Week 3 of our @OneRoomChallenge powder room project came and went, really as a blur! We had a lot of plans last weekend, and our current phase of the project is a boring one! But Mike basically completed the framing- just need to get the pocket door hardware and complete that portion. Progress pic of where we ended last weekend is below!

I panic ordered the wallpaper I had been leaning toward after Julia Marcum of Chris Loves Julia featured it in a mood board as part of her weekly love letter this week, and I got so nervous it would sell out. The lead time is also long, so it’s TBD if it will even make it in time for us to put it up before the challenge is over- we shall see! Of course, I then started second guessing myself after re-looking at the lights and mirror that I had laid out on the bed in our guest bedroom to get a feel for scale, and I really love how they look against a more neutral block print! But I think I will use a pattern like that somewhere else (maybe our other main floor bathroom eventually, or maybe the laundry room?!). I’m comfortable with this little bath packing a bit more of a punch! I was concerned that the lights were too large and/or mirror was too small, but think I am ok with the scale after sitting with it for a few days.

Next week’s post (in a few days at this point, because I’m running behind this week!) I will try to go back to week 1 and see where we are at vs. where we said we would be at this point. Mike is working on the electrical and making great project. All of our plans this weekend were cancelled due to rain today and friends of ours being sick, so we are hoping to get a lot done as the silver lining. Will post some progress clips on my Instagram stories!

We’ve made a lot of progress on the bathroom project! Demo is complete, I have the tile, vanity, light fixtures, and mirror. The only things that leaves us to buy are a new toilet, a towel bar or hook of some sort, the pocket door hardware and new door, and probably a bunch of other odds and ends I’m forgetting (like a faucet! see. forgetting so much). I still am not 100% decided on paint and wallpaper, but I’m *almost* ready to finalize that part of the design. Subject to change at a moment’s notice, I give you…the powder room MoOd BoArd. I’ve been mocking up combinations on canva for awhile, and I really like how everything is coming together!

We made a lot of progress on finalizing and thinking through the framing, plumbing and electrical plan. We had general plan, but it really helps (at least for me) to be able to think through and finalize while the space is open. I shared some highlights on my Instagram stories, including us realizing we needed to have our pocket door slide in the opposite direction that we had initially planned.

We are hoping to complete the framing and electrical this weekend. It’s generally a mess in the space right now- I spent some time throughout the week trying to clear out the area so it’s easier to work in, but still be able to use the mud space for coats shoes jackets, etc. It’s better than it was, but still a disaster. Cringe worthy in-process photo below! It always gets worse before it gets better, right?

We have been planning on a first floor renovation for many years now- when our architect and friend drew up plans for our dormer and porch additions, he also re laid out our first floor to take advantage of the space in the bedroom(s) we would no longer need. After “completing” the upstairs (still have trim work and in process built ins, but it’s mostly done!), we needed to take a breather (physically, mentally and financially!!!) so we’ve not worked on any of the updates that require layout or structural changes. That changes now, kind of! Very excited to be participating in the Fall 2023 One Room Challenge!

We are finally set to begin the transformation of a “catch all” room and a very small bathroom at the back of our home, into a proper mudroom/laundry room/powder bath space. Rough idea below:

This will be so much more functional for our family. The space was originally technically a bedroom, but when we did the upstairs project we opened up a wall to provide access to this space from our garage entry door, which has already increased the utility by a lot. The exterior door in this space (top right of the schematic) is currently our only access to the backyard from inside of our house, which will change in the next few years, but for now is a bummer. So- we are going to do our best to make this space cute and useful! 

We have been discussing the logistics and plans for this project with more intention in the last several months, and on September 9th, Mike decided to begin demo of the bathroom, which will become a powder room in a slightly adjusted location (I thought he was just switching out the shower head in our other bathroom, was kind of a funny story). I started narrowing down washer/dryers, got a quote for cabinetry in the laundry and mudroom space, ordered some tile samples, and started laying out a schedule/task list which quickly became daunting. 

We are pretty deadline oriented people, (i.e. in the absence of a suspense we might let a project linger on and on and on and on) so when I saw the fall One Room Challenge dates, I decided to sign up. I’ve loved following along with so many challenges in the past, I’ve found creators I really love in the process and have learned a lot. I’ve debated coming up with a project so that we could participate many times, so I’m really excited about this! In the spirit of this being a “one room” challenge, we have decided to focus on the powder room. Even just focusing on this small part of the space, having to start totally from scratch makes me nervous that we will be able to finish in 8 weeks. Picture of the current bathroom is below, my suspicion is that the previous owners squeezed a shower into what had been a powder bath to accomodate multi-generational living. It is TIGHT. We now have two full bathrooms on 2nd story in addition to main bath on the first floor, so reverting to a powder room makes more sense for our family. Picture of the current tight quarters below:

Our current rough plan:

Week 1: complete demo, submit permits, framing

Week 2: framing, begin plumbing work which includes moving the toilet and powder room sink, and adding a washer and sink hook up in the laundry space. We also have to add a dryer vent in the laundry space. 

Week 3: complete plumbing 

Week 4: complete electrical (lighting and outlets) 

Week 5: Plumbing/electrical/framing rough inspections approve. Drywall installation

Week 6: Tile

Week 7: Paint / wall treatments / trim in powder room

Week 8: Install fixtures and complete Powder room project

It’s obviously a very “success oriented” plan. So far, we’re almost done with demo, ordered the vanity, and decided on floor tile. We have a rough plan for framing, plumbing and electrical. This will be the 3rd bathroom Mike has built, and the other two were completely from scratch and included showers, a lot more tile work, etc, so hoping we can complete this project without a hitch! I will plan to share a more finalized mood board next week maybe, right now I am still playing around with a bunch of different ideas and color schemes to complement the neutral vanity and floor tile we selected.

I’m really hoping this “challenge” helps us move through this project a little more quickly than we have in the past. I can’t have my nephew coming over for the holidays and asking “Why is everything broken in this house?” again. I just can’t. I’m kidding. But seriously…

Here’s hoping this bathroom is up and running (and cute!!) by 11/19!

We just wrapped up a family vacation at the beach. We had a great time, though vacation with kids is not restorative or relaxing, and our littlest ending up having hand-foot-and mouth disease, which we didn’t realize until days later. We are exhausted but made some great memories at the beach, on the boardwalk rides, and just lazing about with our little family and some extended family, too!

I find that my mind never rests, which I think is fairly common, but it feels to be really really problematic for me right now. Just constantly thinking about things that I really don’t need to be worrying, and would be better off instead just focusing on my day-to-day…living in these moments with my kiddos vs letting them pass me by while contemplating a future (who knows when) kitchen renovation, or purchase of a vacation investment property (who knows when, likely never). I really envy people who are able to live in the here and now. But maybe part of my problem is that I really am searching for more, for different? I find myself thinking about career changes, or even taking a break from full time employment altogether (goes in direct conflict with that kitchen reno and vacation property line of daydream, that’s for sure). I know I’m not alone or unique in this, but I feel like I definitely am a little more preoccupied than most. Like I’m caught in this dichotomy of always thinking about more, but really maybe needing less. Maybe that’s the key.

Maybe it’s time to focus on having more by wanting less.

I haven’t written a blog post in years- we are now the proud (and very busy) parents of 3 kiddos, still have 2 crazy rescue dogs, and we moved out of our first home into a new “fixer upper ish” house 4 years ago. I’ve documented some (read: few, poorly) of the updates on instagram at the handle @loveandelbowgrease.

We’ve done a ton of projects in this house, including a major exterior overhaul and a large addition via dormers in what had been unfinished attic space. The baseline layout had 2 bedrooms along the back of the main floor, making access to the backyard suboptimal. A 3rd, large, bedroom was on the 2nd story. We renovated that and built an en-suite bathroom to make a primary suite. The addition allowed for all of the bedrooms upstairs, which are now functional but waiting for finishing touches (and all of the built-ins!).

We will eventually renovate the main floor to create a more open floor plan and change the function of a bunch of space. We will turn an existing 3/4 bathroom and “bedroom” that leads to the backyard /the garage into a mudroom, laundry room, and powder room. We will take what was one of the bedrooms on the main floor, that sits in the middle of the back of the house, into a family space (though I have dreamed of making it a kitchen! But I don’t think that is in the cards, ha!).

Mike hates hiring anything out but our next project(s) we will be- first, getting a paver walkway put in the front, which has been in the works since last July but was delayed because of the availability of materials (thanks, COVID and widespread supply chain issues!). We think it will be getting us to ALMOST completion on the exterior project (at least in the front). We’re hoping to plant some shrubs etc in the fall.

We were also having the back yard leveled and re-seeded by the same person who is doing the walkway. When we had drywall delivered for the upstairs, they went through a 2nd story window, and the large truck that drove into our backyard created some really problematic divots/tracks in the back. Any time kids, friends, or family have been back there I’ve been nervous someone is going to tear their ACL. Really as an off-shoot of that, we decided recently to get a patio put in the back when we get the walkway also. The backyard is going to be a gradual transformation, but it will be nice for it to be way more useable this summer. I’m hoping to put together more plans for the end state over the coming weeks. Admittedly a little bit nervous investing in this patio without a complete vision in our mind (but we’re getting close).

Hoping to do better about documenting what we’ve got going on here, because it helps me gather my thoughts a bit. On the inside of the house, we’ll be working on the built-ins to finish out the kids’ rooms. We also started a living room refresh that we need to finish (will hopefully post about that soon!). As always, busy busy busy and crazy crazy crazy. I’ve heard the saying that people overestimate what they can accomplish in a day, and underestimate what they can accomplish in a year. I think I severely underestimate both!!! It’s always exciting to watch large and QUICK transformations on instagram, but that’s just not realistic for us with 2 full time jobs and 3 kids. Sometimes it feels like a drag being stuck seemingly endlessly in “renovation mode”. I’m hoping this helps us take note of the progress we are making, and maybe helps others feeling similarly (like their house will never be “finished”, like they haven’t made their house “theirs” yet, like they don’t have enough money to do what they want to quickly enough, that they don’t have enough time, etc…) know that they’re not alone. Progress- not perfection. Making it my mantra for 2022! Do you have any on-going projects? How do you prioritize projects in your home? Thinking of rambling about that soon. Happy Sunday!!

As a working mother to a busy and demanding 7 month old, it’s often a toss up whether weekends become a much needed break from the hustle and bustle of the work week, or a stressful scramble to get an endless list of things done around the house, oftentimes while keeping up with social engagements.  Despite the fact that we had no plans, this weekend had turned into the latter.  Yesterday was a whirlwind of cranky baby, food prep and projects around the house.  I went to bed tired and expecting to continue the string of hellish nights we’ve been having due to teething- the screaming fest that had gone down at 8:30 pm made it seem all that much more likely.  But, to my surprise, he only woke up once to nurse and went right back down until 6:20 (in our house, that’s a good night).  All in all, Sunday was looking up.

A nice breeze complemented the break in humidity and lower temperatures that we desperately needed after a sweltering and miserable early September.  Today, for all intents and purposes, was an absolutely perfect and ordinary Sunday.  We took the baby to his first swimming class.  Mike mowed the lawn. I made a chicken in the crock pot, homemade broth for soups and baby food, and a few purees for the baby.  I folded laundry.  I went for a run- much needed, considering I am signed up for a half marathon in just over a month and I haven’t ran since Monday.  Mike rigged up a TV on the back porch and we enjoyed the first Giants game of the season as well as the beautiful weather.  Lovely. Uneventful. Typical.

But this date.  This date makes it so this typical, beautiful September Sunday is anything but.  September 11, 2016… 15 years since the terror attack that changed everything.  I was a freshman in high school when it happened and my emotional relationship with 9/11 continues to evolve today.  Maybe it was the fact that I was essentially still a child and didn’t have the mental bandwidth to fully process the gravity and horror of what happened- and, that’s probably for the best.  It wasn’t until 9/11/06, as I was watching the memorial program on TV, and I saw the name of a friend’s father come across the screen as it was read aloud by the presenter.  I had met this person in college and there were context clues that made me realize that the name on the screen belonged to her father- previously, I had had no idea that her father had been one of the many innocents who lost their lives on that horrible, fateful day.  I’m not sure why exactly this particular fact finally made things click, but I’m pretty sure I cried harder that day, for hours, than I ever had before.   It took 5 years and this hard, home-hitting truth and it seemed I finally was able to feel and process and acknowledge everything that I had previously been unable to.

Several years after that, I think it was in the spring of 2012, I had the privilege of visiting the in-progress memorial with family.  We toured the grounds and it was overwhelming to say the least.  As we paid our respects at the memorial, I poured over all of the names listed.  All of these people went to work that day without any clue that they were never returning home to their families.  There were two people who stuck out to me- two women whose names had “and her unborn child” added to them.  These women were at a time in their lives that was supposed to be filled with hopes, and dreams, and possibilities.  A time that my sister was in the midst of, as she had welcomed her first child that fall.  A time that I hoped was on the horizon for me.  At least two pregnant women left in the morning that day and never returned to their husbands, left to grieve their wives and the children they would never get to meet.  I wondered how many children were left without mothers or fathers…  how many spouses were waiting, or parents, or even friends.  These were all things that I had obviously thought about on some level before, but to see those words inscribed- “and her unborn child”- truly moved me.

It’s now been 15 full years since those horrible, Godless terrorists attacked us.  I was a child, now I’m a wife and a mother.  I go to work every day to support those who protect us from those who seek to threaten our way of life.  I hope and pray for a lifetime free of tragedy for my son, but I would be naive to think it’s even a remote possibility.  We have been at war for just over half of my life.  We have unrest within our own nation beyond anything I’ve seen before in my lifetime.  It’s hard to feel hopeful sometimes (let’s not get started on this upcoming election).  All of this, juxtaposed to the fact that life has gone on. I find it difficult to process. My sister is due any day now with her third child, and she had mentioned at one point that she hoped he wouldn’t be born on 9/11, but then pointed out that “9/11 is basically going to be just another day for our kids,” and she is right.  I’m not sure how to feel about that.   A part of me feels like it means that evil did not win.  I hope that’s all it means.

As the anniversary approached, I wasn’t sure how to acknowledge it.  Typically I watch the memorials and say some prayers and make a promise to myself to not forget.  I also often post a quote- “Now, we have inscribed a new memory alongside those others. It’s a memory of tragedy and shock, of loss and mourning. But not only of loss and mourning. It’s also a memory of bravery and self-sacrifice, and the love that lays down its life for a friend–even a friend whose name it never knew,” spoken by President George W. Bush on 12/11/01.  Still love these words- specifically, the parts about the self-sacrifice and the love that was so abundant in the US post the attack.  If only there were a way to inspire that sort of unity, selflessness and service in the absence of absolute catastrophe. Perhaps, we need to start with ourselves.  Filling our own lives with presence and unconditional love and living in the moment and doing for others.

So today, on this typical, uneventful Sunday, I commemorated 9/11 by being present.  I drank in my son’s smiles and cuddles.  I laughed with my husband.  I took a few moments to let myself cry.  I didn’t stress about the work week, or that the kitchen is always a mess, or that I haven’t slept longer than 5 hours since 2015.  I promised myself that I will not forget what’s important.  I remembered that life is beautiful. That the amount that I have to be thankful for is truly astounding.  That 15 years ago people spent their typical, uneventful Sunday’s doing typical, uneventful Sunday things for the very last time.  I will never forget.

It’s coveted.  It’s elusive.  It’s an overused buzzword that is becoming obnoxious.  Balance.   The internet is full of articles discussing how to achieve (or how difficult it is to achieve) some semblance of balance if you’re a working professional.  Oftentimes the context is specific to working parents and even more often, working mothers.  Truth be told, even before parenthood, we struggled at times to maintain a work/life balance.   We both have several personal interests and responsibilities outside of work;  fur children, exercise, volunteer work, travel, good tv, bad tv, family, friends and, of course, projects around our home.  Add a tiny human to the mix and throw in some prolonged sleep deprivation, and there are weeks where we are barely keeping our heads above water just doing the bare minimum.  Sometimes all we can do is get through the work day, feed ourselves and our dogs, and care for and enjoy as much time as possible with our little one.  That is something that I will NOT compromise on.

Every day we make choices to prioritize what little discretionary time we have.  Silly example:  my hair air dries and gets shoved into a messy bun every day at work.  Why?  Because I could spend 10 minutes drying my hair, maybe even throw on a little makeup-  or I could spend those 10 minutes playing and giggling with the little guy.  Easy choice.   However, we both feel that it’s important to maintain an identity outside of being Shane’s Mom and Dad – it is admittedly MUCH easier for my husband to do this than it is for me.  I think it’s partially self-inflicted and partially just comes with the territory of being a mama.  I will say, that I started writing this on Friday evening after a long week and my workweek stress level didn’t really seem to taper off at all- until Sunday morning.  We were up early (what else is new) and I decided that instead of just heading to the food store, I would go to 8:30 am spin class and THEN go to the food store.  I even treated myself to a smoothie while food shopping.  I came home feeling legitimately rejuvenated and so much more like myself- and actually got a whole bunch of laundry and cleaning done (it didn’t hurt that the baby took a 3 hour nap!)- simply because I got to spend an hour getting my endorphins flowing and a little time to do something just for me.  It makes me feel guilty to even admit it, especially because I am working all week now and I try to maximize all of my time with our little man, but it’s amazing how much more present I am as a mother when I have the opportunity to do something for myself!  These people who tout the merits of self-care might actually be onto something.

But I digress from the main intent of this post, which is how it’s damn near impossible to continue to work on large projects around the home once you have a child.  Considering the fact that we were in the middle of our large flooring project when we welcomed Shane into the world, we didn’t have much of a choice other than to figure out how to complete loud, messy and time consuming home improvement projects with a tiny infant blob to tend to.  It hasn’t been easy, but in the last 6 months Mike managed to complete the flooring downstairs and is THISCLOSE to finishing the staircase!  A strategically planned weekend where the baby and I headed out to visit family, a few Saturday day-long visits with friends or family, and a few days where I went to the office and took the little guy to day care while Mike stayed home and worked have gotten us this far.  Slow and steady wins the race, right?

Completed flooring tasks post-parenthood:

1. Demo and install floors downstairs
2. Demo/prep stairs for flooring
3. Order more flooring because we ran short for our downstairs bedroom and the stairs (lol)
4. Wait for additional flooring to arrive, a week late, and drive to Cranbury to pick it up
5. Install flooring in remaining area of first floor bedroom
6. Order new newel post and balusters for railing update

In progress or to be completed:

1. Lay flooring on steps (92% complete)
2. Install newel post
3. Install balusters and railing, stain everything
4. Purchase and install runner for stairs (which I have been waiting to do since we moved in almost 3 years ago!!!!! long time coming!)  And…believe it or not- I may be taking the lead on this one 🙂

I was going to give a sneak peak of what we have planned for the railing but decided just to wait until it’s all finished!  I will give an in progress shot of my hard working hubby though!!!  Weekend nights look so much different now, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.

home stretch!

Once this is FINALLY all done, we may ACTUALLY be taking a break from major projects for awhile!  Because we may or may not be planning for a major renovation/expansion of our 2nd floor and a kitchen update in the *hopefully* next summer timeframe.  No, we’re not crazy at all. I swear.  Maybe.

Until then we will be enjoying planning and brainstorming. (I’ve been going a little nutty on my pinterest boards!  https://www.pinterest.com/kerripolidore/addition/ https://www.pinterest.com/kerripolidore/kitchen-update/)

And of course- most of all- we are looking forward to enjoying our little man with fewer distractions!!! I’m already starting to plan all of the details for his first birthday… 6 months in advance!  (P.s. how is it possible that I have a 6 month old?!  I swear he was 6 weeks a minute ago).  I guess it’s just the nature of this season of life!  I’m sure our “new normal” will be ever-evolving- right now it’s hectic, stressful at times (to say the least), and tiring- but we’re never bored and our hearts are full.  Balance is overrated anyway, right?