Renovations

As if we don't have enough going on right now... I thought it would be a good idea to plan some renovations to the house.  They're not huge renovations, but they do require some amount of planning, budgeting, and having people come into our house to work.

Since I work from home, I need a dedicated space for an office.  Right now, my office is in the den, but it's open to the rest of the house.  For now it's fine because it's just me and the dog home during the day, but once Baby T arrives, I'd like to be able to close the door and work if Mark or other family members are here watching the baby.  In order to do this, we have to close off one doorway, and then frame out and install a door in the other.  My father-in-law and hubby can easily do this, so we're starting to buy materials, and once we've got everything, we can go ahead with the project.

This is the door we would close off.

I picked out an all glass door for this doorway, so we don't lose any natural light.

The other thing we need to work on is the railing by the basement stairs.  Right now, it's open which looks nice, but once we have a crawling baby on our hands, I know I'd be panicky all the time!  There is just no way to baby-proof that.  So, we decided we are going to tear it down and put up a half wall instead.  That way, we can keep it somewhat open, but still put a baby gate up at the top of the stairs.  

I would love to have both of these projects done before the baby comes, but if they can't be done before then, they have to be done before I go back to work.  It's kind of ambitious, but we really don't have much going on between now and our shower, so this will give us something to keep us busy!