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March 30, 2012

To Do

This girl needs to get back on track. Our life has been taken over with "life" and I just can't keep up with laundry let alone doing anything extra!

Here's my weekend to-do list:

Paint over all the patching in every room

Hang the gold flowers over the bed

New bedside tables / figure something out for the current ones

Recover the rocking chair (using same fabric as kitchen bench?)

Make new pillows for the living room

Make King sized shams for the bedroom

Re-do the lamps in the garage

Finish putting down the Flor tiles in the Garage

Big/Expensive Projects

Make Expedit in living room look built in

Put flooring in the kitchen. I go back and forth on hardwood in four months (need to save + we're out of town for a couple days so we're not without kitchen while they do it) and modularity tiles. I like the look of modularity tiles but I haven't seen ONE real review of them so I'm scared to spend $400 bucks on something when the quality is in question.

March 28, 2012

Would you Rather?

Have a shower/tub combo with a closet in the bathroom or a separate tub and stall shower?

I'm thinking bathroom renovation (I know - finish with the kitchen first!)...

Oh where oh where has my battery gone?

My camera battery charger and the spare battery are missing in action.

We have this problem in our house - there is no designated office. Well, there is, but it has changed three times. We've both switched jobs, and home offices, and now T stays home all day.

So, I have NO idea where the charger is.

Plus, I have a super bouge-y complaint. No judgement please.

We've had the same woman doing the deep cleaning on our house for almost three years (since I got so sick when I was preggo I couldn't do anything). We kept it up since T was born and it has been a major plus for our family.

Well, she recently got a "helper" and her helper is HORRIBLE.

She leaves dust rags all over the house, puts things in places they don't go, and when she dusts she leaves things in the weirdest places.

She "cleaned" my closet - which was a MESS, but our regular gal never went in my closet. She put things away in drawers they had no business being in (she put a breast pump part in my makeup drawer, a purse in my sock drawer, and took the guitar case OUT of the closet (where I was hiding it since I hate looking at it) and displayed it proudly in the bedroom).

Anyway - I'm thinking she moved it and put it away somewhere.

I am totally horrified that I have to talk to our gal about this since I've never had anything but good things to say, but I spent so much time putting things BACK where they go I was super annoyed.

Oh yeah, just got back from a baby free weekend in Palm Springs. Pretty amazing.

At some point - there will be pics of this AND that damn baby bedframe - but the camera is a necessity.

Can you tell I'm annoyed?

March 22, 2012

There is nothing happening here

There is absolutely nothing happening except we're all running around getting "stuff" done.

Like our jobs and taking care of our insane toddler.

Sleep hasn't been happening because 2 year molars ARE happening.

It has been raining and foggy and cold.

My to do list still has a ton of project on it, but now at the top of the list are things like:

clean out car
go to bank
buy toilet paper

I'm usually pretty good about things like this - just getting it done. But I've been SUCKING at life lately.

Anyway - the boy is asleep and I'm taking 30 minutes to myself to drink strong coffee with cream and sugar and just surf.

March 12, 2012

Flooring Update

We went to Home Depot this weekend to look at flooring there (see what they had) and while most of their flooring was HORRIFYING, they did have one porcelain tile sample I liked.



The thinking is that we would do a checkerboard pattern of the dark grey and white. We discussed installation costs with them and they quoted us around $700. This is still A LOT, but tile would be permanent solution and in between the $1500 for hardwood and $300 for temporary vinyl.

Here's what I'm nervous about:

1) My kid is a KLUTZ. He runs through the house with socks on and slips ALL THE TIME. If we have porcelain on the floor he might kill himself if he bangs his head on it.

2) I had a tile floor in my studio apartment - it was IMPOSSIBLE to clean. I know the grey would be okay, but the white...is it totally porous? Does sealing it help? One thing I love about our current floor is that a quick sweep makes it look good as new (same with our hardwood) - will this require a mopping or even worse, a scrubbing to look clean?

3) Home Depot doesn't have the greatest reputation for their installation services. I can't find any details from our local HD, but am super nervous about what people say about the system. Plus, they charge for EVERYTHING. Bringing the tiles to the house, moving the stove, pulling up the floor, etc.

So.

With all that in mind.

I'm torn.

$300 for us to put in cool modern temporary vinyl tiles

or

do we install the tile ourselves? Is this insanely stupid?

I'm pretty proud of my backsplash, but it is FAR from perfect. FAR.

I did learn some valuable lessons, so maybe armed with knowledge we could do it?

March 7, 2012

Vinyl Tiles, Running in the street, and green organic food

Totally related - all of it.

I'm ready to fix the kitchen floors. The quotes we got to put in hardwood were double what we anticipated (what else is new). The "per square foot" quotes were WAY higher than the going rate because our kitchen is so small two companies required a minimum charge.

We could pay for it, but I really don't want to dig through our savings (taxes are due and we have two vacations coming up - and yes, vacations are WAY more important than hardwood floors).

So we're stuck with our yucky linoleum for now:



A few things I'm thinking:

Modularity Tiles - SUPER cool modern looking tiles - self install doesn't look too hard. BUT, the shipping for the tiles will be about half of the total cost (200 for tiles, 100 for shipping). It KILLS me to pay for shipping. This is also 1/4 of the cost for hardwood.

Grey and white striped floors - tiles from Modularity Tiles (in slate and white).

Source: google.com via Mama on Pinterest



Grey and white checked floors - tiles from Modularity Tiles (in slate and white).



Black and White checked floors - tiles from Modularity Tiles.


Another color? If we're going nuts, go all the way nuts...?



I love this - but there are so many ways I could screw it up:



Or - something simple that won't offend future buyers (if we ever sell):



The primary questions are:

do we leave the floor as is (with an inch gap between the linoleum and the wall and non matching) until we can afford hardwood?

do we do a temporary boring fix that might not offend potential future buyers and is a tiny bit of money?

or do we do a temporary fix (a little more expensive) that we will love and is super cool but may need to re-do before selling to appeal to a broader audience? Again - we're not planning on selling anytime soon...
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Delightful pizza.



Our new magical pizza tricks?

Cook it on parchment paper (NO STICKING).

Cook it on 500 (or as high as your oven will go).

This was TJ whole wheat crust, organic grass fed mozzarella, spinach, olives, and tomato sauce.

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Turner picked out some chow mein noodles the other day at the store (picked up the package and licked it - so I had to buy it) and while I was busy chopping the labor intensive salad (to put the noodles in) - he pretended the noodles were a dragon. Chinese New Year in San Francisco was the most thrilling time of his life.

"Dagoo - LOUD" is is favorite new phrase (translation: dragons are loud).

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This salad was:
sugar snap peas
baby corn
wilted swiss chard
chow mein noodles
crispy tofu squares
chopped bell pepper and roasted sesame seeds
Tossed with an organic (low sugar and real ingredient) ginger sauce from the grocery store.




We ate it for three days straight and it was delightful.

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My kid ran in the street today. Twice. When I yelled at him (which I NEVER do) he laughed in my face. It might have worked after that when I did my "look me in the eye" trick and told him I was sad - but I am really fearful of this happening again. He's only ever done it once before, but I was so scared - we live on a super busy street. What works for you?

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So folks - what to do in the kitchen?

Help!

March 1, 2012

The Homies - 2012

Two Bedrooms and a Baby is in the running for an Apartment Therapy Homie Award - nominated for "Best Family Blog."

We're way behind the big powerhouse blogs, but if you'd take a moment to vote, it would be greatly appreciated!

Click Here, find twobedroomsandababy, and select us!