the return of our rennovating

Remember her?

Well, she’s back.

[If you just panicked and thought to yourself “OMW is AllisonO wearing a GAS MASK while 7 months pregnant?! How did OBaby turn out OK?!”, then you should probably take a deep breath, and then go here and here to read the Holy Pregnancy I’m Nesting and I Want Dark Wood Floors tale.]

Many of you have joined O My Family in the last few months, whether from Divine Caroline, Cupcake ’10 or by googling “outie bellybutton when pregnant”. So, I wanted to say welcome, and that yes, it will go back to an innie someday. Don’t fret.

These last 5 months with OBaby it has felt like our life took something of a fork in the road from our previous trajectory (actually, maybe a winding cloverleaf freeway exit is a better analogy?).

We were hardcore, fast-paced, DIY, I-don’t-never-pay-nobody house renovators.  Then we became parents and suddenly the biggest problem these weekend warriors were solving on a Saturday was how to venture forth from our house for a trip to Target in presentable fashion.

In fact, right up to my due date, HECK, 14 hours before I delivered OBaby, we were working on the laundry room that we have built in the basement. When we moved in, it was a dungeon with cinder block walls, asbestos in the floor tile, and a concrete basin sink complete with 80 years of filth. Today, she looks like this:

Notably missing are the trim around the window, the ceiling, the cabinet doors, and what the crap happened to the bottom panel on my washer? BUT. B.U.T. It’s a freaking room. With non-toxic flooring. With a counter top. With walls.

And the bathroom. Did you come along before or after the bathroom?

Before:

During:

After:

Close up of the tile:

To answer your questions, yes, the Peptobismol pink tile was the original 1935 bathroom. Yes we took it down to the studs ourselves (through the concrete and wire lath walls). No, we did not pay a single person to touch our bathroom. Yes, we raised the arch above the tub to be 9 inches higher than it was originally. Yes, we bought our vanity from Costco (what does that store not sell?). Lastly, yes, we dismantled the only functional toilet on the ground floor of our house when I was pregnant and my badder was the size of an acorn.

And as if that first picture wasn’t teaser enough, you should probably go back up and read the two posts I linked to that show the absolutely ridiculous transformation of our hardwood floors.

They weren’t always this beautiful:

Yes, we fixed the yellow and purple trim. In fact, we had not been off the plane returning from our babymoon more than 2 hours and we were painting trim. You can read about that here.

I wasn’t kidding when I said we were hardcore and fast-paced.

While a huge, outie-bellybutton-inducing pregnancy did not stop us from taking sledgehammers to our walls and drum sanders to our oak floors, I have learned that having your first baby has the tendency to stop you in your proverbial tracks. Five months in though, we’re feeling pretty good. Feeling like, if I bounce OBaby on my hip or wear him in the ring sling for just long enough, we might be able to get back to attacking our house…

one drafty, energy inefficient window at a time.

This post, as with all house projects, is:

To be continued…