It has been 10 months since our last post which many of our readers have kindly pointed out to us in the past few months. We are way behind on posting and promise to catch you all up on our progress, however, first thing first...
Baby Rose's Nursery
For many of our friends and family, this is the long anticipated nursery post! And for those of you who follow us through our blog, and not Facebook...that's right, we are having a baby! Little Baby Rose is nothing short of a miracle. After 36 rounds of chemotherapy in 2016, we were never quite sure if this little gift would ever enter our lives. We are just days (or maybe even hours...you never know) from meeting our little girl and we are so excited to share our nursery with all of our readers!
The before:
This is leaky roof and moldy walls when we purchased the home. It just screams baby's room, right? This is possibly one of the last rooms that was being worked on prior to us viewing the home for the first time. The elderly man who had owned the home had been trying to repair the leaky roof and ceilings. Sadly, he fell off the roof while making repairs and was in a body cast. We have heard stories that he tried to continue these efforts after his fall but he passed away soon after. Of course, just like all of our projects, we have tried to honor the previous owners work ethics and have given this room our very best and filled it with lots of love.
As you can see, there is a doorway with a window leading into the adjacent room. This room was designed in such a way that you could actually run around the house in a circle. There was no direct entrance to this bedroom. You could enter it through the bathroom closet (now our laundry room) and leave the room via the adjoining bedroom (currently our gym). We believe this was done this way simply based off of how the house evolved over the past 200 years as additions were added on due to necessity and not for design. Thanks to Ted's craftsmanship and ability to create an entranceway that looked natural and fitting with the home's authenticity, you would never even know that the new doorway did not exist. Now, we have a nice flow from the main hallway and there are no longer any hidden passageways from bathrooms and bedrooms...although, maybe Rose would have enjoyed that!
When we first bought the home, these beautiful floors were painted brown and had so many holes and chunks taken out of it. We thought for sure that we were going to have to completely gut the floors until we had archaeologists visit who specialize in this and told us that this wood (tree) is now extinct to our area and to do everything we can to salvage them. We clearly could not remove something this precious from our new home, so Ted worked tirelessly (and I even sanded a little too) to restore the floors in this room to their natural beauty.
As you can see, the room took on quite a transformation with air conditioning duct work, beautiful new windows and the restoring of those gorgeous floors! It didn't take much design effort to showcase this room because it already had its 200 year old character to tell its story.
This chicken coop was stored in our machine shop behind the barn. I have been in this building one time in four years and have always had a dream for this chicken coop. One would think we would use it for our chickens but that is too obvious for Hummingbird Hollow Farm. Instead, my dream, thanks to Ted, has finally come to true! It is now a beautiful book shelf for Baby Rose!
Every nook and cranny of this room is filled with so much love and happy memories already. If you followed our Christmas Blog Edition, I wrote about the many gifts and treasures from our friends, my students, and our family. Rose's room is no different. We are so grateful for all of the thought that everyone has put into each and every gift that grace this room. She is truly blessed to have so many people who care for her and love her like we do.
For once, Ted didn't have to build an accent wall, redo a fireplace, or build a piece of furniture. This makes the room seem like it was so easy. However, a nesting pregnant woman never makes anything easy. Instead, I had to have the perfect crib, recliner, bed frame, etc. for my little girl. I also didn't want our furniture to be store bought or match. Our home is not like most. It isn't rooms full of matching furniture sets and I didn't want hers to be any different. She is special. She is unique. She is our little miracle baby and I wanted her room to reflect that. So to find many of these things, I went to my new favorite place from the comfort of my home...Facebook Marketplace. If you follow the blog, you know we love Craigslist, Fleamarkets, and Antique shops. This was just another way for us to find new treasures and for a pregnant lady, doing it from the comfort of my own home was icing on the cake! However, that's where this room got hard for Ted. He was the one who had to drive all over New Jersey to track down these items over the past four months. But in true Ted fashion, he always made these trips into little adventures for us. We would visit friends while we were out picking up these items, or go out to eat at a cute restaurant in a town we never heard of before. Ted always makes everything fun...he's going to be a great dad.
This will be Rose's view from her crib (don't ask how Ted got this shot. I made this mobile for her this summer. It was one of the first things I knew I had to have in her room to make it special. I have never made a wreath or a mobile before but I am very happy with the way it turned out. I love all the color and depth it adds to her room and I also had fun making it!
This sweet little Angel is from my mom and dad. When I had been sick, lots of people bought these different types of angels for me. I have had many angels watching over me these past few years.
Our little farm is named Hummingbird Hollow so every room tends to have a hidden Hummingbird or two in it. Somehow, our friend Nicole must have known Rose did not have her own. This was one of our beautiful baby shower gifts and now Rose has her special Hummingbird.
If you look closely, there are lots of floral arrangements in this room. While I have never loved fake flowers, I do love that Rose will be surrounded by the beauty of the beautiful florals that grow around the farm in her room all yearlong. We won't have to wait all fall and winter to see those pretty pink flowers grow. Instead, we can visit her little hanging gardens and wall arrangements all year long. Special thanks to my sister, Jen who made some of these very sweet floral and ribbon hangings for Rose's room. They are easily some of my favorite things in her room and I know baby Rose will love them too.
It is only a matter of time until Rose will be born and get to sleep in her nursery for the first time. While we anxiously await her arrival, we feel so blessed to look into this room and see so many little gifts and sentiment that went into everything so many of our friends and family have given us. The beauty in this room is because of the love that has gone into it from all of you. Rose will learn about all of you who love her and have prayed for her alongside of us.
We'll see you in our next blog entry...when we're a family of three!
