Night of pizza, cupcakes, and home decor web surfing

We were suppose to spend the summer figure out all the renovation details and hire a contractor, begin the actual home renovation process around September, and have a grand launch party around Christmas time.

We've been slacking.

Tonight, we holed ourselves up in our apartment with pizza, cupcakes, and our two computers, Happy Meal and McDaddy, and attempted to make some more progress on renovation decisions.

Sean cooks; I take bubble baths. A few weeks ago, we decided to tag team on this renovation effort. Sean focuses on the kitchen; I focus on the bathroom; we review recommendations with each other and voila, decisions. This approach is actually working.

For the bathroom, we've narrowed down choices for a lot of the items. For some reason, it always comes down to two choices and we're at stalemate - Sean prefers one; I prefer the other: sinks, faucets (see below), medicine cabinets, tiles, the list just continues...

Lily's faucet vs. Sean's faucet

I like to think that we both have okay taste and a reasonably good sense in decorations; I guess in the end, whatever we decide, it'd be a vast improvement over our current bathroom... and I get to take my bath :)

Farewell, my tool box

Chinese Laundry. Yes, it is a shoe company (very cute, comfortable shoes!), one of the shoe boxes has also been my "tool box" for as long as I've lived in an apartment... since 1996. It was the perfect size for my little tools, nails, and tape measure. I even had a stud finder.

Today we decided to organize one of our closets. We started with our tool closet. All the items in my Chinese Laundry box fit into one of the existing boxes we've already had... all the tools went in the real tool box; all the nails went into the real nail box.

It makes sense and decluttered the closet with one less box, but saying farewell to my Chinese Laundry box was a sad moment. It was one of the last items leftover from my single days. I put it in the recycling bin... so hopefully it'll be reincarnated as something equally as fashionable and useful.

Everyone should jump on the modular band wagon

Our current bathroom is quite hideous – for those of you who have seen it, you know what I’m talking about:

- peach walls
- hole behind the light switch
- medicine cabinets with the shelves that are always falling down
- leaking, but unfixable toilet
- moldy-looking ceiling that's actually not mold
- icky and VERY HEAVY shower doors

The list just goes on and on. Sean and I decided that we’re going to gut the entire bathroom as part of our fall home renovation project.

We love the look of a pedestal sink, so we went sink shopping!

It sounds so fun and so easy, doesn't it. Hah! "home renovation" and "easy" are two terms that do not match.

We manage to find a sink that we love... except (you know there was going to be an "except") the basin and the pedestal are from two different models.


I emailed Kohler to see if the parts were interchangeable (one can only hope) and they responded today and said No "...all of our basins and pedestals are designed to fit together a certain way and are matched as such..." Isn't a modular approach more cost-effective for them?!?!

Well, at least they returned my email.

Duh... just Flickr it!

We're planning a fall home renovation project. This is THE big project with gutting the kitchen, gutting the bathroom, and if there's still money leftover, paving a hallway through our living room and converting our apartment into a true one bedroom.

We've made countless trips to the local bookstore to browse through books and magazines. I've been surfing various web sites to get information on hiring a contractor 101, everything you need to know before you begin a home renovation project, and the best part - browsing for ideas. The latter has been difficult - have you seen the "before / after" projects in the magazines - I mean, are they for real?!?! Do people actually have those kitchens & bathrooms in their homes?!!??

I saw a posting today about home renovation projects on Flickr. Curious, I hopped over to the site for a look. OH MY GOSH!! There's a wealth of inspirational ideas. What's even better - these rooms actually look real.

Now I know... when I need home renovation / decoration ideas, I'll just Flickr it!

Meet Mo

Hello. This is Mo. Mo has been with us for a week now. When we come home every night, Mo is always there - our little touch of nature.

Mo didn't come with instructions. I'm a little worried because Mo's starting to get yellow/brown spots. Why the spots!?! Is it because it needs to have indirect sunlight? Does it need more water? Less water? Food?

When we lived in Austin, we had a fern named Herb. Herb was a bit sickly, but he always managed to make it to another day. When we went on our honeymoon, my mom took care of Herb. In 3 short months, Herb blossomed. He grew taller, he sprouted many more shiny, green leaves. We didn't recognize Herb. Lucky for Herb, we decided to leave him with my mom. I say hi to Herb whenever I visit the folks. Herb is very happy right now.

At this rate, Mo may need to join Herb.