Home Improvement

The past two months have brought several changes around our house. Some have been long-awaited genuine home improvements. Others have been less asthetically appealing baby-proofing measures.

We bought my maternal grandparents' 1966 brick ranch from their estate in 2006. If you knew my Maw-Maw, you know that the house had had the best of care since it was built. But it still needed some updating to merge our style with a house full of memories. Most of the major renovations - totally redone kitchen, extensive painting, and a brand new bathroom - were done before Abby was on the way. But a few pesky projects lingered, waiting on the time, energy, and financing to come to fruition.

The peskiest project of all was the removal of several wall heaters. These were inoperable, having been replaced by central heat and air in the 80s. My Maw-Maw disguised them with cleverly placed furniture. Pre-Abby, I had partially disguised them with houseplants. But once Abby became mobile, they were on full display, marring snaphots and generally looking ugly.


I have to brag on Jonathan's handiness. This is our third home and our third (and by far most extensive) remodeling project. Over the years, he has really picked up some handy skills. After watching our contractor remove the wall heater during the bathroom renovation, he tried his hand at removing the wall heater in the room that is now Abby's nursery. With these lessons under his belt, he used some of his off-time in early September to tackle the two living room wall heaters. I was reluctant because of the dust issue, but his newest method was much less dusty than before. The result is a beautiful, ordinary section of wall with no heater in sight. Yay!!!



Later in September, we were able to get brand new black shingles to replace the old roof which was reddish brown and double layered with shingles from the '60s and the '80s. Huge improvement! And with the current state of the real estate market, we'll probably be under this attractive and durable roof for a while! But that's okay. It's really neat to be raising my daughter where my mom was raised.

We've covered the real improvements, so on to the baby-proofing. Well, there are the obligatory cabinet locks under the kitchen and bathroom sinks. Those aren't particularly picture worthy. Sadly, we felt that we had to banish our beloved coffee table to basement in order to protect Abby from hurting her head or mouth. We have some soft cushiony corners but I wasn't willing to risk the adhesive on one of my favorite pieces of furniture.

The living room looked oddly barren without the coffee table, so I brought in a giant empty cardboard box for Abby to play with. While fairly unsightly, the box provided some good entertainment for the whole family. At first, Abby would only crawl in it if coaxed by one of us. At one point, we were all three in there - I wish I had a picture of that. Her favorite use of the box was a variation on peekabo where she peered out the small opening at one end and sometimes stuck her hand out.


We also set up a tunnel that Abby would crawl through on occasion. Eventually, the box got pretty ratty looking and we got rid of it. But it was fun. And since we bought two convertible car seats, I still have one giant box in reserve for a rainy day.


Abby's nursery has lost some of its newborn charm. It's still a fun place to read, play, or rock but it's all about function over form these days. First, the bumper had to go for safety. Then the mattress had to be moved so low that the bedskirt is crumpled on the floor. Then our teething child began gnawing on the crib rails like a beaver. She did some real damage during the time I spent searching for and pricing products that might help. Thanks to a suggestion from Nene, we ended up with a low-budget solution that works great but looks odd. The bumper and some blankets are secured all around the crib rails to thwart any chewing. Here's a post-nap Abby looking a little puffy and dazed but with her mouth free of varnish chips thanks to our ramshackle invention.


There's one more project on my to-do (or shall we say nag-to-get-done) list. There is an ugly television cable entering our living room through the top of the door frame. It too has a way of sneaking into snapshots like the one below. Yikes! The cable company looked at it once and said that short of drilling a hole in the drop ceiling in the basement, there's nothing they can do. Really? I can't believe that if I called them for new installation they would do this. I can't even belive they did it that way back in the late 80s when cable arrived in our area.


Jonathan says I need to get Dishnetwork to solve my problem. But right now, I'm just complaining. But if one hideously ugly cable is my only complaint, I guess I'm doing pretty well. Besides, every once in a while, Abby slinks behind her activity center and has a great time whipping the wall with the cable until I can get her out.