the house debate

The house we currently live in is our first home. Ive only ever lived 2 other places in my life. The first being my parents, and the second being our first apartment. All three places are within 10 mins of each other. Heck, the first and last are 2 blocks away from one another. Basically, i love the area we live in. Well.....technically I dont, not the exact area, but the overall area.

If you were born and raised here, like I was, there is a huge difference from living out east and living out west. Im an east girl. Hubs? Hes a west boy. Now, lets get a few things straight here, the distance between those places is no more than 30 mins from each other. Which isnt a huge difference. But the main difference, at least to me, is the closeness to the beach. I love the beach. I love being 5 mins from the beach. Ironically, i dont go to the beach often, but i feel more comfortable and at ease knowing its that close. Hubby, on the other hand, hates sand. Like despises it. Which is a huge reason I dont frequent the beach as often. Its basically a special occasion if he goes with (like Tortuga or this Sat when we take matthew for his first beach trip).

However, a major down side of being closer to the beach is that the price of homes is way higher. And the homes are older or brand new mansions. Basically, we either live in a fixer-upper or win the lotto. Ill let you guess which is our current situation.... But it was only natural for me to look in the area Im from when we were in the market for our current house. And when we found an awesome deal in the neighborhood I grew up in, i couldnt pass it up.

Fast forward 2.5 years. We are still in the same house. A house that has become our home. A fixer-upper indeed. Endless renovations for sure. Huge potential definitely. But, and Im being honest here, we didnt really put lots of thought into the whole family atmosphere. When I was growing up, sure there were kids everywhere you looked in this neighborhood. But its been 27years, and things have changed. The population of the city we live in is highly gay. Not that this is bad, it actually is extremely nice. I love my neighbors. Andplusalso, they maintain their houses way better than alot of the outer areas around here. Which helps in raising the value of the homes as well.

But with that being said, there arent nearly as many, if not any, children in the neighborhood. We live 3 blocks away from an elementary school and the majority of the kids attending are bussed in from outer areas. And I want my kids to grow up with kids. I want them to be able to go out front and play baseball in the street with the neighbors. Things that I used to do, and memories I cherish, when I was growing up.

Now the neighborhoods hubby grew up in are still currently family neighborhoods. Lots of kids. Lots of parks. Better schools. Cheaper, bigger, and newer houses. Its only natural for hubs to want to move back out west. And honestly, the idea is very attractive. Our friends actually bought a house in the area hubs would like to move to, about a year ago. And again being completely honest here? I am so jealous of their house.

So, what makes me bring this up, is we are currently trying to help my mother-in-law try to find a house. She just closed on the sale of her house in texas and is finally ready to start looking for one here in Florida. Of course, the houses in Texas are WAAAAAAYY cheaper and on ALOT more land. So shes having difficulty finding something in her price range that is as nice as her house was in Texas.

I offered to try and help find a few places for her to look at and hubs has taken her around our neighborhood as well. Well on Saturday while we were out looking at houses, hubs called one of the for sale sign numbers and was talking to a local realtor. Somehow he got into a conversation about our house and what she thought our house might sell for. And basically, if we finish doing what were planning on doing (enclosing the carport, remodeling the bathroom, & painting the house) plus with the stuff we've already done (new roof, renovated the kitchen, new tile throughout, new windows, carpet in the bedrooms) that our house could basically sell for double what we paid, thanks to the location were in.

So of course, the next conversation that was brought up was about us selling our house. Now dont get me wrong, ive known all along that this would most likely not be our forever house. And that we would probably only be here for a max of 5 years. But im just not ready to move. Yes I want a bigger house. Yes I want more room for more kids. But, i know that just because our house has gone up in property value, doesnt mean we will be able to find another house that fits our needs in the same area. I know most likely if we move its going to be out west. And as selfish and stubborn as it may sound, i really dont want to move out west :(

I dont see why we cant finish the house projects we have in store, and then continue living her for another couple of years. I mean technically, our lot is one of the bigger lots in the neighborhood. We have a huge yard. And its hard to find a big lot in this area. We could literally enclose our back patio. Add another patio. Add a pool. And still be perfectly fine with space. We could even add on additional rooms, whether it be a second story or on the sides, and make it our forever house. But hubs disagrees, and doesnt think its worth it to put in that much money when we could make double by selling.

Its a huge debate going on in our house. And in reality it shouldnt even be a debate until we get the aforementioned projects completed. However, its so hard not to browse Trulia for houses we could afford while helping my mother-in-law out. Maybe we will find another awesome deal and be able to stay out east. We shall see....

fridays letters

 

dear hubby, thanks for making such a delicious dinner last night, not sure why we dont do burritos more often?!?! i was even able to make a healthier version for myself without having to do a whole lot of extra work. maybe this will become a weekly meal idea!

dear matthew, now that you can fully sit yourself up from a laying down position, we decided it was indeed time to lower your crib. i knew this would happen sooner or later, but Ill admit, mommy may have gotten a little teary-eyed while doing it. Youre no longer my little newborn baby. Youre still my baby, and always will be, but now youre all sorts of moving and noise-making baby. ;)

dear floors, now that we've added another dog (not forever, just doggy-sitting my mil's for time being) you need to be cleaned even more often. Plusalso, if and when matthew starts crawling anytime soon i dont want him crawling on gross floors. So basically, can you just clean yourself?

dear diet, this week its not only my goal to exercise more at least once, but to also try hitting my "healthy checks" each day. So far this morning Im already doing pretty good, so lets hope this continues. Im going to go grab my multivitamin just as soon as I finish this post, so Ill be able to check that off too. Although, I will have to look up in the WW packets how exactly to get my daily healthy oil intake. That one has also stumped me, so I usually just ignore it, but not this time. I want to try and do my best with all aspects of WW.

dear video recorder charger, if you could please make yourself appear it would be greatly appreciated. I havent been able to charge the camcorder since I unwrapped it on Christmas morning because we have no clue where you are. And the battery is going to die any day now. I dont want to miss the chance of recording matthews first time crawling. So please, i beg of you, come out of hiding.

dear pale person that stares at me through the mirror, not only do you live in south florida, but you also have a membership to the tanning salon. it is absolutely unacceptable that you are so pale. you are in some desperate need of some fake sun. you know its bad when your 6 year old niece ask "leah, whats wrong with your legs?" me "what do you mean? (as i look at them)" jenna "why are they so white?" for which my sister bursts out laughing.......thanks. just. thanks. for. that.

dear hubby, because you and matthew always get two, i think its about time we finish start another house project. I know we could really use the space by enclosing the carport (which has always been on our list), but I think remodeling the bathroom is more of a priority. Especially since matthew is physically growing out of his newborn bathtub, and it just grosses me out that our actual bathtub has cracks in it. So much so that I refuse to put matthew in it for fear there is bacteria or mold or something that might be harmful.

dear matthew, your aunt denise has forewarned me to not make alot of plans this weekend, claiming that your next tooth is going to pop out sometime in the next couple of days. You only have 2 teeth right now, the bottom middle two, but a third on the bottom left looks and feels like its coming through now. please try to be a happy boy through the pain, i know it hurts, and mommy will try and do her best to ease the pain, but I cant make it go away completely. trust me, I think all mothers would if they could.

and as always, i will never leave you without a picture or two (sorry for those who have already seen these on instagram.

p.s. dont forget to go link up with Ashley for Fridays Letters

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THE kitchen

yes, that is  THE in all caps. Because if you dont know me personally Ill let you know that there is a long history with our kitchen (you can read a long drawn out story about it here). I wont get into all the boring details now, Ill just join in with the Lindsey from the Bargain Blonde and her home tour series to show you what im currently working with in my kitchen.

Now, when we bought the home the kitchen was something we knew we would eventually have to renovate. The cabinets are old (some dont even have doors) there was no refrigerator (i ended up getting an awesome deal on Black Friday on my dream refrig!), and of course the hubs being an ex-tile apprentice wanted to put granite and such in our kitchen. We also put it on our list as a top priority before we officially started trying for a baby.

This was the best pic I could get of the whole kitchen. Its very small, and as i mentioned before there originally was no refrig and Ill admit I didnt really measure anything when I bought the new one. So since I was away on my honeymoon when the new one got delivered my mom and the delivery guy had to figure out where to put the ginormous new one. Ending result? Only place to put it was in the middle of the room.

Since were constantly changing our minds on the design of the new kitchen, my father thought it would be a good idea to use blue painters tape to tape out where everything woulkd go on the floor. So not only do I have terrazzo flooring but I also have blue tape as decoration (FML). Oh and yes, my husband refuses to let me take the plastic wrapping off the refrig, god forbid it get any scratches or nicks on it before we have the new kitchen. I was actually ok with this when I thought the kitchen would be done in January, ITS.BEEN.7.MONTHS!

Moving on....

I realized while taking this pics, that if one of you were to come into my home and actually observe my kitchen, you would think i was a drunk alcoholic fine spirits connoisseur.

and really, i promise we dont drink that much .........

anywho. the next thing you would probably question is all the unopened boxes of kitchen appliances, silverware, plates, etc in the top shelves.

This is another one of hubbys "great" ideas. Like the refrig, he refuses to let us open and use all the wonderful kitchen utensils we got as gifts from my bridal shower. (Literally hubs freaked out when he realized i took the toaster out of the box to put in the bottom cabinet, because it wouldnt fit while inside the box. I had to promise to not "use" it) Now hear this one, the timeline is even further back than the plastic wrap. My shower was last September. That means everything has been in boxes for a good 9 months. :( maybe one day Ill get to use them. But thanks everyone for the wonderful gifts, they all get used alot, work great, are way better than our old ones, collect dust.

Some other random pics of the kitchen. You may see party invitations, thank you notes, arts & crafts made by my neice and nephew, pics, halloween decorations, pantry items, martini glasses, panini press, weight watcher snacks, etc, etc, etc... 

Now on to the fun stuff. Im not going to give away all my inspiration for our new kitchen (because that will be an entire post in itself), but I will leave you with this, 3 possible options we were given from the cabinet guy.

Guess youll have to keep coming back to find out which we ended up choosing.
Wanna share your kitchen? Id love to see different ideas to get inspiration from! Link up with Lindseys Home Tour Series!
 

my control station

Of course, Im way late with the post, but what else is new? Every Monday is supposed to be a link up with the sweetest barganista Lindsey and her home tour series. I know Im a whole week late, but better late than never right? And that just means my take on the series will last one week longer.

So you might be wondering by the title of the post which room were exploring today.  Last weeks room was either a spare bedroom or an office. And since I work from home, I figure what better to do than share my office, or as my friends call it "My Control Station." See, out of all my friends Im probably the most tech savy of the group, and a definite die hard apple advocate.
A little background on my job, I worked for a company right after getting out of college with the office literally 5 mins from my house. I worked there about a year and then the company was bought out by another company based in Boston. Unfortunately they dont have a office in Fl so we were all told to either move to one of their US locations or we would be out of a job. And well, you know us southern girls, we like to stay in the south, so I told them sorry, but "PEACE." I had till March to find a new job, so basically 7 months. Then the company realized, they had no one else to do my job, and really, there was no reason  I couldnt work from home. So 2 weeks before I got married, 1 week before we closed on our new house, they came to me and offered me a full time work form home position. SCORE!!! Conveniently, the office was closing the next month, and there were a few things in the office that our old owner had left and the new company couldnt claim, so our CEO called me and asked me if I wanted any. And this my friends is my Control Station.

Yes, you do see 2 computers. one personal and one work. The gigantic screen is what I inherited from the owner of the original company. Its mine free and clear. I additionally have a 3rd large screen in my spare bedroom thats not hooked up, that is supposed to be my "work screen" from the new company. But as I said, Im a Apple advocate, and the third screen is a dell (i know pathetic). The french doors we just put in less than a month ago. I love them!!!! They are sooo much better than the sliding glass doors that were inoperable, of course that is until the day we took them out and figured how to actually open them.

This view is looking the opposite way. The shelf I also inherited from the office. the door on the left opens to the backyard and the door on the right opens into the carport (eventually a hallway to a master suite). Of course Im showing some proud alumni swag with my FAU flag. The painting to the left of the shelf is actually a painting I need in college for my Painting 1 class. Its theme wa "Inside Looking Out" and shows the back patio and pool at my parents looking out their dining room window. Im so glad I chose that view. I cant count the number of times the backyard has been changed out there and love that I captured at least one of them.

I have another set of painting hanging on the opposite wall. Starting from the top, is a watercolor and ink painting that my Pop-Pop made before he past away. I actually never realized it until after he was already gone, that the boat in the painting is named after me, written small in ink it says "Lisa C." I had to have it and I have hung it in every place I have ever lived. The middle painting is a revisiting of a famous sisters painting (i completely forget by who as Im writing this). The third is a painting showing vantage point in a garden area at the college campus. The bottom 2 were painted in the painting class as well.

So that my friends is my "Control Station." I dont really have inspiration board for this room yet. Eventually when we close in the carport for an extra bedroom, this room will go back to what it is supposed to be: a dining room. Sorry again it was so late. Next week (or maybe if i get a chance this week) be prepared to see my Kitchen!

Want to catch up on my other rooms? (i know your dieing to! lol)

• my bathroom
• our bedroom
• the living room

What June 1st Means to all us South Floridians

So today is the first day of June (omg, June already?) and if you happen to be a south Floridian native like myself, then you know it means something else too. June 1st marks the first day of:

And the forecast doesnt look so promising. . . .

This years season is going to be a little different tho, seeing that we now own our first home. Growing up, Im not sure why, but I always looked forward to hurricane season. It was kind of like comparing winter for you northerners. Us southerners never got snow days, well, because we never got snow. But what we did get was hurricane days. Heck, in college, we actually got hurricane weeks. Yes plural. Hurricane Wilma took out the power for 3 weeks straight. And my college, Florida Atlantic University, had an "all-for-one" policy for their campuses. Meaning if one campus was closed, then all campuses were closed. And it always felt like we were Swiss Family Robertson, boiling water outside to take showers, grilling everything that was in the freezer for dinner or it would go bad, sleeping with every single window and door open (remember no A/C + SoFl = bad stuff), and playing old board games by candle light. Of course i think now there are literally like 4 generators between our family, so we do have the essentials when necessary (you know like Cell Phones, laptops, and blow dryers, the important stuff)
So in lieu of the official beginning of Hurricane season, I figured I would finally do my post on our new roof. (wanna catch up? go here, here, and here)
The roof has actually been finished since April 28th, but since Im a procrasinator Im just now getting around to posting about it. Surprisingly, once the work actually got started, the progress went very quickly. One of the company's partners was actually at my house on a Sunday afternoon making sure everything was finished before the final inspection happened.

tearing off the old roof

old roof gone

first layer of new roof

 

the dogs were in heaven inside the house
(because they werent allowed out back while the roofers were here)
(sorry about the inappropriate angle of the dog lol)

if my grass wasnt dead before, it sure is now :(

fixing the flat roof in the garage

And as usual, I saved the best for last:

We are soooo incredibly happy with how it all turned out. Our roofers did a great job. And weve gone through a few torrential down pours since and no leaks as of yet. Now all we have to do is decide on a color to paint the house. Neither of us are really digging the whole pink house thing.



p.s. and for those of you who asked about the armoir in the bedroom, lets just say my cat isnt just named after a character in the spiderman movies ;)

my boudoir

just a fancy way of saying my bedroom hehe

Linking up with Lindsey over at The Bargain Blonde again this week for part 2 of her home tour series.

Ill start off with a pic of what our bedroom originally looked like when we first moved in. (you can see our "works in progress" and before/afters of all our home renovations here)

Yes, the previous owners painted 2 walls one color and the other 2 walls another color. There was terrazzo flooring (unfortunately this is all through the house), and the closet had pocket doors. So, onto what it looks like now...

Fiji King Comforter Set: Bed Bath & Beyond

5 Piece Furniture Set: Rooms To Go

Lamps: Furniture Power

We ended up knocking out the closet doors and making the opening bigger. We havent agreed on what kind of doors were going to put there yet, so for now its just wide open and I try to keep it clean. We also put in carpet thats a light brown tannish color.

Mirror on Hubs nightstand: Ikea (hubs will be putting it on the wall behind the bedroom door eventually)
Closet System: Home Depot

So, now on to the good stuff...

Closet Division = 75% my stuff + 25% hubs stuff
(and yes, there are 7, let me repeat 7, pairs of jeans on my side, not including the 2 in the wash, what can i say? Im a jeans, tank, and flip flops kinda girl)
Hubs contribution to bedroom design = bass pro shops fish charm for fan chain

Inappropriate Armoir Note: at our old apartment the TV was inside the armoir, but it was an old tube tv, and at the new house it just stuck out into the walk way too much, so we decided to get a flat screen instead. But due to the angle the bed and armoir sit at, the TV has to go on top or my view gets cut in half. Therefore, it now houses anything inappropriate for parents, family, some friends guests to see......

1.  Watercolor paintings by yours truly :) 1 is of the restaurant I work at on the beach, the other is a popular street on Fort Lauderdale beach, Las Olas Blvd
2. Rugers chair - yes our dog has his own chair in our bedroom, i know it is horrible, but i would much rather him sleep there than on the bed with us (which he prefers)
3. Jewelry box hubs got me one christmas from Bombay Co
4. Feather Boa from another themed bachlorette party (yes, we like to PARTY!)
5. random pics from wedding and concert
6. my garter from our wedding around my absolute favorite yankee candle: Christmas Cookie
7. 2 jars for change- one has only pennies the other has all the silver. The moon one i actually painted at a Joe Picasso's back when I had money to spend on whatever lol
8. One of many cowgirl hats I have. this one I made the hubs best friend buy me (and another one of my friends one too) at a country concert.

And since my closet has no doors and is already packed to the brim in as much organize chaos as can be expected, the small cabinet in my dresser is filled with purses (oh yeah did i neglect to mention that i am a shoe and purse freak) they range from target, avon, coach, old navy, you name it...
Oh and thats Ruger sitting in his chair. :)

My inspiration board for this room is really just things I might want to add to the room considering the majority of the room is complete already. Just need to decide on closet doors (I want mirrored, hubs doesnt), maybe a few more wall decorations, crown molding, and window treatments.

So thats where all the magic happens (am i allowed to say that?) Your turn, link up with the rest of us here.

Stinky ol' bathroom

So after touring some amazing bathrooms, and being so completely jealous of how nice they look. Ive decided to link up with Lindsey from The Bargain Blonde with her Apartment Tour Seriers and let you in on the reality of most my bathroom. Im a little late in posting, I think were supposed to do a tour of a room in our house every Monday, so Ill make sure to be on time next week. (I know, after this post, youre probably thinking "Yeah...Right....")

Please, lets all remember, that when we bought our house back in November, it was in "as-is" condition as a foreclosure. Basically, that means every room in the house needed work in some way or another. (great potential, long progress schedule)

Yep. Thats it. Unfortunately it is the size of basically a small walk-in closet. :( Currently its our only bathroom. Our plan is to eventually close in the carport for a third bedroom, office, master suite with the addition of a master bathroom.  And yes, if youre actually paying attention and know anything about bathroom layouts, you would realize that the sink/vanity and the toilet are in the wrong spot. They should be flipped. But because they are positioned like this, there is literally like 2 inches between the cabinet and the bathtub. Which makes this scary dark hole that never gets cleaned (i know eeewww) Im quite hesitant to even look down there. Specially since I dont like roaches and in my mind this seems like the best hide out for them.

I wont lie. I did clean up before I took the pics. But figured since the bathroom is already horrendous I didnt want to scare you guys away too much.

1. Bath and body works foaming antibacterial soap. I think Im the only one who actually uses it, considering its been next to the sink since before we moved into this house
2.  Glade candle - to make the bathroom smell pretty
3. Febreeze air freshner - again to make the bathroom smell pretty (no need to go into details but a girl needs backup after the hubs uses the bathroom, specially with no vent in the worlds smallest bathroom)
4. contact stuff - Dr. says Im going blind :(

Moving on.... the medicine cabinet (sorry ladies, no crazy pills for me, at least not yet, check back with me in a few months years)

1. tweezers
2. tweezers
3. tweezers (yeah.. ask me why I need three pairs? dunno)
4. smashbox photo finish - foundation primer, got this from a close friend, absolutely love it. it makes your skin feel soooo soft. i normally put it on before i apply makeup
5. biore strips - hubs actually asked if he could try one the other night, wish i wouldve gotten a pic of that
6. mark "get a tint" tinted moisturizer lotion - my sis sells avon (order online here) and i use this instead of foundation. I dont like the feel of foundation on my face, it gets itchy. so i actually take a dab of this and mix a little lotion so it goes on smoothly
7. more avon stuff - lotus shielf frizz control - if you straighten your hair (and if you dont) i highly recommend using this. I use just a small dab after the straightener to get the frizzes down and make my hair shine (be careful tho, too much and your hair looks oily)
8. Melting Pot Lotion - who knew my fav restuarant had lotion? not me. got it in the little goodie bag when we went for valentines day
9. nailtiques - makes my nails strong :)
10. not 1, but 2 additional contact cases on top of the one you saw lying on the countertop

 The shower/tub isnt something to be proud of. I guess the whole bathrooom is that way tho. Note to everyone: the bathroom will be demolished. The yucky yellow and green/blue tile will be replaced. (kitchen first though people!) And yes, i do separate my shampoos, condidtions, and body wash from hubs'. If not then he tends to try and use mine, which obviously are more expensive, and i dont want him using up all the good stuff (sorry babe). Oh and the hair brush sitting in the shower? usually filled with hair. anyone else have this problem? Hubs says i shed worse than our dogs. every couple of months he has to unclog the shower drain due to my hair. (again sorry babe, but you know i love you!)

1. 1/2 wall cabinet - i hate this thing. when we redo the bathroom it will be closed up so that the other lower 1/2 wall cabinet in the hallway can become a full linen closet
2. turbie twist - anyone with long hair should go buy this PRONTO, you'll thank me later ;)
3. yet to be unpacked toiletry bag from my new york trip
4. again not 1, but 2 nail polish removers (i think im trying to do the whole extreme couponing thing where you stock up, it just doesnt seem to be working that well for me)
5. playboy indoor tanning lotion (yes, i fake bake, and i live 5 mins from the beach, its sad)
6. hawaiian tropics outdoor tanning spray (for the few trips i make to the beach when i actually have time)
7. makeup box full of makeup, unfortunately since its such a large box and no where to put it except in the back of the stupid 1/2 wall closet, i dont use much of whats in there)
8. multiple hair styleing tools (blow dryer, straightener, curler, mens shaver)
9. hubs' hair styling products (i dont like putting anything in my hair except for the frizz control, but my hubby can go through bottles of hairspray)

And last but not least, Im going to add to Lindseys series idea, and try to include my inspiration board for how i want all the rooms to turn out once were done with renovations. So here is the stuff for this bathroom. (we actually already have alot of the stuff, except for the cabinets, but hubs wont let me use them until we redo the bathroom)

So now that you know way too much about my bathroom, how bout sharing yours? Link up with the rest of us here.