't had time to take a new picture!  {uh, babies take a lot of time, did you know that??}

and the holes from our insulation have been filled & sanded, new drywall put up and the walls painted.  chad worked so hard during this entire year to get the house in shape for baby.  we're so lucky to have him (and the paint).  life is better with color on the walls.  and, please, pay no attention to the lack of decoration.  all of this work was finished the night before i was induced and we didn't even live here for the month before that day.  so all we had time to do was get the basics moved back in for us to come home from the hospital. 

the guest bedroom last year.  notice the walls.  that is what most of them looked like even in september.

guest bedroom after:

bedroom:

our biggest improvement, Ainsley Harper:

we're still waiting on the damn tile for the bathroom.  but we hope to have that project completed by christmas.  we'll see.

update - "to do" list slowly dwindling



as usual, it's been awhile since i've last posted.  things have been moving swiftly here at irvington bungalow.  a lot of our neighbors have been seeing chad dragging in drywall, stripping furniture and noticing family members at the house helping out.  the joke is that we maybe we should have decided to have a baby sooner!!

no pics to post just yet as work is still finishing up (and it better be soon since we have four short weeks before our due date)!  however, just wanted to post a quick update.  blinds have been ordered, floors will hopefully be refinished soon, the drywall is up in all of the bedrooms and only one more room left to mud and sand.  soon we'll paint and finally (FINALLY) decorate.  the one setback is that the bathroom tile is due to arrive next week which is just too late in the pregnancy to start that project.  we're postponing till early winter.  but that is okay.  stay tuned - before & after pics of the rest of the house to post within the next couple of weeks!!

drywall

last weekend chad and his dad cut the drywall for the baby and spare bedroom:

today my brother, chad and i hung the drywall:

before:

after:

after this weekend i'll have pics of a more complete drywall job.

last weekend i finally finished removing the glue from the baby room closet:

before:

after removing glue:

meanwhile baby is getting closer.  this is me, 31 weeks.  we started our baby classes.  i've had two showers (out of 3 or 4) and we're getting closer to receiving the baby supplies we (think) we'll need.  i just need to find a place to organize it all while the baby room is being finished!

things are moving along.  hopefully paint, floor refinishing, and the bathroom/plumbing will happen soon.  keep you fingers crossed.  till next time!!

here we go....

so here we are.  11 weeks before baby is due to enter this fine world.  the A/C officially is dead.  it went out but was temporarily fixed (leaking freon - nice and "green", i know) but two weekends ago the motor died.  or something like that.  all i know is it is HOT.  and i am miserable.  but they are almost finished installing our new HVAC system.  yeah!

meanwhile, the bathroom tile has been ordered!!!  yes.  ORDERED.  can you believe it?  should be here in 6 to 8 weeks.  leaves a tight time frame, but it is ordered and that apparently is a big step for us here at irvington bungalow.

good news around the house...

the garden and our flower beds are looking good:

the garden is a bit unruly and many things have died off but it is producing ginormous heirloom and grape tomatoes, so i'm happy.

but.  the day i had my first baby shower chad had to begin demo of the bathroom.  when i left the house, the bathroom looked like this (warning, if you are a hard-core preservationist, run away from your computer and this blog post immediately.  you will HATE us for this.. but guess what?  it's our bathroom.):

when i returned it looked like this:

yes, yes.  very, very painful to have to do this to the original tile.  but after years of deliberation we decided it had to be done.  and this has to be done now because the vent in the bathroom is being relocated since the original vent sits where the entrance to our new walk-in shower will be located.  i hated to see this go but we just felt like it is the best thing to do since we plan on being here long term.  judge us if you will. 

so the next few weeks will be a challenge on many, many levels.  thank God we can stay at our in-laws.  for rillz.  till next time.

SLOWLY but surely

progress is, in fact, occurring but it is happening slowly.  wouldn't want to switch it up on all of you, now would we??

baby room -

we cleaned out the room, including the closet.  and i have been removing wall paper with the added bonus of a layer of paint!  so fun.

the closet progress.  i still need to remove the glue and then i'm officially finished removing paper in the baby room.  two more closets to go and i'm officially FINISHED!

we took an impromptu day trip to columbus, OH recently.  we went to an architectural salvage store and then out to eat in an area called german village.

we bought a coal shoot door (just like ours but in much better shape), a cold air return grate that matches our original grates we have in the house currently and a pair of sidelight windows.

close-up of the glass:

LOVE this glass!  we're going to use them (eventually) when we finish the attic space for the bedroom.

work still progresses on the duct work for the HVAC.  the tile still hasn't been ordered.  i have no idea why.  ugh.  till next time.

end of june progress report

so here we are.  the last day of june.  fifteen weeks left until our little bundle of joy is set to join us here at irvington bungalow.  and where are we in the progress of work on this old house?  read on, my friends.

bathroom - we received the tile sample for the floor. 

this is the design and basically the colors. we put white pieces of paper over the gray colored tile the tile guy suggested we use (you can see it in the top row of the whole sample).  the picture on the right shows a hex shaped tile but that is just to portray the actual shade of white that the tile will be (since the paper was a bright, stark white).

in the next couple of days we'll order the tile. so excited and a bit apprehensive as this guy has been taking FOREVER to get back to us about anything.  so annoying.  but i'm trying to be optimistic that once he has a down payment, things will move more smoothly???  maybe???  hopefully!!

air conditioner - did i mention our A/C unit went out a few weeks ago?  yes, it has been a fun challenge to add that huge project to our list completely unexpectedly.  after four quotes, we finally found a wonderful contractor who helped us out and temporarily fixed the problem for us because it turned so hot outside.  we're getting a whole new HVAC system installed within the next week.  so excited.  complete with duct work to the attic and basement which will one day be finished out for living space.

chad poured a new concrete slab where the new unit will go.  he is so proud (and so am i).  it looks great!

and that's about all that has happened since the last time i wrote.  things are moving forward, faster than they probably have up until this point.  from here on out it will be a whirlwind until the baby is due.  here is my wish list, not in the correct order:

walls painted in the whole house

floors refinished in the whole house

nursery finished (new drywall installed and paint)

guest bedroom finished (new drywall installed and paint)

wood blinds purchased and installed in the bedrooms

new HVAC

new bathroom

new plumbing

we can get this done in 15 weeks.  right???  hahahahaha...........

till next time.