We’re back! The last two months have been incredibly busy and somehow I never found the time to update this blog. Well, now I’m back and I will be posting regularly from now on.

We moved in about a month ago and it’s just been crazy. There’s still a bunch of things that need to be done but overall we are settled. I’ll be putting up before and after pictures over the next few days, starting with the playroom today. (It’s the room that’s the most “finished” – and the neatest! – right now.)

Here’s the playroom before (sorry, terrible pictures – I never got one before we started the demo):

And here it is now!

It still needs a light and a new cabinet to replace the awful natural file cabinet in the corner (a relic from our old computer desk). We’re getting those from Ikea:

IKEA PS 2014 Corner Cabinet

IKEA PS 2014 Pendant Lamp

We were going to get the matching secretary desk, but it was too small for our needs. I still love it, though!

IKEA PS 2014 Secretary

Instead we got this awesome computer armoire. It hides everything neatly behind its doors, and the kids don’t get into all of my work stuff.

Sources:

Computer armoire – Walmart

Desk chair – Costco

Bins – Christmas Tree Shops

Pillows:

Gray & yellow – Target

Orange – Home Goods

The toy closet is officially the biggest hit with the neighborhood kids. It’s so cute and cozy, they could spend all day in there! It’s the perfect size for them and roomy enough for loads of toys.

So what do you think of our transformation?

More before & afters to come!

I went to the house yesterday to check out the progress (upstairs bedrooms are being painted, looks great) and heard the unmistakable sound of chirping coming from the front porch overhang. So we dragged out a ladder, climbed up to get a better look, and…

…found a nestful of adorable baby birds! That’s right, our eggs hatched and now there’s a whole bunch of precious little birdies.

(On one hand, I can’t wait ’til they’re gone so we can put up spikes to prevent it from happening again, but on the other hand… look how cute they are!)

I’ll post painting pictures when I have them.

They’re all in! Check out our fully installed kitchen (well, except for the toe kick that mistakenly got sent back. It’ll come in another couple of weeks):

In that last picture, you see Sebastian from the granite fabricators measuring for our countertop template. I went to the fabricator yesterday to see which pieces of the slab to put where, and it went great – we discovered that we can make do with one slab, not two like we’d originally anticipated. And the counters will all be seamless!

They’re going to be installed next week. Can’t wait!

In our absence, our house has become somewhat of a nature preserve. The termites are (thankfully) gone, but now we have a new issue: honeybees! There are hundreds of them living in the soffits under our roof on either side of the chimney.

It wouldn’t be that big of a problem, if not for the fact that it’s illegal to kill honeybees. We had to call in a special beekeeper to remove them. Check it out!

He has to take out the entire hive, including the queen, to get rid of them. If the hive stays and the bees die, we’ll have rotten honey in our rafters and attract all sorts of other animals. As you can see, they’ve been successfully evicted. Thanks, Gary and Tom!

Meanwhile, under our porch roof, some robins have taken up residence, built a nest, and laid eggs.

They’re tiny! Next year we’ll have to put up spikes to discourage the birds from nesting, but for now… how cute is this?

I think we’ll start charging admission for the little kids in the neighborhood to come check out our wildlife habitat!