Doors, Windows and More – Oh my!

Before … We had a great situation: a rotting door with wood falling from it when it was open/shut, top windows that wouldn’t open and bottom windows that could have been “popped” out by anyone who really wanted to get in to our house.  And yes, the blinds are god awful.

The work began … After researching a lot of vendors and windows, we opted for Pella Designer Series triple pane windows and door. We had to custom order everything since it was one complete unit (versus separate door and window)  and needed to ensure it fit within the aesthetics that our condo board set out (e.g., front door needed a six-grid pattern). With the little man and his friends around our house, we went with the Designer Series, which allowed the blinds to be inside the panels

The Final Product … Energy efficient, quiet, safe and so much better looking.

 

Wash, wash, washing machine wash

With a small space, the need for high-efficiency and the desire for a washer/dryer that actually worked well, we finally upgraded from a 20 year old top-loading washer/dryer to a Bosch compact front load stacked washer/dryer.  The R man (aka Rory) has a lot of laundry these days and we are oh so loving our new appliances.

 

Adventures in Homemade Baby Food

I’ve been making organic baby food for Rory since he started eating eight weeks ago.  It takes a lot of planning; otherwise, it’s been relatively easy to pull off thanks to my Beaba Babycooker and the recipes and advice on Wholesomebabyfood.com. I cut up the fruit and veggies, put them in the Beaba steamer basket, wait for items to steam and transfer everything from the basket into the food processor. I freeze leftover food in an ice cube tray (each cube equals an ounce). As you can see, I have one happy and well fed baby!

 

Old Spaces Redefined

There are numerous things on our wish list and unfortunately getting a new TV wasn’t one of them. So when my 10-year old tube TV finally died during a House Hunters International episode a few weeks ago, Marc and I were not amused by any means.  However, it gave me the chance to finally rearrange and redefine our living room as the space I’d wanted when we first moved in. First on the agenda was putting up our armoire on the free section of Craigslist – it took 10 minutes and 15 emails from interested scavangers to get rid of it.

I let Marc pick his dream TV (50-inch plasma).  The rest was up to me. The leather chairs were finds on Craigslist. I was finally able to arrange them in a way that was conducive for conversation. We went low-key with a media cabinet from Ikea. It’s made our living space so much more accessible and fun to have family and friends over.

 

It’s that time of the year again

I’ve never been a big fan of bugs. And now a days, I particularly don’t want to see anything around Rory.  Discovering a spider bite on his chubby legs a few days ago killed me (that was one first I could have done without).

Between the heat and rain this summer, the South Loop has been inundated with a variety of critters. We leave the door open for a few seconds and a million bugs fly in. It’s been tough to find a solution since there are tons of harsh chemicals in sprays that I don’t want to expose Rory to. Marc found an amazing homemade solution on the Gal’s Guide – Life in the Big City After College to attract and kill some of our pests particularly gnats, flies and mosquitoes.

Here’s what you need:

• 3 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar
• 3 Tablespoons sugar
• 3 drops dish soap
• 2 cups water

Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl and leave out in problem area. As you can see from the picture above, it’s worked for us.

 

Silver Coats and Skylights

Our townhouse has three floors. The first level stays comfortable and cool in the summer. While the top floor is hot … really hot. So hot, sticky and uncomfortable, some nights we had trouble sleeping even with the air conditioning and fan running. Marc would climb out of bed in the middle of the night to look at the thermometer. Neither of us were shocked at a temperature in the 80s with 80% humidity. The air conditioning was ALWAYS running.

With the hopes of improving the situation, we decided to silver coat our roof and buy a new skylight. Simply put, the silver coat reflects the sun much better than a black roof and therefore lowers the temperature of the room. The new skylight was an absolute necessity since our existing one was warped with holes allowing water and hot air to come in AND cool air to go out.  Not rocket science to figure out that something that’s sealed properly works so much better!

Between the silver coating and the skylight, it’s unbelievable how much the quality of our sleep has changed. We’ve also noticed a difference in our electric bills since the air conditioning is running so much less.

 

Cash for Appliances (aka new Fridge for us)

We needed a new fridge — not only did the one we have make strange noises, but it didn’t match the rest of our stainless steel appliances and wasn’t energy efficient. However, with a new baby and other household expenses we had held off buying anything.

When the State of Illinois announced the Cash for Appliances program a few weeks ago, Marc and I decided it would be stupid not to take advantage of it. The program offered 15% discount for all Energy Star appliances and a $75 rebate for recycling our old fridge. On top of that Sears threw in an additional 20% off. We bought a Kenmore stainless steel fridge (versus Kenmore Elite like our other appliances) due to the space restrictions in our kitchen.

 

Diapers, diapers everywhere

It’s been six weeks since Rory was born and life as I knew it has changed completely. I absolutely love being a mom and watching Rory grow every day.  It’s hard to believe that I would be so consumed by my son’s eating habits and bowel movements, but it’s the only way we know he’s a healthy growing boy. Our “little” man was 13 lbs. at his four-week doctor’s appointment, which puts him in the 97 percentile for weight. So all signs point to our chunky monkey being very healthy.

In the past few weeks, Marc and I have also become expert diaper changers. At this point we are going through eight to 10 diapers a day.  Finding diapers to use was a pretty daunting task. Using traditional disposable diapers was not an option. Did you know that it takes more than 500 years for the diapers to decompose in landfills as well as one cup of crude oil to make the plastic for a disposable diaper? That number is completely shocking! A lot of  companies also claimed their chlorine-free diapers were  eco-friendly; however,  neither the diapers nor packaging were bio-degradable. We had to eliminate cloth diapers as an option since our day care wouldn’t use it. After a lot of research, we decided to use two types of eco-friendly diapers — gDiapers and Nature Babycare.

gDiapers have a disposable insert and a cloth gPant (see picture below). We’re able to compost, flush or throw out the insert. The diapers are 100% biodegradable and chlorine free (small caveat unless you have amazing plumbing I’d be cautious about flushing anything down the toilet).

Nature Babycare has disposable diapers and wipes that are also biodegradable. Typically, we use these when we’re out and about since it’s easier than tugging dirty gPants around. They look very similar to Huggies and Pampers.

 

My “little” chunky monkey

Marc and I are proud to announce the birth of our son — Rory Owen Cockerill. He was born on March 12, 2010 at 8:49 p.m. and was 10 lb. 8 oz. The last two and a half weeks have been amazing getting to know our son and becoming parents.

 

Do you want a latte with that shower?

In addition to the baby’s room, we finally painted our bathroom using Mythic Cafe Latte on the walls. Marc was able to hang all the Grohe accessories. We wanted to pick a color that accented our Ann Sacks tiles and also highlighted the white in our sink, tub, medicine cabinet and toilet. I love how it turned out and will hopefully hide the future hand prints on the wall of a little boy