Project House

We've been in the house for a little over 4 months now and it's finally starting to feel like home. I think this is a combination of actually living here and continuing to add all those little finishing touches to make it feel like our home. The last couple of weeks, in particular, it's been all house stuff, all the time. I'm tired, but things are coming together really well.

Kitchen:
This room was basically good to go when we moved in... except for the terrible door handles and drawer pulls and the icky kitchen curtains. Blech! I found a dark oil-rubbed bronze set that is a little bit modern and a little bit traditional. Amazing how just changing out the hardware can change the whole look and feel of the room.

Before

After

The curtains were more difficult. For some reason, the only kitchen curtains I could find were either covered in fruit or had more ruffles than an Easter dress. Ugh. I wanted to get something up, so I settled on a cream cafe curtain. Not great, but better than what was there before.

Before

After

Living Room:
We started off with a good couch, tv stand and bookshelves, but we've recently added a rug, a new coffee table and side table. Those three things alone make the room so much cozier!

Before

After

With the temperature dropping, we picked up fireplace accessories so we could finally use our fireplace. Target had a simple, clean line collection that was not only inexpensive (dude, those screens can be $$$), but fit the style of the room well.

A few decorative pumpkins jumped into our cart, too. Aren't they cute?

In the future, we'd like to add a console table next to the front door and set up a reading nook in the corner of the room next to the picture window.

Enclosed Patio aka The Bar Area:
It's finally getting some character! Some wrought iron wall decor and tall dark wood candlesticks and voila -- it's starting to look pretty.

Master Bedroom:
During the summer the light that would stream in in the morning was awful. Curtains suddenly became a necessity. Not only are they useful, but I think they add a bit more interest to the room, no? Oh, and we finally got around to hanging that picture frame, too.

Guest Room:
This was formerly the kid's room and it was a horrible lilac color. So not us. We opted for a warm creamy-beige for the walls, which was a nice background for the dark funiture and deep red linens. I'm actually excited now to have people spend the night!

Before

After

Bathroom:
We only have one full bathroom and when we moved in it was soooo ugly. Dark blue-ish purple walls with tons of white tile, painted white cabinets and a faux marble counter. Ugh. I seriously cringed whenever I walked in. Since we feel like one of these days, we're going to do a major renovation of the bathroom, we opted to just change the paint and accessories to give the room a different feel. While the layout would still not be my first pick, it looks SO MUCH BETTER! The pictures don't do the transformation justice. The wall color is Cloud (a very light blue) from the Restoration Hardware Baby and Child line and the cabinets went from boring white to a rich dark brown. We swapped out the cabinet pulls for a matte silver that gives the room a more modern feel. Towels and accessories were a mix of good 'ol Tarjay and Lowe's. I absolutely love this room now. Love it!

Before

After

The last room that is undergoing huge facelift is our basement aka my home office/craft room. I'm still adding some finishing touches so I'll wait to post pictures, but let's just say that it's becoming a little slice of heaven for me. ;)

Animal Planet

When we bought our house, we knew part of the charm was its proximity to nature. The neighborhood is lush with foliage and the mountains are practically in our backyard. However, where there is foliage, there are also animals. Lots and lots of animals.

The Cuddly

Squirrels: I'm not ashamed to admit that the abundance of squirrels in the area was a huge selling point for us. We have two large trees in our front yard, which they use as their personal play things. We've seen them treat our pool as a watering hole, they bury nuts in our grass and are beyond funny when, during the heatwaves, they flop down on the tree branches with their little limbs hanging off either side. They're cute, cuddly and provide us with loads of entertainment without actually bothering us.

Birds: Okay, I know that most of you reading this aren't bird fans, but I am. I enjoy them and while we don't have a lot, we have enough to keep me happy. My personal favorite is the hummingbirds that are attracted to our Morning Glory plant in the backyard.

Bears: No, we haven't seen one yet. However, last summer there was documented instance of a very large bear that strolled down the street and into some driveways just a mile or so away from us. If I ever see this first-hand, in the words of Mr. Cosby, "first I'll say it, then I'll do it!" I'm cool with the squirrels drinking from our pool, but I'm not cool with a bear splashing around in it. You just gotta draw the line somewhere, you know?

Assorted Dogs and Cats: These don't technically count as part of "nature", but I run into a lot of them when I'm out "walking the earth" (as Jim likes to say) and they always put a smile on my face. That is, if they're not trying to bite my ankles....

The Ugly

Coyotes: Thankfully, we haven't seen them, but OMG, we've heard them alright! There are nights when they sound like they're just up the street from us. Our neighbor said that he has, in fact, seen them cruising down our street before and warned us to keep any small dogs and cats indoors in the evenings. Lovely.

Crickets: Sure, crickets seem harmless, but try sleeping at night when they're all rubbing their little legs together at the same time :/ We sleep with a fan for white noise, but even that didn't completely drown them out. But, the worst part? They're a freaking food source for...

The Down-Right Scary

Black Widows: Yeah, we had a TON of them outside our house. Crickets are like a buffet for them. We had a ton of crickets. You do the math. We kept seeing them in the same places and even after killing them, another would pop up in its place. One night, Jim went on a "hunt" to see how many were actually out there. He killed 18 and those were only the ones that he could catch before they skittered away. Ugh. Ugh. UGH! When the exterminator came out he was shocked! He sprays our next door neighbor's yard, but she doesn't have any. We, on the other hand, not only had black widows, but also brown widows! YAY! Thankfully, we've sprayed, they're gone for now and we've set up a bi-monthly regimen to keep them at bay. But still, so gross!

[Note: For those of you who have never seen a black widow and are wondering, "How do you actually know it's a black widow?" we wondered the same thing. Oh, but those little punks have this way of building their crazy ugly webs so that they hang upside down and you can see their bellies. They make it very clear what they are. I get all wigged out just thinking abou it.]

Bees: Sure they're nice when they're pollinating things and making honey, but after having been stung 3 times, I'm kind of not their biggest fans. So imagine my horror when I came home earlier this week and heard one of the trees in our front yard literally humming. I looked up and if there was one bee, there must have been at least a hundred. OMG! Can we stop with the icky creatures already?! I freaked out, obviously, but it seems as though they were swarming for the late afternoon and we thankfully haven't seen (or heard) them since. I'm still leery though. The next sign of them and the exterminator is so getting a call!

And that folks, are the benefits of living with Mother Nature as your next door neighbor! I know you're jealous ;)

Weekend Recap

So many things to blog about, so little time. :( I still need to recap my b-day celebrations last week and the weekend before and some other fun stuff that is going on, but since those posts have fun pictures and this weekend doesn't, I'll just start with this one.

Friday
Yay for a day off! Still had to get up early to make it to Westwood for a morning doctor appointment (all is well, just a yearly check-up). After that was wrapped up, I headed home to run some errands, then I picked up lunch and vegged on the couch while watching Project Runway.

That night, we met up with some friends for sushi and then drinks afterwards at Trader Vick's. Mr. Metro is still in town from jolly 'ol England and it was fun to catch up with him and the rest of the group. Trader Vick's has totally changed since the last time I was there -- the bar is now right next to the pool at the Beverly Hilton and there is lots of space to hang out and unwind with a group of friends. As a bonus, they were playing the opening ceremony of the Olympics on the side of the building, so we didn't miss anything. So fun!

Saturday
Up early. Again. Our realtor was hosting a housewarming party at our place that afternoon and we needed to finish cleaning up the house, both inside and out. While our family and some friends were invited to the shindig, the main purpose was for us to meet our neighbors, but more importantly (although he wouldn't admit to this) was to help him meet new people and maybe get some business out of it. Totally fine by us. He paid for everything and all we had to do was be gracious hosts.

However, while our friends and family all showed up, only ONE set of neighbors showed. ONE! :/ Ah well. What can you do, right? The taco cart food was yummy and it was a chance to show the house to friends and family, which was fun. Thanks for making the trek out to the new pad R, Wan, Trish and WeeMo!

By about 6pm or so, everyone had left and the exhaustion set in. After having another round of tacos for dinner, we got ice cream for dessert and collapsed on the couch to watch the Olympics.

Sunday
We got to sleep in! Finally! The morning and afternoon passed in a lazy haze. We had some breakfast then Jim started working from home while I finished up some laundry and worked on making a batch of 'thank you' cards.

Later that afternoon, I went for a walk in the blistering heat and made a beeline for the pool once I got back. So refreshing. Makes the walks a lot easier when you have that to look forward to ;) That night, we trekked out to Yard House for dinner - mmm framboise and burgers -- and then somehow drug ourselves home and collapsed on the couch to watch more Olympics.

Weekend was fun, but too short. What else is new, right? ;)

Still not back to "normal"

While the house is coming along, I'm still not back in my normal routine and it's starting to drive me a bit crazy. I think it's almost entirely due to my personality as my husband seems to be just fine with everything. I'm really hoping over the next week or two things will calm down, but if I'm being totally honest, I think the rest of the summer is going to just busy and by fall everything should be good to go.

Btw, if I know you IRL, you'll be receiving a gallery of house pictures soon. If all goes well, as in tonight soon. For the lurkers, sorry, still feel a bit uneasy of posting the full gallery of pics.

Now, while we've been busy getting the casa together, life keeps happening and there is actually a lot of other fun stuff going on. Such as:

* Paper Source Girl's Night Out. Wan, Cee and I went to their annual event Thursday night from 8-10pm. We got to try out some new techniques, find a bunch of new stuff that we want and just hang out. So fun! Can't wait to go next year.

*Vino's wedding prep! Blondie and I met up on Friday with Crafty to work on the shower and bachelorette party invites which will get popped in the mail on Monday. I think the invites turned out great and the actual parties should be even better. Dressing Queen has a great menu planned for the shower and then we're putting together a fun night for her bachelorette party.
* Food! I'm finally starting to cook more in the new kitchen and good lord, LOVE is not a strong enough word to describe my feelings towards it. Since it's been 8 billion degrees lately, my cooking has revolved around oven-less meals, but I've still managed to whip up seviche-style shrimp tacos, grilled veggie sandwiches with green olive-artichoke tapenade, cheeseburgers and a breakfast scramble.
And I'm making an exception with the house pictures here, but you gotta see this kitchen!! <3 <3 <3

More good stuff soon, but right now I gotta run to make dinner ;)

Crazy busy

The short version:

* Moved on Friday. 7am - 11pm. I've never had my feet throb like they did that night. Inlaws came over to help, which was a godsend. And they brought pastries (I'll pause while some of you stop giggling), a PB giftcard and champagne. Love them lots.

* Saturday got up super early, went to hang out with Sporty and Blondie while they got ready for Sporty's wedding. Yup, she got married that night. Beautiful ceremony and a kickass reception. Crapload of alcohol consumed. Loads of awesome pictures taken. Around 12:30am, Blondie's husband, Links and Jim decided to show us their crumping routine. I'm not allowed to post it, but it's effing hysterical! Rallying cry of the night "I love you Dick!"

* Drove home Sunday afternoon after rehashing the night over breakfast with my besties and the husbands. Finished cleaning the kitchen that night. Kitchen looks great, rest of the house looks like a tornado hit it. Ironic thing is that I have no time to cook.

* Monday Direct TV came, all installed. Coordinated with gardener. Pool man came to make our pool look less like a swamp and more like, well, a pool. Bought paint supplies and prepped/painted our master bedroom. Such hard work. Very happy we have a small bedroom. Slept like a baby.

Longer, more involved updates (especially in regards to the wedding) coming soon!

It's Official!

We're homeowners!

eeeeeee!

hmmm, I guess I better get crackin' on setting up water, gas, electric, etc so we're not living in some dark, non-air conditioned hovel come Friday....

T minus 4 days and counting....

Loan should fund today, we should close tomorrow. We hit one last minute snag about 2hours ago, but hopefully it's all figured out. I'm keeping everything crossed -- eyes, fingers, legs, you name it.

The long weekend felt soooo long. We were busy little bees, but it was still nice to have 3 days off.

Thursday:
Since we had our final walk-through in the morning, we carpooled into work (fun!) and when we finally left for the evening around 5pm, we quickly drove home and made a last minute reservation at Mr. Marcel for one last steak dinner before the big move. On our walk over, we figured that we've shared at least a dozen or so dinners, celebrating various occasions, entertaining friends or just because. We're really gonna miss this place.

While Jim ventured out and ordered the NY steak, I stuck to my tried and true filet mignon and gratin potatoes. In fact, I don't think I've ever ordered anything else there. Ha! So good, as always. After polishing off a bottle of wine, we made it back to the apartment and watched the results show for SYTYCD. The right couples were in the bottom three this week. I'm sorta sad to see Kourtini and Matt go, but they weren't going to win in the long run.

Friday:
Our 4th of July started off pretty well. We both woke up early-ish and walked over to The Farm for breakfast outside. The huevos rancheros totally hit the spot, even if it was about a billion degrees outside already.

After breakfast, I managed to convince Jim that driving to an even hotter city was a good idea. Our destination - Restoration Hardware Outlet in Camarillo. I had read online that their outlet stores are full of good stuff and everything in the store was an additional 20% off in honor of the holiday, so I thought it was a good time to check it out.

An hour later we arrived at the outlet sprawl and made our way to RH. Not a huge store, but it was jam-packed with all sorts of furniture, linens, lighting, hardware, etc. Right there in the front of the store was the outdoor chaise lounges I had been drooling over online. Granted, they were a different color, but they were heavily discounted and had no discernible flaws. We weighed the pros and cons of the color change, but ultimately decided that it would work out well in the backyard, so we snatched them up. They were delivered that afternoon and are now sitting all wrapped in plastic in our apartment living room. We can only imagine what the delivery guys were thinking dropping off outdoor lounge furniture to a place devoid of any outdoor living space. ;)

I also found the coverlet that matches the bedding set I have my eye on in the correct color/size for more than 60% off. I can't recommend this place highly enough. Sure, some stuff has flaws, but there is a whole lot there that is in beautiful condition for a pretty decent discount.

The rest of the day was spent packing. So exciting, I know. We opted for good 'ol Baja Fresh for dinner washed down with Framboise for me and Stella for him. By the time dinner was done, neither one of us had enough energy to walk outside and watch the fireworks across the street. Ah well, we heard them, which was plenty.

Saturday/Sunday:
Frankly, these 2 days blurred together for me. Jim had to go into the office and I spent the time at home deep-cleaning the second bathroom and the kitchen -- we really want to recoup as much of the security deposit as possible -- doing miscellaneous packing/organizing to break up the cleaning and several loads of laundry. Fun. I also managed to fit a 3 mile walk on Sunday and downloaded some new music to my ipod throughout the weekend. A marathon of Law and Order: CI and SVU episodes on USA as well as Center Stage (I love this movie!) kept me company as I puttered around the apartment.

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!

Odds and ends

I'm sure you will all be shocked to hear that we're still dealing with house stuff. :P Lots of packing and cleaning have been going on in the apartment. We also went in this morning to sign the loan papers, which is one step closer to closing. We're still on target to close on the 8th and at this point it can't come soon enough! We're ready to move already!!

I'm too mentally exhausted to write paragraphs that flow into one another, so I'll do the rest of this bullet-point style:

* Pictures of the new place are coming... just not for awhile. The listing with pictures is still easily found online and while it sounds crazy, I just don't want anyone in the internet world to put two and two together and figure out where we're living. If I know you IRL, I'll be sending you an email with pics soon. Promise!

* We spent HOURS looking at and measuring patio furniture this weekend. Frankly, I'm sick of it. However, I think we found something that will fit in the miniscule area around the pool, will be bright and summery enough to cheer up the current "concrete jungle" look of the backyard and won't put us into the poor house.

* As if looking at patio furntiure wasn't thrilling enough, we also starting looking at paint for the bedrooms, bathroom and basement. They are currently lovely shades like deep lilac, light orange, yellow and, my personal favorite, chartruse. Blah! Jim and I obviously see colors a bit differently, because even though we are in agreement that the rooms should be painted neutral colors, we still had issues deciding on the right shades of "white." :/ This one was too yellow, this one was too green, this one was just too... ew. Good times folks, good times.

* Our DVR at the apt has died. :( Although, I guess this is excellent timing seeing as how a) it's summer and there isn't all that much on tv and b) we're moving in 2 weeks. Although, it also means that I'm chained to the tv Wednesday nights from 8-10 and Thursday nights from 9-10 so I don't miss any SYTYCD. It's the one show I'm completely obsessed with this summer and they don't rerun the episodes or have them online.

* Speaking of SYTYCD, how great are the guys this season?!? I'm loving Josh, Will, Twitch and Mark so much! I'm also loving Chelsea, Kaytee and Carrington, however, I worry that I only love these gals so much because their partners are so amazing. Oh, and that lyrical hip hop routine that Chelsea and Mark did last week... I got goosebumps and almost started crying. Granted, the subject matter hit home, but still. So great. [I truly could go on and on about some of the amazing performances already from this season, but I'll save that for another post]

* I've had my eye out for a simple empire waist jersey dress for casual weekends for months. However, everything I try on is either too clingy, too short, makes me look pregnant, etc. I was passing by NY & Co. last week before dinner with my inlaws and remembered R saying she sometimes finds work clothes there. I popped in for a minute and while I didn't find anything for work, I did find the perfect (for me) summer dress and it was on sale! Sleeveless, flattering v-neck, can wear it with a regular bra, hits right above the knee, heavy enough fabric that it doesn't cling, straight enough cut that I don't look pregnant ... see, basically perfection! I picked it up in brown in the store and then proceeded to order 2 more online in bright summery colors. I kid you not, I'm totally living in this thing this summer. :)

So yeah, I guess the last couple of weeks haven't been all that exciting. I'm looking forward to getting all this house stuff settled and getting back to a routine of some sort. One more week, one more week....

Buying a house = Insanity

CW: You know Amber, you've been looking sad and tired the last few weeks.
Me: Yeah, we're buying a house....
CW: !! You don't need to say anything else. Totally crazy, isn't it?

For those of you who haven't bought a house yet, I'd like to post a PSA. It's waaaaay more work that you think it is. No really. From the time you sign that purchase agreement, it's nonstop activity. Inspections, appraisals, faxing and mailing paperwork back and forth, endless phone calls to a variety of people, the list goes on and on. Every day you sign a little more of your life away. It's all stressful and overwhelming, but in the end, I'm sure we'll think it's all worth it. For now, I'm just hoping for a full night's sleep sometime over the next few weeks.

Then there is the lending issue. Folks that are trying to buy a house today are paying, and paying dearly, might I add, for the mistakes of the past. That pre-approval letter with your pretty loan terms from the bank? Yeah, it's worth less than the paper it's printed on. Loan programs are changing daily with lenders, agents, and buyers often times not knowing which way is up from one day to the next. I wish I was exaggerating, but I'm not. And no, we're not the only ones dealing with this. We have several friends going through the exact same thing. I'd say all of us are well qualified to receive a loan with good terms (good income, credit history and savings), but the banks are making it more and more difficult to come by.

I realize this sounds like major whining on my part, but that's really not what I'm trying to do. Yes, we're lucky that we're in a position to buy a home in this market. However, I am so frustrated and at times, down right angry that we're being put through the ringer like this. Especially when just a short time ago the ridiculous practice of loaning people money with stated income only and crazy financing terms was quite common. Of course we're putting money down and no, we don't mind proving our income and reserves, but the hoops that we're being asked to jump through (an ever increasing down payment, multiple months of bank statements, etc) and still not being guaranteed anything is INSANE.

Okay, vent over. Well, at least for now. :/

On the upside, my mom was in town this weekend. We ate some good food, did some window shopping, hung out with my brother for a bit and then she was a doll and helped me start packing up the apartment. Our place is a complete disaster area right now and my routine is all kinds of messed up, but I know in a couple months, things should be back to [a new kind of] normal.

I'd say the saving grace to all of this is 1) everytime I drive up to the new neighborhood, it just feels like home (to me, that is almost priceless) and 2) I keep envisioning myself in the new kitchen and I get all giddy, kinda like a kid in a candy store.

Alright, back to more paperwork....

The weekend in purchases

Strawberries
Hubs was at the farmer's market on Friday afternoon and picked up a huge package of fresh strawberries. Mmmm! And what to do with those lovely little berries? Make ice cream, of course.
Wrap Sweater
After seeing how adorable Miss Diabolina looks in them on a weekly basis, I finally went back to Image and gave them another try. I originally didn't think they worked on me because they were so long in the front, but I figured I could have a tailor chop off the bottom. However, a salesgirl came running over when I tried it on, wrapped it up all pretty on me and well, I think it looks pretty cute! I bought one in off-white and am planning on going back next week to see if I could find one in a teal or pink. Later that night, we went out for drinks with Mr. Metro. I paired the sweater with a black slim fitting tank, dark jeans and lots of silver accessories. I felt totally on trend, but still like me. I have a feeling it's going to get a lot of use this summer and fall.

Food Processor
After weeks of looking at different models online, I finally decided on one that would match the rest of our appliances and was reasonably priced. Williams-Sonoma seemed to be the best price and I was just waiting for a free shipping coupon code and I then I was going to order it. On a spur of the moment run to Costco, I thought I'd just double check their appliances to see if they had one for a good deal. In fact, not only did they have one for $50 less than I was planning to pay, but it was the exact same model I originally wanted! I couldn't believe it!

Then, I turned around and saw the immersion blender I'd been eyeing for months for a steal. So, I scooped that up, too. Both pretty stainless steel appliances for less than the original price of the food processor. So awesome.
And to christen the new food processor? A reduced-fat cheesecake recipe from America's Test Kitchen. It looks pretty, but we'll see how it tastes tomorrow.
A HOUSE!
Seriously, we're still in shock. There is a lot more to this story, but the short version is we put an offer in on a house on Friday night and they accepted on Saturday. We opened escrow today and if all goes well, we close on July 8th. So exciting and crazy and scary and fun! Like most houses, there are some things that we're going to have to work on, but the thing I'm most excited about? The kitchen is much larger than what I'm used to, newly remodeled with a ton of cabinet and counter space and an island. !!! Words can't describe how happy this makes me! :D