hondas, hallways, and hardware

as we near the end of summer (and the end of my second trimester -- WHAT??  how is that possible?), i thought i'd share an update of things we've been up to.

in mid-august, my dear husband totaled my little red Civic -- my first major purchase as a college graduate.  steve had been driving on wet roads and slid right into a telephone pole.  :-(  praise, praise, praise the Lord that he didn't have any major injuries!  it was a rough couple of weeks, trying to figure out what we were going to do and how we could possibly afford a new/used vehicle at this point in our lives when money was already pretty tight.  my car had been paid off for several years, and i was REALLY enjoying not having a car payment!  but alas, God had other plans for us.  better plans, in fact.  because the Civic was totaled, the door was opened for us to purchase a car that was a better fit for our growing family.  so i've graduated from a 2-door Civic to a 4-door Accord.  (staying within the Honda family, of course!)  and i've gotta say, i couldn't be happier.  God provided us with a reliable car, affordable payments, a huge trunk, and a spacious backseat... perfect for a baby's car seat and other baby-related paraphernalia.  what a blessing!

good-bye, sheila!  hello, lovely car yet-to-be-named!

we've been keeping busy with our Pre-Baby To-Do List also!  one of the items that i've been meaning to tackle is painting our main hallway.  the doors really needed to be sanded and repainted (the previous owner did a very sloppy job!) and i wanted a bit of color on the walls.  this project turned out to be much more of a hassle than i had anticipated (cue major hormonal pregnancy meltdown!), but i'm happy with the results.  it looks so much fresher!

the before picture really doesn't do any justice to how horrible it looked.  the paint on those doors was thrown on SO haphazardly!  it was drippy, streaky, and downright ugly.  the newly-painted, crisp white doors and blue-gray walls make me so happy!  :-)  (FYI: still need to replace the light fixture... just haven't found the right one yet!)

i also replaced all of the door hardware -- hinges and doorknobs!  we happily disposed of the rusty, brassy, hideous hardware that came with the house and replaced them with these sparkling beauties!  (it is, perhaps, a little unhealthy how ecstatic i am about this part of the project.  it really was the icing on the cake!)

so what's next on our list?  well, the windows will be installed sometime in late september / early october.  (but that won't be a major issue for us since the window company is installing them.)  as steve continues to toil away on the second floor drywalling, i have decided it's high time to dive into the nursery!  oh, and we really need to register soon too.  so yeah, those are the immediate projects.  i'm actually feeling pretty good about the status of things at the house.  there have been some other emotional / mental hurdles that i've been dealing with, but i'll save that for another day...  right now, i'm just going to look at my shiny doorknobs and SMILE.  :-)