Well, Well, Well

Did I tell you we finished the window wells?  (I don't know if that's what they're actually called, but I'm too tired to look it up.)  And of course by "we", I mean Craig and dad.  We've been staring at the unfinished ledges for a few months now and it was time to finish them off.  I think they turned out great for a couple of rooks like us:

It's a bit hard to make out the details from these pics, but the ledges are actually quite deep.  I'm thinking I'll add some greenery up there in the form of some plastic foliage (gasp!).  Let's face it: I won't want to keep watering them (I'm a notorious plant killah) and, really, who's going to be looking at them that closely?

Now here's the hard part: any ideas on how to add security features and still make the window look nice??

Mission Impossible: Front Hall Closet

Everyone will tell you that you should never start another project without finishing the first one.  But that's not how we roll around these here parts.  I'm exceptionally good at having a "brilliant" (to me anyway) idea, starting it, and then coming up with another idea and running with that one.  And poor Craig is left to finish my projects or get recruited into whatever new thing I'm working on.


So we had started Project: Organization in the kitchen, but I'm not going to share pics of that just yet because we haven't actually done anything yet except take stuff out of the cabinets and put them in "piles" around the living/dining/kitchen area.  We actually haven't had a chance to work on the kitchen since Monday because we've been getting home really late these past few days.  Then wouldn't you know...BAM!!  A new idea hits me and I want to start working on the front hall closet.  I promised Craig that I wouldn't start working on this project just yet, but I thought I'd share what we're up against.  Behold, our front closet:

Ignore the lunch containers in this photo.  They didn't make the cut in the kitchen, so they're sitting at the front door, just waiting to be shipped off to their new home.  Not too shabby, right?  I'm not a huge fan of the mirrored doors, and I'm even less of a fan of the bifold doors, so they are going to be the first things to go when I have my way with this space.  And just what do we have inside besides your typical coats/jackets/storage bins?  This mess:

This is our current hiding spot storage space for the following: our reusable grocery bags, my purse(s), camera bag, coats we never wear, backpacks, swimming goggles, badminton racquets and shuttles, a volleyball and a couple of exercise weights.  Not sure why we didn't just hide this stuff in the other closets around the house.  I guess we thought we'd keep this junk at the door, you know, in case we go out and maybe want to bring a volleyball along.


Now most of the sporting equipment will find a new home in the garage, but since that's still on the to-do list as well, we're going to clear out the space and start from scratch.  I have a feeling that a lot of the things you see (or maybe can't see because they're crammed all the way in the back) will be showcased in our garage sale this summer.  It will be nice to reclaim the space!


As for the doors, we'll be donating those to our second favorite place in the world: Habitat for Humanity ReStore.  We've already donated a bunch of stuff to the ReStore (and a few things have made their way home with us as well).  So it will be nice to donate them and replace them with...(drumroll please)...regular doors!  Shocking, right?  I know, we're so cutting edge.  I'm hoping that by having two side-by-side doors, we'll be able to access the dark recesses of the closet and better utilize the space.  And we'll still include mirrors on the doors so we can check ourselves out before we leave the house (which I actually never do because we're usually running out the door and then I'm usually stuck wandering around the office with really bad bedhead for most of the morning).  A couple of doors, a set of mirrors, pretty baskets and maybe even some wallpaper and I might just move in!

(And I know what you're thinking.  I should just quit my day job and become a professional photographer because I am just that good.  What can I say?  I'm a slow learner.  I'll get better...I hope!)

Mission Impossible?

We're finally getting some springlike weather around here!  With the sun finally shining, it's time to roll up our sleeves, get rid of all the junk and scrub this place clean.

If you know me, you'll know that I'm a huge fan of organizing.  I love seeing spaces in magazines with lots of pretty boxes and storage containers (even though I don't really believe people live like that everyday, do they?!).  I love when there's a place for everything and everything has its place.  Sadly, though, I'm not a good organizer.  I'd even admit that I'm actually quite disorganized (although I was once told that disorganization is a sign of creativity, which I'll always use as my excuse defense).  I always have grand plans to get myself organized, but my version of organization is more like organized chaos.  Sigh.

The only time we were really ever organized was when we were selling our condo and half of our junk was in storage.  A trip down memory lane...

It took us a few tries (and several trips to Ikea) to finally get a setup that worked for our small pantry/laundry room, but we were really happy with the result.  (Seriously, this was no small feat for me to accomplish!)

 

Can you believe that we built these built-ins?  And that we made them at my parents' place several blocks away and lugged them over in pieces???  I remember clearly praying that they would assemble correctly (Craig was sweating bullets too because he knew if they had to fit or else).  I guess the old saying "measure twice, cut once" really is true, although in our case it was more like measure thirty times, cut five :)

So we've done it before and we're attempting to do it again.  With a little bit of work, we're going to get the Loveshack 2.0 organized.  It'll take a lot more bins (sorry Craiggy!) and a lot more patience, but I think we can get through it!  First room on our list: the kitchen.  I'll give you all (all three of you, I mean..haha) an update soon!

The Five-year Plan (5YP)

When we moved into the house, we were so gung-ho to convert this humble abode into the Loveshack 2.0.  Yes, we were the naive first-time "houseowners" who thought it would only take a year to whip this place into shape.  Of course, we should have known better considering it took us three years to finally make the condo feel like home and that was a measly 880 sq. ft.

we came up with the five-year plan.  Here are the things we hope to accomplish before 2014 (gawd, do I feel old):

Move the laundry room to the basement and convert the old laundry closet into an office.  People thought we were nuts to move the existing laundry "room" all the way to the faraway land known as the basement.  Since we're in a bungalow, it would have been extremely convenient to have the washer and dryer right next to the master bedroom.  But I like to air out my dirty laundry all over the place.  There's no way this little hole-in-the-wall would have been able to handle it all.

We've completed about 50% of the laundry room and I'll share where we're at in future posts.

Update the kitchen.  Cons: pink flowers on the tile and linoleum, super inefficient 80s appliances, pink ruffly window treatments, dated cabinetry and not-so-great countertop.  Pros: Great layout with an eat-in area, and all of the above!  What's not to love about this kitchen?  We could really see the potential when we first walked in.  We're really looking forward to giving this room a much needed facelift.

Create a workspace in the garage.  After three years of single-stall surface parking, we finally have a garage to keep the cars (and all our junk) nice and dry.  It currently houses a ton more junk (I swear our stuff multiplies when we're not looking).  It will be nice to have an organized place for everything.

 

 

Update the bathrooms.  Both the main bathroom and the master ensuite had great layouts.  We'll just be focusing on updating the fixtures.  In a major way.

Main/Guest Bathroom:

Master Ensuite:

We've redone about 95% of the main bathroom and are just working on injecting some personality into the room.  With the exception of swapping out the ginormous toilet for a low-flow model, we haven't even started thinking about what we're going to do in the master ensuite.

Give the fireplace mantle a facelift.  A lift here, some new tile there and she'll be ready for her closeup.  Maybe then we'll finally face our fear and finally light the thing.

 

 

Renovate the basement.  The job that actually requires a sidekick (aka Dad).  Considering we've been in the house just shy of two years, we've already added an extra 1,200 sq. ft. of living space.

Redo the deck and snazz up the landscaping.  Okay, pop quiz.  True or false: All little old ladies love to garden.  In our case, false (or at least it seemed that way when we first moved in).  We're basically starting from scratch when it comes to our landscaping.  I'm thinking a couple of square-foot veggie gardens, a low maintenance flower garden and some new trees.  I'll have to enlist my own sidekick for this project (aka Mom) as I have no idea where to start and I've got the biggest black thumb there is.  Also, the deck needs to be redone because I almost stepped right through it last summer.  It's an accident just waiting to happen...

Miscellaneous.  We've also got your standard smaller projects too, like updating the fixtures and changing out some flooring, but these are the bigger projects that we'd like to tackle for now.  We've already started on some of these, and I'll post updates as they happen.

I'm glad we were able to give ourselves a real working timeline for all of this work.  It gives us the time to live in the space and get a feel for how we want to make it work for us (and to save up for all of the projects we want to complete).  I also have tend to compare our place to those of my favorite home decorating bloggers and then beat myself up for not having spaces that look as glamorous as there's do.  But then I have to remind myself that we don't live in those spaces and we just have to love where we live.  I've finally learned to embrace the perfectly imperfect, which pretty much sums up this little loveshack.

Living Room Refresher

While Craig and dad are busy finishing my our laundry room, I've been looking for projects I can tackle around the house.  Don't get me wrong, I'm welcome to help them out in my soon-to-be sanctuary, but I've learned that sometimes it's better for everyone if I'm around only when they need me :)

One of the things that's been on my to-do list is the living room.  It's still a work in progress, but we've come a long way since we first moved in:

So far, we've replaced the granny sheers with roman shades from Rona and cheap curtain panels from Walmart, and painted the formerly rose-coloured walls a sunny yellow.  And with the basement being livable, we were able to move some pieces downstairs and bring some new pieces in.  Here's what we were working with as of last weekend:

{ Just ignore the loveseat.  We're looking into getting a couch when our little piggy bank is full again. }

I could finally see we were getting somewhere.  But it was missing something.  Do you see where?  I'll give you a little hint.  It's over here:

I figured we could find a console table that could help fill up the space and corral all of the mail/paper/flyers that make their way into the house with us and end up on the dining table.  We decided that an Ikea Malm dressing table would fit the bill perfectly.  Not only were we able to score this table in white (which still doesn't show on the website for some reason), it was also $20 cheaper than the others!  (I told Craig to open the box carefully in case it was a mistake and we had to return the thing because it was just too good to be true.)  We also picked up an extra storage ottoman from the greatest place on earth (aka Superstore) to match the one we already had: 

{ Best buddies. }

Not a perfect match, but I actually like the fact that they don't look exactly the same.  So after some  assembly, here is the space all put together:

Since mom told me that our place was "devoid of any personality" (okay, maybe not in such harsh words), we thought this would be the perfect spot to make the space a little less impersonal.  On that same trip to Ikea, we picked up a few more frames to add to those collecting dust in our junk room.  After that, we just had to do the following:

a) figure out a layout;

b) cut out templates and tape them up to the wall;

c) whip out our handy Hang-and-Level (seriously, this is the best thing ever for picture-hanging-challenged people like us);

d) and stand back and admire our hard work!

Easy peasy, right?  I wish!  I think it took us a day to do this whole project, including buying and assembling the furniture, and enlarging the photos.  But we think it was worth it.  We love that it includes pics of our family and artwork that we love.  Now on to find other places around the house to put up another gallery wall!

PS: I know the pictures are slightly crooked and I will straighten them later.  

Christmas in February

And we're back!

(One of my goals for 2011 was to write one blog post a day, but here we are on February 2nd.  Oh well.  I'll get the hang of this soon enough.)

Our lovely friends gave us one of the most thoughtful Christmas gifts we've ever received.  It just arrived today, so that's why I'm only blogging about it now.

Such as big box!  What could it be...

Why, it's what every good Filipino household needs: a giant fork and spoon!  Funny thing is, my parents had a set when I was growing up, but I thought the whole idea of them was tacky.  But since Craig and I got married, I've been looking everywhere for a set of my own.  (Sadly, mom and dad got rid of their set when they moved.)  I had mentioned it to the Tsangers months ago (what great listeners!).  Now the house is complete! 

This set is so beautiful.  And huge!  Here's a shot to give you an idea of the scale we're working with:

We've got big plans to spruce up the kitchen this summer.  These will be the icing on the cake!  Well done, Tsangers.  Well done :)

Daily Dish: Passionate Palmer

It's a scorcher today in E-town.  It got up to 32 degrees this afternoon and now has cooled to a "balmy" 24 degrees.

To celebrate the summer weather (finally!), I thought I'd whip up a few batches of the Passionate Palmer recipe.  I've never actually had the Passion Tea Lemonade from Starbucks, but the picture looks so tasty on the victory square blog that I just had to try it out for myself.

I'm going to have to make a few modifications to the recipe thanks to living in a town with hardly any "non-chain" grocery stores.  Like using good ol' Minute Maid lemonade (frozen) instead of the Organic Santa Cruz lemonade.  I suppose that's the only modification.  I'm also going to have to dig deep down into my pockets to get the Tazo Passion Tea.  I can't seem to find it at any of our grocery stores, so I'll have to bite the bullet and pay the whopping $8.95 at Starbucks.  Hopefully the Passionate Palmer is as good as I hope it is.  I'll post pics of my version later tonight.

Update: Here's our version of the Passionate Palmer.  Mmmmmm...the Tazo Passion tea was worth every penny!  (Good thing I never got hooked on the Starbucks version!)

Daily Dish: Roasted Chicken

Sunday's dinner was a roasted chicken a la Jamie's Food Revolution.  I made this entire meal myself (which is quite impressive since I rarely handle meat products...I'm the veggie cutter!).  It was incredibly easy to make and it required very few ingredients and very little prep work.  Here's my first roast chicken dinner:

The chicken was a hit with the parents!  The (almost unanimous) verdict:

(Dad originally gave it 3.75, but since he ate most of the chicken, we decided to discount his vote.)  This meal is highly recommended (and will be our Sunday night dinner from now on)!

Say Hello to Our Little Friends

So here is our new dresser set thanks to a coworker's dad!

The dresser:

Side table:

And my absolute favorite (and what actually sold us on the set), the chiffonier/tallboy/highboy/chest of drawers:

This was the brand found in one of the drawers:

(Any idea who the maker is?)  The whole set is beautiful and was too good a deal to pass up.  Plus they are pretty much solid wood (with the exception of the laminated tops), so they're built to last.  We're thinking of spraying the pieces antique white and then maybe highlighting the  details with gray paint.  I had declined getting the original missing handles, but now I've fallen in love with them and would like to spray them a rubbed bronze colour.

I can't wait to start working on cleaning up these pieces!  So what do you think about our newest fix-it project?

Daily Dish: Broccoli and Pesto Tagliatelle

Our first meal from the new cookbook:

You can't really see it well in the pictures, but Craig made the best garlic bread I've ever had.  Ciabatta bread + butter + garlic = heaven.

We also decided to splurge and try out a new kind of wine to kick off the start of our cooking adventure.  We chose a bottle of White Bear Sauvignon Blanc, which turned out to be really good (we actually only got it because it was on sale...a common theme for us!).

We love that it's a Canadian wine right from the Okanagan Valley and that 15% of their sales are donated to supporting marine and rainforest conservation.  Tasty and green!
 
In the end, the verdict was unanimous:

 

We actually gave it 3.5 forks out of 4 (there's always room for improvement), but since there's leftovers for lunch tomorrow, we had to give ourselves bonus marks, which pushed the final score to 4.  Definitely a recipe to pass on!