Thursday, September 8, 2011

Renovations and to do's... :)

We have been busy here in the Dortch household. Uriah has made me his "project manager" so we can be more efficient in knocking out the things that need to be done before Baby Girl Dortch #2 arrives. Here are a few snap shots of what has been going on....

First, the fireplace:

Before...

Turns out, the guy who lived here before put some 2 x 4's in the place of the
bricks so he could mount the mantle... interesting... 


Another before shot...

The supper nappy roller ... that thing soaked up soo much paint it
wasn't even funny... 

Uriah goin to town... 




Taadaa.... It is finished! Makes a big difference, don't ya think?
We are still searching for a mantle to install... but that can wait I suppose... This project cost us about $35... We got an oil based primer, the nappy roller and some more blue tape... we happened to already have white paint, so that was good. We did one coat of primer and one coat of paint. 

Next.. The kitchen!!

Before view #1

Before view #2

After we painted... 3 of the 4 walls

What happened after we took off the blue tape...
very disappointing... :/


counter tops off... 


Sink getting plumbed up... 

Window sill 

Add caption

Before the back splashes are up... 

big mess...


Finished!!

Finished!!
I am soo proud of my husband.. he worked his tush off to make sure these counters were finished ... Thank you love! I love love love my kitchen!

We have also repainted the hallway (a similar color to what it was before -a tanish/taupe) and for the most part finished decorating the baby room. (I still have to find a chandelier or lamp of some sort and an area rug, but other than that, baby room is done! Big reveal to come soon...), cleaned up the garage and put up crown molding in the baby room... 

For the kitchen, we still have to prime and paint one of the walls and install the shoe molding around all of the cabinetry.. (that is on the list for tonight) Also, if we have time, I think I am going to look for a good deal on some new fans and a SS fridge... More pics to come...

On my personal agenda I am going to make burlap curtains for the living room door and window... 

Here is an updated picture of me about 1 week ago.. that would be 35 weeks... 

If I look big in this picture... its because I am...
I am very ready for this child to come out...
About two more weeks and her lungs will be ready to go...
she is welcome any time after that :) 
I signed up for the Triangle Heart Walk on the 25th of this month... hopefully it will help move things along... :)

Until next time... 


Friday, August 19, 2011

It won't be like this for long

Whenever I hear this song, it makes me cry.... 


... Mainly because it is so true. The other day I was driving to a class for work after dropping Addison off at preschool...  and this song came on... it made me think about how quickly life is happening. I immediately began crying of course... the embarrassing cry - the one that cause people to do a double-take and stare at stop lights...  I just couldn't help myself. I love the age that Addison is in right now and I really don't want her to grow up... soon she is going to have a sister... and before I know it I am going to be helping them through puberty to uphold and build their confidence, dressing them up for their first dance, supporting them through their first heartbreak, and then be packing them up for college.... I want to scream for it all to stop, or at least slow down so I can just soak it in a little bit more.

I also began thinking about motherhood, how it has changed my life... how I never really grasped how much Christ loves me until she became a part of it... and how even that is just a glimpse... I stand amazed.

Thank you, Lord, for the grace and love you show me everyday... Please remind me of this when I have had a hard day. Help me to remember how quickly life is slipping by and to treasure every moment I have with my children...  and thank you, thank you for making me a mother.


Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Prego picture

So here I am 27 weeks pregnant and just posting the first prego picture... sorry peoples...

More on this pregnancy: I feel much bigger at this stage than I was in my pregnancy with Addison; however, that is normal and my weight is within the range it should be so far. I have been walking about three times a week to try and keep moving... I had a doctors appointment today and they did the glucose test. I will find out the results in a day or two, but I am praying that I don't have gestational diabetes. Let's keep our fingers crossed... This little girl is moving like crazy and seems to love it when her big sister talks to her. Addison loves to sing to her.. mostly **twinkle, twinkle little star** Sometimes in the morning she will wake me up with a kiss and then pull down the covers a little to reveal my tummy, kiss it and say "good morning baby sister" - such special moments. She is very proud of her title "big sister"... I think she does not quite know what we have signed her up for, but we will tackle that reality when it hits her. :) As far as a name for this growing little angel ... although we are keeping it a secret, I thought you all should know that we think we have secured her first name. We are only looking for middle names now.

Well, that is all for now..

Until next time..
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Wednesday, June 29, 2011

The Crib ...

So a while ago, I ordered the crib for the baby room. Although it was not the exact one I had in mind, it was within the budget and I am happy with it. Addison was so excited to help put the crib together...



Addison was trying to help and did a really great job of throwing all of the trash away, but she kept getting in the way when Uriah and I were trying to screw together the many parts of this crib. So... I put her in charge of the camera - hence the very bad pictures... She had fun though :)





She loved taking pics of her toes


This fabric hanging over the bed is the fabric I will be using to make the curtains


I have had my eye on this pillow for a long time now... Target was out of stock for a long time, but one day I was pursuing the isles of Target, spotted them and snatched two of them up... I don't know if they will stay in the nursery, but they sure do march perfectly to the yellow in the fabric.

This bedding is a black and white Toile set that I purchased for Addison when she was first born from Overstock.com

Tada... the crib :)

There is still much to do... I purchased a dresser for this room for $30 off of craigslist. I am almost finished sanding it. Then we plan to paint it gray. The dresser is large so it is also going to double as the changing table. On top of the changing table/dresser, I am thinking of putting a little chandelier lamp such as this one found at Target: link

That is all for now... more pics of the nursery to come...
Until next time...

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Headboard and Bedroom Makeover

For the last few months I have been saving up to decorate our master bedroom. Finally, I finished school and had the time to do it. I knew that I wanted to have a tufted headboard, but they can cost upwards of 1,000 dollars and my budget for the bedroom was like... a fraction of that. So, I started to Google how to make your own tufted headboard and I stumbled upon this blog Brick City Love in which she does a tutorial on how to do this sort of thing. Hers was a little different because she fitted hers inside a wooden frame and we wanted a more clean lined look - also it was much easier to do a rectangle than what she did. Here is the link to her tutorial part 1 and there you can also find part 2 and part 3.

Supplies we used:
 - staple gun
 - linen fabric - got it on sale at Joanne's
 - 2 inch thick green foam
 - batting
 - pillow
 - fabric covered button kit
 - spray adhesive
 - skills saw
 - screws
 - buttons and heavy upholstery thread


After we determined the size of headboard we wanted and purchased the fabric, we went by Lowes and had them cut it to size

Then we marked where our button wholes would be and Uriah drilled the holes.. we wanted a  large diamond pattern


Uriah fabricated a wall mount by using a 1 x 4 and cutting it at a diagonal. One section was screwed into the wall and one section was screwed onto the back of the headboard. 

We made the buttons by purchasing the large metal button kits at Joanne's. In the kit, they give you a stencil to cut out the fabric to size and a tool to secure the fabric to the metal pieces. 

We cut the greenish blue foam to the size of the plywood frame 

... and used spray adhesive to secure it to the plywood

Then we brought the headboard inside...  We used a long needle to poke through the foam first and find where our  holes had been on the plywood. When we marked the spots for each hole, we used a hole saw piece to bore out the foam so we would have room for the buttons to be pushed down into...Then we cut the batting over our holes in the form of an X

I wanted the tufting to be big so I took apart an old pillow and used the batting in that to make the space  in between the diamonds more fluffy. 

Then we stapled down the batting
Using this...



Ironed out our linen fabric ... 


... and placed it on our headboard

We started in the middle of the right side of the headboard



This is what the underside of the headboard looked like... I used heavy upholstery thread and small clear buttons to secure the larger buttons on the top of the head board. 





taaadaaa...
** I want it to be known that I could not have done this by myself - this was definitely a two person job. Uriah put his design and handyman skills to work for this one. **

Cost of the bedroom makeover:

Headboard: $120-$130. (I probably could have done it a little cheaper by sourcing out some cheaper foam and batting.)
End tables: $60 for both. (craigslist find)
Recent additions:
Dresser: $30 (found at a garage sale across the street)
Silver bedside lamps: $10 each - target - I still need to purchase shades
Curtain rod: $30

It is still a work in progress and I will keep you updated... Right now I am a little distracted with the nursery... Her crib came in yesterday! I can not wait for Uriah do get home so we can put it together!