the power of nesting

There's nothing like an approaching due date to encourage parents to speed along their house projects and prepare for the new arrival. These past few weeks, we finally put the finishing touches on our kitchen make-over, which technically began a year ago. For some reason, the two tasks of replacing a part on the light fixture and repainting the ceiling got neglected for several months. Apparently, the third trimester nesting instinct was required to bring the project back to our immediate attention, and voilà! A finished kitchen. Here are the much-delayed before and after photos:

BEFORE:

AFTER:
In addition to repainting the cabinets, Forest did a simple tile backsplash and we added a new over-the-stove fan, which was non-existent before.

We hung up our Dixon "D" to cover up a hole in the wall from an unused electrical wire.
Antique brass hardware was switched out for brushed nickel.

And we also replaced a dreary fluorescent light with a sparklier halogen fixture.
A huge thank you to Aunt B for her design suggestions! We've been thrilled with the new look.

What else has the power of nesting done for our home? Well, it has inspired Forest to dig this huge trench along our driveway in an effort to improve a less-than-perfectly constructed retaining wall.
It also may have influenced us to purchase some dressers that we've talked about getting for the master and guest bedrooms. We did this the craigslist way and paid a small amount of money for a decently large amount of restoration work. I ended up staining and coating a new set of wooden knobs for one dresser, while Forest completely sanded down the other 0ne, repaired a large hole, and began the process of repainting.

The deck has also been re-stained since we hit trimester #3 (do you see the cantaloupe vine that poked through the boards?)
And a couple of sets of curtains have been sewn for some windows, as well.
It is almost baffling to me to consider our sudden boost of productivity these days. At the same time, it still seems like there are a lot of things that need to get done before I pop . . .