McBerkoBlog

We figure we'll be busy enough for a while with our new project, our best yet! Ruth Ann McBerkowitz was born 9/4/09 at 9:12 a.m., 6 lbs 12 oz.

The nursery has come a long way , but it's finally ready for a baby. There are a few minor things left to do (let me know if you see a small white wood table lamp base anywhere), but it's close enough to done that we'd be good to go if the baby decides to show up early. Color in first pic looks slightly closer to real color than the other two, on my monitor anyway.

Some furniture just doesn't work in the new old house, so we've craiglisted some items. Our fabulous previous bedroom set, Bill-made, just sold to an NC State student whom I'd like to think will take great care of it and keep it forever and ever. He didn't have room for the matching armoire, however. We have that plus our former dining room shelving unit on craigslist. If anyone's interested in these, let us know!

Still needs a stone top, but the rest of this cabinet is done. Love it!

Bill rocks. I last posted about our closet in May ( here ), before we diverted all attention to getting walls and ceilings up in the other areas. Now that those are ready for decorating, Bill's back to the closet to turn it from a room into a functional closet. Immediately inside the door, there are shoe shelves along the bottom and larger shelves along the top. The very top shelf goes all around the room, with tons more shelves on the back wall and a place for laundry baskets underneath. On the long wall, the first hanging area will have double rods, the one towards the back just a single rod. Can't wait until Bill gets this all painted and finished off (no more painting for me!) and we can move all our clothes in. Our bed and dresser will be delivered tomorrow and Saturday, so once this closet is done, our bedroom will be fully livable.

Another room complete! This bathroom was not in good shape (love the vinyl parquet floors!), and we didn't think the hose attached to the faucet was a good shower. :) Amazingly, the original clawfoot tub cleaned up (it's practically Dad and Eric kitchen clean), but everything else is new. New and not yucky.

Crossing one more room off the list! Well... OK, not quite done like a Scrum "done done", but all the construction, trim, painting, etc. is done. Now for the fun stuff, getting all the furniture and decorations in place. I almost forgot how ugly this room was at the beginning, and this was one of the nicer rooms! Two doorways (why?), no doors, trim partially painted, and the infamous mirrors hung in a row high on one wall.

Save for a weekend in Asheville celebrating our 10th anniversary, work continues slowly but steadily. Bill built a cabinet for the upstairs hall bath, which should be finished today. We put up towel bars, picture frames, etc., so only need the shower curtain (on order) to be 100% FINISHED with that room. Bill also made a built-in cabinet for the end of the upstairs hall. Pic below shows me priming the basic structure yesterday (side note: no hassling me about not being on a ladder at 8 mos pregnant, I am fine!). Those top three shelves will have glass doors, and lights over each shelf. Bottom area will have solid wood doors. For the open counter area in between, we're hoping to find some remnant granite or other stone. I can't wait to see it finished - only a few months ago, this area looked like this . Speaking of... break time's over; time to go paint the first coat of white on that cabinet and surrounding trim...

The original clawfoot tub now has a new faucet and a shower!, which gives us a full working bath upstairs. We first thought the tub would require professional reglazing, but it turns out that some sanding/painting on the outside and a serious cleaning on the inside was all it needed. Shower conversion kit arrived last week and Bill set about the super-fun task of removing all the old parts and hooking everything up. Boy, does he love plumbing! Old faucet and previous "shower", a short length of garden hose with a plastic sprayer on the end: New faucet (which is so bright and shiny, pic doesn't do it justice, love it): Ready for shower curtains and final touches: It did take 5 trips to Lowes and 3 trips to Home Depot IN TWO DAYS (damn those old, non-standard plumbing sizes), but it works! In other news, I think the second color on the hallway is going to work (first one = too beige), so Bill will start on trim this week. Full final before and after pics are here .

Do you know what this picture means?: That's right - there is now A/C (and heat) in our second floor! HVAC guys were here Wed-Fri installing a heat pump/A/C unit in the attic. We were really pleased with them, less so with the (expensive) electrician who had to hook everything up. Bonus: upgrading from the standard unit to the energy efficient one cost $1,200 extra but qualifies for a $1,500 tax credit . Thanks for paying part of the A/C, government!