There's always something new going on in the York household! This is a place for us to share that with you, our family and friends. Enjoy!

Monday, June 22, 2015

House Expansion: Weeks 18-23

We picked out some great colors for the house!  Or, at least we thought we did...  We looked at a color wheel to choose all of our paint colors and we didn't try any samples out. How brave!!  Everything worked out perfectly, except the exterior color.  The painters brought over a huge bucket of it and gave us a sampling on the front of the house.  Turns out, it looked a little too purple for Dan's taste. Darn! I've always wanted a purple house!! 
Original choice, a bit on the purple side

Round two, samples!!

So, we asked them to stop and went back to the drawing board.  This time we did it the right way by getting samples, applying them, and going from there.  So we started out with four samples, and we were not pleased.  Went back for a few more, and a few more after that.  I think we ended up with 12 samples on the side of our house all together.  We finally picked "the one", and gave our contractor the number.  One day, we came home to our exterior all finished.  Here is what the front corner of our house looked like.
Original color choice on left, final choice on right!

Turns out, someone left the old bucket of paint on the job site.  I've tried to imagine how this happened, and the only thing I can come up with is that a few painters started on opposite corners of the house.  They met up at the front corner, pondered the difference between the paints, looked at their watch and thought, "Oooh, it's 4:30.  Quittin' time!  See y'all tomorrow!"  No one mentioned the mix-up to us.  Dan noticed it and sent the picture to our contractor, who of course said it would be fixed by the next day.  Lesson learned:  Don't put 12 samples on your house and expect a flawless finish!  The final product is beautiful!  Our house really stands out, and the difference in trim colors really pops.  It's a great color!  It's called Refuge by Sherwin Williams.
Hard to capture it in daylight with the huge tree shadowing it!

After the painting was done, we had some base boards installed.  Next came the tile for the bathroom floors, walls and shower.  New wood flooring was also put in throughout the new living space.
New color in old Rock Room

The skylight and the color really brightens the place up

Green for the master bedroom

Bright blue for baby boy!

The project has taken a little bit longer than originally planned.  We have made some changes which have taken up more time.  But, if you ask this mommy, times a tickin' and I'm itching to get some things prepared for our new arrival.  Naturally, Dan hears my complaints all the time.  I guess he decided to take some issues to our contractors.  This is how I imagine the conversation went:

"Jess is really pregnant.  She's getting more and more pregnant by the day.  She really wants the nursery finished so we can move stuff in there.  Besides being really pregnant, she's really emotional too.  I have no idea if she's going to cry, laugh, or yell.  You all really don't want to witness any lapse in her mental stability.  Can we do something about this?"

The very next day FIVE guys showed up to work on the house!!  Wow, the threat of a pregnant woman's emotions goes a long way!  That day they sanded the new and old wood floors and got a coating of stain applied.  Our bathroom tile was nearly completed as well!  It was one of the hottest days we've seen here in central Florida, so I was feeling a little sympathetic.  (Especially since Dan had just threatened them with psycho pregnant lady).  I went to the store and got some cookies and lemonade (no, I did not turn my oven on to bake! Too hot, remember!).  I set out these refreshments in the afternoon, and I think they appreciated it.  After talking to the contractor, he said they would have to apply two more coats of "stuff" to the floors then they would be laying carpeting in the bedrooms.  All I needed was carpeting in the nursery to be able to move the crib in.  This would allow us to get Sophie her big girl bed and start the transition sooner rather than later.  Dave, our contractor told me carpeting would be done on Monday.  He told me this on a Wednesday.  I went to work the next few days, coming home to a smelly, hot house.  Smell from staining and finishing wood flooring.  Heat from turning air conditioning off while the guys were in and out of the house all day working.  BUT, lot's of progress was being made!!  When I came home on Friday, I had a surprise.  Carpeting had been laid in the BOTH bedrooms!!  Someone is getting a big smooch for this one!!  That meant that we were able to get to work on the kids rooms this weekend.  The contractors really came through for us, and at the moment I am a happy preggo!
Old rock room!

Sanded down, old floor into new floor

Laundry Room floor
Shiny and new! Floors in new living space and kitchen extension

Carpeting!! Master bedroom

Nursery carpeting
Carpeting being installed in the nursery meant that it was time for Sophie to get a big girl bed!!  We moved the crib, changing table and rocking chair into the nursery to make room for a new bed.  We found a cute bed at IKEA complete with drawers and a bottom half that pulls out like a trundle bed.  It's been a while since we've bought anything at IKEA, and it became all too clear to me last night.  ASSEMBLY REQUIRED...  Ugh, IKEA assembly.  The twin sized daybed came in three different boxes and about 5,000 different pieces.  I get it, assembling it yourself cuts down on costs.  How about the instruction manual?  Pictures and numbers only!  Would it be so bad to have some words involved?  Then I suppose they would have to translate it into 50 different languages and the bed you paid $300 to assemble yourself will now cost you $500...  Dan's sister had something smart to say about IKEA furniture assembly: The instruction manual should have a divorce decree at the end of it!  Man, it really put our teamwork abilities to the test!!
 
So we got started on this project at about 5pm.  Big mistake.  We realized it was going to take a lot longer, so we let Sophie get her night's sleep started in baby brother's room.  She seemed like she felt right at home...
 
 
Six and a half hours later, we finished!  We put some cute princess sheets on it and got our little girl to tuck into it like it was always there.  She stirred just a little bit when we laid her down.  She looked up at us and closed her eyes with a huge grin on her face.  Instantly, the mess we just endured was all worth it!
 
Nevermind that the drawer is all wonky...we're working on it!!
Next up and grouting to finish up our bathroom tiles.  Cabinets, sink, toilet, and shower doors to be added to the bathroom.  Then comes a little tidying up and inspections.  Then we should be all done!  It will be a bittersweet day when these guys leave our home.  It's been quite a journey, and has been amazing to witness it every step of the way.  I imagine my next post about the expansion will be the last. **sniff sniff**

Love
The Yorks

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Our Growing Girl, and a Growing Mommy!

We have been busy with our house expansion since the beginning of the year, and things have been a mess around here!  We are managing to go about our lives as best we can with so much change happening and living in a constant mess.  Keeping Sophie busy during heavy construction days has been interesting.  She has made friends with all of the people who have come to work on the house.  In fact, she asks about them by name.  Who can resist our sweet little girl?  Once our contractor introduced her to his new puppy, they were soon all considered chopped liver until she was able to pet the puppy.  A similar situation to that with her Grandma and Grandpa.  When we Facetime with them, the first thing she asks about is seeing their dog.  As a matter of fact, it's one of her first questions for most people that she meets.  "Do you have a dog?  What's it's name?"  After the questions she goes on to tell them she has a dog named Lucy Boots.  A statement that always makes me smile and pulls at my heartstrings.  I usually don't have the heart to tell her new friends that Lucy lost her battle with cancer three months ago.  I am amazed and thankful for her memory!


18 weeks

Sophie and her future best friend
We found out a few weeks ago that we are expecting a baby boy!  Sophie is aware and let's everyone know there is a baby brother in mommy's belly.  She frequently hugs and kisses my belly, and sometimes puts her ear to it to listen for a minute.  She tells me that she can hear him kicking inside.  She does some of the sweetest things sometimes.  We have talked a lot about the permanence of this baby brother.  I don't think it's a concept that she fully understands yet.  She knows there is a little baby in my belly, but she doesn't understand that he will be a part of our family in our home forever.  Boy is she in for a surprise!

I have asked her if she will take care of her new brother and of course she responds with an excited "Yes"!  She has also told me a few other things that she will teach him.  Three things that she mentioned one night were to teach him to read, go pee pee on the potty, and how to get the mail.  The important things in the life of a three year-old! 

Sweet baby boy!
22 weeks


 
Date night with Dan, almost 23 weeks


24 weeks

Mother's day with my girl!

Our big girl paints her own nails! She's getting pretty good at it!

On a water ride at Universal Studios


Grandma Elaine came to visit in April!  We had a wonderful, relaxing weekend.  Grandma played with Sophie, read her books and tickled her for as long as she could stand it.  Our little girl loves to be tickled and could probably stand it for a hours at a time!  Another thing she loves to do is whistle.  Sounds crazy, but if I can recall, I think she's been whistling since she was two.  One time at dinner I told her to blow on her food to cool it off and out came a whistle.  We were both surprised by this, and she has remembered how to do it ever since.  She just goes around whistling every now and then.  While Elaine was in town, Sophie worked hard on teaching her how to whistle.  It was a funny sight!
 
Playing with our farm animals

Teaching Grandma how to whistle



Grandma and Sophie relaxing on our new back porch

Selfie with the girls

I love her face in this picture.  A puppy loves to chew on anything!

Playing in the rain

This girl loves the dirt. Wonder what she will do when we put sod there...

Sophie read to mommy this evening
We have found something fun to do for the next few weeks!  Florida is home to some beautiful blueberry patches come to find out.  We have already made a few trips to our local patch.  We have saved some in our freezer, made some yummy muffins, and have mostly eaten them right out of the container.  They are delicious! 

Sophie has a fun time finding the berries and picking them off the bushes.  One of the ladies that worked at the patch instructed us where to get the sweet berries and said we could taste them right off the bush.  Sophie heard her loud and clear!  I think half of the blueberries she picked went into her belly.  Before Dan left for work that morning, we mentioned that we were going to pick blueberries.  He told us a story about going to the strawberry patch when he was younger.  As he left the patch one day, someone told him that they should weigh him before and after picking berries to see how much they should charge for all the ones that he put in his mouth!  Just another way Sophie is just like her Daddy!!

We had gone back another time to pick some more blueberries.  We had been at it for about ten minutes and I saw a nice layer of berries in the bottom of her bucket.  We kept going and she searched on for the yummy ones.  About 15 minutes later, I looked in her bucket to see that it was empty!  She had polished off the ones she picked!  I giggled and encouraged her to put more in her bucket than in her belly.


We made blueberry muffins!

Fist time on the swan paddle boats at Lake Eola downtown Orlando

The City Beautiful


We found some hungry ducks on our morning walk one day.  We had been out to this lake the day prior and found ducks with their babies.  Sophie quickly picked some grass to throw in the pond which encouraged the ducklings to come closer.  I told her that we would have to bring some bread with us next time we came to the pond so we could feed the hungry family.  So, we decided to come back the next day armed with some bread.  The ducklings were the first to arrive followed by their mommies.  They were very interested and didn't hesitate to come right up to Sophie.


A few busy momma's, I counted seven ducklings between the two of them!
Sophie's friend Sloane came over one night so her mommy and daddy could go on a date.  Sophie reminds me all the time that Sloane is her best friend!  They have such a fun time together, I can't imagine the good friends they are going to be as they grow older.  When it was time to go to bed, we got a little taste of what it's going to be like as they get older.  We laid a sleeping bag down on the floor and gave them some books.  They read to each other, tickled each other, and giggled a little past their bedtime, but it was really sweet to see.

Of course they played in the dirt

Sweet friends!

Construction problems: Doing laundry at a Laundromat


Daddy's girl

Church with her best friend!
 
I plan to take more pictures of my growing belly, and our growing girl.  Check back soon!!

Love,
The Yorks