Raising the Roof...well, the Ceiling

We took Labor Day weekend literally and worked our tails off all weekend long! I'm really excited to share this update though. The work we did was well worth it once we could sit back and take in the finished product.

Our focus was on Nolan's room, and specifically on his ceiling. You'll remember from my last post that we had planned to expose the shiplap on his ceiling, but once we tore down the sheetrock, there was too much coal dust for us to leave that wood exposed. So we moved to Plan B, which consisted of sealing the ceiling using some insulation, then adding our own shiplap on top.

This has been our view for the past few weeks - the insulation that we placed to seal the ceiling.

As I mentioned in my last post, we found some old wood at our local lumberyard, and David stained the large planks. He then ripped them on the table saw to get them as close to the width of the shiplap we have throughout the house while minimizing waste of the boards. Once he had ripped them down, he used a dado blade on his table saw to cut the 1/4-inch lap so that the boards would fit snuggly together. (We decided to cut lap instead of tongue and groove to help make the install much easier - and I'm glad we did!) We then stained the lap on either side of the board so you wouldn't see raw wood once the boards were on the ceiling.

We attached the boards using a pneumatic nailer. We figured out a pretty good system for getting them up there, which involved the use of two ladders and some scaffolding that David would walk across to get from one side of the room to the other so he could nail the boards in place.

We started the install on Friday night and were very excited at how easily the boards went up!

I can't believe how easy it was to install the boards. Install took us probably 6 hours total. We had no idea going into it how hard it would be. Probably the hardest part was getting all the boards from the garage up to Nolan's room!

David nailing the final piece in place.

We only had to make a couple of cuts: one for the center of the room where the wiring is for the light; and the other to rip the last board so it would fit.

Once we took a quick break from the install, we started working on the crown molding. If only it had been as easy to hang...

This is a 100+ year old house. It's not square (even if it was a year old it probably wouldn't be square!). So we knew installing crown wasn't going to be easy. But we did it, and with a little caulk here and there, it looks amazing!

The finished product, with crown installed.

I didn't let David rest much after installing the crown. We installed a ceiling fan, hung the curtains (beautifully made by David's mom), and moved a couple pieces of furniture into the room. It is starting to feel like a little boy's room, and is making us more and more ready to have Baby Nolan here!

I need to steam the curtains now that they're hung and do a million other things, but here's a little sneak peek of Nolan's nursery decor.

More photos to come once we finish his room, but for now you can find me rocking in his chair, enjoying his room and being so grateful that the ceiling and crown install is complete!

Starting on the Nursery

We have three bedrooms upstairs, and one of them has been used as the guest room thus far. Now we are transforming it into Nolan's nursery.

We had two major projects in the room: exposing the shiplap ceiling and closing in the door that exists between the room and the sleeping porch.

Exposing the Shiplap Ceiling

From our experience with the ceiling in the sleeping porch/playroom, we knew that exposing the shiplap in Nolan's room could prove to be a big undertaking. But never ones to shy away from extra work (ugh), we thought we'd give it a shot anyway. Our biggest concern, again from our previous ceiling experience, was the potential for coal dust to seep through the shiplap. That concern was very valid, as evidenced by my soot-covered husband and dad as they worked to tear down the sheetrock. The sheetrock came down easily, as did the cheesecloth and wallpaper that was over the shiplap. As did the coal dust.

A little bit of cheesecloth, a little bit of paper, a little bit of sheetrock, a lot of coal dust

This was a very messy job!

We immediately knew we would need to cover that ceiling and install our own shiplap. We installed a foil insulation to provide a barrier between the attic and the room, and to seal the coal dust so it wouldn't filter through the new boards.

We knew we wanted to stain some wood to match the shiplap throughout the house, so headed to our local lumberyard. We had no idea that they had some old wood on hand, but when we found these old floorboards, we knew we had just what we needed!

The planks on the left are the raw wood we got from our local lumberyard.

David has stained and polyurethaned the boards. We're letting them air out in the garage, and plan to rip the planks down into three boards, mill a lap onto either side of the board, then install on Nolan's ceiling this weekend!

Removing the Door

There was a door that connected Nolan's room to the sleeping porch/playroom that we just didn't need. The hall right outside our bedrooms leads straight to that room. We've never used it; in fact, the guest bed and nightstand sat directly in front of it. So we closed it in. David removed the door and frame, attached new studs, and sheetrocked over the space, then mudded and sanded and mudded and sanded and mudded and sanded. As for the playroom, right now it's just open studs where the door used to be. When we tackle that room, we will add shiplap there to match the rest of that room. That's another project for another day!

Nolan's nursery as our guest bedroom, with the door to the sleeping porch on the left.

Studs in place and ready for the sheetrock

The doorway patched up and ready to paint

Painting
Nothing makes a room feel better than a fresh coat of paint. It's an instant facelift and room brightener. I've mentioned before that Bri Moysa with Emerson Grey Designs designed Sagan's nursery, then several spaces in our old house, and now several in our new (old) house. I struggle to make decisions on decor without her help! So as soon as we knew that baby #2 was a boy, we requested Bri's help with designing Nolan's nursery. More details on that to come, but for his walls she chose Benjamin Moore's Seattle Mist. It's the perfect neutral for his room, and makes it feel so much lighter and airier.

I've sung its praises before, but Sherwin William's Pro Classic trim paint is amazing. Painting the trim is the first thing we do in a room, and it's amazing what an instant and dramatic impact it has. When I know we will be priming and painting the walls, I paint the trim and even up onto the wall to make sure any stray wall color is completely hidden.

I love the bright white (left) we have chosen for the trim throughout the house

The lighting in this picture is terrible (while the ceiling is down, we are using a couple of shadeless lamps to light the room) but the paint in Nolan's room is finished!

We have a few more projects to tackle in Nolan's room, then we can finally start placing furniture and art. This mama is ready to start nesting in there. We can't wait to see the room start to come together!

A Different Kind of Construction Project

I promise to get back to posts about the house, but some things can't go unsaid!

Last summer, David and I decided we wanted to try to have a second child. Having kids doesn't come easy for us - we've battled infertility for several years, and Sagan is our miracle baby: the result of our first cycle of IVF. When we had her, many people said "oh the next one will be a surprise and just happen naturally!" Nope - that's not really how it works.

So, we reached out to Nashville Fertility Center, which is where Sagan was conceived, to start a new IVF cycle. I started my protocol in the fall, and on Thanksgiving Day, we had our egg retrieval. We had gotten results from some blood work the day before that showed my body wasn't ready for an embryo transfer. We were scared this meant we wouldn't have any embryos to transfer, but fortunately, that wasn't the case!

Because of NFC's lab or surgery center shutdown over the holidays, we had to wait to transfer an embryo until February. So on February 12th, we went to Nashville and transferred one tiny embryo. Just like our transfer with Sagan, it felt all too surreal and like there was no way it could ever work.

David got to see the embryo through a microscope before it was transferred!

But, it did! I am now about 15.5 weeks pregnant with what we found out today will be our son Nolan Michael. Sagan has been adamant that baby was going to be a sister, so we were afraid she'd be slightly devastated, but she took it like a champ! We went shopping for her "little brudder" and got him some essentials per Sagan: some blue pacis, a couple of sleepers, and a choo-choo train toy.

Nolan Michael at 15w3d (head down and looking a little squished in there!)

So what does this mean? Aside from being very excited about growing our family, David and I have a lot of work to get done between now and the end of October! I hope we can finish the living room fairly soon, then we will figure out what else needs to be completed before Baby Boy arrives!