Casa Pena

And we have carpet! Casa Pena is now move-in ready!

2012-01-23T06:00:00.000-05:00

One of the first things we knew would need to be done at Casa Pena 2.0 was carpet. The old green carpet was stained and faded and just plain gross. I did a lot of research when I picked out our carpet at the last house and decided on a DuPont Stainmaster carpet from Home Depot which we love. It holds up well, is extremely soft and cushy, and we get a lot of compliments on it. However, I knew I couldn't go with Home Depot again after the experience we had with their contractors. (We'll just say they did an awful job, knew it, and decided to act like they didn't understand English when I confronted them about it.) I decided I wanted to use a small company to install the carpet in this house, even if it cost a little more so Tyler and I shopped around a few local spots: Quality Carpet One, The Flooring Center, and Design Expo. All were very helpful and knowledgeable, had installers on staff instead of contracting the work out, and were slightly more expensive than the carpet we had (which I expected and was OK with). The problem was we couldn't find anything as plush and soft as the Stainmaster Carpet.
After doing a little more research I found that Home Depot lost the rights to sell Stainmaster carpet (no surprise after my experience) and the only place to buy what we wanted was at Lowes. I was skeptical of the big box store, but went in to check it out anyway. They had the exact carpet and another carpet with a diamond pattern that I wanted for the family room, and were offering free installation, 10% off, and 6 months interest free if we opened a Lowes credit card. The sales associate that sold me the carpet was very knowledgeable about all the products he was selling and remained in contact with me through the very end. He may have single handedly changed my opinion of purchasing installed services from a big box store. He knew this was a rush since we really wanted to get carpet in the house before the movers would be bring in all the furniture. He even tracked the carpet daily (it had to be shipped from a carpet mill across the country) and called me with updates.
He also gave me the contact info for the installer, JE Flooring in Gaithersburg, so that I could stay in contact with them and schedule the install as soon as the carpet arrived in their store.
The family room got the Sanctuary Diamond pattern carpet and the entire upstairs got the Exhilaration pattern which is more of a dot pattern.

We were able to save a little bit of money by having Jeff rip out the old carpet and hauling it to the dump and by having the furniture brought in after the carpet was installed. Lowes does offer both of these services for a fee.

Family Room Before:

Family Room After:

Here is an upclose shot of the pattern:

Once Jeff took the carpet off the stairs I loved the look of the bare treads but they were just too slippery for a toddler and his future siblings:

The day of the carpet install I set up camp at the computer station in the kitchen.

The guys were supposed to arrive between 8-10AM and showed up at 10:30. I wasn't too happy about that, as I knew this was a big job and would take all day. I was right, they were there until 8:30PM. I guess they were late due to an in prompt to fishing trip?

They got to work right away and had the padding laid down rather quickly. We chose to go with the 8lb Stainmaster padding. Not only did it increase the warranty on the carpet by 10 years, but it also has a moisture barrier over the padding to keep stains from seaping into the pad and ultimately the sub floor underneath.

You can see them rolling the carpet out to cut it on big tarps in the driveway. I was lucky they came out this day. The day before and the day after it was raining.

Rest of the house after:

Here is an upclose view of the pattern in the carpet upstairs:

12 Days of Christmas: Decorations

2012-01-22T11:35:00.000-05:00

This post got lost in the shuffle of the move so here goes, better late than never!

I wanted to title this post "Decorations on a Budget While all your Crafting Supplies are in Storage". It was a bit too long though. This has been a very different Christmas than I'm used to since we are in the process of moving/selling/buying houses. The theme of this season for me seems to be "just go with it". I seem to mutter that to myself at least once a day. I need to constantly remind myself that stressing about things wont make anything better.

That said, I finally decided to pull the little 41/2 foot Christmas tree out of the storage unit only to find the middle of my pre-lit tree is burned out. Taking my own advice, I just rolled with it. The tree is up, burned out lights and all.

I decided to leave all the ornaments in storage since they are mostly breakable and Tyler is a very curious 17 month old. Instead we made salt dough ornaments and I gathered some of his baby toys to put on the tree. I'm so glad I decided to decorate this way. He is so very interested in that tree.

So without further ado here is how we decorated this year:

Working Hard on Casa Pena 2.0

2012-01-12T12:54:00.001-05:00

Since our closing date of December 20th we've been working tirelessly on getting the house ready to move in. My mom stayed with us for almost 2 weeks over Christmas and New Years to help with Tyler so we could spend every day at the house painting, patching, cleaning, and moving. So far we have painted the laundry room, family room, master bedroom, and completed countless other projects. We are waiting on carpet to be installed before we can move all of the furniture in. It should be delivered either Wednesday or Thursday of this week (we are hoping). Right now the place looks like a construction zone with paint, spackle, ladders, etc. every where.
Once the carpet is in, we will be able to schedule movers to come and we can officially make the move to the new Casa Pena!
I'm really excited for it and I hope that it won't take Tyler too long to adjust, although, I have a feeling we may have a few sleepless nights until he gets used to his new digs.

Here are a few pictures of the painting progress:

Laundry Room Before:

Laundry Room after:

Office Before:

Office After:

Tyler really seems to love this room. He thinks it's his truck room:

Master Bedroom Before:

Master Bedroom After:

I'm not quite sure how I want to paint the tray ceiling. White on the slanted parts and slightly darker on the ceiling or vice-versa? I consulted google only to find you can do "whatever you want" basically. Any suggestions/comments are much appreciated!

Family Room Before:

I feel like some of theses "whole room" pictures don't really depict the kind of patching we had to spend hours doing before we could paint the walls. Here are a couple of close up images that show the shoe prints, crayon, marker, boogers, dings, dents, and who knows what else. It took forever to patch these rooms!

Family Room After:

My paint inspector:

Here are the same corners I showed above, minus the dings, etc.

Tyler's New Toy

2012-01-08T21:52:00.000-05:00

Tyler got a leap pad from his Grandpa for Christmas. He loves it. He's not really very good with it yet but since he is pretty good with my iPhone (makes calls, plays his videos, and turns it on and off) I figure it will be just a small learning curve for him. He's already figured out how to take pictures with it.

He's pressing the power button and signing in:

Look at that concentration:

Grandpa also introduced him to angry birds. I think he likes it:

Casa Pena Floor Plans

2012-01-01T12:33:00.000-05:00

Here are the floor plans so you can see spatially how the house sits when you look through the pictures.

The basement is unfinished and we have no plans to finish it anytime soon. We are thinking about 5 years out at least. Fortunately, the home builder had the plumbing roughed in so we can have a full bath and a wet bar eventually.

Casa Pena 2.0: A Few Pictures

2011-12-30T22:40:00.000-05:00

I've received some requests for picture of our new casa so here goes. I will put floor plans up, too. That will make it easier to see where everything is and the transition from room to room.

Foyer

Kitchen

Formal Living Room

The Office

Unfinished Basement

Basement

Sitting Room (in Master Suite)

Master Bedroom

Master Bath

Backyard & Deck

Swing Set

There you have it folks! It's not all the rooms in the house but a lot of them. Stay tuned for all the renovation that is about to take off!

The Laundry Room Design

2011-12-30T11:28:00.004-05:00

Wow, I love Pinterest. It's my new great obsession (look out Real Housewives of Beverly Hills!) I even downloaded the iPhone ap so I could "pin" while on the go. You can even follow my Pinterest boards by clicking on the icon to the right.

Now that you understand my love for Pinterest, let me show you some design inspiration I found for my new laundry room.

Love these cabinets:

Love the clean lines of the cabinets and the marble counter top:

And my all time favorite and the inspiration behind my wall color choice is this:

LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!! If only I could afford custom cabinetry and crown moulding in my laundry room...sigh. It did make me fall in love with that color so I used a similar color, Martha Stewart's Rainwater, to paint my walls.

It looks very blue in that picture. In real life it is more similar to MS's Tidewater. A much more spa blue/green color:

I still have a few more things to do in here:

Have a counter top made so I can fold clothes on top of the washer and dryer

I really like this silestone in alpina white. It pulls from the platinum color of the washer and dryer.

Pick and Install Cabinets
Get hardware to make a pole in the middle of the two cabinets to hang shirts

Our Search for the Perfect Casa

2011-12-29T23:27:00.000-05:00

We began our search for a new house a few years ago, when the market was still inflated. We looked at houses in several districts and were discouraged at what we found in our price range. Over the years we would search, get discouraged, wait several months, then look again. We actually looked a few times in this very neighborhood and loved what we saw: beautiful homes on nice sized lots, lots of kids playing outside, a neighborhood club house with a playground and pool, all in a great school district. The only problem: prices were REALLY high. Discouraged once again, we gave up our search for a while.

This fall interest rates were at an all time historical low so we decided to get serious about house searching again. We put together a list of items that were important to us:

2 Car Garage
Nice Size Yard
Fenced in Yard
Located in a Neighborhood
Preferably on a Quiet Street
Good School District
At Least 4 Bedrooms

We got our house search mojo back and began looking. Jeff was the one that actually found this house and said that it was a short sale and told me the list price. I had no interest. I had already written off this neighborhood as being "out of our price range" and at the list price (which was at the top of our price range), to take on a short sale and finish it off to make it livable would be too much of a stretch. He eventually wore me down and I took a peak at the listing online. I was surprised to see that it was actually in pretty good shape, just needed some patching, paint, and some serious TLC. I made an appointment to see it and loved it even more. We made an offer (Jeff made the offer sight unseen - he must really trust me, huh?).

Selling Feature for Tyler

Coming Up for Air

2011-12-27T23:45:00.001-05:00

Since we closed on the house a week ago tomorrow I have been working non-stop trying to get the new house move in ready. As soon as we closed and signed a billion pieces of paper we got the keys and went to work. I had a washer and dryer being delivered on Thursday and the laundry room needed to be cleaned, patched, and painted before then. Since Jeff was working my mom took off work to come hang out with Tyler while I worked (with the worst cold I've had in probably 10 years) through the day and night to get the laundry room in order for the delivery date.

Here we are at closing signing all of our documents:

Here is what I have been working on:

The Laundry Room Before:

These pictures don't even do it justice. The amount of priming and patching and cleaning was insane! Here is is after all the patch work and two coats of Kilz primer:

Oh, and did I mention I hadn't even picked out a paint color yet?

This was my first time using Kilz. I am a huge fan now. Cuts prep work in half. And, yes, even with that it still took me 2 nights and 1 day to complete this little room. I also owe it to my new BFF: my 2" XL cutting in paint brush. I love this thing! Normally I would tape off every single nook and cranny and it would take forever! Not anymore now that I have my "cutter iner". I love it!
Here are some pictures after the delivery of my new washer and dryer:

Still Left to do in this room:

Find cabinets for above the washer and dryer
Find a shelf for under the cabinets
Put wash basin back in
Find a rug for the garage entry

So that is what I have been working hard on. This is the second time I have fallen asleep while writing this post so I am signing off. Goodnight!!

It's Official: Inroducing Casa Pena 2.0

2011-12-20T21:47:00.000-05:00

We signed the paper work today and are now the proud owners of Casa Pena Nuevo:

12 Days of Christmas: Here Comes Santa - On His Firetruck?

2011-12-18T21:29:00.000-05:00

As funny as it sounds this is how Santa has greeted us for years. I grew up with Santa coming through the neighborhood on the local volunteer firetruck and was elated to find that they do the same thing here in this neighborhood. As soon as we heard the sirens we threw on our coats and jetted outside to see Santa and all his firemen helpers.

He was so excited to see what all the noise was about! Check out his little striped leggys:

12 Days of Christmas: A Recipe

2011-12-16T23:03:00.000-05:00

This recipe is one I have made countless times. It's super easy because you can make it the night before and refrigerate over night. When you get up in the morning just pop it in the oven while the kiddos are opening presents. It's also got all the fixings of a great breakfast: eggs, sausage, cheese, bread. All that's missing is some pancakes and if you are thinking you need those, too then I highly recommend these. I made them this weekend and they are divine!

Christmas Breakfast Sausage Casserole

Ingredients

1 pound ground pork sausage
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 eggs, beaten
2 cups milk
6 slices white bread, toasted and cut into cubes
8 ounces mild Cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions

Crumble sausage into a medium skillet. Cook over medium heat until evenly brown; drain.
In a medium bowl, mix together mustard powder, salt, eggs and milk. Add the sausage, bread cubes, and cheese, and stir to coat evenly. Pour into a greased 9x13 inch baking dish. Cover, and chill in the refrigerator for 8 hours, or overnight.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Cover, and bake 45 to 60 minutes. Uncover, and reduce temperature to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Bake for an additional 30 minutes, or until set.

12 Days of Christmas: Christmas Party Atire for the Family

2011-12-15T22:00:00.000-05:00

Every year I try to create an ensemble that is cute but not to matchy-matchy. Here is our look for this year:

Dad: Banana Republic

Mom: Polyvore Ensemble

Baby Boy: Gap Hat and Sweater Old Navy Jeans

And for those of you that wear heals (I typically do not, especially these days when I am chasing after a precocious 16 month old little monkey) here is a slight adaptation for you:

Dad: Banana Republic

Mom: Polyvore Ensemble

Baby Boy: Gap

I really do envy women who can pull off a look like that. It's just not me, I'm much more comfortable in jeans and a sweater. Hopefully this year I will remember to get a picture!

12 Days of Christmas: A Merry Little Photo-Shoot

2011-12-14T21:32:00.000-05:00

Last week I got an email from Hanna Andersson about a photo shoot at their local store. It sounded fun so I signed us up. Our time slot was 9:20 this morning. Tyler had fun trying things on and playing with the other kids. They have such cute clothes!

Here he is checking himself out in the mirror before the shoot:

Here is the set up and Tyler getting situated for his pictures:

They gave us these phones to hold on to and take pictures with during the whole process:

Of course, Tyler's favorite part of the whole shoot was playing with the toys:

Here are his final two photos:

12 Days of Christmas: Salt Dough Ornaments

2011-12-13T22:29:00.000-05:00

Salt Dough Ornaments

This year we are in the process of selling our house/buying a new house and just about everything "Christmasy" is in storage. At first I was really bummed about this but I've come to realize it was really meant to be since Tyler is at that adorable little monkey stage (16 months old) and most of my decorations and ornaments are breakable. I decided we should make our own this year. The recipe is very simple but does require some muscles to kneed the dough!

Here's the Recipe:makes 12 small hand prints or lots of little ornaments

Ingredients4 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 1/2 cups water

Directions: Combine ingredients and knead dough for 15 to 20 minutes. Bake at 300ºF about 20 to 25 minutes or until golden. You may have to bake longer depending on how thick your ornaments are. They may not feel hard right away but will harden as they cool.

We had a lot of fun making these minus the kneading - that was hard work!) Tyler likes to help me in the kitchen and was thrilled to be at the counter working.

Please excuse my messy kitchen. This is what happens when you are busy making memories!

To-Do List for Winter

2011-12-11T09:15:00.002-05:00

I was really happy with our Fall To-Do List and decided it's something I will do every season. Here is what I have on the list for winter:

Bake Christmas Cookies
See Christmas Lights
Decorate the Tree
Sled Down a Hill (a first for Tyler)
See our Breath in the Cold Air
Visit Santa
Play in the Snow

Also, stay tuned for the 12 days of Christmas coming soon!

Visit with Santa and Patuxent Nursery

2011-12-10T21:40:00.000-05:00

Today we visited Patuxtent Nursery to see Santa and so I could check out their amazing holiday decor. They go all out and decorate themed trees, have an elaborate Santa display, and put lights on nearly every tree on the property. It really is a sight to see, especially if you have little ones. I'm lucky enough to get to drive by all those beautiful lights every day on my drive home.

Tyler's visit with Santa last year went very well so I had high hopes for this year. Just in case, I also brought Doggie (his favorite little lovey).

Tyler with Santa 2011 (16 months old)

Tyler with Santa 2010 (5 months old)

What a difference a year makes!

If you live in this area I suggest checking out Patuxent Nursery. You can take your own pictures for free and there is hot cider and fresh popcorn, not to mention their beautiful displays of Christmas trees to check out.

I love this under the sea themed tree:

This is a great kid friendly tree full of stuffed animals and plastic ornaments

Luminaries at Antietam National Battlefield

2011-12-10T17:39:00.001-05:00

Last weekend we drove up to Antietam National Battlefield near Boonesboro, MD to see the 23rd annual luminary lighting. Tyler was a trooper and handled the many hours in the car really well. I think he liked being able to see out of both windows of Teresa's van.

We first stopped for pizza at Vesta Pizzeria. They have great food and even better prices. A Sam Adams beer was $2 and that was regular price! I highly recommend eating there if you ever find yourself in Boonesboro.

After dinner we got back in the van and got in line to see the luminaries. After about 1 hour of waiting Jeff and Bob jumped out and ran into a store to pick up dessert and ran back to the car. We hadn't moved but maybe 50 feet.

3 hours later we were at the gates to get into the park. The luminaries were breathtaking and really a site worth seeing. It did a great job of depicting how eerie it must have looked like to see miles of land riddled with soldiers (23,000 to be exact) who had lost their lives, were wounded, or went missing during this 12 hour battle. It's hard to believe just one battle out of the civil war could have ended with that many casualties.

Image from Here

Sorry for the blurred images, they don't allow you to stop the car for any photos.

Christmas Cards are here!

2011-12-05T20:55:00.000-05:00

My Christmas cards arrived at my doorstep on Saturday. Not a bad turn around for custom photo cards. I wasn't sure what to expect since I used a different company this year. For the last few years I have gone with Tiny Prints - they have such cute designs to choose from and usually have a coupon offer if you can get them ordered early enough.
This year I got a Groupon offer for a new company called Simply to Impress. I have to say I am "simply impressed" with my cards. The package arrived in a cute box with a thank you note inside.

The color and the images are great, the paper is thick card stock and the envelopes are a silky bright white and also are high quality. Great job Simply to Impress, you have lived up to your name in my book!

They even allow you to put a picture on the back of the card:

They are offering a discount right now of 25% and free shipping with the promo code FESTIVE. Check them out!

Thanksgiving Salisbury Style

2011-12-05T16:13:00.001-05:00

Most people get together with family for Thanksgiving. In Salisbury we get together with our oldest friends and neighbors that we grew up with and have a great time reminicing about old days and discussing the new days ahead. This year we had almost 20 people!

The next day, after Tyler dusted, my mother and I went shopping and left the boys to enjoy the nice 70 degree day:

My Shutterfly Party & Project

2011-12-04T21:50:00.000-05:00

I applied and got accepted to hosted a party through HouseParty.com for Shutterfly. Sadly, I completely forgot to take pictures of the party but below are the projects that I made with the promo codes they provided.

10 Free Personalized Holiday Cards: I had already purchased a Groupon for my holiday cards through another company or I would have ordered Christmas cards. Instead I found these really colorful New Years cards:

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Free Hard Cover Photo Book: I decided to create a book for Tyler about his first birthday party.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Create your own personalized photo books at Shutterfly.com.

Mama's Christmas Wish-List

2011-11-23T22:46:00.000-05:00

These are a few of the things I would love to have. Some of which have been on my wish list for years (camera gadgets).

Ha! Looking back at the pictures I just had a "you know your a mom when" moments. Who asks for a training potty for Christmas? This Mama who is tired of changing diapers!

Tyler's Christmas Wish List

2011-11-23T22:37:00.000-05:00

Here are a few items Tyler is asking for Christmas:

Bulletin Board: A Quick and Easy Project

2011-11-23T21:57:00.000-05:00

My desk is a mess. I always seem to have clutter no matter what I do. I have lots of inspirational images that I have torn out of magazines, swatches of fabric I plan to use, paint swatches, and pictures of my little T-man.
While at Staples the other day I picked up this inexpensive bulletin board ($4.50 on sale). I brought it home and got working on it as soon as I put Tyler to bed.

I taped the edges off with frog tape (the best painters tape ever!)

I used the free can of Valspar paint that I got a few weeks ago in True Navy. They sent it in a cute package complete with two rollers and swatches of coordinating colors. Way to go Valspar - major points in my opinion!

Here is the finished product hanging above my desk:

Our 2011 Christmas Card

2011-11-23T21:45:00.001-05:00

I know, it's not even Thanksgiving yet and I'm talking about Christmas Cards. We are hoping to be moving soon and I want to get these cards out early so they don't get lost in the shuffle. Since I adore all things paper, I look forward to picking out our annual photo card to send. Here is what I've chosen this year.

Funny how I always seem to gravitate towards teal and green. My wedding colors, my guest bathroom towels, heck - even my clothes! I hope this color combo doesn't go out of style any time soon! I chose to order my cards through Simply to Impress this year. I found a deal on Living Social that I couldn't pass up and they allowed me to use my deal with the 25% off sale they are having right now. Check it out here:

SimplyToImpress LivingSocial Deal