Fancy Fridge

Before

Our trusty "apartment" refrigerator has been serving us well for many years.  It's not much to look at, and it may have been dropped on some stairs at one point, but it's gotten the job done.  Chrissy has been asking for something bigger, and nicer, for some time, but I could never justify replacing a functional refrigerator.  Then we got our last electricity bill, and I had my justification.  You see, the door has been reluctant to seal recently, at least without a hip-check, and it appears it was left open for an extended period, raising our electricity bill significantly last month.  Black Friday helped too.
Anyway, we bought a new counter-depth fridge, which is a great concept because it doesn't stick way out into the kitchen, and the shelves aren't so deep that things get lost back there.  Even the plug is low profile, allowing it to snug up to the wall.  At least it would snug up if our water valve wasn't sticking straight out of the wall.

I had to do something about this.  My plan was to remove the elbow that was thrusting it outward and install a receptacle.

Oddly, you can't buy just the plastic box, so I ended up returning the new valve because it seemed like a waste of money, so ours wasn't going to look so fancy.

I started by opening things up to see what was going on in the wall.

Then came the blowtorch.  It was frustrating because this valve is apparently the lowest point in our home's plumbing, so it dribbled water for a very long time before I could work on it.  Eventually I was able to remove the offending elbow.

After cleaning up the old parts, I soldered them in their new orientation.  This was my first time soldering on plumbing, and it went pretty darn well, if I do say so myself.

Here's what the valve looked like after soldering.

All connections made.

And here's the finished product.

After

If you're curious we bought a Whirlpool from this site.  It is basically the cheapest counter depth fridge you can get, and we got it on sale.  It's other big selling point for me is the separate ice and water triggers.  Oddly, the website listed it as Energy Star qualified, but it actually is not, so I demanded compensation and was refunded $50.  I'll take what I can get.

34 Weeks and Change...

34 Weeks and feeling it. I am definitely feeling very tired before I finish my work day and moving quite a bit slower. I see why women take maternity leave early and the next 9 days can't go fast enough! I am ready to not be on a set schedule that involves anything other than napping.

Speaking of that, I am still loving being pregnant even though I waddle like crazy and it is getting hard to breath because a baby is crushing my insides. I already know I am going to miss this time so much. The sweet tenderness with my husband just admiring my bump as our daughter dances around. Enjoying her kicks and grinning from ear to ear because I get to feel them all. Discussing random baby stuff/gear we have never heard of and Googling endlessly to find the safest/cheapest/best stuff. And bonding over our shared confusion in regards to baby stuff in general. I know I will miss being pregnant but I already think Hope is the coolest ever, I can't wait to meet her and Andy feels the same. We want to hold this baby in our arms, which means I need to push her out! Thankfully we just finished our Lamaze classes and we are feeling more prepared than ever. We can no longer say "I don't know nothin' about birthin' no babies!" I'm very glad we decided to take them and I think they will help us quite a bit. Andy is a dream coach and I can't wait to see him in action on the big day.

Seriously popped now! And in my new glasses. :)

I get lots of questions, but the most frequent question I get is about my belly button. I'm serious. I was VERY curious as to how the belly button situation would play out but I had no idea how curious other people would be! I have indeed lifted my shirt to show my bump button on multiple occasions. No shame in my game people. It is just gone, it looks like a circular scar in the middle of my bump. Sometimes it sticks out just ever so slightly like a cartoon character's nose.

The middle of her face is my belly button.

I have tons of fun talking to strangers and loved ones about the baby, they get so excited. It is really nice to see some connection and camaraderie in the world. How often do you connect with a stranger? Share a polite smile and some friendly conversation? I welcome this behavior. I had a stranger recently sit down next to me and rub my belly like we had known each other for decades while she reminisced about her own daughter and granddaughter. The friend I was with was horrified but I explained to her how sweet I thought it all was. Here was this woman enjoying this beautiful time in my life and sharing with me her experience and it was fun to connect. There was a glow about her as she recalled those days and it was beautiful. I am grateful for these people, all these wonderful people of the world reveling in my pregnant belly and happiness. I want to share it with them and I want them to share with me, especially because there is always some jackass that wants to tell me how horrible labor is or how fat I am. Luckily I have had WAY more of the good wonderful people of the world cross my path than those negative Nancys. I welcome the good and the sweet and the love. In fact, at that same event, one woman asked what we were naming the baby and we told her Hope Olivia. She almost got misty eyed and said that it was beautiful and it gave her some hope in such a dark world. That is exactly what I want for my daughter and from her. I want her to come into this world seeing the beauty and love it has to offer and bring hope and light to everyone she encounters. There just isn't a reason to be negative. Ever. Period. Change your attitude and change the world. A little bit of kindness goes such a long way.

Speaking of kindness, some unbelievably AWESOME women got together and threw me one heck of a baby shower. Kareena, Teresa, Stephanie, my Mom, and my Mother-in-Law teamed up and planned, organized, and threw the best shower ever. It was full of love and delicious food and so many of my favorite women. I can't express my gratitude to these women and my party guests enough. Everyone was above and beyond generous and I had a blast. I only wish it could have lasted longer! Like a week or two. :) I also have a special thank you to my husband for cooking up the pulled pork and dedicating his time to a Pekema Project while the shower went on. He stayed home and worked on the project so we could open gifts together at the end of the shower just like I wanted. What a Prince Charming! You can read all about his day here.

This photo captures how I felt the whole day.

Party Planners Extraordinaire!

This guy. Perfection.

In a week or two I will be considered full term and in less than 10 days I go on maternity leave! I can't even wrap my brain around how quickly this all went, I have to get my butt into that nursery and organize!

Office Organization

The closet in our office has become a catchall and was full of a lot of piles, as you can see above.  Our spiffy new master closet inspired us to get it organized.

The first step was taking some measurements and heading to Ikea for container madness.

I separated my trusty "electronics box" into several categorized containers.  They are Audio/Visual, Networking, USB, Power, and Oversize.  The old box was what my old laptop shipped in back in 2005.

Here's what the closet looks like now.  You might recognize the blue rack on top because it came out of our master closet.  These photos remind me--if you need a 17" Dell monitor, let me know.  We have two sitting around.

My desk was in similar disarray, particularly the bottom shelf.  Most of the stuff up top is "work-in-progress."  Most of the stuff below is "gathering dust."

Before

A few Ikea containers and my new printer fit perfectly, hide the junk, and keep it mostly dust-free.

After

Closet Construction

Before

If you guessed the plywood from my previous post was going to become a glorious closet organization system, give yourself a gold star.  Thanksgiving weekend presented a perfect opportunity to renovate our closet--four full working days and plenty of unwitting helpers.
The basic layout of most closets is flawed, and this one was particularly bad.  The single rod and shelf layout creates dead space above the shelf and below the clothes.  We tried to utilize these spaces with flimsy little shoe racks, but it wasn't cutting it.  The corners also create a lot of dead space in the hanging area in U shaped closets like this one.
Our closet was particularly annoying because the rod was mounted further from the wall than necessary and the one shelf was absurdly deep.  All of which resulted in the closet feeling very cramped when it is actually a pretty big space.

My first step was excessive planning.  I figured there were going to be lots of people helping, so a clear plan would be beneficial.  The main goals were to make a dresser fit and increase usable space.  To do that, the top shelf was moved upward along with much of the hanging rod.  We converted to two rows of rods in a couple places and added floor to ceiling shelves in the corners.
Here's my schematics.  PowerPoint engineering at its finest.

The first step in the actual work was clearing out all our stuff.  It's amazing how much we were able to cram in there, not to mention how many generations of dust bunnies were hiding.

Next came the best part, demolition.  Check out that PPE (personal protective equipment).

Our closet was particularly poorly designed, which allowed the rod and shelves to punch several holes in the drywall.

After my dad patched the holes and I did the world's worst texturing job, it was time for some primer.

After primer came two coats of our signature color, bitch-ass beige.  Look how big that closet is; we considered turning it into a fifth bedroom, but didn't want to deal with adding a window.  The dimensions are about 92" x 79".

This is after one coat.

Meanwhile, in the garage we were preparing the shelving.  I started by filleting one corner of each shelf.  A five-gallon bucket provided the radius.

Once all the shelves were cut, I clamped them in the Workmate and smoothed them off with the belt sander.

I also knocked down the opposite corners so it would fit in the corner more easily.

After sanding, primer and paint were next.  This was a common, and annoying, theme.

Once the shelves were ready we started working on the 1 x 4 supports for the shelves.

After cutting and sanding, it was time for more primer and paint.

After a lot of work, it was finally time to start driving some screws.  We started by marking every stud and snapping a chalk line along each one.  This was incredibly helpful throughout the project.

Here's a custom touch that was fun.  To prevent one of the rods from punching though the wall again, I added a flush metal plate to the back of one of the mounting boards.

Here's what it looked like with all the shelf supports in, along with some of the rods.

Installing some of the shelves was a little tricky, but we got them.

Here's the final product.  Everything is very sturdy.

Chrissy was very excited to restock.

This is what it looks like with everything back in place.  It is a little hard to tell, but there is lots of room to spare now, even with the addition of a dresser to the space.

After

Here you can see our new stacking "hampers" and the steaming station.

Here's all the flimsy storage we pulled out of the closet, stacked where the dresser used to sit.

After clearing that junk out, we moved our La-Z-Boy into that corner.  We think it could come in very handy for midnight baby feedings.  We might get something a little more stylish to go there in the future.

This was a very satisfying project, and I'm pretty sure it increased the value of our home by a fair amount.  Speaking of money, the prices I saw for "custom" closet systems online were $2,000-3,000.  The total cost for what we did was about $65.  No I didn't forget a zero, it cost $65.  We spent $30 on plywood, $15 for a new length of vinyl coated rod, and $20 for some hardware.  We happened to have all the paint and most of the hardware needed, but that's not a big expense.  We also had on hand all the lumber used as supports.  It was actually salvaged 1 x 12 that my coworker ripped out of his closet.  The $65 obviously doesn't include the dresser, but I think it is still a pretty good value.

Finally, I need to thank everyone who helped with this project.  I couldn't have done it alone.

Here's one final before and after:

Before

After