519 Holloway has been an exciting place to come home to over the last week and a half. The painters are incredibly close to being done and they just have to put the second coat on the back bedroom before it’s over! In the meantime I’m completely in love with it! Graduate Custom Painting always does a great job for us but they really stepped it up this time and knocked everything out in record time. They did 6 windows for us downstairs (remove, strip lead paint, patch up rotten/holey areas, reinstall, and repaint) and painted the walls, trim, mantles, and ceilings everywhere except the kitchen (when it’s time comes it’ll be a total gut job so we’re not interested in spending any money on it now).

It’s amazing what a difference a good paint job makes! They also cut the door and installed the step shown so we can go upstairs without going outside. Oh the luxury.

Everything is a mess because we piled things in the middle of a room while they painted. I’m cleaning up and throwing things out as I sort stuff back where it belongs so hopefully it will be much cleaner then before when finished.

We tried to live with what we had in the upstairs bathroom but this last week it became super evident that that wasn’t going to work. The existing tub-to-shower converter was leaking out of every orifice and as a result had about as much water pressure coming out of the shower head as a squirt gun (and not a fancy high powered one).  We still need to buy a fixture for the overflow drain, but in the meantime we have water pressure, hot and cold water, and no leaks! Hurrah for Chris!

Chris was careful to check each piece for leaks as he went. Also, we think what may have killed the previous fixture (besides it being a fairly shoddy piece of hardware) was the lack of support. It came up from the faucet and had a single chain connecting the frame to the ceiling. The new kit is connected in 2 places with pipe and Chris added a third support as well.

Oh the luxury.

So they came and took 4 of the downstairs windows today which is wildly exciting. It’s supposed to take a month and Cheeps is due in exactly 1 month so it would be really really great if they finished early. Especially if they finished early enough to also knock out the downstairs paint. We’re still so in love with the upstairs now that it’s painted and I can’t wait until the downstairs follows suit! We still need to cut a door at the bottom of the stairs so we can get around without going outside now that our bedroom is upstairs, but it’s on the very immediate to-do list!

It’s been our tradition for 4 years now to do a photoshoot every year. It started because our engagement pictures and our wedding pictures were a gimme and we’ve done them each summer since. The plan is to continue taking family pictures every summer so we can watch ourselves and our offspring grow. This year’s pictures double as a maternity shoot and we’re pretty thrilled with them.  Jessica Crawford took the pictures and while she hasn’t edited any of these yet we still love them. She’s also lined up to do Cheeper’s newborn shoot in September so stay tuned!

We’re up in Virginia celebrating our 2 year anniversary with a 4 night stay not dissimilar to our honeymoon. We spent Wednesday night in a bed and breakfast on the same street I lived on in Blacksburg, spent last night in Lexington, VA, and will head up to the Homestead tonight. So far it’s been perfectly chill and the weather has been semi-cooperative. We walked around VT yesterday and had lunch in town before heading up to Lexington via the Blue Ridge Parkway where we stopped and napped/read at an overlook. Lexington has a 4th of July/Air balloon festival which we walked to (by the way being 8 months pregnant has made 2 mile round trip walks seem like insurmountable challenges) and then came back to the B&B to watch a movie and laze. We have finally committed to never again choosing a random movie off Netflix but overall it was a really nice day.

Also, the “Durm.” shirt was my “cotton” anniversary gift from Chris. I’m planning to wear it everywhere.

The nursery begins to unfold! Annie and Matt helped us move the furniture around and list the oven and tv on Craigslist for free, I’m pretty sure they were gone in less then an hour.

Still need to assemble the crib, affix all the furniture to the wall, hang curtains, and decorate the walls.

Chris is a magnificent plumber! Sure it may take him a little longer then your average plumber, but he gets the job done! He completely redid all the plumbing leading away from this bathroom (sink, tub, and toilet). A lot of it was all cast iron pipes too. He installed a new toilet too!

The road Chris’s work is on, glad we live at the top of a hill. Also, it’s easier to defend against marauders.