Welcome

The night before our visitors arrived, that I mentioned in yesterday's post, I had just finished the house. There are some projects left to be done, but for now it is "done". To build the anticipation (or give me more to write about) I'll continue to unveil each room in separate posts.

Sharing the entry way is a bit difficult because from the front door you can see right into our open floor plan. I'd hate to post a picture that would be an immediate spoiler alert to my dining room, office nook, and peak of the living room. Instead here are some details.

Welcome.

I realized I haven't posted any outside pictures on the blog, so figured I'd begin with one. This was taken pre-move in day.

The outside front entrance before yesterday.

It has since been updated, but this was our progress up until then. I will share updated pictures though. As for our bench I just love it, especially the details on the legs. I had envisioned a bench here, but did not think I'd actually be able to get one so soon. I'll have to fill in the details in a later post. When I'm pulling weeds, or working in the garage Hannah loves to play in this area. We set up her castle or doll house on the bench. Oski loves to sunbath and people watch out here, too.

I bought this mat on clearance at Target. One con of these types of mats is everything sticks to them! Hopefully I can find a way to get the extra lent off. I suppose it's doing it's job though by keeping the dirt out.

Our new entry rug at the front door. HomeGoods purchase.

To the left outside our bedroom is a little welcome corner.

No new purchases here. Just a new arrangement, for a new house. The silhouette is of Hannah from her 1st Disneyland trip last fall. I'd like to put a family photo in the empty frame. Most likely one we took on our Berkeley bridge, in yesterday's post.

There are a few more details in the entrance, but they would give too much away. As for what still needs to be done to the entry, I'd like to replace the light fixture and buy a couple craft bins for the entry closet. Right now all my crafts are just sitting on the shelf. Like I said, most projects are as they come at this point.

And I apologize for any grammar or spellchecking, but there is a spider hovering on the ceiling. Priorities.

Martinez Familypalooza

These photos are a couple weeks old, but it's never too late to share. With Sergio's sister getting married, we had family visit us before the wedding. Then we continued North for the wedding and a few of our own adventures.

(*Disclaimer: Pictures are unedited, so they may not be looking their best.)

Auntie Emily and Hannah at Legoland.

Disneyland.

Pool time with Daddy at the hotel.

Natalia and Stephen's Wedding

The bride and groom. Sergio and his sister.

Hannah with her Auntie Emily and Great Aunt Bertha.

Hannah playing with Great Grandpa George.

Hannah dancing with Grandma Aase.

Sergio's sister with their mom and aunts.

My Girls.

Hannah's 1st Berkeley visit.

Future Cal bear walking under Sather Gate and looking at the Campanile.

Hannah picking flowers for me on Memorial Glade.

Our dorm where we met.

On our bridge where Sergio proposed to me.

The plaque on the bridge reads, "In memory of happy days on the campus and in appreciation of benefits received from their Alma mater..." Very fitting I would say.

Everything a future Cal Bear needs.

Father's Day in San Francisco

First brunch and a mini fishbowl reunion (missing 2 fishes).

Then an afternoon at the Golden Gate Bridge.

I did not intentionally dress Sergio and Hannah as twins for Father's Day. I didn't even realize they were till I looked at the photos.

Love Hannah's expression in the picture on the left. Just had to share it. By the way, if you double click pictures you can enlarge them individually.

Happy Father's Day 2011.

A Little Sun and Garage Cleaning

Sunday we accomplished a lot!

I've spent over 2 weeks hunting down curtains for every room other than Hannah's room. I now only have the breakfast nook left to find. Hannah and I started our day at Target looking at curtains. I bought 3 different colors, and the one I liked most (you'll have to wait till the reveal to see what colors I'm doing) was a shade off from my dish towel. So later in the day we returned the panels. Since I knew what color I wanted this time, I brought my dish towel to use as a swatch for matching purposes. I chose the shade that was the closest. When I brought them home I asked Sergio his opinion, and he vetoed it as too bold. So the curtain hunting continues.

Inbetween trips to Target, I decided Hannah needed a break from all the house craze and some good ol' fashion summer time fun: swimming and icecream.

She decided half way through her icecream bar she wanted to trade me for my drumstick.

Sergio worked at 7am, and came home at about 4pm. Since he was home "early", I took advantage of the man power and we shifted our attention to the garage. I really wish I had before pictures because it was scary! You know the scene from Home Alone when he is in the basement and the furnace scares him? That was me in our garage. We had made some progress several weeks back, with unpacking all the boxes. I posted the boxes and packing paper free on craigslist. Luckily that was all taken away several weeks ago. With Sergio working everyday the garage just sat neglected after that. Of course it only seemed to become even more of a disaster. Not to mention the creepy spiders that I imagined lurking around in dark places.

We began by putting everything on the driveway so we could lay down carpets we have. We have 2 AstroTurf carpets that we had from our yard in Virginia. Since we do not need them here because of our lovely patios, we decided to use them in the garage. We also had a carpet remnant we bought in Mississippi for Hannah's room when she started to crawl which we now placed in front of our washer and dryer.

Your tour guide.

We divided the garage into zones.

On the left wall is our trash cans, Sergio's work bench (our old baker's rack), and storage bins. The pile on the floor in front of the bins is garage sale and recycle boxes. Once we have our garage sale I can park my car in the garage.

On the right is the man garage, since we don't have a man cave. We were going to sale the furniture from our FROG in Virginia. Since our garage is completely drywalled we decided to keep it and set up an area. It already proved useful while we were working yesterday. Hannah loves running around in the space. We figured we could back the car into the driveway and she would have a whole area to ride her cars safely, since we live on a busy corner.

The mess in the corner is a broken gazebo. A Virginian storm swept it across our yard. We brought it out west hoping to order new parts and use it here. However we don't have a need for it, so instead we will be hauling it to the dump. Once it is gone, the crib and large baby items will be nicely stacked in the corner.

In the back of our garage is the laundry area. I have some future plans to add shelves and artwork to give the space some function and personality.

For now the garage is a huge improvement and I don't need to be scared anymore while doing laundry.