Life update

[kate_nepveu]

I've been pretty scarce lately because I've been busy and haven't had a lot of spare brain capacity, what with Chad being away for most of last week, travel for a baby shower last weekend, and work. But today I had an oral argument, the prep for which had been consuming a lot of that brain capacity, and so I'm letting myself relax a bit now.

Thus, admire our almost-completed library!

Here's the front and the entry into the living room.

And here's the back and the entry into the kitchen.

Okay, yeah, it's still an empty rectangle, but it's an empty rectangle that's been painted and has carpet and windows. Next week, it should have bookshelves/cabinets, and then it will be really finished. Tomorrow we're going to order blinds for those enormous west-facing windows and a desk for Chad (his existing one won't fit). His desk at the front, mine at the back, and shelving on the two long walls: it's going to be great. (I'm especially looking forward to—geek alert!—setting up the desks with some variant of better cord management, for both safety and aesthetics.)

Except, of course, to move my existing desk downstairs, I have to clean out the mountains of crap around it now. And then we have to move all the hardcovers downstairs to the new shelves, and move the china from the basement to the new cabinets. And shuffle the paperbacks out of the ex-spare room to other upstairs rooms. And move the furniture from the ex-spare room to Chad's ex-office. And set up the crib in the ex-spare room and unpack all the baby paraphernalia (after the new dresser and night stand, which we will also order tomorrow, come in).

And start and finish the third cross-stitched dragon (finished the second last night, yay). And do more learning about childbirth and infant care. And pick actual names for FutureBaby. And go to Chad's college reunion this weekend. And do whatever beta-reading Chad would like on the rewrites for his book. And maybe finish the three books I'm in the middle of. And, oh yeah, write the several briefs that are due this month.

Whee!

Quick pregnancy update:

Visibly bulgier by the week. Though last week may have included a FutureBaby growth spurt that I hadn't caught up with: not only did I have a fair bit of discomfort in my ribs on the right side, but I had several instances of feeling like FutureBaby had decided to place a knee or elbow against my front and just lean there, hard, for a while. Which made me wonder if those early ultrasound pictures were accurate in showing a claw-out-of-stomach Alien . . . Both of these seem to have stopped this week. The fatigue has also backed off: instead of feeling like the must-nap-now fairy has just bopped me on the head, I'm normally tired (which is still sufficient). New since last update: the start of swelling in my hands and feet, and noticable Braxton Hicks contractions, fun.

Still, could all be worse.

Usual warnings apply.

And now, to write baby shower thank-you cards.

Comments

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

Baby!

Library!

Both totally cool.

[kate_nepveu]

They are! Busy-making, but cool. And I'm working hard to keep a tortoise approach to it all.

[montoya.livejournal.com]

Are you getting built-in bookshelves?

[kate_nepveu]

I don't know if this counts as built-in. They're going to be flush with the walls, floor to ceiling, and the length of the long walls, with cabinets on the bottom and the first shelves at the level of the outlets you see, with cutouts in the back for them.

[montoya.livejournal.com]

I think that's what I mean. Cabinetists or carpenters or whatever are coming out to install them, anyway, not just something you buy at IKEA?

Any idea how much the bookshelves themselves cost, independent of the rest of it?

[kate_nepveu]

Yes, they're being custom-built for us and installed by the contractor, and no, the contractor didn't break that out separately for us. If you're curious, I could ask, though.

[montoya.livejournal.com]

Curious, yes. I mean, in the perhaps-limited sense that I've wondered this for like six years now, while never quite going so far as to actually call up a contractor and ask for an estimate; but I wouldn't call up a contractor unless I was actually ready to have it done, and I couldn't possibly be ready for that if I didn't have a ballpark on what it'd cost, so vicious circle there.

[kate_nepveu]

Well, if I happen to remember when I next see him, I'll ask.

[skwidly.livejournal.com]

I am also curious, so...

[kate_nepveu]

$8200, according to our contrator.

[kate_nepveu]

$8200, according to our contractor.

[montoya.livejournal.com]

Thanks! That's on the high side of what I was expecting, and bodes poorly for future bookcasage, but is good to know.

[skwidly.livejournal.com]

Likewise and ditto, and allathat.

[kate_nepveu]

No problem.

[kate_nepveu]

When I think about it, it is pretty high, considering what we paid for our standalone bookcases. Funny what being folded into a $20K+ job will do for your perspective . . .

[missysedai.livejournal.com]

You look fantastic!

One of our Tribal bellydancers is at 30 weeks. She's getting antsy for Baby Day because her daughter seems to have taken up dancing within her. We watched her wiggle around while Kim danced, it made for an interesting effect.

[kate_nepveu]

I have no luck getting other people to see FutureBaby moving around. Whenever it happens, either I say "Look!" and then it stops, or it's night and we're trying to sleep.

[cofax7]

Yay bookshelves! Also, yes, you look great!

[kate_nepveu]

So much shelf space! And thanks.

[larabeaton.livejournal.com]

I love that you're wearing the same T-shirt in all of the pregnancy mug shots. It's important to have a control to compare against.

[kate_nepveu]

*And* cropped down to the same size using the door as a reference. We thought about this, you know.

(I didn't bother with marks to stand in exactly the same spot, though.)

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

That looks fantastic. You are going to be amazed at the speed at which the library will fill up and overflow.

[kate_nepveu]

We're taking the opportunity of moving our books to do a simple cull, but yeah, on one hand I'm very excited about all the shelf space, and on the other I'm hoping that we fill it up *slowly* . . .

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Let me explain about this thing called 'Ledgister's principle' -- Books expand to fill the shelf space dedicated to them, and then overflow. I believe it it caused by access to a large South American river and its many tributaries.

And having babies only slows the flow down a little (as I found out when I was the primary care provider for my own children back in the late 80s when the said South American river was only a dream, but New York City was a place abounding in second-hand bookshops, and the Strand and Forbidden Planet did look upon each other).

[oracne.livejournal.com]

You look pretty cute in your pics.

[kate_nepveu]

Thanks.

[glvalentine.livejournal.com]

Your expression in that latest side shot is priceless.

I give that library about six hours before books start creeping in all on their own...

[kate_nepveu]

Oh, I was tired--we'd driven to Massachusetts the day before, slept really poorly, gone to a baby shower that day, and then driven back. That's all.

Hey, if they creep in on their own, does that mean we don't have to schlep them downstairs ourselves? (With help from Chad's parents, who are too good to us?)

[leighdb.livejournal.com]

Library: WANT. A whole room for nothing but books! Are y'all going to put comfy armchairs and reading lamps and such, and make me TOTALLY envious?

(If I want to read I basically have to lie on my bed. Which, you know, is fine and all, but one of my little daydreams is to sometime actually have the space to create a room/nook/bay window/thingy that is for no other purpose than reading. Someday...)

Baby: Yay!

[kate_nepveu]

Not sure about the comfy armchairs. We'd originally envisioned at least one, but that was before we decided to move my desk downstairs. The room is really narrow--those windows are centered on the front wall--and once the shelves are in, we may find that additional furniture would end up smack in the middle of the room. So, we're going to wait and see what the room's like when everything else is in.