via san jose street

i found this house yesterday while looking through some listings and once michael and i started browsing through the pictures, we both really liked it. it is a one story nicely sized 3bed/2bath with a loft. the exterior needs some updating with the paint and lawn but it has a nice porch and a roomy driveway. not sure what condition the kitchen, bathrooms or backyard are in but the rooms that are pictured look super homey. the backyard already has a lemon tree(!!!) and the lot is 7405sqf.

we're meeting with our realtor tomorrow after work to view the rest of the house. (keep your fingers crossed!)


this is the living room with the dining area on the left. i loooove the wood floors and the baseboards, it's looks like they've been updated recently. the only things i would add to the rooms are crown moulding and paint.













the dining area is a nice size. unfortunately there aren't any pictures of the kitchen but i assume it's near the dining area. ???


view of the living room from the dining area.

















fireplace in the den/family room. it just needs a little elbow grease to clean it up. i do like the mantle a lot though. :)













the den/family room is actually an addition but it fits well with the rest of the house. i love this bay window! it would look so great with a window seat. i also like the recessed lighting throughout all the living spaces.

bragging rights.

i didn't ask my husband to vacuum, he's just that great. isn't he great?

yesterday we got a call from michael's parents that they were stopping by that afternoon so i decided to clean up a bit before they came. as i was cleaning in the bathroom i heard michael bring out the vaccum from the pantry and start it up. so naturally i snapped this picture as proof to the world (and my mom) that i have the greatest husband ever.

when i asked him why he decided to help me clean he said, "it just needed to be done." golly! who knew a man with a vacuum was so sexy?

there's me braggin' rights.

nursery update # 1

this update is especially for my mother in law who bought me these paint-a-pot and seeds. i can already notice that there's at least three different kinds of flowers, but i have no idea what they are. this picture was taken just after i watered them and somehow one of joey's hairs has managed to find it's way in the pot, (those things magically appear everywhere i tell you!)

so far, these babies are two and a half weeks old.

gardening journal.

i have decided to start a gardening journal, a place to jot down future ideas and collect various magazine clippings for my ideal garden. i'm using an oversized notebook my sister bought me (the one with the pretty B&W pattern!) and have already collected a few good ideas from domino magazine. i really like domino, although sometimes their style is a little too heavy with mid-century modern ideas. next time you're in a barnes and noble stop by the magazine rack and thumb through it, tell me what you think. i'm pretty sure the same publishers also make ready made which is full of useful DIY crafts and projects.

okay so, one idea i'm really excited about from my recent magazine search?

hellebores!

hellebores are perennials that are also known as christmas or lenten roses because they bloom between December and April. i've longed for a good winter plant for awhile because winter is often the most depressing time as far as flowers go, it seems all the beautiful plants are holding their buds in until May.

hellebores come in lots of different colors too, anything from green or deep maroon to orange. basically they're the best winter plant around, unfortunately they're not easy to find. i'll have to make a few calls to the local nurseries.

so i guess i could have made my gardening journal into a separate blog and write down all my ideas electronically for you all to see, but i write everything on this blog anyway... so what else would there be to write?? i guess i'm just not very trendy...

springtime.

i got bit by the gardening-bug so i decided to plant these little butterfly seedlings a few days ago and i'm so glad they're already popping up. i love baby plants! aren't they adorable? i haven't grown anything from a seed for a few years so it's nice to see they're doing so well (so far.) like my painted pot? :)

also, last week i thought that the porch was looking a little bare so i bought two new plants to brighten it up a bit.

joey, proudly showing his favorite pink geranium. (this one's for you momma!)




i thought this was cute. joey is so easily upset by big loud crows.


my beautiful gardenia should (hopefully) start blooming next month.

happy earth day!

i thought this was funny enough to share. go green!

just a little something...

yesterday my sister sent me a link to a photo album on her facebook account, and i found some pictures of my wedding i've never seen before. here's a few that i thought i'd share...


i like this one, it's a good shot of michael's gleaming ring. :)


my handsome dad and i in my grandma's living room before we drove down to the wedding. aren't we adorable?


"all right let's go everyone! if we're late i'm going to cry, seriously!"


eeh, what can i say? long day.

glenhurst street.

okay, so who else is annoyed that i can't stop blogging about houses? i'm sorry if i have endless thoughts of houses, or that i google them all day at work, and mapquest them. i'm so infected with house thoughts i even dream of them. i have addresses scribbled on little post-its stuck to my desk and crumpled in my purse. i update my parents of each new possible house via email and phone calls. i have our realtor on speed-dial. OMG. i hope relief will come to me (and you) after we actually buy a house, and by then most of my blogging will consist of gardening, cleaning or cooking (or pictures of me gardening, cleaning or cooking) in the new house. this is what i hope anyway...

in the meantime, here is another possibility:


you must be wondering about the southern place house. well, we went to see it and we loved it. LOVED IT PASSIONATELY, (or as passionately as one can love a house) but the house came with expensive property taxes. we had to say no, it just wasn't worth so much a month. however, my (wonderful!) inlaws found this house on sunday while driving around and have kept the hope alive! it has 3 bedrooms/2 bathrooms, fireplace, large lot (6,969 sq) and a remodeled kitchen. i'll admit that it's not as new and shiny as the southern place home, but that's nothing some elbow grease or paint can't fix. sorry, only one picture to share but i've made an appointment with our realtor today to go see it and i'll try to remember to bring my camera.

Southern Place

okay, seriously? michael should just go and look at these houses by himself because i fall in love too easily. we drove by the house yesterday to check out the neighborhood and look in the windows and ended up liking the house a lot. there were things about it that we really liked, and things that we weren't too crazy about. for example, there is a train track just across the street. it's a line of houses and a street away and michael and i actually don't mind the train so much, we're just worried that it might be an issue later if/when we want to sell the house. also, the side yard is completely covered in cement, no grass for joey (to tinkle on) and limited gardening for me. i guess we could always take a sledge hammer to the cement and grow some grass i suppose, a lot of work though.

from what we saw from the windows so far, we like the floorplan. as you walk into the house, the stairs leading to the second level and the 1/2 bath are on your right and the livingroom is on your left. straight ahead is the dining area and kitchen. we're guessing that the three bedrooms and other bathrooms are upstairs, which i'm absolutely crazy for because you don't have to worry about clearing your dirty jeans from the bedroom before people come over. yay! i'd like to call it "selective guest cleaning" where you only have to clean up the areas where people actually see. so far we don't have this option with a one bedroom apartment!

NOTE to thomas and maria: there is a cute house in the neighborhood two streets away for sale. i forget what prices you were looking for but call me if you want the address.

i'm calling our realtor today to see if we can go view the rest of the house tomorrow. also, we still need to meet with the credit union to get pre-approved before we can actually get serious about a house, which we will do friday.

searching for houses is tough.

house update! okay, so you may have heard (or figured it out by now) that the house on miami street didn't work out for us. the bedrooms were tiny, also the floor plan was a little odd. after much heartbreak (all by me of course, the emotional attachments i get are most annoying) we decided to pass on it. heartbreak and hesitancy aside, that wouldn't stop me from sharing another house with you all. :)

i've taken my time looking at houses in the last few weeks and i found a little jem in a gated community off of central avenue. it is close to restaurants and trader joe's, easily accessible to the freeway, (but thank God you can't hear it!) the house is facing the community park and the attached garage is facing the street behind. the best i can describe it is a detached townhouse with a small yard, but with a little added spunk (by me!) it could be quite nice.


most of the houses in the neighborhood look very similar to this one, (uh... cookie cutter?) but it doesn't bother me as much as i thought it would. also, could you imagine this with christmas lights? very cute!


your basic modern living room and fireplace... made better perhaps with bamboo floors?


a lot of storage in the kitchen is nice, plus garage access. i do like the little breakfast bar too.


modest dining area and sliding glass door leading (i'm assuming) to the little side yard.


community park outside the front door. michael is a little concerned it is too close to the house and i have to agree with him, but it would be great for a barbecue with friends.

meme.

What was I doing 10 years ago?

i was 14, a freshman in high school. i think about this time i was starting my first year of running track and training for my two events, the 800 and 1500 meters. it's funny to mention this but, i am the exact same height as i was then. (5'2'')


Snacks I enjoy:

organic baby carrots

sour candy (mmmm)

corn chips with southwestern salsa

granny smith apples

organic granola bars


Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

tithe (what is that, 100,000,000 dollars?) travel europe for three months, buy a house in cash, donate to local crisis pregnancy centers, pay off michael's student loans, buy my dad a new truck and quit my job. :)


Five places I have visited:

san diego, california (yesterday! again!)

whitehorse, yukon, canada

san francisco, california

yellowstone national park, wyoming

anchorage, alaska



Five jobs I have had:

farmer at an organic hippie herb farm

babysitter

marketing for a timeshare company

barista

receptionist

a fool for april.

rain is in the forecast for this mid-week and (hopefully) bountiful flowers will soon follow. (i'm such a sucker for spring, i gotta tell you.) thankfully michael is on spring break from work this week, and i say thankfully only because the poor guy has three papers due this week for school. unfortunately for me it makes waking up for work in the morning even harder. all i want to do is cuddle my warm puppy and husband, quietly snuggled in their bed, especially when it's raining outside. but, i'm hoping to take friday off so we can take a trip down to san diego for a baseball game. we haven't gone for a trip in awhile so it sounds great to escape for a day (or two?)

i'm to the point where i'm itching to start my spring cleaning. i'm embarrassed by the amount of things in my closet i have no use for anymore, or ever. i'm also embarrassed by my current method of organizing my closet, or lack of. i cringe at the thought of disturbing the fragile balance of the clothing of my storage bins, mostly because there are more clothes outside of the bins than inside, (thus totally making the nature of the bins debatable.) i'm actually so embarrassed, i keep my closet closed to keep my dear husband from knowing what an absolute pig is dear wife really is, (he's too sweet to say anything though.) i plan to declutter the closets (linen closet included, ugh) the bathroom cabinets and clean the refrigerator by (some point mid-way into) this month. let's just hope that by posting my intentions publicly, it will boost my ambition.

perhaps next month i will tackle the pantry, which actually doesn't house any food (except for my grandma's homemade apricot jam!) but instead is a cardboard breeding ground for lonely boxes looking to hold random crap no one cares about.

by the way, does anyone know of any eco-friendly air fresheners? i found one at trader joe's but it was only like 4 ounces. i know lavender is good in sachets, but i'm looking for an air spray to use in the closets. i'm also very eager to switch completely over to green cleaners and i think this is a perfect opportunity to do so. i would also love to find some nice storage baskets to replace the cardboard boxes too. i'm thinking target or ross might have some for cheap.