That’s right, our little muffin was born at 5:22 a.m. on May 10, 2012, measuring in at 20 inches and 8 lbs 12 oz.

I honestly never believed I could think that another human being was this adorable.  It’s crazy how much we love her!

It turns out that being a new parent is a little time consuming (who knew, ha!) so my postings will probably be a little sporadic over the next few weeks, but please bear with me – I have lots of snuggling to do right now.  :)

The point was really driven home at HomeGoods awhile back when I pointed out two fabulous X-benches to my husband and explained that I wanted to buy them, paint them, and recover them for either our den or our master bedroom. He looked at me patiently and said hopefully, “Maybe you might want to finish up a few projects before you start new ones?”

Bless his poor little heart – the man practically lives in a war zone of my incomplete projects. The dining room is littered with chair parts . . .

. . . the guest bedroom has become a landing pad everything that has been displaced by baby stuff (example here), the hallway has empty and crooked frames hanging everywhere waiting for me to print photos for a new gallery wall, our master bedroom just looks sad and has a broken curtain rod, the nursery curtains are made and hung but not hemmed, and our master bathroom has a big gaping empty space above the toilet because I stole our wedding photo for the new hallway gallery wall.

As I said, bless his little heart.

Tell me I’m not alone in this – please?!?  :)

The exterior was in pretty great shape for the most part – it just needed some love!  We switched out the old iron porch support and scrollwork for a more contemporary stained cedar post – an instant improvement!

We also added modern house numbers, new lighting fixtures, new windows in a striking bronze color . . .

. . . and a new solid wood front door with sleek hardware.

Much better!!  The iron bars on the windows and front door got the boot, too.  :)

A little sprucing of the landscaping and we were good to go!

And before we head to the backyard, let’s check out the guest bathroom.  Remember how we changed the layout?  Well, here’s how the finished product turned out:

Nothing like the original, right?  In fact, the only thing that stayed was the original mirror, which we repainted to match the new vanity.

I really love how this bathroom turned out, and I would use any of these finishes again in a second.  Especially the floor tile – my fave.  :)

And the last stop on our tour?  The deck!!

I never knew I could love a deck like I love this one.  I am 100% committed to having one like this at our next house (not that we’re moving, but a girl can dream).

The benches are my favorite part.  Why have a railing when you can have benches?!?

And remember, we tore down this insane addition before adding the deck (and in turn adding access to the backyard through new sliders).

So much better!  I can totally envision laying out on these benches, or throwing an awesome backyard party.  I’m jealous.

The new sliders above . . .

. . . and the new fence!

That’s it for the before and afters of our fourth flip!

We should be closing on the purchase of our fifth flip by the end of the month, so hopefully I’ll be able to fulfill your need for photos of demolition carnage soon.  Fingers crossed.  :)

I’m sure you’re all faithful readers of the fabulous blog, Centsational Girl – Kate’s DIY spirit and eye for design are always so inspiring.

Well, I’m giddy that today my new gig as a monthly contributor for CG officially started – my first post, Choosing Cabinetry in Kitchen Renovation, just went live!

I hope you’ll head on over there and leave a little comment love.  And if you’ve made your way over here for the first time from Centsational Girl, welcome!!  Glad to have you.  :)  I hope you’ll poke around the blog, maybe check out one of our flips or a recent project we’ve tackled in our home, and stay awhile!

I’ve been dying to show you guys these photos of the dining room, office and den at our fourth flip – the new open floor plan turned out so great!!  (If you’re just tuning in now, you can check out finished photos of the kitchen here and the master suite here, and a recap of the entire renovation here.)

When you walk into the house the first thing you see is the dining room, which is a fun balance of chic and cozy thanks to the capiz chandelier and fireplace.

I’m so glad that we ditched the formal living room in favor of turning it into a dining room – and that meant that the old dining room became a home office!

You can see from the photo below what a difference opening up the walls made, and of course removing the old carpet so we could refinish those awesome oak floors.

I think I could get some work done in this office!  :)

The two photos below really show what a difference that big opening between the dining room and den made – look at all of that light!!

And creating that opening also let us close up the funky doorways between the office/kitchen and hallway/den.  Much better.

All of the sunlight kind of keeps this photo from being all that great . . .

. . . but I just had to show you the new view from the front door!  (Yes, that wall really was all up in your grill the second you walked in the door!)

And now onto the den.  We had an open house over the weekend and it was awesome to see the house flowing exactly as we had envisioned – there were no weird bottlenecks, and all of the rooms had such a great connection.

I especially love the wider opening between the kitchen and den, which was achieved by moving the washer/dryer to the new laundry room and relegating the water heater to the attic.

Much better than before!!

We chose to keep the paneling instead of replacing it with drywall, and I think the overall look works – I was worried that it would feel a little too traditional or outdated but I think all the modern touches throughout the house give it a nice balance.

Probably the best change that we made overall was replacing that window (above) with a huge glass slider so that the den is now connected to the backyard (instead of just being able to access the yard through the kitchen).  The floor plan just didn’t make sense before!!

So there you have it!!  Did everything turn out how you thought it would?  I’d love to hear what you think!

Scope out all four of our flips here.

Originally, the master bedroom had only this tiny half bath – no bueno!

Luckily, after lots of planning and sketching and creative rearranging . . .

. . . we were able to squeeze a really awesome master bath into this home’s footprint.  I’m crazy happy with how it turned out, and it was definitely worth the extra expense of moving the furnace and everything else that went into creating this space.

This was our first time using vessel sinks – what do you think?  We had to modify the cabinets a bit to allow for the taller sinks (i.e., cutting down a really tall toe kick) and I think it turned out really well.

And I’m someone that loves a ginormous shower, so the fact that we were able to add a really spacious shower makes me quite happy.  :)

It’s come a long way, huh?  :)

Some little features – we placed the shower controls right by the shower door so that you can reach in and turn on the shower without getting wet, and we made sure to hide the shampoo niche in the pony wall so that all of the soaps and potions aren’t on display to the rest of the bathroom.

To be honest, I was a little underwhelmed with this bathroom during construction – but once all of the pieces were in place, the mirrors in particular, I absolutely fell in love with it.  It’s funny how that happens!

And now the master bedroom!  It has 3 windows, which I love, and great views of the backyard and the deck.  I think that would be nice to wake up to.

The bedroom needed minimal work, mainly just the new windows, refinished floors, new ceiling fan and reworking the closets.  Here’s how it started out:

I think it will be a great retreat for the new owners!

What do you guys think?  Do you think we made the right move by changing the half bath to a full bath?

Check out the rest of the flip here.

This Post Brought To You By Carpet Cleaning Calgary.

Even though our fourth flip was the smallest project that we’ve tackled, it still needed tons of work – opening up walls, gutting bathrooms, moving the furnace, tearing down a nasty addition, creating a laundry room, and all sorts of other fun goodies.  When we bought the flip in the beginning of February we hoped it would be just a two-month project but it turned into almost 3 months – but that’s okay because we were still able to get it listed and start having showings before our little girl arrives – whew!

Now that the flip is all shiny and finished, want to take a little tour?

Let’s start in the kitchen – you might remember our original kitchen design plan and then the little snafu which forced us to take a slightly different route with the counter tops.  We also made some changes to the layout in the kitchen but we were able to re-use most of the existing cabinetry (which was amazing – there are even pullouts in the lower cabinets!).  The finishing touch was to add wood floors to the kitchen so that the rich oak flooring flows throughout the entire house.

Check out the final results!

It’s amazing how a little rearranging and a coat of white paint really updated the cabinets.  We opted for floating shelves on the range wall for an open, airy feel and I love how they turned out!

You can barely see it because of the light coming through the window, but there’s a gorgeous glass pendant floating above the sink.  I love it!

From this angle you can see the new laundry room and the cabinetry that will house the fridge.

Can you believe that space at the end of the kitchen used to be unused, and that the washer and dryer were stuck under those ugly white cabinets on the right-hand side of the kitchen?  Craziness!

By moving the plumbing and framing in a laundry room we were able to create a much more functional layout (and a breakfast bar!).

Ah, you can finally catch a glimpse of the pendant in this photo.  And the penny tile turned out great!

Framing in that door between the office and kitchen turned out to be a great move, I think.  I love being able to have a balanced look on either side of the range, and there’s quick access to the office and dining room just to the left of the kitchen.

All in all, I love this kitchen.  It turned out to be a sunny, fresh space with lots of fun touches, from the penny tile to the industrial faucet to the floating shelves – and one of my favorite things is the hardware on the cabinets, a last minute switcheroo due to shipping delays that definitely turned out for the best.  It’s funny how those things work out!

I’ll show you how the rest of the house turned out next week!  In the meantime, have a wonderful weekend!

I’m excited about today for 3 reasons:

(1) A photographer is coming to the flip at 9am to take shots for the listing – which means that the flip is about to hit the market!

(2) We have our 38-week doctor appointment – eek!  All of our ducks are in a row and we’re ready for our daughter’s arrival, but it’s still a little crazy to think that she could decide to show up at any moment.

Any last-minute advice for us?

(3) The movers are arriving between 3-5 to deliver all the staging furniture!

You might be wondering why we’re taking un-staged photos in the morning – we like options.  :)

I’m excited about tomorrow as well, for 3 reasons:

(1) Our fifth flip is getting inspected!

Once we get the report back we’ll have a concrete idea of unknown issues that we’ll need to tackle during the renovations.

(2) We’re taking that opportunity of having a few hours in the house to measure and photograph anything in the house that will stand still (for floor planning, permit and design purposes).

(3) We’re listing the flip for sale! Unless something crazy happens we’re going to have this puppy on the market by the end of the day.  I can’t wait!

In other fun news, there’s really no better feeling than someone saying, “I think you’re cool!”  That’s why I was so stoked to receive two blog awards recently – so fun!!

Thanks to Samantha for giving me the Liebster Blogging Award and to Susannah for giving me the Versatile Blogger Award – you chickies rock!

Remember those Ikea slipcovers in our breakfast nook that I painted awhile back?

Well, Lisa started her own version, and they’re turning out great – check’em out here!

And last but definitely not least, my friend Lauren wrote an eBook about flipping!!  How cool is that?

Go on and get you some right here.  I guarantee you’ll learn something in between all the chuckles.

This Post Brought To You By Calgary Apartments.

No, not the breakfast nook.  And not the DIY painted slipcovers on the chairs.  And not the leaded glass panels (even though we love those).  Look closer.

Clooooooooser.  Now you’ve got it!

My husband’s family gave him this gnarly espresso machine for his birthday in February and he has since become a man possessed.  It makes him swoon.  It can foam and steam and grind and do all sorts of crazy things and it has caused him to consume more caffeine in the past few weeks than I thought humanly possible.

Who would have thought that this ugly nook . . .

. . . could eventually be turned into my husband’s favorite spot in the house?

Our wine fridge recently died (sad!) so we replaced it with a beverage center instead – now it houses overflow soft drinks, wine (sniff, how I miss it!) and . . . you guessed it . . . more goodies for the espresso machine.

Other than the fact that my husband is delighted, the sole reason I’m excited about his new coffee shop is the cute little mugs.  :)  We got them in my family’s Christmas gift exchange (thanks, Jessie & Charles!) and they’re just perfect for his endless cups of espresso.  Aren’t they cute?!?

I’m thinking about making a little chalkboard menu for Jason’s coffee shop – something like this, maybe?  I’ll keep you posted.  :)  Is there a nook in your house that has randomly turned into an important spot for your family?

This Post Brought To You By Calgary Welding & Fabrication.

It turns out that Flickr (where I host my images) recently decided to block all copyrighted images from being pinned on Pinterest – which is a great idea, but there were some bugs that kept my photos from being pinned even after I de-copyrighted them.

Anyhoo, I think all is well now so you should be able to pin away – and I hope you will!  And definitely let me know if you run into any more problems.  Thank you!

And since I can’t give you a post without some sort of fun photo, here’s this:

Can’t wait to show you how it turned out!