Nothing like a baby on the way to remind me of all the projects around the house that I have been meaning to do.

Decorating

There are few things that make a space feel like mine. Decorating is one of them. Since it is a shared house, there are only so many spaces that I can form into my own little haven. With the baby on the way, now seemed as good a time as any to complete the process that we began last summer.

When we moved last July, we painted the bedroom to cover up the damage on the walls and add more of our vibes. The sea foam green with white trim is a vast improvement to the previous orange-tinted cream with yellow trim. That process took so long and so much energy that we put off the rest of our plans of shelving and art on the walls until now.

Blue is our go-to color, and we both have an interest in ocean-related art and colors. Now that we have the shelves, matching dressers and blackout curtains, and our favorite artwork up, the space feels even more comforting to come home to. I hope our baby also appreciates it — the calm cool vibes, if nothing else.

Cateo

When we moved with our two cats last year, there were already two cats living here. We expected their meeting to be rocky, but after a few weeks, it looked like they might all get along.

Unfortunately since then, my cat Freya — who is nuerotic and hates everyone except me — has decided that one of the original cats is her nemesis and fights are frequent. We have kept her locked up in the bedroom for long periods of time, but with the baby coming, that is not a reasonable solution anymore.

So we started to build a cateo: a fully enclosed outside area accessible from our bedroom window. The fence along the property collapsed before we arrived, but much of the wood was salvageable. So other than our time and a few screws, the construction has cost us almost nothing. It is nothing fancy, but my cat already likes sitting on it and it is not even finished, so we are taking that as a good sign.

In the pictures, you can see our progress: (1) setting the posts; (2) adding structual reinforcements; (3) building a ramp, box, and steps; (4) attaching the fencing and an extra little seat.

We still need to secure the roof, the front door, and the connection to our window, but those should only take a few more hours. In all, it will probably total about 2 dozen hours of work (those fence posts took a lot longer than they should have), but it does not seem too bad for having never done this before. And it is totally worth it because it will give my cat a safe place to call home too.