Spring Fever

I don't know what it is, but every springtime, it feels like the garden is calling me. I am not much of a green thumb, as you can see with our backyard renovation, I keep it sterile. The only time I really tended to a garden was 13 years ago, when we used to live in Antioch, CA. It came with a lush landscaping-- both front and back. It has a marvelous in-ground pool and mature trees. I loved that garden, I spent my weekends tending to the roses. I trim the hedges and made sure the lawn is manicured. We added queen palm trees on our front and backyard. I've enjoyed living in that house because of the outdoors. We have a pergola covering the built-in barbecue, which allowed us to eat outdoors most of the time.

One part of me wishes that we hadn't sold the property, but the wiser part me says I'm glad we had. Of course, this realization came now as my body is no longer as strong as it was. Since turning 50 last year, I have been trying to simplify my life, that is why there'll be no more back-breaking gardening for me. In addition, there is a drought problem here in California. So, my plan is to create a low-maintenance and drought-tolerant garden.

Aside from the three potted New Zealand Flax and one potted kangaroo paws that are now happy in our backyard, I have recently added three more pots. One small pot holds a mix of two types of kalanchoe-- one hot pink and one orange. It's placed next to the kangaroo paws. Kalanchoes are succulents, which make them also drought-tolerant. I plan to add more kalanchoes of diiferent colors--- white, green, yellow, and red.

Kalanchoe

The two identical bigger pots contain identical plants that are now placed on our front porch, flanking our front door. I have yet to find the tag that came with them so that I can identify these lovely plants. We bought them to welcome and keep our hummingbirds. I searched via Google images and did not find anything identical.

Hummingbird Love

It's been a couple of months since my last update on our home improvement projects. By the looks of it, there will be no additional major renovations that we have to do yet. A couple of weeks ago, we hosted my husband's 46th birthday celebration with his parents, siblings and their families, as well as, aunts and uncles joining us. We kept it small and private as usual. In preparation for that day, we organized and cleaned up the rest of the house, mainly the second floor. I will post the minor updates we've done there later. For now, I would like to share a wonderful thing that kept us a entertained.

On 4/5/14, while parking on our driveway, we noticed a hummbingbird nesting on one of our front-side bushes. Before that day, my husband pointed out that he had been seeing a hummingbird a couple of times flying in and around the bush. It prompted us to be more curious. Armed with my iPhone, I took some snapshots and videos of the hummingbird. When it flew away, we noticed there were two eggs. My daughter named the mommy hummingbird Adelaide. Everyday, we say hi to her and we wait patiently for the eggs to hatch. According to some reliable articles, it takes up to 18 days to incubate the eggs. Since we weren't sure when the eggs were laid, we're thinking we will see the babies in about a couple of weeks. Below is the photo collage from that day.

Eleven days later, 4/16/15, the eggs hatched! I am happy to report that the mommy and babies are all doing fine. See photo below!

Let there be Light! - Part 2 Family Room - February 5, 2015

If there is any room in the house that is in much need of light, it's the family room. Right now, it's like a dungeon. What makes it worse is that our furnishings from our former home are dark brown, so the room looks too dark even during the day. Since our home remodeling projects do not give us the budget to buy new furnishings, we can only add overhead lighting to brighten up the space.

Instead of purchasing online like we did with the dining room light, we decided to go to Lowes to buy a ceiling fan with light. To be fair to my husband, the family room is going to be decorated in his style, which is more of an Asian feel mainly due to his Samurai collection. So, when we went to Lowes, he saw a ceiling fan with light that has three blades that look like Samurai swords. We decided to go for it and bought it.

When the electrician came to install the dining room chandelier and the ceiling fan, we encountered a problem. The Samurai ceiling fan was grounded. We found out after it has been installed and the electrician was testing it. It seems to be a manufacturing problem. We even saw an old Lowes receipt inside the box, indicating that the item had been returned before. The electrician did not bother to check if it is in good working condition because the fan was brand new and came in a sealed box. Fortunately for us, the electrician is someone we know, so after he uninstalled the Samurai fan, he agrees to come back to install the replacement.

Before heading back to Lowes, I looked at possible options on their website. We found some good contenders, but not as great as the one we're returning. My husband was thinking of getting the last remaining box that's in the store, hoping that we just had a bad one; however, I told him that it's too risky because it seems the box was re-sealed. Not only that, I don;t want that we end up with another bad one and inconvenience the electrician the second time.

Returning to Lowes, my husband went directly to customer service to get a refund while my daughter and I look for a replacement. We looked for something that looked similar to the Samurai sword, but to no avail. Just as when we were going to settle for another 3-blade ceiling fan with light, my daughter pointed out a ceiling fan that's unique and asked what I thought of that design. I liked it! I can't believe I hadn't noticed it before. She told me she had seen it the last time we were there, but never thought her dad or I would like it. So, the only challenge is if my husband would like it too.

A ceiling fan that doesn't look like a ceiling fan!

Wow! My husband gave his seal of approval, which was a pleasant surprise! At $229, this fan may be $80 more than the previous one, but wow, it has a better look than the other fan, but would still work with the decor while providing the functionality we're looking for,

Family room without the ceiling fan.

family room after installation of the ceiling fan

We love this ceiling fan! It gives enough ambient light and has 3-speed fan. 

Let there be Lights! - Part 1 - Dining Room - January 31, 2015

We paused for a moment in redecorating the second floor to address the lights and lack there of, downstairs. I'm posting this in two parts-- one for the dining room and one for the family room.

Our builder dining room light is too bulky for my taste. It's actually pretty and, I'm sure, many of you would argue that it was sufficient. However, beautiful as it may seem, I feel that we can do better to make our redesign of the first floor more cohesive.

I have a confession to make, I really love watching HGTV shows, especially The Property Brothers. I love that their sense of style works well with ours. Their design style is best described as clean, sleek and modern. Not uber modern, not too traditional-- just the perfect style. And...it works for both sexes. I love looking at their finished designs with bright and airy feel. Open concept is definitely the new way to go.

One of my favorite is their use of modern style of lighting, especially those drop lights that have drum shades and crystals dangling below-- the blings! They make the space look brighter and classier. So, I looked online and found a beautiful chrome finished chandelier to echo The property Brothers' style within the budget we can afford. Fortunately, Amazon has a couple of styles below $200 that my husband, daughter and I voted on.

Shown below are the photos as posted on Amazon:

Option 1-

OOFAY LIGHT® Modern Elegant 4 - Light Pendant Lights ,chandelier lgiht with Crystal Drops in round feather living room ,dining room , bedroom.

 The light consists of materials that are mostly crystals-- from the drum surround to the drops. It has an option of black or chrome finish. It costs $159.99 and comes with free shipping direct from the manufacturer. The review on this one is pretty high. Most of the reviewers love the crystals the provide that sparkly, bright glow. This option seems to gravitate towards traditional, although more modern in style, due to the abundance of crystals.

Option 2-

Modern 4 Light Round Crystal Chandelier Pendant Ceiling Fixture, Chrome Finish

Like option 1, this light comes with either black or chrome finish; however, it has a more modern look due to the combination of cloth and abstract metal design on the drum surround and use of crystals only on the drops. At $186.99, which includes prime shipping from Amazon, it is a great deal. This light fixture garnered high reviews from Amazon reviewers.

There were other options, but I decided to narrow down to these two designs to make the voting much easier for the three of us. I kept going back and forth between the two that is why I needed the help of my husband and daughter. They usually trust my choices, but it would be good to ask for their opinion as well. After all, it is not just for me, but for the family.

And the winner is...option 2!!! It did not take long for my husband and daughter to decide which one to choose. I showed both pictures and they just exclaimed their choice at the same time. I am glad they made that choice as I was leaning more towards option 2 myself!

We avoid doing electrical work, even if it's only replacing the light fixture. It may be simple to some, but not for the fain of hearts like my husband and I. We leave the electrical work to the professionals. Fortunately, we got some help from our fellow church members, who are electricians by trade. 

Here's the picture of the "old" chandelier. It may be sufficient, but lacking in bling and character. :)

Builder grade chandelier

Here are the pictures of our new dining room light that hangs above our dining table. I hope you all agree that we made the right choice. :)

Light fixture dimmed down. 

Beautiful even when not lit.

Once lit, it sparkles like a diamond!

Putting it All Together - Interior Redesign of the First Floor - January 25 - January 26, 2015

The new floors made the room darker, which was expected since we went from a beige carpet to a dark brown floor. A redesign is definitely in order! Through the years, I have accumulated items that are in the sage and turquoise theme to complement the ivory, dark brown, tan/beige colors of majority of our furnishings. I'd like to continue with the same color scheme; but, I would need to add a few items to make the colors pop more, unify and anchor the space.

A-shopping-we-will-go!

I love shopping at HomeGoods, Kirkland, and Ross, which all have great items to choose from at discounted prices. Most of the items we already own were purchased from HomeGoods and Ross. I just started shopping at Kirkland, where I got my daughter's lamp. More on that later.

I am happy to say that I only needed a handful of items, which I purchased from Ross. I got a turquoise  area rug in Moroccan style to place underneath the coffee table to help anchor and create a separate area for the living room. At $19.99, it was a steal! Then, I found two throw pillows at $7.99 each to complement the rug. I placed one pillow in the middle of the couch and the other one in the middle of the loveseat.  In addition, I got a buffet lamp with silver stem and taupe shade for $19.99 to replace the aqua and beige table lamp that I moved to the family room. I replaced the lampshade of the new lamp with a white with a $5 turquoise lamp shade with graphic design that matched the pillows. All together, they unified the look! So, for less than $86 with taxes, I managed to brighten our living/dining room combo. Below are the photos. I hope you like the transformation just as we do.

Before and after. What a big difference an area rug and a pair of throw pillows make.

Photo shown with the slightly updated layout with the addition of rug, pillows, and new buffet lamp on top of the piano.

Our winter decoration. This shot was taken in December 2014. The same colors remain!

Out with the Builder Carpets! - January 23 - 24, 2015

The good thing about buying a brand new home, you have the flexibility to choose the finishes that you can live with. I say that with a bit of grain of salt because, at least for my family, it's something we can live with until we can afford to upgrade down the road. So, when we were choosing the finishes, we kept the upgrades to the minimum and opted for the builder's standards.

Fortunately, we bought our home when the real estate market was slow. After five years of being in a slump, it was still a buyer's market. To entice people to buy, the builder (Seeno, now known as, Discovery Homes) offered standard finishes that would, otherwise, be upgrades on other communities of new homes. To be honest, this isn't the first time we bought a Seeno home. This is our 3rd Seeno Home, so we know what we were getting into. On our two previous purchases, granite counters were  upgrades. Much to our delight, it isn't in this community. The dark stained cabinetry is also standard, as well as the double extra large stainless undermount sink in the kitchen. To top it off, the builders gave us some incentives when we chose to finance our home with their preferred lender. We opted to spend that money to get upgraded window treatments-- plantation shutters downstairs and white vinyl blinds upstairs,

The standard choices for the floors-- beige carpet and ceramic tiles-- were not too bad. We opted for the darker beige carpets and ceramic tiles that have grayish brown design to match the dark espresso wood stain of the cabinets. We have lived with carpets and tiles in our former home, so we were okay with that. Besides, down the road, we can replace those if and when we decide to.

Flooring Upgrade

Like most folks choosing standard flooring, the budget plays a huge role. Penny-pinching was a necessity in order to not exceed our maximum price point on our new home purchase. We did not want to finance upgrades for 30 years. So, we decided when we have extra money in the future, we will tackle the upgrades.

Plenty of foot traffic had put its toil on our builder-grade standard carpets. We have been contemplating on replacing them; but other, more pressing projects, had to happen first. So, this year, which is two-and-a-half years after we moved in, we decided that it is high time to replace the carpets on the first floor for the living, dining, and family rooms.

The choice-- dark stained handscraped laminate, which looks like the real deal, but cost much less, easier to maintain and, virtually, indestructible. The brand is Accents, color is Montreat Hickory, quiet walk underlayment. We opted for glossy white quarterround trim, but the transition pieces to match the floor.

Accents Montreat Hickory

We chose this finish to give the home a rustic look. It matches our espresso finished cabinetry and contrasts well with the existing ceramic tiles in the kitchen and fireplace surround. A darker, similar finish that of our cabinetry is also available and priced much lower than this option; however, it is too dark and doesn't have the rustic texture we're looking for.

We had them installed Friday-Saturday 1/23-1/24/2015, two days after ordering.

Before Photos:

Living Room/Dining Room - Before with carpets

Living Room/Dining Room - Before with carpets

After Photo:

Living Room/Dining Room After with new laminate floor - 1/24/15

Staircase Windows Privacy Blinds - April 23, 2014

Another late post!

Originally, we  opted to leave the two windows by the staircase bare because we love the way the natural light brightens up the space, giving it an open airy feel. However, when more houses were built and more people started walking in the neighborhood, privacy became an issue. It wouldn't have been an issue hadn't the windows face the hallway upstairs. It's worse at night when the lights are on-- people could see us walking in our hallway. Not that I particularly walk with my undies all the time, but, I do so on rare occasions such as when I forget to unload my clothes from the dryer.

We even strategically placed three matching vases on the lower window sill; but, to no avail. So, after a couple of years of having exposed staircase windows, we decided it was high time to address the issue. The challenge-- find a type of window covering that would give us enough natural light in the day while providing us privacy all day long. In addition, it has to, somehow, match the other window covers that are on the same side of the house, so that it is aesthetically pleasing to the eyes. Finally, it has to be easy to operate and maintain, which can be challenging to pull off since the windows are high and hard to reach.

The solution-- silhouette window blinds by Levolor. We had similar blinds on one of our former homes, located in South San Francisco. When we bought that house, the previous owners had installed them in the living room/dining room space, where the windows were high. One can operate the silhouette window blinds to open, close, draw up and down by using a wireless remote control.

We contacted Budget Blinds and scheduled an appointment. The following day, the sales agent arrived with a thick binder catalog, which has a plethora of options to choose from. We opted for the white with 2-inch slats to complement the upstairs window blinds.

After we finalized the order, the installation came after a week. Installation took only about half an hour.

We love our new blinds! Now, we can enjoy the natural light that penetrates through the mesh fabric of the blinds, while at night we close the slats completely.

                                                                        Before Photos:

The lower of the two windows is still too high to reach.

The higher of the two windows would be a nightmare to operate.

High windows by the staircase.

Exterior view of the two high windows. The need to match the other windows in terms of type of look of window covering.





After Photos

Levolor silhouette blinds by day...

...and night.