Our morning at the County Fair

Thur. was our last preschool field trip for the year. (Happy Dance, Happy Dance!)

Over the past few months the class has been working on a garden project to show at the fair, making a vegetable garden in a wheel barrow. Then there had to be documentation of each step, showing the kids doing the planting, then learning about how the garden goes from seeds to veggies. The mom that does the music most classes taught them a song about plants and such. They did art and science projects about seed germination and plants. It's been busy, but the kids seamed to enjoy it.

So our first stop at the fair was to visit our wheel barrow:

Another part of the project was documenting the journey on a story board. The moms worked hard and did a great job on it. The top picture by the sun is Cody.

Cody thought it was cool to see it there, realizing he helped put it together.

Then we headed off to the livestock barn to see the animals. There were chickens, turkeys, sheep, rabbits and goats in the first section. The boys loved the rabbits, they had a bunch of different colored ones. Then while visiting the pygmy goats one of the girls brought out a young one for them to pet. He/she was a sweet little goat and loved the attention. From there we stepped outside to visit the cows, and to get a break from the stink. They were showing the cows so we watched for a moment. Then we saw the horses in the arena and moved on to watch. It would have been great, but it was very windy, so the more the horses moved, the more the dirt stirred, and it was in our eyes. So it was off to find a snack and get some relief so me the wind.

MMmmm, fair fries.

We were getting really close to the wall of grumpy/sleepy kids, so we attempted to find them some rides to go on, but no kiddie rides were to be found, or open. But luckily the carousel was running by the entrance, saving the day! The boys love the horses and had a great time.

It was a good time. I love the fair. I will probably make the crazy effort to go to the state fair this year, that or we'll just start traveling around to all the different county fairs, their more fun anyway.

Color Help!

After mulling over my kitchen some more I realized that I can't get the affect I'm going for with Formica counter tops. I fell in love with a kitchen at Home Depot, but they are using good Corian/Stone counters, it's a beautiful blue. Formica doesn't have my beautiful blue. So I decided that instead I would go with a creamy stone look on my white cabinets and paint the walls a nice blue. I've had the color for the kitchen picked out for a couple of weeks, but after going back to the store today to find a new counter top color, I'm confused!



Originally I wanted to do a this color scheme:


I love the brightness of the light blue, the cream could go onto the counters and the dark blue could be accents like rugs and towels, it also matches well with my white.


But then after mulling over the counter tops, I thought this might be the better way to go:


More of a steely, grey blue, still has a nice dark blue for accents, goes well with the cream and white.

What do you think?

Then comes the Formica counter tops. I narrowed it down to two, the colors are the same, at least on the samples from the store, online photos area little different. But I can't decide what design will look more stoney and better in general.

Arctic Terra

Pebble Envision

Both of the in-hand samples are more cream than grey, and the first one isn't so dark. But what I'm asking for is the actual design on the Formica.

Please post me comments! Leave them as anonymous and sign your name to the bottom if you don't have an account, and send your friends over.

Freakin' out the in-laws!

Side note... I decided to change the name of my blog, it fits better, it just took a while for me to get to it. Links will be the same because my link is just my name, boring I know!








So we road tripped to Ikea today to get a consult on our cabinet design. We've been mulling it over for the last few weeks, it's been a pain in the booty, but it's turned into a great space, so no complaints. Ikea's measuring guy is coming to the house Sat night to make sure what we have on paper actually fits in the space, if it's not going to work, he'll help us fix the issues. If all goes as planned I think we are going to buy the cabinets Sun/Mon, YAY!





Then we are moving onto the paint colors. There are A Lot of colors. I love it! Not a white wall in sight! See:

So my FIL is freaking out a little, but it's mainly because he admittedly doesn't have much of a mind for design type things. So he's having a hard time with the idea of lots of color. This weekend we are going to go to the paint store and buy the colors, then throw them up on the wall so that we can make sure that they work. I think we should just buy enough to fill up the walls and start painting, but he's moving on a slower pace. We'll hopefully be able to buy paint by Mon to catch the weekend sales, even at the paint store they are having sales.

Anyway, my brain hurts, too much figuring!

Monday, Monday, aahh aahh, ......

Not much new on the home front today. I moved the blog around a little and updated some stuff on the side. A couple more of the blogs that I frequent or that belong to new/old friends. Some are sad, some make you hungry, some give you strength and others are just there.

We have been redesigning the kitchen some more. I think my Rich (FIL) nailed it on the head. Judy (MIL) didn't think we had enough pantry space so we've spent the last couple of days huddled around the Ikea design software trying to fit in more space while keeping the open feel and not totally using up the dining space. The cabinets are going to stay arranged just as they are there now, the addition will come in adding a tall slide out cabinet to the left, where the island is sitting now, then we will make an L shaped island attached to that. For the couple of you that have seen the house, it puts the island part under the opening between the dining and living room. I measured it out today and it works well in the space.

Then we went over and met with a cleaning company to see if they could help us out at all. Apparently most of these places don't clean walls, so we are paying them a ton of money to clean the bathrooms, dust the baseboards, clean 1 ceiling fan, 2 sets of blinds and an oven. As much as I would love to have these tasks gone, it's just not worth it! So off to Walmart this week to pick up some good scrub brushes, buckets, gloves and cleaners. Then over to Lowes for some wall wash/prep stuff so we can have a good painting surface.

We should be closing this week, Wed/Fri. So my weekend will be cleaning and demo! YAY!
Sooner it's out, the sooner we can start painting, then adding a kitchen back, then flooring and finally moving in!

Crap!

I have to pack our house. Crap! I hate this part.

I came to the realization over the weekend that our house will probably be closing this Wed-Fri, and as soon as the papers are signed, we are going to start ripping things out, painting and putting thing back in. This also means that we are not going to have much time to do real packing at the current house. I need to get my booty in gear!


Mom and Dad came down this past weekend to visit. We took the boys and played mini golf Sat morning, it was hilarious and way too hot at 10:30 in the am. We ate out a couple of times, a treat we need to stop doing on such a regular basis (Ty can point out "taco", ie Taco Bell as we drive by them) It was good to see them, and show them the new house.

Okay, off to find our moving boxes.....

Ahh, the plastic pool....

It hit the 90's so we busted out the plastic pool today. It worked out well to fill it in the morning and let it sun for a while. By about 3:00 when they got in, Cody said it wasn't too bad, they played for almost 45m in the water, so it must have been fine. Summer's pretty much here!

Finally.....

So ever since the bank accepted our offer on the house a couple of weeks ago, we've been waiting for the house status to move to Pending Sale. Finally, today, it did! YAY, no more random people in my house!

I did go sit in the house, alone, to measure the kitchen today. Then I sat there with my Ikea Kitchen planner and went to work. Spent about 2 1/2 hours there with out realizing it! After that I went to Lowe's to price counter tops, found a lovely blue that will match my idea pretty close.
After getting back to my IL's to get the boys, my FIL found that you can plan your kitchen online. So he fired it up and tried to input it, of course it didn't work out the first time. But after getting home, and enjoying some nap time quite, I tried again and figured it out! I was able to put our cabinets in their correct places, the price it with the fronts and handles we like. Way Cool!

I can't wait to get going on this project! I've pretty much got the paint, floors, and kitchen planned. Once the borders arrive for the boys' areas, I can match my colors closer and we'll be ready to go. I'm nuts to want to paint the place on our own, but I hate spending money on things that we can do ourselves.

Now off to work on the bathrooms some more.....

Happy Birthday to me.....

Yep, it's here again, another Birthday has rolled around. It's been a pretty normal day so far, pretty much what I expected. But it hasn't been totally without celebration!

Last night we celebrated Mom's day and my B-day with Keith's parents. Dinner at the Spaghetti Factory (YUM!) then back to their house for ice cream cake and presents. I received some lovely gifts including a gift card to Ikea which will probably go towards a couple of prints and some small accessories.
My brother sent a gift card to Target that I hope to use for some new bath towels to match the new decor of our house.
Mom and Dad sent a card with my favorite thing, cash! So I was able to do some online shopping buying wall borders. This for the toy room, this for the boys' room, and these wall cutouts in the Out of This World print for the front bathroom.

Yep, most everything is for the new house, but it makes me happy knowing some things will be finished.

A camping we will go....

After spending a couple of weeks at work with his head spinning, and being secretly very disappointed about not getting to go to AZ this weekend for a CIFCA race, Keith decided we needed to get out of town and go camping this weekend. So we searched, asked around and finally settled on a place to go. We rushed around on Thurs and headed out of town around 3, drove a little over 4 hours and arrived at our campsite at 7:30. After stopping and snacking along the way we decided to forgo dinner and set up camp. Sleeping the first night went okay, the kids were a little excited, but everyone settled down pretty quickly. It was cold though, so probably around midnight, Ty came to cuddle with me. Normal sleeping for us, but he wouldn't stay under the covers, so I didn't get much sleep.
We woke up and cooked a warm breakfast, settled up our camping fees, and headed down the road to find the beach.


After driving into Fort Bragg for some gas we headed back to Big River park for a walk to the ocean. The boys couldn't wait to get to the water, so they of course set off running.
Between the dogs, birds, water, sand and whatever else, Ty spent most the time smiling and say Oh, water! He loved it!
Cody spent a lot of the time drawing in the sand, this one kinda looks like a butterfly, but it was probably a racetrack.

This beach was surrounded by cliffs and coves like this. On top of the cliffs were beautiful houses, yep we are already planning our retirement.

The next favorite activity was throwing whatever we could into the water, mainly the stones on the beach. It was a little too cold to get our feet wet, so this was the next best thing.

We headed back to the car to get out the sand toys and settled into a nice spot so the boys could play, I read a little and Keith took a rest. After our beach adventure we headed back to camp for lunch. Then we settled into a nap, they had a long night before and a busy morning, so naps came easy that day. I settled into the Vanagon to read through the stack of books that I borrowed from the library, home design stuff (Surprised I know) and fell asleep for a short but much needed rest. After our naps we walked out of our camp and crossed Hwy 1 to the Van Damme beach area. In the mornings this is a semi-popular cove for the abalone divers. It's a rocky beach, so not real great for sandcastles. We hung out for a little while, throwing more rocks into the water.

Once we headed back to the campsite, we started our taco dinner and the boys played with their bubbles. Keith built a fire, then broke out the s'mores. Ty had to help, so they roasted marshmallows and he was so excited to eat it when it was ready. Shortly after Cody said, "I'm ready for bed, we've had a long day." So we went with it. It was nice and relaxing to read bedtime stories around the fire, and then they settled right into bed.
We woke up the next morning, but I'm pretty sure everyone was lacking sleep because we had two very grumpy boys on our hands. So we had some breakfast and packed up our campsite, then headed off to find another beach. We first stopped at the Mendocino Headlands to check out the views and watch them dive some more. It was a grumpy trail walk for Cody, but Ty was finally getting into a better mood.
It was beautiful all around, the ground was covered in these flowers.
We looked down and watched them dive in this cove, one of the many busy areas.

This is how they would get down there, yikes!

We drove further down the coast towards Russian Gulch, but instead of going to the state park we headed to Casper Beach instead. It was an awesome cove that was sandy and warm, with very few people. The boys were excited to get their toys out again, so we stayed for a while.
After some pouting about not getting the right bucket and shovel combination, we walked down to the water to play. It was warmer out, the winds were way down, so I decided that getting our feet wet would be fun. Cody had a blast, in and out, splashing around.

Ty was more reserved, "You want me to do what? In the cold water? You're nuts!"
But we got over it and he had a good time too.

After playing a while longer we headed on our way back up the coast. We stopped to eat our lunch at the Point Cabrilllo Lighthouse. More beautiful views and a mile round trip walk.

We thought the tree growth was interesting, constant winds causing the trees to grow sideways.

The light keepers house is now a B&B, no phones or TV's, just peace and beautiful views.

We headed home after stopping here, 4 hours back and sleeping boys most the way. We can't wait to go again and try out other camp spots.

Happy Mom's Day to everyone!

Only 20 some days left....

The lovely hat Cody made for me to wear during the Mother's day tea at school.
He also drew a funny card and picked out an orange daisy to give me. I love him and we had a good time. I just wish we could take better pictures.

Yay for warm, sunny afternoons!

The last couple of weeks have been nice and sunny, so we've been spending lot of afternoons in the back yard. After looking into the sand box and getting quite disgusted, I decided to chuck the sand and fill it with water instead. The boys have had a great time with this, it's easy to dump it out when we're done, and I just fill it back up the next morning. I haven't been able to catch Cody outside, so just Ty pics from a couple of afternoons.

BOAT!

He's also become fascinated with the potty, he's yet to do anything in the potty, but whatever. We will probably do some concentrated work over the summer, but I'm waiting to be done with school and moving first.

Look at the Buddha Belly!

Fishy? (Because any bowl w/water must have a fishy too!)

Yep, there it is, our week so far.

House and Pest Reports, done!

Well, the process is almost done, at least they buying part.
Today was our house inspection, he walked around, in, out and on the house. Then checked all the plugs and this and that. Basically, every little thing was touched and looked at.
He was a great guy and answered any and all questions we threw at him. Then he quickly typed and sent over the report to us tonight.

Everything came back great overall. There are a few minor issues, but nothing screaming.

At some point the ex-owners built a external wood chimney to go over the metal chimney stack, it's poorly done and probably holding water, so it needs to go.

The sprinkler system is not working properly, pressures off, broken heads and the rear is completely disconnected.

At some point there was a water leak under the kitchen sink, so the bottom of the cabinet needs to be replaced. Problem here is the cabinets, top and bottom are wonky, and cheap. So it looks like we may just replace all the cabinet and counter tops. (Yay, dream kitchen done cheap!)

The bathrooms need a little attention with the old shower backings. We may replace the panels in the front bath and then re-caulk the back bath.


The positives were great as well.
The sinks don't leak, even when completely full, and the faucets don't leak.
AC/Heating was new in 03' and it both worked great.
Roof is fairly new and done very well.
Wiring and electrical is sound.
Attic has good insulation and now water damage to be found from anything.


So now FIL is working on paper work, finalizing thing at the bank and hopefully moving up the closing date. Our only hold back might be the pest report. It came back with some dry-rot issues on the outside. But in reviewing those today, they are extremely minor and nothing is structural. So as long as the bank doesn't require a cleared pest report we can let it go. But if we have to have it fixed first, it will delay things a little.

I'm Corn-fused!

So I've started the process of designing the interior of our new place. It's been great consulting my new book, The Color Scheme Bible but it has my head spinning with the possibilities of what we can do. Then after consulting the Ikea catalog, it has me wondering if my furniture set that I've fallen in love with will look right. I know the couch and chairs set will look right, in Idemo beige, paired with pillows like this and this. So that's the easier part. My question falls if whether or not the white of this furniture collection will fit in with the rich color palate that I'm shooting for. So we'll have to see.

In the front house there is a small entry, living room and the kitchen that has the dining attached. My current dilemma here is trying to find something that doesn't clash for the living room and kitchen/dining because there is a window/half wall separating part of the main space. I've always wanted to do a deep red room, thinking the living room would be great. The palate I found is somewhat Asian inspired, which isn't bad in itself, but when paired with an almost country style kitchen is a little eclectic for me. So Earthy tones, reds, then blues and greens from the same scale for the other room. I don't know!

The floor in the kitchen/dining is a darker, antique wood which has to be taken into account as well, because it's part of the only flooring that we are leaving in the house. I personally love it. Keith thinks if we continued it into the rest of the living area and hallway it would be too dark. I may still try some convincing. We are putting new carpet in the rest of the house, a neutral khaki/tan color (think the in-stock colors from Lowe's).

Then we move onto our bedroom and it's going to be a challenge as well. I know that we'll probably go for a blue palate with some chocolate and white accessories. The issues fall in the way the bathroom is connected to the bedroom. The sink/vanity area is in the bedroom, then the toilet/shower is within closed doors. I think I've found some palates that will compliment, but it's hard to tell. Accessories will be the key, rugs and things.

The boys' are going into one room, after thinking about it over and over, it's a surf themed room for them. So nice colors, probably a yellow and blue palate, with surf board highlights. Then add in some cool pics like this, that, and other beach black and whites from Ikea. Boom! Insta cool room!

Their bathroom, which would also be the guest bathroom, is also one of my new favorites! I found this company online and decided their Out of This World set would be perfect for two little boys. So I hope to get the shower curtain, clock and their wall stickers to create a boarder/accents around the room. Add in floor rugs in bright blue, back curtain, and some matching towels and their room is done.

The toy room will probably be a yellow palate with blue and wood accents. As well as the beloved Nemo and Cars wall stickers it will be a fun place to play. I hope to add in a new shelf or two so that everything is easy to find and has a place.

Our office is troubling me as well. In some ways I want to use orange or yellow to inspire creativity, but I also found another palate of blue that is meant to inspire clear thoughts. But non the less, I fell in love with this table top in the black/white print, but keep wondering if it may be too much activity. There is also this option that is part of afore mentioned beloved set. So we'll see. One thing we are doing is putting the computer in the closet, adding in some shelving above it, a great space saver! This also makes space for us to put in a sofa bed or futon for guest (yep, thinking about you too Mom!).


So that's been my day today, totally engrossed in my color book and computer, scouring this and that. Can I get started already?

Insert Happy Dance here..

We got the house! We got the house! We got the house!

I'm off to consult my new color scheme book and Ikea catalog!

HOORAY!!!