Hello everyone!
I feel like it's been forever since I actually sat down to write a blog post. And well it has been a hot minute for sure. A lot has been happening in our lives and it definitely took the concentration away from a blog.
So to catch up -
Since last year 2019 in July Mike and I found out that I'm P R E G N A N T! Yes pregnant - WHAT! It was definitely God's plan and that I am grateful for, because in all honestly I don't know if I would ever really "be ready" to have a baby. My due date is March 20, 2020 and yes it is only 8 weeks away. Time has literally flown by it seems. I am still letting it sink in everyday that we are bringing a tiny little Mike and Karen into this world. WOW. I remember praying about children in June of 2019 and asking God to guide us on having children or if we just keep doing our lives that way we were and well a month later - I'm preggo, so that definitely came in loud and clear that God wanted us to have a child. I'm super excited and nervous but it is an experience I am ready to run with.
At first I didn't believe it and Mike was driving to work - when he clearly heard God say "Mike this is real and Karen is pregnant". WOW - how amazing! So I took like 3 different kinds of tests - you know just to make sure haha! And every single one showed positive within like seconds.
My family is so excited - this will be the first grand baby and yeah they can't wait either. Especially my mom. My one brother is pretty much set on the little one being a boy. And well everyone else is 50/50. Mike and I are letting the gender be a surprise so we won't know what we are having until he or she makes their grand entrance into the world. I am really excited and I think it will help motivate me through my labor. Baby Yoder coming soon!!
We also did a lot more work to our home - well the outside mostly and our Master Bathroom - praise the Lord that is done except for trim. We took on a pretty large project of excavating a pond in front of our house. There was a swampy area that was always wet and we couldn't really do anything with it - so we got some quotes on options and well the two options were close to the same price. Either excavating it into yard or putting in a pond that will be fed with a natural occurring spring in the ground. So well duh - Pond please, cause I don't like a huge yard to mow! We moved forward on that project and they ended up getting in completed in time that we could put down seed and straw so there will be grass in the springtime. They also redid our driveway - so so good!! No mud!! Mike actually made a youtube video in time lapse format of the process which is really cool to watch.
Click Here to Watch the Video
BEFORE THE POND
AFTER THE POND
Our Master Bathroom was a complete remodel. We only ended up keeping the cabinet part of our vanity and repainting it. But to sum it up the bathroom had lots of yellow oak wood and gold hardware everywhere and was really outdated. Take a look at some of the before and after pictures and you'll understand what I mean. We had a concrete shower installed and y'all it is absolutely worth it!! So easy to clean and so much ROOM. Like what is all this room. I am wanting to add the finishing touches before baby comes - but we'll see how ambitious I am yet. I had a lot of suggestions to add live plants and I am really liking that feel. Thank you Pinterest for some visuals. We will be adding floating shelves above the toilet that will go the complete width of that wall. I am wanting live edge wood - to add some natural color. But we will see what we come up with. Also eventually the cabinet in the corner will be a built in custom cabinet - but holy moly it was expensive and this one was so not and it does the job until I can decide on how we want the built in to look. And the wait time on that will be like 3-4 months - so I needed something to be there until that happens. We put in all new flooring and the countertop on the vanity is also concrete with built in sinks which is amazing and no edge silicone like on other sinks. The hardware is all new and okay so trying to match all that stuff was a chore. We finally found the shower head fixture first and then I had to match with that and yeah it took some time for sure. I haven't gotten new linens yet, haha still trying to pick a color.
And trim yet. But hey it is an operating and usable bathroom and it's 95% done before baby comes and for that I am thankful.
Below are all before pictures.....
We kept the bottom of the cabinet. And just repainted it and the wall beside the cabinet to the right is gone - opening the room up so much more. And yes a new toilet was most definitely happening. Also we are planning to put in a sliding barn door - making so that there is more space.
So much yellow wood and the bottom of the Jacuzzi was nasty. So we tore that out as well and this is where the walk in shower is now.
Ick just Ick - We tore the whole shower out. And yes there was CARPETING in the bathroom - no thank you!!
And here are the AFTER pictures.....
I was super impressed with how the floors tied all the colors together with the deeper gray tones. We put all new hardware on the cabinets as well to match the fixtures. The faucets are so my favorite! And then we ended up adding the shiplap wall to add some texture to the room and when you walk in that is the first wall you see. I am so happy with how the room turned out and I can't wait to have it completely finished but for now we use it on the daily and yes my shower time has increased - well because how could it not.
If you have any questions about anything to hesitate to ask - I can also link everything if that helps for projects you are doing.
I am going to end here - we did some traveling but that is a post in itself with pictures and where all we went so I'll keep that for the next one.
Hopefully I can stay kind of regular with posts but our lives are about to change for sure with a baby so we will see. But for now - y'all are amazing and I'll chat with ya in the next one!