roombyroom : just open a door

Sometimes easier said than done.  In our house anyway.

I knew several months ago that we would replacing the doorknobs in our house.  They were just plain ugly.  Mismatched, scratched, painted, missing screws.  It was not a pretty sight... but a project that I wasn't planning on anytime soon because I would rather put the money toward things like throw pillows or patio furniture right now.  

This is a little of what I was dealing with:

Did I mention that the guest bathroom didn't lock?

Yeah... maybe it should have been more of a priority.

So then... before Myles was born, I went to get a towel out of the linen closet in the master bathroom.  And the door wouldn't open.  The handle just broke.  For some reason, it had a locking knob... the locking button thing just spun in place.  My brother was in town and with a butter knife and a lot of luck, he managed to get it open... so we took the handle off.  And it stayed off until January.  When I replaced all of the knobs in the house.  

With this.  The Kwikset Cove in Venetian Bronze.  I only found them on Home Depot's website...not in store.  We did not like the bronze options in the store that were in our price range but these were perfect for $12-15 per knob depending on if it locked or not.

so much better right?!

So now our hallway (and other doors in the house) have a change that we just love.  And I'm sure what few guests we get, now appreciate.

The only knob that we didn't replace was the one leading to our carport.  Those are a lot more expensive... and not in the budget.  Oh how I wish I had just dealt with them all at once!

Because one day, we tried to go out that door to go to church.  Remember the linen closet fiasco?  Yeah.  It happened again.  Only this time to a very important door.  We couldn't get out.  So we had to use the front door.  When we got home, we tried the butter knife.  No luck.  I took the doorknob apart.  Should have worked, but the inside locking mechanism WOULD NOT disengage.  

This little bugger was all that stood between us and our normal way out.  So we did the only thing we could do.  Kyle beat the door down.  He pulled the pins out of the hinges and I braced it from falling on the ground while Kyle rammed into it.  

After that, I just had to run to the store again, spend $60 on a new Kwikset Smartkey knob/deadbolt combo.  It was amazingly easy to set the lock to our existing key, and now we can smoothly open the door with our beautiful new bronze knob.  

I did most of this over a few days during Myles' naps... or let him cry for a little bit in the case of the last one... we needed a lock.  Not a project to be intimidated by, and well worth the cost... even if it means waiting to buy the last of my throw pillows or to finish working on the hallway.

myles oliver : monthbymonth 4

normally this photo takes about 20 shots at least to find a good one... this is the only one I had to take this month!

I know it is a day late... but I wanted to wait and get Myles' 4 month check up done so we could include accurate measurements.  He is currently 24.5 inches long and 13.8 lbs.  You can wear some 3 month clothes still but 6 months fits a little better with the cloth diapers on.  When you do wear disposables, you are now up to a size 2 diaper.  

can't strap you in because you get mad.. but you actively try to do this.  And laugh the whole time.

This month has been so exciting!  You are doing so many interactive things!  Last week you started trilling your lips in addition to blowing spit bubbles.  It is SO funny, especially when you do it in response to your dad.  Unfortunately, I am not able to do it... but I try!  

so we broke out the highchair.  You are somewhat okay with this.

You are actively reaching for things... you grab onto my hand as soon as I start changing your diapers, and reach for my hand or my shirt whenever I am close.  Not just reaching... but playing.  You have a hold of your linking rings the whole time you are in your stroller and turn Zebra around in your hands to get at the different feet with your mouth.

You are still fantastic in the car.  I still make sure to take a bottle if we are out longer than an hour but you love to get out of the house.  If you are awake in the car, you are always looking out the windows. You are really taking in the world around you.  I try to get you outside every time we have good weather.  You really seem to like it, and that makes me so happy!

I tried to teach you how to garden; you fell asleep.

Last week your new friend Lane was born.  Finally another boy to play with!  I can't wait for both of you to get old enough to actually play together!

I am really sad this month.  Its official.  You are losing your hair.  Daddy tried so hard to believe that it was just your head getting bigger...but I have strands come out every time that I run my hands through it.  At least I know it is normal and it will grow back soon.

baldy :(

The ladies in the church nursery absolutely love you.  You are still so sweet for whoever is watching you and mommy and daddy are glad to have somewhere we know you are loved on while we pay attention to the sermon or enjoy small group.  

It has taken a long while, but your skin problems seem to be under control.  After the rash went away, I kept guessing whether it was coming back... but it seems to have just been badly dry skin.  It was solved with super moisture... Vaseline.  Feels gross for a bit, but your soft baby skin is back!

Teething.  The drooling started... and then the demanding to chew on my knuckles.  I'm pretty sure you are starting to get your top two teeth.  There are 2 little white dots in your gums.

You are still sleeping really well at night.  I have been trying to get you to take naps in your pack-n-play or your crib but not always successful.  Sometimes you just cry.  And sometimes I have issues laying you down in the first place.  You calm down when I sing to you (usually nonsensical stuff that I make up to whatever tune pops in my head), and love Dr. Seuss books.  You love to "read along" with me when I read those.

I just can't get enough of you little man.  

room by room : laundry

It has been a really long time since I did a Room by Room post!  And this update is long overdue... we completed it before Myles was born!

When we moved in, we were glad to finally have an actual laundry room!  Our last two apartments only had laundry "closets".  Not only did this house have a laundry ROOM, but it is big.  Like almost the size of Myles' room, big.  Well, maybe not quite that big, but its about 8x11 I think!

Unfortunately I didn't take a whole lot of pictures of it...

Like... this is it.  The only picture from our first walkthrough.  The same beige paint in the entire house, a window to the carport, some crappy cabinets and an awkwardly placed water hookup.  The other side of the room was the same beige, blank walls.

Fast forward several months, and my dad's handiwork...

The outlet for the dryer was inside the cabinet... and dad decided to lower that water hookup.

And he installed some new cabinets that he had built.  And rebuilt the wall that they were attached to.  He also built a folding table for the blank wall that I still haven't shown.

A couple of months later, Kyle's parents painted the room for us during one of their visits... using a paint color my brother picked out for me.

The finished result being this:

I love how this room turned out.  So much less depressing.  Eventually we will have to get a new washer and drier but for now these which are older than us work just fine.  We have had a couple of floods in this room but that is the fault of the pipes, and not of our ancient machines.  Nothing $200 a call to the plumber couldn't fix.

Thanks to everyone that helped make this room a bit more cheery for me :).

If you are here from Medical Mondays, welcome!  Hope you stop by more often... I know I want to start blogging a bit more frequently now that I am getting used to this whole being a mom thing!

If you want to see some more of the house, here's the links:

kitchen
dining
living
spares
masters
nursery

I hope to get a few more room updates up this month, we have been busy!