BEBE #2 - WEEK 22

Hello My Beautiful Vitamix!

It's here!!  I finally bit the bullet and ordered our Vitamix. It arrived yesterday!   Perfect timing too, because our cheapie blender finally cracked the other day.  It was then that I told Ernesto our Vitamix would be arriving any day! Ha!  I knew he would be pleased!

Since we arrived home from our west coast trip we have been eating a lot better.  Funny enough, it's easier when you don't have a bunch of sweets in front of your face 24/7 (at least for me).  We visited the Farmers Market and stocked up on fresth fruit and vegetables.  (It's much cheaper that the grocery store, and has a better selection) Our refridgerator is full and we are ready to start Vitamixing everything!   I can't wait to make soup and sorbet right in the blender.  Yep, this thing is so powerful it heats up soup or freezes fruit to sorbet!!

Also,  I am going to order some popsicle molds like these so we can always have a healthy sweet treat!  I am excited to experiment!  Of course this Vitamix has to be our salsa maker too, and I plan to make baby #2's food like I did for Mateo.  We are a family that uses their blender almost daily, so the investment was worth it.  These things are built to last and the reviews are great! I think we are going to be very happy together. (for the next 15 years)

Our first shake was made with kale, carrots, grapes, and cantaloupe.  It was delicious! 

Both of my boys slurped it down!

This morning I made another batch of mostly carrots with grapes and my little mexi-can drank three of cups full before/with breakfast.  What an easy way to get some extra vegetables in his diet.  (TMI alert: His caca was orange) 

17 Months Old {Mateo's Monthly Photo}

HOME SWEET HOME..Almost

After seven hours of planes, trains and automobiles, we arrived to our [NEW] home last week!  Although we had an amazing trip, it felt so good to sleep in our beds.  Mateo stayed on west coast time for a couple days and actually slept till 8:30am!! (He's now back to his regular 6am wake up time)

Ok, on to the exciting stuff.  Our house renovation.

Now before I share a few pictures, let me just say that even though we are really happy with the new look, there are quite a few things that need to be fixed.  I felt a bit bad pointing everything out to the contractor,  but this is the beauty of paying someone else to work on your house, right?  A luxury that we have have very often.  I like it a lot. 

Our biggest change in the house is in the flooring.  New dark hardwood floors....with no red!!  Yeah! The stain is called "coffee bean" and although we would've liked wider planks, we are really happy with the look.  We had a budget to work with from our insurance and we wanted to stay within it.  The new carpet is clean, cushy and brighter than what we had.  The stairs and all of the second floor has new carpet and the smell of a new house. 

These two things are the only things that were not screwed up.  The poor painters have to come back.  The stair railing needs another coat of black and my doors on the bottom floor were all painted white - we wanted them all black.   The worst mistakes were made in the master bath.  Imagine our horror when we walked in and saw this color on the wall!

 See?  You probably didn't even notice the lovely new tile.  It was supposed to be this color:

{Sea Anemone - by Martha Stewart}

It definitely changed our first impression.  Another mistake?  See the tile surround on the tub (below)?  It was only supposed to be up to the half-wall, not up to the ceiling.  Also, they installed the same old toilet ...the one that caused this whole renovation!! Hello?!  They are coming back tomorrow to fix/change all of that.

 What am I happy about?  The beautiful floor.  The gray porcelain looks even better than I had hoped. 

Also, I am in love with the herringbone carrara on the shower floor.  Just gorgeous!

 The glass shower enclosure is not "frameless" as I understood. Waa waa! But they did cut down half of the wall so it is open to the window.  It makes it a lot brighter.  It is not perfect, but it is a huge improvement!

 The vanity is due to arrive on Wednesday.  It is solid wood and has a carrara marble top and comes with the chrome faucets shown.  It also comes with this large mirror, but I really want separate mirrors above each sink, so I will probably sell this large one. I like the simple cabinets and sleek hardware, and also that it has drawers.  Maybe we will be able to keep our counter top clutter free now! 

The fireplace surround is scheduled for Wednesday.  I am excited about that.  It will change the whole look of the living room.

I still have not 100% decided on the pendant lights for the kitchen island.  I am so indecisive sometimes.  I really like these but can't decide on the all gold or black with the gold center:

I am leaning towards the black even though I love the gold more.  I have a lot of gold already in my house and Im thinking maybe I should stick with the black.  Plus, it still has some gold peeking through, so that pleases the gold lover in me.  (By the way, these are exactly like the Tom Dixon lights that are $400 and at LampsPlus they are called Piquito and cost just $125)

Now my dilemma is what dining room light will go with these ??   Also, which couch are we going to buy? What barstools ?  Oh the design decisions never end!  

I'll be sure to post more pics at the end of the week, with all of the changes. 

Oh! plus I have all my belly shots coming.  I started taking the pics at week 13 and I am now at 22!  This pregnancy is flying by...my tummy is getting big and I love it!

Happy Valentines Day

BEBE #2 - WEEK 21

BEBE #2 - WEEK 20

Still in San Diego.....and Loving it!

 We are still enjoying our west coast vacation and we have one more week to go.  Back at the Atlanta homestead, the renovation process is coming along.  Drywall, painting and tiling have all been started, and the flooring is going down tomorrow and Friday.  Our house is still empty, so we really do need to stay away until they are finished.  Right now they are saying next Tuesday.  This is fine with us, because we still have a lot to do out here...like eat lobster in Puerto Nuevo, Mexico, bike the silver strand, hike Cowles Mountain and walking out to the pier at Pacific Beach for a new family photo.

 The weather has been pretty great, and we have been taking advantage.  Coronado is a great beach/town to walk.

 Shelter Island has a great little playground area right on the water and marinas to wander through.....its fun to see all the yachts.  

 We hiked to the top of Mt Woodson, and it was a challenge for this pregnant girl.  Also for Ernesto who had Mateo strapped to him.

 The view at the top (and the 3 miles hiking up) was unbelievable. 

Thanks to Tio Jerry for inviting us.  Although I was beat afterwards, it felt so great completing a physical challenge. 

 We spent a day at Balboa Park.  No matter how many times I have been here, Im always in awe at the beauty of this place. 

 This time we went into one of the museums so Mateo could play at Kids City.  He had a great time trying to figure out how things work.

As you can tell, not too much time for blogging, but Im trying:)

BEBE #2 - WEEK 19

Decisions, Decisions on the House

We have been told that the renovation company began working on our house last week.   They first cleared all of our "contents" so they can have an empty house to work with.  I imagine it will be easier for them, but the thought of them packing all of our stuff [that was thrown all over the house] seems like such a huge job. Better them than me. 

We had quite a  few decisions to make before leaving Atlanta.  Honestly, I felt a little rushed, but Noble Renovations has been wonderful dealing with my indecisiveness and changes. It will be so nice to have everything new once we get home. We are planning to stay on our little vacation until everything is completed. 

via Pinterest

 

via Pinterest

I am hoping that my new hardwood floors look something like the above photos.  The darkest brown, with NO RED!  Yeah! One project on our list is to paint our kitchen cabinets white.  I love the contrast of the dark floors and white cabinet. What a difference it will make!

While the guys are in there doing construction, we asked them to wire the kitchen for 2 pendant lights to hang above the island/bar.  Problem is, I can't decide on which pendants.  I LOVE the ones in the first picture, but they are unfortunately way out of my price range.
I know I will find something cool...eventually.

Another add-on is the tile surround on the fireplace.  I was planning on doing this project myself, but asked them to give me a quote.  Turns out they decided they are going to "gift it" to us for being such easy going clients.  Just my luck! (haha Fred!)

I picked out carrara marble 1x2 mosaic tiles in a herringbone pattern.  It is going to be fabulous with our white mantel and grey walls.  Oh I can't wait!

The master bath was gutted, and I am totally happy about it.  I never really liked any of the tile choices in the house. They were new and "fine" but just not my style.  Because this is the bathroom where the water problem originated (the toilet overflowed and kept running) everything will be new...except the tub. 

I had daydreamed about changing our bath before the "flood."  Its a good size and could really be awesome.  BUT we really didn't want to put any money into a renovation.  We worked with the budget that the insurance company gave us and guess what?  It's going to be awesome....at no cost to us!

We picked this porcelain tile for the floor of the bathroom.  Its is in 11 x 23 pieces and will be set staggered (I think).  I love how it is shaded and has so much depth.  Here it is shown on a wall looking very modern and sleek.

via Pinterest

Our old shower had tile walls and was pretty dark.  There was a glass door , but a really ugly one.  We are loosing the walls and it will hopefully have this look.  A glass surround, something like this.

via Pinterest

That will be so nice because we are also going to have the carrara herringbone tiles (like the fireplace) on the floor of the shower [only], so you will really be able to see them with through the glass.

The vanity has not been chosen yet, but I am on the hunt.  I would like two separate vanities, but if not, at least two separate mirrors instead of the big [no personality] mirror that covered the wall before.  The tile in the shower, around the tub and for the back splash will be 4 x 8 white subway tiles with a light gray grout, like this photo below. 

What else?  Oh, all the carpet (upstairs) will be replaced.   We picked a lighter (than we had) color berber carpet that has a little gray and black in it.  We wanted something durable that hopefully will still look good when we sell the house ...maybe in a couple years???