Archive for April 2011

california

mike and i had decided that instead of buying each other presents for christmas last year, we would take a long weekend trip. we looked into a few options, but quickly decided that we wanted to go to california. san francisco to be exact. my uncle lives there, we thought we would have a great time visiting him and seeing all of the sites. i had gone on a similar trip with my mom and grandma a few years ago, but mike had never been and i knew he would love it.

we went a few weeks ago and had a fantastic time. i knew that we'd have fun, but i was impressed with how much we were able to do/see in only 3.5 days, and yet i still felt like we had a relaxing trip.

we flew in on friday afternoon, which was nice because we had some time on friday to enjoy dinner at my uncle's house and relax after our flight.

on saturday we walked around palo alto and stanford's campus before going into the city for dinner. there is something about the energy on a college campus that i just love.
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on sunday we drove up to sonoma for a day/night and were able to take a tour at one of the wineries. i'd never been on a tour before and thought it was so interesting and made me appreciate the wine even more.

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monday morning we had a quick drive around downtown sonoma before heading back to san francisco.

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but of course we got distracted by a few more wineries along the way. the views were so beautiful, it was hard not to stop!

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mike looks extra tall in this photo. or maybe i just look extra short.

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once back in san fran, we stopped at the golden gate bridge.

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and took a boat out to alcatraz to take a tour.

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we did the audio walking tour of alcatraz and we were both super impressed with the tour.

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i didn't get a picture, but we also made sure to drive past the full house house before leaving the city. we're such tourists :-)

our plane left on tuesday morning and we were sad to leave, we had such a great time. i can't wait to go back!

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bathroom budget

surprisingly, our bathroom ended up coming in under budget! that never happens, so i thought that i'd share the breakdown with you. plus i like to have these things to reference later. per usual, we were on a tight budget (even more so since this project just sort of evolved from the original floor project). i was hoping to stay under $1k for the entire half bathroom remodel. and here's how we did:

toilet - kohler brand from lowes = $129
sink - american standard brand from lowes = $84
paint - quart of valspar, let me know if you want the color name and i'll look = $13
lights - alabax ceiling and truman sconce, from school house electric = $255
toilet paper holder - grundtal from ikea = $5
towel hook - blecka from ikea = $5
baseboards - from lowes = $26
mirror - made by us, glass and trim from lowes = $28
faucet - from overstock = $150
hardwood floor - ordered with the rest of our flooring, approx = $30
misc. plumbing parts - lowes, approx. = $25

grand total = $750

you can tell where my priorities are... light fixtures and faucets. we already had the trim paint, stain, poly, supplies to finish door, etc. the only other thing that we've bought for the bathroom is the poster. i saw this poster on door sixteen and followed the link to pop chart lab. i really liked the graphics of this poster and thought it would be a fun addition to the bathroom. DSC_0927
as i mentioned in the last post, i'm still looking for a few other bathroom accessories, but i am happy that the renovation portion is complete and that we were able to stick to our budget.

so what have we been doing since we finished with these two big projects? well, a lot of this:
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(that's my spot down at the end between cooper and trevi)

and... we also took a vacation! pictures coming soon...

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