Tuesday, July 16, 2013

TJ!

Please excuse my lack of updates over the past two months.... little (well...not so little) TJ made his arrival 8 weeks ago!  I cannot believe how fast the time has gone (even though I swear at 2 weeks I thought he'd be that little forever).  At his one month check up he was 95% for weight and off the charts for height!  His outfit for 4th of July was 9-12 months...yikes!

He's super laid back and loves to be cuddled.  I anxiously await his little smiles and coos each morning! 


At the 6 week mark is when I believe it gets easier with a newborn.  More sleep, recovery is over, etc....  and that's why I'm able to blog tonight....because I got some (not a lot) sleep!!!

I love my little family so much and feel incredibly blessed each day to be able to be Charlotte and TJ's mommy (and Eric's wife).  Life is good.  Tiring but so so good :)

Here are some pics of a typical day-in-the-life.....
My cute old man, fussin'

sibling love, sleeping

swinging

cleaning
hanging with big kids

That's about it :)
Courtney

Monday, May 20, 2013

Closets

Closets....It didn't seem that big of a project at the beginning.  But taking off wallpaper, filling holes for the old closest systems, painting and installing new closest systems take a LONG time!

This is what we were working with..... (I'm sure this was in style at one time, right?)




Imagine the pictures above times FIVE.  With five closets to re-do, you can imagine the mess our upstairs has been.  As a pregnant (and nesting) mom, I desire everything to be clean and organized before the arrival of Baby Anderson.

Thankfully, my husband and dad worked hard to get our house prepared. This weekend Eric totally completed the closets and even organized them for me :) :)

We opted for the cheap and simple white wire racks for the closets, rather than splurge for an actual organizational system.  I figure we'd rather spend our house budget on other things.  I'm so happy that now I can actually hang my clothes up!



#gettingthingsdone

Courtney

40 Weeks!

Hey there, I finally did it.  I changed my blog name to something better than courtney-theandersons :)  The new name isn't that creative, but at least can capture what I want my blog to be about- 

Adventures on Courtland!

House progress is still being made, so I'll hopefully have fun posts in the weeks to come.  HOWEVER, with baby #2 due any day, my posts may #1- be lacking, and #2- be pictures of the baby.

Here is a pic of my a few days before my due date.  SO excited to meet Little Anderson and to also not be pregnant in this hot weather :)


Happy Monday!
Courtney

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Master Bathroom

Hey there,

We've had our master bathroom done for a few months now, but up in some final touches this weekend.  It was a great reminder to take some pictures and post them to continue documenting our home-reno journey.  

We've obviously slowed down with home projects with Charlotte around and the soon-expected arrival of Baby Anderson #2.  Nevertheless, we are still loving working on the house and have busy this weekend with some final touches.

We're trying to get a lot of small things done around the house before the baby comes, plus we are going to refinance our mortgage with the interest rates continuing to decline.

Here are some pics of the master bathroom.  Art work is still on the list of things to purchase, but you can see where the room stands today...

But first, here are a few before pictures of our asian-themed master bath (with carpet):

It may be hard to notice, but the old shower was smaller than a dorm room shower.  


 Here are some AFTER pictures after we ripped out the dry wall and started from scratch:



RH mirror and sconces...all from the outlet in WI.


Vanity and marble piece that we later added drawer pulls to.  We had both pieces custom made for our space, which saved us half the cost.

Restoration Hardware faucet that I bought on ebay.


Added this little shelf today :)


More than doubled the size of the shower...
We recently bought bath mats, towels, and a little storage area for the towels, but I haven't gotten to setting them up.  Once everything is finished, I'll post pics again :)

Have a great day!

The Anderson Family

Monday, April 15, 2013

Craigslist again....

So I have a thing for milk glass (who doesn't, right...it's so pretty)!  I first got introduced when I found a set of 16 cups and plates online to buy.  I used them for tons of events/parties, but didn't have enough.

Ever since, I've been accumulating so that if I had a large party or shower, I would have sets for everyone.  Just this weekend I picked up 22 more sets for $30 from a woman on Craigslist :)  I guess back in the day, you could collect coupons from your grocery purchases and these milk glass plates was one of the prizes you could select.

Recently we've had lots of showers between friend and family weddings/baby showers, so I've been able to use them frequently.  SO, if you ever need some cute tea plates, feel free to borrow mine :)


Another exciting find on Craigslist was a set of 5 place setting, and 4 serving dishes of our Vera Wang china we registered for when we got married.  I was excited b/c the seller was asking about 75% off of the retail value!

Craigslist is like a huge estate sale running 24/7.....


On another note, Baby Anderson #2 is due to arrive in a month.  We are getting anxious to meet the little one and introduce him or her to little Charlotte and the rest of the family.

Pictures and updates to come :)

Courtney

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Thriftin'

This weekend we're back in Bloomington to rent a U-haul and take some older (but awesome) furniture back home, since my parents are updating their living room! We're excited for the new furniture they graciously gave us, and also be able to relax, see my family and explore my hometown.

Charlotte helping Daddy pack to go
Saturday morning was an unexpected little treasure, as Eric and I were able to go to an awesome estate sale,   a farmer's market in the history museum downtown Bloomington, out for coffee and cupcakes, and to a few thrift stores.  Grandparents are the best to have around :)

Check out a few things we scored along the way!  

We got two of these end tables...
and a matching coffee table...
Here is the inside of the chest.  It can hold wine with this lattice, or store blankets and pillows.
               
We went to Neighbor Hood Thrift Store, downtown Bloomington, if anyone is interested where we found these pieces.  They were super helpful and we were able to negotiate the price down quite a bit.

I'm thinking of putting the coffee table in front of a couch in the family room, and splitting up the end tables to go in a bedroom at the foot of a bed OR using them as nightstands.

Maybe I'll fill them with treasures for our kids throughout the years and gift them to them when they move out....

Also, at the estate sale in my parent's neighborhood we found 20 glass plates with matching cup saucers.  I have a few of these in milk glass, but for $14, I couldn't pass up adding to my collection!  If anyone wants to use them for a party or shower, just ask!




Oh, and at $4 each, these were too pretty to pass up!


Oh, the things we got done this Saturday morning!  What a fun start to our long weekend.

Courtney

Stairs

After the foyer was installed, we got a new staircase put in!  I don't have a picture of the total finished product with the spindles and everything installed, but you get the picture of what it will look like.

Currently it's still plain raw wood, and we're waiting to sand and stain the floors throughout the entire house so we can match the new color with the new steps :)