Dwell Magazine has definitely been drinking from the baby bar these days; the last few issues have had more kidstuff in them than a babystyle catalogue.
The June issue has a story about a Portland, OR, family's renovation of a fugly loser ranch house into a modernist paradise-on-a-budget designed by the architect/dad, Brian White. Here's a bit of advice that I thought'd be useful for anyone with both a pregnancy and a big project looming:
Brian, along with Urban Design Build Company, came up with a two-phase construction schedule. In part, this was predicated onthe fact that Deborah [White] was now pregnant with their second child. Brian reminisces, "I would not recommend that the two coincide. However, I did find that that is the best motivation to get a project completed on time--it is hard explaining the reasons a project won't be finished on time to a pregnant woman." [emphasis added]The house was done on Deborah's due date, btw. The kids: Grace & Markus with a 'k'.
"Cooler Ranch" [dwellmag.com, but alas, not online]
"The house was done on Deborah's due date."
I bet that went over real well.
Well, our house WASN'T done by my due date (and the baby came 3 weeks early to boot).
I spent months 3-7 of my pregnancy sleeping on a mattress in my dad's living room, and now my memories of my daughter's first few months are of scrubbing pots and pans in the bathroom sink every morning bleary-eyed from lack of sleep whilst she took her morning nap because our damn kitchen wasn't done.
All down to the damn cabinetmaker.
The same cabinetmaker we hired to make a version of a David Netto-stye changing table. The one we finally got to use when she was THREE AND A HALF MONTHS OLD.
Yes, besides straining my back from bending over that bathroom sink, I strained my back from bending over our bed, which we had to use as a changing table in the meantime.
And now, number 2 is due November 1st. And guess what? We have to finish our house before then -- skylights, some drywalling, painting, trim, and BATHROOMS (both of 'em) -- because we are moving to Switzerland on posting and have to rent the place out.
It is a curious but effective way to torture a pregnant woman.
we 'finished' our reno a week before the baby came 10 days early. as we had a home birth, it was an especially good thing. when the doula came and wanted to set up the tub, I started running around organizing things and unpacking in order to make room for it. she thought i was nuts. but that was basically my m.o. for the first few weeks - whenever someone came to visit I would take advantage of the extra person in the apt. to spaz around and finish something up. now, at 10 weeks, we are almost completely moved back in, aside from a few (no v.o.c.) painting projects and a few organizational details. for us it wasn't so much the deadline of the due date as it was the excitement that our little girl gets to come into a brand new home (it was a little dumpy before)
When I found out my wife was pregnant, I went into (I hate this term) nesting mode. My mother and wife kept telling me ���You���re nesting��� and I would scowl at them then go off and collect my twigs and twine. I realized, however, that the nesting instinct is nothing to be ashamed of. I imagine that other creatures also feel the call and experience the great pleasure of creating a world for their offspring to come into. Here was the situation: our old apartment was 450 sq. ft. dump in a shady area of Astoria with obnoxious neighbors and a landlord who was conducting his own Rich Dad Poor Dad real-estate experiment (his tenants all suffered from his penny-pinching and endless nagging). Not a place to bring my child home. My wife and I quickly made plans to move out and found a sweet two bedroom in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. I think Brooklyn tops all the places I lived in NYC, at least so far. No offense to those in Astoria, but I thought the neighborhood sucked.
Anyway, we moved, then the real madness began. I canceled my cable and stopped watching TV all together except for Netflix. As I was putting together this vision of what my home could be, I tried to find other like minded people. That���s how I actually came to Daddytypes many months ago, and have been enjoying the site ever since. I got a lot of laughs off the site and was happy to see some other fathers were as interested as I was in the minutiae of gear, modern design, bizare tidbits, modern fatherhood I guess.
Our new place is of course a rental, but I figure if we are in it for at least 5 years, it will be worth the effort I put into creating the proper home ambiance for our child. In the painting and furniture decisions, I tried to create a cohesive interior for our baby . I say cohesive but its not in anyway overly color coordinated or trying to impose to much of one design philosophy; although the overarching motif is modern (I own a Rex rocking chair, Stokke Crib, bugaboo, you know the routine). I wanted something that was both primary and bold and very modern, yet not cold as I think some modern apartments can come off. Most off all, I wanted no clutter, so we trashed about 1/3rd of our possessions and found creative storage solutions for the rest. My wife seeing that I was possessed stepped out of the way and let me go to work stopping me at the right times from going to far, ���Dear God DON���T Paint that ceiling detail it will look like we live in a MIAMI retirement home!��� and we jointly decided on the colors. We argued about furniture choices, I was downright mean spirited on one contested bookcase decision but have eaten my words and apologized profusely since it arrived because its damn near perfect. I basically finished the apartment a few days before my baby was born. Of course there will always be a few things left to do, but that���s just tinkering. I want our apartment to stand out in our child���s memory as a home she can return to in her mind whenever she wants later in life. The apartment is my homage to modern family life in the city---we all signed our names on the wall with the baby���s birth date. Anyway, I agree with the subject line for your article.
Knowing my baby was coming in nine months was the most intense motivator I have ever experience.