Meeting Young House Love Couple!!

My sister texted me on Friday afternoon asking how far away Palo Alto was from where I am. I asked, "How far away from my office, new house, or Mom & Dad's house?" It's funny I have to ask that but they are all in different areas, which totally changes the driving time. Eventually, she let me know the reason for her inquisition - Sherry & John Petersik, the bloggers and adorable couple that created the Young House Love blog, were going to be in Palo Alto for their book signing.

CJ and I found Young House Love a few months ago when we started to brainstorm how we wanted to decorate our house. We both, independently, Googled "young couple house" (or something along those lines) and stumbled upon this wonderful blog. I immediately fell in love with their blog and soonafter found out that they had written a book!

We drove over to Palo Alto Sunday morning and arrived about 30 minutes early for the book opening. The line was already down the block but we were willing to wait. After the signing started, we were ushered into West Elm where the line snaked through the entire store. Since they are super friendly and talkative, it took a while for us to get our books signed but finally it was our turn!

Katie had just met them the day before at their Portland book signing and let them know that her sister would be attending their book signing in Palo Alto. They promised that they would remember that I was coming because, apparently, John has two sisters named Katie and Emily! What are the odds! So when we walked up to introduce ourselves, I started with, "My sister was at your book signing yesterday in Portland" and they immediately screamed out "You're Emily!!" and paused before quietly saying "...or Katie?" just to make sure they didn't mix up who they met yesterday. It was so exciting that they remembered and they truly are sweethearts!

CJ and I took a picture with them that, in my opinion, turned out a bit awkward but I'll share it anyway. Awkward because I didn't want to stand in the middle due to being challenged in the height department (I was afraid my face would get blocked). So, I'm just lingering on the side while CJ is standing behind them in the middle like a normal person. Oh well, it was still fun to get a picture with them.

If you haven't read their blog before, you definitely should! You'll get hooked instantly.

What's Up with the Kitchen?

We might have been keeping you in suspense on what's going on in the kitchen so let's talk about that, shall we?

So far, our cabinets, granite, oven/microwave, sink, hardware (knobs and handles), and faucet have been installed. The walls have been painted a nice neutral color. The area in the kitchen where we were adding the hardwood has been filled in and has gotten it's first coat of the stain. Everything is coming together SO beautifully.

What's left? The backsplash of travertine tile, installing all the appliances, and hanging the light/chandelier that will go over the kitchen table. We are super close to being done! It should be another week or two before we can start moving in. The biggest gating item is finishing up the floors because, obviously, if the floors aren't done, we can't put anything on them. :)

Here's what we're thinking for the backsplash over the stove. The only difference is all of our tiles will be square. And, obviously, our cabinets will look completely different and we won't have that humongous hood.

Diagonal square travertine tiles

We've decided to wait until the kitchen is completely done before posting any more pictures of what it looks like. We think it's better to save it for a Big Reveal. :)

Have you ever remodeled your kitchen? What was your most/least favorite part of the process? 

Mini House Update

Floors

If our information is accurate, the first coat of stain has been put on the floors today!

On Monday, we stopped by the house to check out the two stain options and luckily, we caught the Floor Guy right as he was leaving. He recommended the more brownish stain so it wouldn't match the cabinets as much and we agreed. The Floor Guy told us that they would either start staining Tuesday or Wednesday.

Also, apparently (fun fact of the day), when you stain floors, it will darken over the next 6 months to a year to its final color. So, the initial color you choose won't be what you see a year from the staining. I definitely didn't know that before this whole process!

I stopped by yesterday on my way home from work to check things out and things are coming along. They sanded the floors yesterday so they are now super smooth and look like brand new hardwood. Since they didn't stain yesterday, I'm assuming that was on their to-do list for today. Let's cross our fingers that's the case!

Family Room

I also talked to our contractor briefly yesterday and he said they're going to try to paint the back room in the next few days and lay out the tile backsplash.

Picking the color for the back room was a whole other process but luckily, we were able to make a decision. We went back and forth on doing a fun color or a neutral, and finally settled on a neutral. Below is what I think our couches will look like. We ordered them in the store and chose the fabric color from a swatch so we haven't seen it in person yet.

But since we haven't seen the couch in the room, it's hard to know what would look best so we thought the safest bet (since we had to make a decision before the couches were in the room) was to do a nice light tan. Here's what that looks like:

Kelly-Moore Oyster

We're planning on getting some fun colorful pillows for the couches and getting some colorful artwork for the walls to spice things up in the room. I LOVE these ones from Pottery Barn.

Back in Business

Last Saturday was my birthday so we took the weekend off from house stuff and blogging to relax and celebrate. After constantly working on picking wall colors, furniture, decorations, tile, cabinets, and whatever else, we needed a little break.

CJ found an awesome website that has cheap activities in the San Francisco area so we decided to take advantage of that and explore some new areas. On Saturday, we attempted to go horseback riding in Woodside (which is an adorable town, by the way!) and, even though the website said they didn't require reservations, they were booked the whole day. Such a bummer but we did see a cute new area and had fun exploring.

With one of the horses before we knew we couldn't go horseback riding

That night, we continued our yearly tradition of going to my favorite restaurant, The Melting Pot, with my parents. This was the 6th year in a row that we've been there for my birthday. As always, it was delicious and we had a ton of fun. If you haven't gone to a fondue restaurant before, you should go! It's amazing.

At The Melting Pot celebrating my birthday

On Sunday, we found another cheap activity that we were successful at attending! In Half Moon Bay, they were hosting the Mavericks Invitational surf competition and the tickets were only $10 a piece! Although the surfing wasn't visible from the shore, they had over 30,000 people in attendance with a huge screen for people to watch the competition so it was fun to people watch. There was also a guy hand carving a wooden surfboard at the event which was really interesting to watch. It reminded CJ of the surfboard making class he took in college. Good times. 

We're going to try to check that website we found for other fun activities to do over the weekend in the future. It was definitely a success!

We'll provide an update on the house tomorrow. :)

The Great Leaf Removal

Sooo last weekend we set our sights on removing the plethora of leaves that had taken over our front yard. We had an enthusiastic volunteer at our side to help with the project (thanks Stephanie) who brought a leaf blower, rake, broom, and shovel for the big project. When we arrived, her first words were, "Wow, those ARE a lot of leaves." Yep, we weren't exaggerating.

Luckily, a mysterious kind soul had already cleaned up our sidewalk and most of our driveway so that part was already done for us (too bad though, it's the easiest part to do).

Exhibit A: You can only see leaves on the front yard, no dirt.

Off to work we went on cleaning up the leaves - I started with the rake, Stephanie started with the leaf blower, and CJ went to the backyard to continue the brick removal. We soon realized that this project was much more difficult than anticipated. The bark on our front yard had become one in the same with the leaves. Want to remove some leaves? Sure. Only if you also remove the bark.

This is in the beginning of the cleanup.

After working on it for several years hours, we gave up. There was no hope in us getting all the leaves off unless we wanted to remove all of the dirt from the front yard. Today, we called a gardener and scheduled regular visits.

Our pile of dirt/leaves

We're happy to do other gardening in the backyard like remove weeds, plant flowers, or anything of that sort but no longer are we willing to attempt cleaning the leaves off the front yard.

We're considering putting grass on the front yard (in a few months, of course) which will make the leaves easier to clean up. Otherwise, we'll have to keep refilling the front yard with bark because there's no way to avoid losing it when leaves are removed. Our gardener suggested gravel as a second option but that doesn't make for a welcoming front yard, in my opinion.

What do you love/hate doing in your yard?

Paint, Paint, and More Paint!

Our newest lesson in Home Ownership 101 has been how to pick paint colors and how to paint a room. Although we've picked paint colors before and painted before, never before have we had to do it for a whole house.

Tips for Picking Paint Colors

Step 1: Pick a color scheme and overall feel that you want for the room. Wall colors make SUCH a big difference in the room and we never realized it until yesterday when we painted the master and guest bedrooms. Before, the walls were basically a primer and the room felt empty and cold, not "homey" at all. Now, it feels so much more cozy and more like a bedroom... except for the fact that they're missing beds :). We wanted the walls to be a neutral so the bedrooms are calming and inviting. Also, we can switch around the bedding without having to repaint the room every time.

Step 2: Research colors. First, pick a color that you think you want. Then, find several different versions of that color online (or in color swatches at your local paint store). Once you have a few you like, "Google" them because I bet you someone has already used that color and posted a picture of it online. You can get a really good feel of how it actually looks on full walls before making it official on your own walls. Another good idea is to use a website that let's you visualize the color in your own room. Sherwin Williams has something called a Paint Color Visualizer which lets you upload a photo of your room and then place the color you like on the walls. It's super helpful!

Step 3: Bring home a few samples. Paint a patch of each color on your walls so you can see how it looks in the room.

Step 4: Choose a color! This step says it all. Now that you've done your research, you should be pretty confident that the color will look good in the space. And, if you totally hate it... no need to worry, just paint over it! ;)

Tips for Painting a Room

We HAD to paint Mr & Mrs Teuben 

Step 1: Cover the floors. This is super important. Make sure you buy a tarp or plastic to cover all of the floors in the room. I can't tell you how many times we dropped a paint brush, stepped on the paint can cover, or who knows what, and were saved by the plastic! We would have paint alllll over the floors if it weren't for that!

Step 2: Tape the doors, windows, and baseboards. We were able to avoid this in most places because I'm a perfectionist and am able to paint a pretty straight line. But, if you're not as big of a risk taker as I am (ha! this is probably the only risk taking I really do...anywhere), then definitely tape away. We love the Frog tape found at Home Depot. The paint didn't seep under it like the blue tape or other brands normally do. Just make sure you really get it in the grooves of the walls so it doesn't sneak under. That's one of my fears with tape. Some people are a little too trusting and just go crazy painting all over it and that runs the risk of seeping completely under the tape and you wouldn't know until it's removed and dry. Just make sure you get good quality tape and realllllly push it down.

Here's us breaking our own rule. We didn't realize until after this room that we should have been doing the corners and borders first.

Step 3: Paint the corners and borders. Most people want to throw the roller on the walls because you're feeling like your accomplishing something but really, you should be painting all the wall borders first. That way, when you do start using the roller, you can even out the paint and you can get rid of that lined paint brush look.

Ready to roll!

Step 4: Roll away! When you're buying rollers, pay close attention to the texture of your walls. The more rough of a texture, the more fluffy the roller needs to be... or as the experts call it "nap length." Once you start rolling, try not to get too crazy at the top or bottom of the walls. The worst feeling is hitting the ceiling with your roller (which we are guilty of) because now you have to touch up those areas.

Step 5: Touch Ups. Walk around the room and look for any areas you might have missed. For walls that are more rough, you may have to go around with a paint brush and get the little areas that couldn't have been covered with the roller. If the paint is a lower quality, you may have to do a second coat.

Note: CJ is only wearing one sock in this photo. He stepped in a big chunk o' paint earlier.

Step 6: Clean Up. Make sure you soak any brushes used so you can use them again in the future, clean up the floor covering, take off the tape, and do what you need to do to make sure the mess is gone. :)

Stubborn Bricks

CJ mentioned a few days ago that he was working on getting rid of all the bricks in the backyard that made up the planter that assisted in the termite invasion. Well, it turned out to be much harder than anticipated because the bricks DO NOT want to break apart and the previous owner dug quite a hole in the ground when he started the brick layers. There's at least 2-3 layers of bricks below the surface.

so many bricks!!

my adorable husband

working hard

pretending to be handy with the intense rotary drill

He did a lot of damage yesterday but he anticipates there will be 2-3 more days of working on it before it's completely done. 

Once this is finished, we'll paint the bottom part of the house that was covered by the bricks and clean up the area around it. Our backyard will definitely be one of our summer projects!