And Then There Was Beadboard (Part One)

The last time I updated ya'll on our kitchen remodel was when we had just finished our butcher block countertops (which are holding up awesome by the way). We took a little bit of a break after that for babies and full school/work schedules, but now we are back to it. Slower than before, which is why something as simple as a beadboard backsplash will probably be it's own three part mini series. Anyway, just as a refresher, this is what the kitchen looked like last time you saw it...

and as a super refresher, here are the before pictures...

(If your a new reader or just missed the previous kitchen posts here are the links to them...appliances, colors, sink, painting and raising the cabinets, countertops and bar.)

Oh and I apologize beforehand for the terrible quality pictures. I lost my camera at the zoo a few weeks ago and have been using our really old, (and cheap when we bought it) camera. We've since bought a new one (thanks Black Friday!) so all is well, except that I lost all the pictures that I hadn't yet transferred to the computer. Yes, that includes adorable newborn pictures. Plus I never delete pics off my SD card, so someone now has possession of pretty much every picture I've taken in the past year (to include some way too naked birth pictures). Enjoy, new owner of my camera!

So back to the kitchen.

The first step was obviously measuring and cutting the beadboard. Usually you would do this with a table saw but ours is on the fritz, so instead we got creative and used two tables, a level, clamps and a circular saw. 

Installing them is easy with some liquid nails and brad nails.

And that's pretty much it! I bet you were expecting me to ramble on for awhile longer, but really, what else can I say?  Measure, cut, install...done!

 So here is the kitchen now, looking much more put together...

The next step is for me to caulk, spackle and paint. 

Then comes the trim work...plus we have some funky outlets that we need to try and make look integrated.

Hope you all had a fantastic holiday weekend... I know I did. Tomorrow it's back to just me and the babies, I'm going to miss having all the family and friends around to play and snuggle with them. Who am I kidding, I really just want people around to wear the toddler out for me!

Also, today I reached 300 followers! Thank you all so much for your comments and support, it really means so so much to me. As long as ya'll keep reading I'll keep the projects coming.... I have so many awesome ideas floating around in my head, I just need to find the time to complete them! 

One Month

My sweet little Levi turned one month old yesterday.

   The month flew by, though at the same time it has been the longest month of my life. Only a parent can understand how both statements can be 100% true.

He has grown like a weed. He is already at nearly 11 pounds and 22.5 inches. How in the world did he grow 4 inches in one month? Before long he and Elijah are going to be wearing the same size clothes. No, really... Levi is already growing out of his 3 month stuff and 6 months almost fits. Elijah is still wearing 12 month clothes at 20 months. 

With Elijah I took monthly pictures of him with a sign that said how many months he was. Great way to document growth right? Here is Elijah's one month picture...

What I didn't realize as a new mom was that at about six months it would become nearly impossible to get a decent picture of him NOT attacking his little paper sign.

Case and point...

Six months:

Nine months:

One year:

This time around I had an even better idea, I decided to write how many months on the hard-for-a-baby-to-move kitchen chalkboard. 

This may prove to be a terrible idea, I foresee chalk smearing problems, but only time will tell.

I also decided to write his milestones and weight and whatnot on the monthly sign. Genius, if I may say so myself. I don't have the discipline to write that stuff down in a baby book... the only place Elijah's milestones are documented is in my head. Live and learn.

So here is Levi the day he was born...

And here he is as of yesterday...

 I know I haven't posted much this month, so I thought I would share this little video to let you know why EXACTLY that is....

                     (make sure your speakers aren't up too loud!)

Looks like fun right?

And yes, that is a pink pacifier in my son's mouth. In my zombie-like sleepless mom daze I accidentally bought him a package of pink pacifiers. Oh well, we're not gonna waste 'em!

Kickin It Old School - Our First Apartment

(That post title is more relevant than you think...our first apartment actually was in an old school!)

Recently our laptop broke, and as I was transferring all our photos over to the new computer I noticed I had a bunch of pictures of our apartment in NY. I thought ya'll might be interested to see, so here we go!

This is the outside of our building. It's an old converted schoolhouse in a tiiiiny village a few miles outside of Fort Drum.

Wait a second, that picture is totally inaccurate - here is a different one.....

That's better.

This wasn't actually our first apartment, we lived in one in San Antonio for a few months right after we were married. I don't have any pictures of that one though, not that you would want to see any. It was empty and white and looked like a bachelor (or two newlyweds with no money) lived there. 

Anyway, each classroom in this schoolhouse was turned into an apartment. I know what your thinking right now, your thinking that a classroom is pretty small. That's right it is - 350 square feet to be exact. It was also cheap...$350 a month including utilities. Score! We lived there for three years (05-08).

Enough with the talk...let's see some pictures!

I really really wish I had before pictures, but I don't. Just picture white nothingness :)

Here is the view when you first walked in...

The walls look really bare, this was taken right after I finished painting and got our stuff in there. I know this because that TV broke and got thrown away about 4 seconds after we moved in. Eventually I hung some stuff on the walls, like this horseshoe cross made by my mom and brother....

and this painting I did (now in my laundry room)....

Here are some more pics of the living room...

BTW, It was totally against the rules to paint this apartment. I know cause I asked....and then painted anyway.  No way was I going to live in a white apartment - especially when it was white outside eight months out of the year!

Here is the dining room nook wall. The whole apartment was basically one room, but I painted the dining area a different color to make it feel separate. 

Across from the dining "area" was the kitchen...which I have no pictures of. The best I can do is this picture of me holding up some gifts for a friends baby shower (circa 2008)....

Gotta love manila laminate cabinets!

Next up we have the bathroom. If you have been reading my blog for any amount of time then you will know that this bathroom if sooo not me. I avoid red and black in my home like the plague. I just wanted to have some fun with it - the door was always closed anyway. And I didn't want to paint it. 

Brace yourself.

I lovingly called it my "Hooker Bathroom".

My husband is a good sport.

This takes us to the final room, our bedroom. The tiniest bedroom ever created.

I went beachy in this room...

Yup, that's basically the whole room - the bed stuffed in the corner and 2-3 feet on either side. My husband always said the it "kept the love in", haha. 

Since the room was so small, I tried to make it feel larger by accentuating the fact that it had tall ceilings (well, half the room did anyway).

And here's the foot of the bed. That, my friends, is a sweet 12 inch TV. That's is the only TV we had the whole time we lived there. It didn't get any channels actually, but we could watch movies. 

Wanna hear something crazier than that? Adam and I were talking the other day and realized that we didn't even own a computer for the first two years of our marriage. I couldn't even imagine that now....what did we do in our spare time? Wait, don't answer that. 

And that's the whole apartment. No garage, no balcony, no nothing.

I forgot to tell you  my favorite part of this apartment though (that is dripping with sarcasm, by the way)...

taking the dang dog out to pee! It went a little something like this...

Pretzel would whine at the door. I'd ignore her. Thirty minutes later Pretzel would really whine at the door and I'd start putting on my layers. We'd walk out the the building entrance and this is what I would see....

The snow was too deep for her to walk in, so I would pick her up and hurl her out into the whiteness while yelling "go potty Pretzel!"

She would stand there looking pathetic while my teeth chattered. 

"Damn it Pretzel, GO POTTY! It's freakin 18 below out here...HURRY UP!" 

*More pathetic looks*
Then I would continue on with stuff I probably shouldn't put on a blog, and she would start to whine because her feet were cold....

Then we would go inside and sure enough, thirty minutes later...

At least she was good company during deployments!

Anyway, hope you enjoyed my little blast from the past!

Linked to:

Serenity Now, Five Days 5 Ways