A How-to DIY Wainscoting - Guest post from my Hubby

I've been wanting to start posting our DIY projects and before and after shots of things we've done to our home for a while now, but haven't found time... I'm finally getting around to it. Luckily, with this post, my husband and dad did all the work and I don't know how they did it in detail, so Taylor's sweet self is here to tell you all about it. I was 9 months pregnant when we did her room, in fact, Winnie was born 3 short weeks later. This is the beginning of hopefully many posts on house projects we do, but for now, I hope this post helps you with giving your rooms a little something extra. Have fun, be careful (especially using those saws), and enjoy! - Stephanie

How-to DIY Wainscoting

Taylor here... when Steph and I found out that our first child was going to be our Winnie, she knew that she wanted wainscoting in the nursery; and I was more than happy to make it happen.

What you'll need:

• Wood [we used white wood from Lowe's]
• Chop saw
• Jigsaw
• Caulk
• Nail gun
• Drill
• Level
• Tape measure
• Sandpaper 
• Primer
• White paint

The first thing you need to do is decide on is how high you want the rail, the width of the wood, the depth of the shelf, and the spacing between the vertical boards. Once that is decided, its time to get to work. Here are the measurements we decided on:

• The vertical boards were 4ft long & 3.5in wide [We got "4in width," but the wood was 1/2 an inch smaller than advertised] 
• The rail was 3.5in wide
• The shelf was 2.5in deep... or wide... depending on your angle
• For the spacing between the vertical boards, we just eyeballed it and went with what we liked 

 [Steph's parents were in town and were a HUGE help]

The first step is to cut the wood to size. Three side notes here:

• We cut 45 degree angles on the bottom of the vertical boards, so the vertical boards would meet flush to the top ledge of the baseboard
• We also cut 45 degree angels on the edges of the shelf to make sure there were no sharp edges
• We had vertical boards flush with the window frames and used a jigsaw to cut out the windowsill edge 

After everything is cut its time to start putting wood on the wall. For the rail I found studs and drilled it into the studs with wood screws. We then put the 2.5in shelf on top of the rail. For that, we measured out the size we needed, cut the wood to size, cut the 45 degree angles on the ends, then nailed them in with the nail gun. [you may have to re-cut them in the corners so they fit just right]

Now for the vertical boards it was a little different. Because of the spacing between the boards and wanting them to be even/symmetric, we put a line of caulk on the back of each vertical piece [using the caulk as glue] then nailed it to the wall using the nail gun. 

Here is the finished result for one side of the room: 

 

After we got all the wood up we sanded down everything. 

After everything was sanded we caulked the edges [where the wood meets the walls and to fill gaps where the wood meets each other] of all the boards [we don't have any action shots, but if you look closely in the pictures below the boards have have a line of caulk where they meet the wall]. After that... we painted. 

The room was Carolina Blue before we started, so we already had two coats of primer on the walls; but we needed to put a coat of primer on the wood as well, because we painted everything from the wainscoting down, white.

While John and Sandy painted primer, Steph and I painted the wall above a very light purple: 

My beautiful bride, 9mo pregnant and adamant to help :) 

After many [many...] coats of primer & paint, this was the finished product [feel free to ignore the paint tape and crib]: 

In recap, here are a couple tips I found to be helpful:

• Measure twice [or 3 or 4 times] cut once
• Keep the chop saw up in the room [we put it on a clear tarp to keep the sawdust off the carpet], because you will have to make additional cuts 
• Have a blast 

That's all I have for ya. Keep posted, because Steph's next blog will show the finished product for the whole nursery. 

7 Months Old

This past Friday Winnie turned 7 months old. She has done so much in the past month, including pulling herself up, walking while holding onto something, and becoming more verbal. She weighs 18 lbs and is growing so tall, or maybe it seems like that because she is standing now? Either way, she's getting so big! She makes being a mom so much fun and brings us so much joy. It's truly the greatest blessing. :)

Age: 7 months old

Clothes: She still fits in to some 3-6 month clothes, but she is mostly wearing 6 months or 6-9 months (which are kind of big). I adore her in t-shirts too (picture below). 

Favorite Foods: Still nursing, praise God!!!, but other foods: Earths Best Organic Rice Cereal (tastes like Cream of Wheat to us), bananas, applesauce, and peas.

Favorite Activity: Walking in her crib... that's right, she is so so mobile it's amazing. Though it is keeping her awake, she can't be in the crib tired because she will stay awake to work on her new skill.  (Makes nap time challenging, but we're working on it)

Signature Moves: Pulling herself up on almost anything she can keep her balance on, holding onto the side of her crib, couch, or coffee table and walking, crawling everywhere, and sitting up all the time. 

Sweet moments: Kissing her armpit makes her belly laugh. Hearing hear laugh and giggle is one of the sweetest things of all time. I love love love it!!! 

Moms Proudest Moment: Winnie pulling herself up for the first time (video below). 

Dads Proudest Moment: How quickly she's developing her motor skills, and how joyful she is. 

Other Milestones: She is very good at mimicking what you do. Tapping on the drum or table 3x and she'll copy and hit 3x too. She has graduated from the sling (a while ago) in her tub to sitting up, but we put her in the the garden tub once last week and she had so much fun crawling around in the water chasing after toys and pulling herself up (to which I quickly sat her back down). She loves water. It's so much fun!

Working on: A consistent nap time... she was on one, but recently stopped napping. Thankfully she's happy, but I know what she truly needs is a good nap. If you have any tips, please let me know. 

i love snuggles with my baby girl so much!

Can't get enough of this adorable child!!! <3 <3 <3

Tilapia Fish Tacos

Want a quick and healthy meal? This is the one for you. It took me less than 30 minutes all together and was surprisingly very delicious! I say surprisingly because Taylor and I aren't huge fish fans, so trying a new fish dish is risky, but we really liked it!! The lime dressing was the perfect addition to the tilapia. I hope you like it too. :)

Tilapia Fish Tacos- recipe from Giada

Ingredients

3 Tilapia, cubed
Arugula, 3 cups- chopped
3 Green onions, finely chopped
1 Avocado, cubed
1 Mango, cubed
2 Tablespoons Lime juice (2 Limes)
Zest of 1 lime
Olive Oil
Dash of red pepper flakes
Salt & Pepper, to taste
Hard Taco Shells
Feta, Sour cream, or your choice of cheese (optional)

First, cube Tilapia and set it aside to cook later. Then prep everything else. Cube the mango and avocado and dice the green onions. Chop the arugula and place in a medium sized bowl. Then in a small bowl, mix 3 Tbs olive oil, lime juice, zest of 1 lime, dash of red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper in a bowl.

Heat oven to 300 degrees to warm up your taco shells (don't place them in the oven until your about to eat, it doesn't take long).

In a medium sauce pan, heat olive oil over medium-low heat. Place the tilapia down, making sure each piece is touching the pan. Salt & pepper the top of the tilapia. Let the tilapia cook for about 2-3 minutes on each side. When your ready to flip them over carefully flip each one individually.. it can/will fall apart, so be patient when doing it. Once cooked, remove the tilapia from the pan and set aside to cool off.

While your tilapia is cooking, toss avocado, mango, green onion and dressing together with the arugula. Don't over toss, you don't want the avocado to become mussy.

As the tilapia cools, heat up the taco shells. Takes only a couple minutes.

Putting it together is very easy. Just place the salad mix down in your taco shell, top with tilapia, and then top with your choice of cheese (if desired). Now, the taco doesn't need cheese... I put feta on one taco to try and I really enjoyed it, but had my other one plain and it was just as delicious. Taylor used cheddar cheese in one of his to try and said he could have done without it. So that's all up to you.

Taylor and I really liked this meal. We never had fish tacos before, so it was exciting making this meal and knowing we both enjoyed it. Taylor would prefer having soft tacos over hard, so next time I'll try soft shells, but I like the crunch of a hard shell. Luckily taco shells cost next to nothing, so you can do both easily.

This meal is healthy, light, and super easy to make and cooks quickly. I tend to go toward quick easier meals these days and I was impressed with how simple and easy this was. So have fun and enjoy!!!