Phase 1 - Reno pics

I have hesitated putting these pics up because even though we have accomplished so much on these Reno's so far... there is so much more to do! And I felt like there would be more "wow" factor if I waited till all the finishing pieces were done. Well I'm not sure when all of that will be accomplished, basically when we have the time and money... for sure in the next 6 months. And we've (mostly Jordan ) has been working so hard and all the BIG things are done, so I decided to share some pics.
So keep in mind over the next 6 months paint, light fixtures, back splash in kitchen, window coverings in living room and kitchen, WALL PAPER (can't wait for that), baseboards, and new doors. PHEW! Nothing right?! Probably accomplish that in one day... yea... no! So that is why I'm sharing now. Enjoy!

Bathroom before

Bathroom after, didn't do much. Just painted with leftover paint from the basement suite and new mirrors. We'll gut it in a couple years.
Living Room before - hate this wallpaper SO MUCH!

Living Room Before and Front Entrance

Living Room after - just new arrangement and carpet

Living Room / Front Entrance after

Living Room After (Kona sun tanning)

Dinning Room before

Kitchen / Dinning Room after

Kitchen before

Kitchen after

Kitchen before, soooo retro!

Kitchen after

Yay! Looking good, and sooo much more functional!

Reading and decision to make...

I was a huge reader when I was young, all the babysitter club books, Nancy Drew, some of the scary Goose bump stories, haha! And then in my older years I let it slip a little and would only read on vacations or when a series I just had to read came out (aka. Twilight.) Anyways, last summer after our move I started reading more, and basically haven't stopped since. So I think I've become a reader again! Basically if I stop reading a book, I need to have another! I sort of feel naked if I'm not reading a book! Jordan now says "hows your boyfriend doing" when I'm reading my book, haha! I laugh and tell him reading is a good thing to do in your spare time and he should try it instead of bothering me.

SO, I was reading sort of lighter novels... if they were movies they would be chick flicks. All wonderful books some of the authors being; Nicholas Sparks or Sophie Kinsella or Emily Giffin (I've read all of hers but one, very cute author with cute stories) and some others. But I was borrowing some from my mom and decided to read some books with a bit more substance, haha! (Oh I'm also to cheap to buy books, unless I go to the second hand book stores. So I have fallen in love with our library and go on a weekly basis or borrow from my mom. And there are lots of fun things that Avery loves at the library and we do a library class every Wednesday morning.)



So I'm just about finished reading "Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls. It is such a great book, and quite funny too, but in a way that you are laughing because you cannot believe how crazy and twisted these parents perspective on life and how they take care of (or rather don't take care of) there children. They are basically a home less family going from town to town, and the children end up fending for themselves because there parents are such a disaster. Its quite amazing.



It is humbling and also makes me want to be the best mom I can be, because these amazing kids had such low life's for parents. Also wants me to teach my child(ren) how wonderful they have it and to not take anything for granted! And do you know whats so amazing, its a true story! The author Jeannette Walls is the second oldest of the Wall's children. Its quite a good read if your looking for one you should pick it up.

One another note, with everything that has happened in regards to my personal life and the miscarriage it has made me re-look at my life and what I need right now. I have decided to go back to work part time. I just updated my resume on the weekend and already had an interview and a few calls. Also my old employer Wen-Di that I was layed off from as well as all the other consultants (that happened while I was on mat leave when the economy was not doing so well in the home building area and Jayman layed all of Wen-Di off.) made me a offer to come back too. So there are some decisions to make, but I'm glad there are lots of opportunities. I also have wonderful friends in my ward that will take care of Avery while I'm at work, and Jordan around for evenings and Saturdays. Between swapping with other moms and my wonderful friend Rachel that offered to watch her on a more regular basis as I need, I feel so good about the care Avery will have as I'm away.

I feel good about my decision, and I know I could not leave Avery full time, but part time seems to be what I need right now. It will help us financially and when we do get pregnant again it will help to get maternity leave again. I also miss working with clients and using my skill and education as a decorator and socially it will be nice, and for me I feel I'm a better mom cause then I come home so excited to see Avery and spend time with her (not that I'm not now, its just strengthened when I'm away from her.)

That's whats new with me. I would have some recent pics and reno pics except... I left the camera at my moms Sunday! I hate when I do that! We are having the carpet in the living room installed this afternoon! That is the last big thing! And I can't wait, except I'm sure Avery will miss having our living room totally open with the under pad laying down. Its bright blue and very soft, so she just runs around or crawls through the tube with her hair standing straight up from static! I will post that once I get my camera back! More reno pics to come, its looking FABULOUS!

If you can survive a Reno... you can survive anything!

People have told us this statement, specifically in regards to if your marriage can survive a reno you can survive anything, haha! There are a lot of people in our ward who have renovated there house, so they are speaking from experience. Well, I've already after just a week of living in it realized this too be true! But I'm impressed with how well we are doing!

I'm sort of in a routine now of making meals on my stove top and bringing dishes downstairs to wash dishes and having our little play - TV area that me and Avery hang out in squished in our living room since the appliances take up the other half of the living room. I tell you, it will make me really appreciate a normal functioning kitchen when this is done! Hopefully by the end of this week the cabinets and appliances will be hooked up, back splash tile is in but I doubt we will have that done by the end of the week. Jordan is back at work, so now he just has evenings and Saturdays to work on things. It was sure nice when he was off and even though he was working on the house he was always around, Avery loved watching Jordan work, shes Ms. Bob the builder!

Anyways, here are some pics from the week happenings at the Heavenor home. (Special thanks for the wonderful help we've had so far. Our Stake President Pres. Card came over to check the sub floor for the tile and make sure it was okay, and he ended up lending us all his tools for tile and helping the next day from 9-2!!! Blake has been over as much as he can as well as my Dad. So thank you all!)

My living room - appliances all in there and kitchen table. I've been make food on my stove top, thank goodness its the flat top. (We will be getting new carpet in here once the kitchen is done.)

Avery enjoying lunch in our crazy house. We put tile in the front entrance behind very there - whoever thought carpet was a good idea in front entrances should be locked up!

Removing the cupboards and bringing downstairs for the suite - I will not miss those pink metal cupboards. You should see the things they found that fell behind the cupboards over the years... I won't even gross you out, lets just say food from 15-20 years ago...

Jordan putting down the sub floor for tile.

Avery loved when the sub floor was done, we put some music on and her dancing shoes and she was in heaven!

She also loved watching Jordan work

Blake helping Jordan lay tile.

Avery and Jordan cleaning up the spacers and floor for grout the next day

Grouting... messy job and lots of work!

Avery enjoying the beautiful tile floors! We were very happy with how it turned out!

I'll keep you posted, there will be lots of progress over the next month, and then finishing pieces over the next 6 months. And if you know anyone wanting to live close to downtown in a 2 bedroom basement suite (clean and well layed out, lot of space... but a bit dated) then let me know! It will be ready Feb. 1.

A New Start...

Well, I have not blogged for a LONG time! I was being a good blogger, and then had some speed bumps in my life that made blogging and facebooking etc. not too enjoyable. That was not the only reason, life was so busy over the holidays and for us, it was not with Christmas / New Years things, but with ripping our house apart! The end result is EXCITING!!! But right now... not so much! My house is a disaster, and keeping our lives some what normal is a constant battle, but I'm surprised at how well my organized clean OCD self is coping with this! haha.

Anyways, I know many of your close friends and family are already aware of recent events that have occurred. I have already wrote about this in my personal journal, so I feel that blogging about this will bring some closure to the topic.

So backing up a little, not too many people know about this but in July I went off the pill and even though it was early, we became pregnant right away, like insanely fast! It sort of blew or minds, but we were excited! Avery and that baby would have been 18 months apart, so close but doable, and we were due March. 12 (my birthday, sort of funny.) Well I started bleeding at 6 weeks and we miscarried. It was hard, but that baby didn't quite feel real yet so it was easier to deal with. I hadn't got nausea's yet or thrown up (and with Avery that hit right away at 6 weeks) and we hadn't told anyone, not even my parents. So we waited a month or so and started trying again. That baby happened right away too, we were due May. 10 and this one felt a lot more real!

I started throwing up at 6 weeks, went on diclictin (which is how I survive pregnancies.) Weeks went by and everything seemed quite normal, my stomach started to grow (I show early), 12 weeks came and it became common knowledge. I had my doctors appointment at 13 weeks and the babies heart was healthy and good. Also I found out 2 of my best friends (Tara Fullmer and Chantal Chiu) were due May. 15, which was sooo fun!

So I went for my 18 week check up and my Dr was going to hear the heart beat like usual and... couldn't find it! It was such a horrible feeling, but in a weird sense I had a feeling! The week before I felt like my stomach growth had slowed down, I usually grow pretty good and measure bigger than I am. And all week I kept feeling like I just needed to hear the babies heart beat to feel reassured, of course I didn't say this to anyone cause no one wants to have those feelings. My Dr was so wonderful and didn't want to scare me cause sometimes it can be okay, but of course wanted to find out what was up and called around and got me into a ultra sound at 1:00. We dropped Avery off at my parents and Jordan's boss was so understanding and told him to take the whole day if he needed (his wife had had a late miscarriage earlier that year, so he know how hard it is.)

(It was a Friday and also me and Jordan's 5 year anniversary, so we were planning on going away to Kanaskis that weekend so my parent were already watching Avery that weekend.) So we went to the ultra sound. The tech was quick and efficient and told me she was just to find if there is a heart beat or not and also confirm what she see's with my doctor first. So she did her thing and excused herself from the room to call my Dr. Waiting for her to come back in seemed like an eternity, I kept saying to Jordan that I didn't have a good feeling and I was right. She came back in and told me there is no heart beat and the baby was measuring 15 weeks, so my feeling were right and it had happened a few weeks before.

It was horrible, I was just crying uncontrollable! Jordan is just the worlds best husband and knows exactly how to support and be there for me. We drove over to my doctors to discuss what our options are to remove the fetus. She was so wonderful and obviously knows how to deal with people going through this. She told us there is no harm in taking the weekend to think about it and it wont do any harm waiting a few days.

So we got to go away still, and that was exactly the medicine I needed. I couldn't be around anyone cause whenever I talked about it I would just cry, the only person I wanted to be with was Jordan and strangers who don't know whats going on. So we went away and had a fantastic weekend! After getting many tears out we tried to concentrate on the positive and not what could have been. We stayed at this beautiful hotel in Kanaskis and enjoyed our hotel and ate good food, swan, got massages, went into Banff shopping, had hot chocolate and sat in the lodge lobby by the fireplace, it was perfect!

I decided D&C would be the best option, I had no desire to see the baby or go through contractions when the result is not a healthy lovely baby. It was worth it with Avery, but not worth it for this. We came home and my family was of course wonderful and supportive. It was good therapy to get away because I didn't cry that much. And oh my goodness, I was soooo excited to see Avery! That was the longest time I had been away from her, and after losing the baby I was soooo grateful to have such a beautiful, funny, sweet girl waiting for me at home. She ran up and gave me a huge hug, and she was so clingy to me for the rest of the night, which I must say I enjoyed!

So we had the baby removed by a D&C. It wasn't the smoothest road to that point. We went to the Grey Nuns Monday supposed to have a D&C by Dr. Brown (who is who my Dr referred me too) and waited from noon on. We were bumped by a couple emergency surgeries and then he went off at 6, and told us Dr. Lee would take over for him and take care of us. Well... she didn't really. She came in a told us the fetus was too big to remove and that she would start me on the drugs to get my contractions going and it usually takes about 12 hours... no biggy hey?!?!?! Well that's how she was acting, I just started crying and then she realized that maybe I didn't want to do it that way... and it came out that she just wasn't comfortable doing that and had never done a D&C past 12 weeks, and another (nicer) doctor came in and explained that she wasn't comfortable with that but Dr. Brown obviously is because he wouldn't have scheduled it if he didn't. So we schedule it for the next day cause Dr. Brown had a cancellation.

So we went back again on Tuesday and Dr. Brown was very confident performing the procedure and it went very smoothly and we were home by 4:30. I was very happy to have that done with.
It was a very easy recovery, obviously physically it as easy. It still is hard emotionally, but I'm trying to be positive and once I'm ready hopefully we can successfully have another child.
I think it was easier to get over because we had so much amazing support! I want to thank anyone who showed me and my little family love and support over this time. My sisters brought me delicious freezer meals and Taren brought me a whole crap load of Diet Pepsi (my fav which I don't drink when I'm pregnant) and some other goodies. My wonderful friends Lisa and Rachel brought us dinner, Lisa amazing Pizza and Rachel delicious lasagna. My RS president brought my home made bread and a hug :) and other people in my ward just called or the Aulenbachs sent us one of those fruit flower arrangements. My VT Cindy Smith lent us her husband to help Jordan rip our cupboards out and starting laying the sub floor for tile, and so many kind phone calls and emails. And our wonderful friends Chantal and Jeremy brought us dinner one night and Jeremy helped Jordan paint the basement suite and came the next day and helped him finish!
It honestly made me feel like we didn't deserve so much service, like yes an awful thing happened but there are other people in the world that go through far more! I kept saying that to Jordan and he had to remind me that I'm bad sometimes at excepting service, none the less I appreciated it sooo much! It really did help me through a tough time. I love you all, and thank you!

So I've said to Jordan a few times, I'm not old and feel silly saying this, but my life has been pretty good, but this is the first time that I've said "I'm happy to get this year over with and onto the next, did not enjoy 2009." Yes parts of it were good and it wasn't all bad, BUT, to give you an idea:

- We bought a house we love, only to find out hours before possession the garage encroaches on the lot beside, so we rent this house cause we are homeless and wait 4 months for the city to approve all the paper work they need too. So we finally get to start reno's and our basement suite 4 months late thanks to the idiots we bought our house from and not getting proper paper work together before they put it up for sale.
-1st miscarriage
- My cousin Brock passes away un-expectably
- My great grandma dies, that was less sad because she was old and I don't know her that well, but sad to see my Grandma sad who I'm close with and know very well.
- Second miscarriage

I don't mean for this list to be a complainer, just explaining why I'm happy this year is done. And on to a new one. I want to get this reno good and done and my house back to normal and lose some weight (that frustrated me, have a pregnant looking belly and nothing to show for that.) Thankfully after the surgery my belly did go down pretty quick... but I tend to let go with my eating when I'm pregnant (totally shouldn't do that) so I'd like to work that weight off. And keep taking care of my sweet little girl. I truly am blessed to have such a wonderful husband and the sweetest, funniest little girl in the world! I just love the age shes at and the joy she brings me, its amazing how much love I have for her! This would have been a lot harder to go through with out her!

I promise I'll blog some more about Christmas and New Years and reno's which are going well and was a great time! My next blog will be much more happier and less sad! haha, Christmas was a good thing to cheer me up and get my mind of things. Thank you for reading and letting me vent.

This is the little face that made this a little easier to get through, I just love her! Oh, and I think she'll be a handy girl, haha, shes gets that from her dad. During these reno's she loves watching Jordan work! Oh yea, thats my kitchen ripped up in the background, lovely hey!