Anyone who doubts that nesting is a real thing should just ask my mother. As I recently mentioned, 3 weeks from my due date with Amelia led us to a move in with my parents. And while I love them both dearly, they accumulate a lot of stuff. I wouldn't exactly call them pack rats or hoarders, but my dad gets tons and tons of great things from work (golf bags to luggage to electronics) that they have a hard time letting go of--even though they don't need the particular item. Luckily (or perhaps, unluckily) for them, I moved in while I was in the middle of my nesting phase and went to town.
And, before I hit my parents house up, I did my own. The people who bought our house during those final weeks of my pregnancy commented that the deal was sealed when they saw our basement. Although it was not finished, it was spotless and everything was organized and labeled with great care and precision. The buyers actually wrote our basement shelving into the contract. No doubt a direct reflection of the nesting instinct. We sold the house ourselves and I specifically remember pointing out a spot near the master bathroom window that I felt needed to be re-caulked about 20 minutes before our open house was scheduled to begin. Needless to say, I was asked to leave by my super-patient husband who managed to sell our house, unsealed window seam and all.
This time around, the nesting instinct has been a little different. I mean, sure, I spent an entire Saturday a month or so ago cleaning the entire refrigerator. I removed every shelf and drawer, wiped down every bottle, and discarded anything near its expiration date. A couple of days later I did the lazy susan of spices and baking goods.
But all in all, my nesting urges have been for BIG (read: expensive) projects that have been time consuming, but have produced big results. Luckily for me, most of these projects involved a lot of work---work that had to be done by someone else.
The biggest project we undertook was replacing our downstairs carpet with hardwood floors. The carpet, which we believed to be original with the house, was 12 years old and had lived through numerous children and pets. The thought of my little baby crawling on it was just too much for me. Not to mention it looked terrible too. The hardwood installation was done by Jason and a friend of ours and it went surprisingly well with very little inconveniences. And, it looks so much better!
(Still looking for a rug for the playroom. Amelia has requested a US Map rug and I've yet to find one that meets both of our requirements).
(We also put hardwood flooring in our dining room, but its still a mess in there, so I will spare you the photo).
Our next upgrade came at the hands of Black Friday when Jason and I got up at 3:30 AM to ensure the purchase of a new television. I am guessing the TV that we had (leftover from Jason's college days) was at least 11 years old. We knew it was time for another one and the price was right at Target. Merry Christmas to us!
Another example of extreme nesting was in our bedroom. Jason and I were both bothered by our mattress and knew it was time to invest in a new one. But, we had to make the decision whether we wanted to buy another queen or take the opportunity to update to a king-sized. You may have already guessed--we upgraded! Of course, we justified this by stating that in the near future there may be as many as two extra people in our bed on some nights.
Given our choice of moving to a king-sized bed also meant our hand-me-down queen furniture was no longer going to cut it. So off to the store we went and came home with some furniture we truly love (and actually fits the size of our room!). We are still in the process of finding king-sized bedding that we like, though.
And, last but not least, was the nesting in the baby's room. No surprise there, I'm sure. We had a big job ahead of us since the bedroom was a catch-all room of sorts. Its been a challenge trying to find a place for all of our junk...er stuff. Not to mention we needed to paint the room, put an organizer in the closet, and bring all of the baby furniture back upstairs. The room isn't done yet, but here is a tiny sneak preview.
One of my favorite parts of the room are the rain gutter shelves that my mom created last week. I had been wanting to plan a trip to IKEA for a bookshelf and ran out of time. In reality, this worked out much better because I think the shelves would have taken up too much room.
The room really is ready with the exception of a few finishing touches that I am so excited about--hence not wanting to show off the room until they are all in place.
One of the little touches that I am so proud of is Amelia's contribution to the room. This is her painting (that is finally finished, unlike someone else's...ahem, ahem). We used contact paper to block off the tree on the canvas and then let her go to town with some of the colors from the room. I love how it turned out and cannot wait to find just the right spot to hang it!
And so, there it is. I am hoping these next few weeks will bring some extra motivation and energy to get some more things done around here. Although, given the procrastinator that I've become, I wonder if I might have to wait until I go into labor to knock out the rest of my list...
