Let the nesting continue...

I've been in rare form these days. I'm on a mission to finish a million little projects around the condo that I've been meaning to do for ages. First up: the cabinets in the vanity area of our master bedroom. I forgot to take a decent "before" picture, as usual. But here you can at least see what the old color looked like (old color is on the right; new color on the left):


I painted the structure, and Mike painted the doors and installed the knobs. After painting, it looked approximately 1,547 times better than it did before.

But of course, then we realized that we really needed to get rid of that too-plain mirror and fabric "frame" and get a nicer mirror. See, this is what happens when I buy a new towel rack... before I know it, I've redecorated the entire area.

I told Mike that painting these cabinets got me really itching to repaint the entire kitchen -- walls and cabinets. I think he may have panicked a bit. "Let's set our sights on something a little smaller," he told me gently. "Think low-hanging fruit. A new mirror for the vanity area. Let's get a new mirror." I'm pretty sure he was having visions of me going into labor with our kitchen completely torn apart. Ok, fair enough. I can live with a new mirror. So one trip to Home Goods later, the area is complete:

I really wish I had a before picture to show you what a remarkable improvement this is. You'll just have to trust me. I cannot fathom why it took me five years to do this. We still need to get something small to hang on the wall next to the mirror, but I'm gonna let that go for now. I think that's the sort of thing you just have to come across one day, and you know it's perfect when you spot it.


I couldn't ignore the kitchen completely, though. Nooooo, I needed to re-organize the cabinets! You see, we have a bit of a problem... we both love glasses of all kinds. Pint glasses, wine glasses, juice glasses. And coffee mugs. And plastic cups.

I would love to tell you that's all of them, but it's not. We have a hard time parting with them, too. Cuz you know, these are great for Easter when we have people over and serve mimosas... and those are classic beer mugs. Yeah, we always drink from the bottle... but still, how can you get rid of a set of really awesome beer mugs? Get rid of the Donatos coffee mug?! What are you, nuts??

So we at least managed to box up some stuff that we don't use as often and put them in storage for the day when we have a bigger kitchen and a reasonable amount of cabinet space. It was sad, but necessary. Cuz our little guy should be able to have a couple of bowls, plates and sippy cups of his own, so maybe now we can squeeze them in.

Oh, then we bought all kinds of new stuff for our shower, including new knobs, a new spout and a new shower head holder thing (that silver pipe that holds the shower head). Ours were all really old and beat up, so we thought some new stuff would spruce it up. Unfortunately, it seems the shower head pipe and faucet have been there so long that they don't want to leave. Mike spent a good long time working them over, but they won't budge. But he did get the new shower knobs on. And boy do they seem to sparkle.


So then... the biggie. The kitchen table. I have had this table since I first moved to Arizona six (plus) years ago. I bought it from Walmart for about $100.


It was a good little table, and it definitely served its purpose. I more than got my money's worth out of it. You can't tell in the picture, but it's really beat up. Tons of scratches, one chair is stained, another is half breaking. And we could probably deal with that stuff for a while longer, but we've got family coming out for Thanksgiving this year. Last year, Mike's parents and sister came out, and we all squeezed around the table. See:


Tight, huh? Well, this year, we're also going to have Erica's fiance (our future brother-in-law!), too. And our little guy will be hanging around, too. That table just ain't gonna fly anymore. We've looked and looked and looked for a new table for over a year now, but we just couldn't find anything we liked. It seems that tables are either really cheap (and look it) or are really nice (and way too pricey). But when my mom was in town for my baby shower, we did a little shopping, and I stumbled upon a table I loved at Pier 1. I stalked it online (ok, and in person) for several weeks, and sure enough... it finally went on sale and got to come home with me.


It's not too much bigger than the old one -- maybe only a foot. But that's big enough to get some extra people around it without making it too big for the small space we've got. It's kind of hard to see in the pictures, but the top of it is a pretty, dark wood and the legs and chairs are ivory. The contrast looks really nice against the laminate:


Please also note the awesome decorative mirror above that little chest of drawers next to the table. I found that at Home Goods while we were buying the vanity mirror. I heart it mucho.

As a side note, what does everyone think of the black mirror above the table? Does it still go ok? I think it's kind of nice to have something darker in that area, since all the other furniture and stuff is so light and neutral. But maybe not. Is there something else that would look better? If we keep it there, do we need to hang it lower? I feel like, especially in pictures, it looks like it's hanging way too high.

Of course, we could not ignore the Rhino's room. The last piece of the nursery arrived this week, and Mike got to work with his drill:


... and hung up this:


Isn't it cute?? Then, naturally, we had a good ol' time decorating it...


It's probably good that I'm so motivated right now, cuz once the little guy is here, I have a feeling that redecorating will be the furthest thing from my mind. Since I've decided that I'm probably not going into labor anytime soon, I'm desperately trying to think of another little project I can knock out of the park. I still have to get a couple of little decorations for the small walls in the living room, so maybe that will be next on the agenda.