I could gush on and on about my amazing, hard-working husband who put a second bathroom in our home all by himself (and with the help of some GREAT friends). But, I'll let the pics speak for themselves.

First we had to design and pick the area for the new bathroom. We choose a section of the large back bedroom. RJ had to remove the back bedroom closet and take up the floor.

Our house is built on a concrete slab. They had to jackhammer through the slab to do the plumbing. (Blair and Tony rock for the late nights working on the slab.)




They also tore back the wall to do the water pipes. We strategically choose the location for the new bathroom as it backs up to our existing bathroom. This allowed us to use some of the existing plumbing. It also meant we were without a toilet and running water for 5 days. That was interesting...


We'll take help from wherever we can get it.



Thanks Dave for the framing!



After the plumbing was all done RJ had to do all the electrical, drywall, painting, tiling, etc. (Thanks to Mark and Brian.) Those photos are on the other camera and it is super time consuming to get them off and uploaded. So I'll just proceed to the finished project. (FYI - the bathtub was someone's yard art at one point. RJ got it from Craigs List for $100 and completely refinished it himself!)

Bump Update

My sister has been asking for new bump pics. All of these were taken within the last 2 weeks and I'll be 29 week tomorrow.

In this first pic you can see the colors I painted baby's room. I really wanted to have one orange wall. Since the pic we've put in baseboard and shelving in the closet. We're just waiting on carpet and then it will be ready for decor!

In my remodel outfit

The Front Yard and Back Patio

In August and September we took a break from inside the house. We cleaned up the backyard a bit, laid mulch everywhere, and had a new driveway and back patio poured. I don't have any good "after" pics, but this will give you an idea of what we did. Plus, we still haven't landscaped so it doesn't look like much right now.

The backyard while we were finishing up the living room
The front yard before
The driveway from the roof
The side yard before. Right now there is nothing but mulch in the side yard, but eventually it will be filled with garden boxes


No more driveway
Dave bringing in the mulch
Ripping up the front driveway
Ripping up the back patio and side yard 

Anna's helping! 
Front yard without a driveway
Getting ready to put the back patio


New side-by-side two-car driveway

It's hard work outside

A Few More Living Room Pics

Dallas and Meg helping paint the living room

Dave framing the cabinets

An Early Shot of the Living Room

Remodel Update - The Living Room

For those of you who have been living under a rock (or who we just don't see very often) you need to know that RJ and I have been remodeling our house since we moved in at the end of May. The first month remodeling was fun - it was fun to wash windows, strip floors, paint walls, do major demolition, see things change, etc. Then came months 2, 3, 4....we're now in month 8 and here are our current stats:

Meltdowns -

RJ: 6

Anna: 600

$$$ - 

It hurts

Number of Trips to Lowes:

 8 months x 30 days in a month x twice per day average = 480

Tears:

R.J.: 2 tricklers after a realizing he put in 2 days work 

Anna: 2 five-gallon buckets full - each month starting at month 2

Number of Friends that have helped:

I had no idea we had so many friends! 

Cases of Beer Consumed

Lately the employees at Vons have started discretely leaving AA brochures in my bike basket (don't worry - I'm just the pick-up girl the boys handle the brew)

Number of Chipolte Burritos purchased:

8 months x 4 weeks a month x 2-3 burritos a week = between 64-96

However, despite the meltdowns, the slippage of swear words, the hammered fingers, the paint filled hair, and the over-consumption of Mexican food we have made amazing progress. Actually, my husband has made amazing progress (I've done alot of Lowes runs). 

Here's a look at the Living Room:

Here is one photo from before we moved in

After RJ striped the wallpaper, removed the paneling from the front wall and added drywall, rebuilt the cabinets with Dave, and put in the glass door between the living room and the denRJ and Mark texturing the walls
Getting closer to being done

Installing the new door


Walls are finished but we're still without furnitureAll done! (except for a few small finishing details like a light over the kitchen table and such)

Lunch Break

Here's RJ on his lunch break last week - he has a pretty rad job.

Books/Movies

I stopped doing reviews b/c I got lazy but I continued to keep track of the books and movies I watched b/c I was curious to see how many it would total at the end of the year.

The Totals:

BOOKS: 32

MOVIES: 41

I am really surprised b/c I though I would read more books than watch movies. Maybe in 2009...

Books since June

Girl Meets God

The Shack

Karen Kingsbury - Forgiven, Found, Family, Forever

On Becoming Baby Wise

The Pact

Giana - Aborted and Lived to Tell about It

The Gatecrasher

Traditions (I'm forgetting the exact title but it's by Noel Piper)

The Girlfriends Guide to Pregnancy

Twilight

New Moon

Eclipse

Breaking Dawn

What to Expect When You're Expecting (most of it)

Captivating

Movies since June

Made of Honor

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2

The Dark Knight

Fireproof

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Baby Mama

The Ultimate Gift

Paris Je T'aime

The Incredible Hulk

Terms of Endearment

The Basketball Diaries

Penelope

Martian Child

Lars and the Real Girl

Under the Same Moon

Nine Months

The Nativity Story

Bella

Amazing Grace