10 Year Wedding Anniversay {World's Most Romantic Husband}

On March 25, 2000 I married Steven Evans.

On Thursday, we celebrated 10 years of marriage. With the house deadlines and my pregnancy, planning something special to celebrate fell by the wayside. I suggested a simple dinner and movie night. Steven reluctantly agreed to the simple "date night" but requested that he plan all the details. I became suspicious that he had other plans in mind when he told me to dress casual. As we pulled away from my mom's house, after leaving Marin to spend the evening with her Aunt "Biff" and "Kay, Kay" Steven presented me with the first of five "clues." Clues?! My amazing husband had created a "memories scavenger hunt." Each clue lead us to a memorable spot during our dating years. We had so much fun running around Polk County reliving our teen years and "driving" down memory lane.

The evening culminated with an exclusive dinner for two in an abandoned building in downtown Livingston. Steven had created a quiet candle light dinner complete with a display of pictures depicting various "firsts" in our relationship. Our first valentine’s day banquet. Our first symphony, winery tour, sailing excursion and pet. Our honey moon and the birth of our first child. I was completely overwhelmed by all of the thought, time, emotion and attention to detail that went into planning such a wonderful evening. I'm so extremely blessed to have such an amazing partner. Thank you Steven...I could not ask for more.

Plumbing {The Good the Bad and the Ugly}

The floors are finished! Hooray! But you'll have to wait to see pictures, just like we are waiting to walk on them! In the mean time, we are focused on plumbing.

Above is a photo of the old sink we've been using daily since we moved into the house. I remember walking into the bathroom and asking the lady that was showing us the house "is, um, this bathroom useable?" She seemed surprised I would even ask such a question! Funny how people adjust to the unusual over time. Anyway, we've grown to like this old sink and were elated when our plumber offered to give us a "couple old sinks I have sitting around." One of those free sinks matched our old faithful! It was decided right then and there, that these matching sinks would be used in our new master bath! Free sink picture below. Pretty close match eh?!

On Sunday, the three of us piled into our old 1995 GMC truck and hauled old faithful, it's new matching partner, an old, 5 and a half foot, claw foot tub and the world's smallest (cutest) sink to Houston for refinishing. We had a blast that day crossing our fingers that the truck would make it and enjoying the closeness. Kevin Jerding of Gallaway Porcelain Works in Houston is handing the refinishing work on the tubs and sinks. The plan is to paint the underside of the sink and tubs an almond color and have the feet of the tub chromed. Can't wait to show you finished pictures!

What happened to the bathroom we are currently using you might ask? Well, that's where the ugly comes in. Yuck!

Steven spent most of Saturday taking down the old sink and installing a NEW, old sink in it's place. The wall was super yucky so we took the opportunity to clean. You never know what to expect once you dig into old plumbing, so we began the project with the worst in mind. In the end, Steven replaced the drain line and replaced seals in the faucets to prevent leaking. Hoping this new setup will suffice until this portion of the house is remodeled. Separate hot and cold faucets. Hum...just another unusual to adjust too right?

Speaking of faucets. We've searched and searched for shelf back faucets (see below) to replace our old faucets, and have finally decided it would be best to just have the old ones rebuilt and re chromed. Stay tuned!

Sanding!

Exciting! Loud. Smelly. Amazing. Beautiful. Progress!

Staying Busy!

Haven't posted much lately...we've been busy. We are on "deadline" with the house! Deadline enforced by the baby coming, but more pressing than that the "floor guys" are coming this Thursday! Yep, Mayes flooring out of Beaumont are coming on Thursday to refinish the wood floors in the west side of the house. That means all of the trim above the floor has to be finished. So.....Dan and Steven have been working on b-board for the master bath, hanging the last of the crown molding, building columns and cutting and routing trim boards for the windows. Below is a progression of the b-board installation.

I handled the second half of the b-board project. Spackling all of the nail holes and the priming and painting. The picture below shows the first coat of primer. I finished the painting last night!

And then there is the trim...There are a few "critical" architectural elements in our house that we wanted to save. The top trim pieces from the windows and doors are one of those elements. They are made from true cut lumber and we wanted to hold that look for the house. Who knew saving the trim would turn into so much work! The pictures below show the process we went through stripping each of the boards. A nightmare I tell you...a true nightmare. Each board had probably seven or eight layers of old paint that was extremely "strip resistant." I thought the project would never end until our savior arrived! The heat gun! LIFE SAVER. Steven was able to finish in three hours what would normally take me a full day’s work.

The top most board shows a piece of trim after hours of work. The bottom board shows how each board looked before beginning the process.

Below are just a few of the freshly painted window trim boards. We had 25 boards in all. After the boards were stripped, they were sanded and then cleaned with a water/bleach solution. Then re-sanded, spackled, and primed. Finally a final coat of trim paint color was applied. Tonight they are being hung!

Below is a shot of the window trim boards that Steven and Dan created and that I helped to prime and paint. These are being hung too!

And finally a photo of Steven using the mighty heat gun to strip paint from one of nine window stools. Yes, you guessed it. These were stripped, sanded, cleaned with water/bleach, spackled, primed and painted. And boy are they smooth and pretty now.

Stay tuned. I hope to have before and after pictures of the floors posted next week. Then it's on to hanging doors and door trim and the bath fixtures. We have three sinks and a tub that we are having refinished for the bathrooms on the west side. Progress, progress, progress!

Beautiful Belly

Virginia is covered in snow. There are piles of it everywhere. So, belly picture locations were limited. Tasha's beautiful green eyes and flowing dark hair made up for the lack of locations. Here are a few photos we took during my visit. Wow, Tasha has always been extraordinarily pretty but pregnant she is even more so...

M4 Mommies

Last week I spent five days with my best friend Tasha. And yep, you guessed it, we are both pregnant! Tasha is due on March 4 (my birthday) and I'm due May 4. We've shared many milestones in life (having been friends since the age of four, that has a way of happening). We'd always teased about being pregnant together, and then I jumped the gun and gave birth to Marin in July 2007. Seems I have a history of jumping the gun...graduating college, getting married...there is a pattern developing here. So, upon discovering that we were pregnant together and that Tasha was two months ahead of me, I was elated!

Above is a picture that was taken during my short trip to Virginia to just "be" with my prego friend. Lots of talking, napping, eating, shopping. All of the things pregnant women do when they are together...and it was perfect.

Thank you, Tasha, for a wonderful vacation. Can't wait until the day our little ones meet face to face. I love you.

Mommy Gifts

I've been waiting to upload these until after I'd given them to Tasha as a gift. I made two of these bags as Christmas gifts last year and they were a big hit. Hoping this will make a nice, small, on the go, diaper bag. The Margaret Bag is a free pattern I found on one of my favorite blogs Oh, Fransson! The blogger Elizabeth Hartman has such creative and beautiful patterns and oh so much quilting which intrigues me. I modified the pattern for Tasha's diaper bag to include a magnetic snap instead of the hoop and button that the pattern design calls for. I'm anxious to see which "closure" users prefer. The fabric is Pop Daisy-red from Heather Bailey's Pop Garden collection.

This diaper case pattern I found on Jan Andrea at Home. It's a free pattern with lots of step by step instructions. The only modification I made was to add a magnetic snap instead of velcro.

And lastly, my own creation a crayola caddy meets baby grooming kit. Used a light weight clear vinyl for the front so that it's easy to see and clean. Rolls up neat and tidy and matches the diaper bag. Too cute eh? This pattern from Martha Stewart is similar.

Hoping to make a set of these for my bundle of joy...