NAUTICAL THEMED TODDLER ROOM

After giving our dirty, soot-stained, red brick fireplace the makeover it badly needed late last year, I moved on to my next home improvement DIY project. It was after I helped repaint our church's nursery room that I got the inspiration to revamp my son's room at our home. He has had a pirate ship for a toddler's bed, so I thought what better theme to match it than nautical, right?

So early March when I started on this project. I didn't get to finish it though until May. It wasn't a big project at all but with a very active toddler around me all day, I hardly could get any painting done during the day. Plus, there were travels and other commitments and glitches in between, so it had to take the backseat for a time. I was happy and relieved when I finally completed it.

Now, here's a little tour of my son's nautical themed room:

BEHIND THE SCENES:

Yours truly in action. It's amazing what a can of paint could do to a room.
It transformed the mood from neutral to fun. I love the ocean-y vibe this shade
of blue elicits and it set the stage for the theme at hand.

BEHIND THE SCENES:

With the help of my ScanNCut, I was able to create a couple of wall arts.
Credits also go to hundreds and hundreds of ideas available thru the Internet.
This was my first attempt to DIY a wall art and I personally believe I nailed this one!
:)

Reading nook for my boy's first library. He has a growing collection
of books that as of now, this shelf is no longer enough to hold all of his books.
Also, this photo was taken in May, and since, we have brought in a couple of friends
(Grover and Donald Duck) for that lonesome brown bear.

With my little boy who constantly inspires me to do things I have never done before.

"I'll love you forever, I'll love you for always,
As long as I'm living,
My baby you'll be." - Robert Munsch

The second of two DIY wall arts I made. The three wall decors surrounding the frame I made
was part of the nautical bedding set I bought online from Amazon.

The letters spelling out my son's name were originally painted white.
I repainted them with dark blue paint which provided a good contrast against the light blue background. I didn't want to ruin the newly painted wall by driving nails into it, so we used putty tack to hang those letters. Surprisingly, they are holding very well!
Also, since this picture was taken, I have added a valance to that small window similar to the one hanging on the bigger window. 

To get the nautical theme going, I bought a new set of bedding which included 2 pcs of valance,
three wall decors, toy hamper, diaper stacker, pillows, quilt and fitted sheet.
Recently, we added a big wall clock and a nautical themed photo frame.
We featured pictures from each of our Caribbean vacations over the past two years, namely
Bahamas, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Jamaica :)

Overall, I am well pleased with how this project turned out. Of course, my toddler's room is not always this immaculate. In fact, I think the only time it was this organized was when I took these pictures. LOL! Bottom line, I love how Vince and I were able to tie everything up together to create this cute and cozy nautical themed room for Vonn Kaleb ☻

CHRISTMAS 2014

Our family had a couple of firsts this past Christmas:

We had our first Christmas tree... and what made our first tree special was that it was a real tree! It took us until the week of Christmas to finally get one and I'm so happy we did. It smelled so good and fresh especially right after it was cut, and when we set it up at home, it looked sooooo pretty even before we decorated it. I did get scratches all over my hands and arms from putting lights around it and I had this silly thought that a squirrel might poke from somewhere in the tree while I was doing it which made the experience quite memorable for me. Hehe! Anyway, after we're done dressing it up, and the gifts went under it, I felt inspired. It looked a lot like Christmas in the Valencia household then ;)

We celebrated our first Noche Buena as a family at our first home. Since it was just the three of us, we only prepared a simple dinner of baked macaroni with meat sauce and mornay sauce, maja blanca, roasted pork butt, green salad and fruits. We finished dinner right around midnight and then proceeded to open presents.

So what did we get for Christmas? ;)

Vonn Kaleb got books - lots of it - and flash cards, some jammies, toys, Amazon gift card, and a blanky. I'm so happy when I saw his new loot of books! The little one has been learning a lot from the books we read him every night at bedtime. He loves being read to, and at times, he'd grab books and flip pages himself as if he can actually read. The flash cards we previously gave him also helped him learn the alphabet, and so for Christmas, we gave him a couple new sets of flash cards. It was apparent though that his favorite of all his Christmas presents was the toy CAT truck/back hoe that our friend from church gave him. That was the first gift we opened and he didn't care so much for the other presents after that. Hehe! Vince and I got gift cards from his clinic staff and baking/cooking gadgets from friends. We did get a few more presents from friends which unfortunately I couldn't remember what now #seniormoment. Vince did get a dress shirt and tie, a Levi's button down shirt, a Levi's sweatshirt, and boxers from Vonn Kaleb and me. I'm excited to see him wearing those, particularly the boxers... ooppps! #R18 #maturereadersrequired Hehe!

Me? I only wanted a DIY fireplace makeover for Christmas, which I got ;) Okay, I'm not gonna lie... maybe in the deepest recesses of my heart, I wanted to get another Louis Vuitton purse or a Burberry, Chanel or Prada... just maybe. LOL! Or maybe that's in my birthday wishlist for next year along with another trip somewhere in the Caribbean again. Hehe! So anyway, my dear husband spoilt me with an iPad Air 2 and a Versace perfume for Christmas. I wasn't expecting he'd get me a tablet as I'm very much content with our old iPad 3, but yeah, now I have a new toy, and I'm loving it... but not as much as the one who gave it to me ;) Thanks again, love!

We finished opening the presents around 2am and went to bed soon after that. We slept in on Christmas day and pretty much vegetated except of course for Vonn Kaleb who kept himself busy playing with his new toy truck. Hehe! Vince didn't have to work on Christmas day and spending the whole day as a complete family, for me, was the perfect way to celebrate the holiday.

And that, my friends, was how the Valencias spent their Christmas. I know this post is a little too late but I hope you had a wonderful Christmas yourselves☻

FIREPLACE MAKEOVER

One thing I never really liked in our home was our wood burning brick fireplace. It was hate at first sight. If I had a choice, I would have preferred a modern (or ultra modern better yet!) electric fireplace with a neat looking mantle and hearth, probably something white and bright, which of course is the total opposite of the one we have. Our house was built in the '90s, so among other things that are dated and needs updating is the fireplace. Adding insult to injury was the previous owner of the house who wasn't too keen in home upkeeping. When we moved in the house, the fireplace still had ashes, burnt firewoods, soot, creosote and stain, and had a shabby fireplace screen. Altogether, it was an eyesore sticking out like a sore thumb in the big living room. Ugh! We thought of having it professionally revamped or even re-did but it would cost us thousands of dollars to get it done. With all the other more important fixes our home needs, needless to say the fireplace renovation got pushed down the bottom of the list. Sigh!  

One fine dandy day, out of the blue, I just decided to do the makeover myself. Yeah, right! The not-so-crafty me who had not done a single home DIY project. I couldn't watercolor paint let alone brick paint, what was I thinking!? It started with me searching the Internet for fireplace screens, which then led me to fireplace doors, followed by electric logs, and next thing I knew, I was googling for ways to clean and paint brick. Wow! I sure did have a lot of time in my hands that day. Hehe!

Anyway, I found Brick Anew paints online. The testimonials and reviews from their customers including the before and after pictures posted in their website gave me some hope in prettifying my fireplace without having to shed a good chunk of $$$$! What really got me into trying the product though was reviews that say how easy it is to use the products even for first time DIYers like me. "Cool!," I thought.

Well, before I could even get to the painting stuff, I needed to clean the fireplace first. To me, this was the hardest part in the makeover. As I said above, the fireplace was a mess when we moved in the house, and since I hated it, I pretty much left it as is and didn't touch it until I was ready to give it the makeover. I had to get rid of the burnt woods, grate, and the shabby screen. I swept and vacuumed the ashes inside the firebox. I was on my knees and eventually on all fours scrubbing and steel brushing soot and creosote build up in the firebox. I used up bottles and bottles of different brick cleansers. Anyway, after days and days of scrubbing and brushing, I gave up.  Soot had already stained the bricks, and though I didn't get to where I wanted in terms of removing as much stain, the fireplace was clean enough to be painted on. Some battles I just couldn't win but life has to go on, so onto the next step: Paint!

First, I watched the instructional DVD included in the Brick Anew paint kit I bought. I also read the written instructions and tips it came with. Then, I gathered all the self-confidence I could muster, breathed, and told myself, "I can do this!" :D Next, I put painter's tape on the surroundings and prepped the area once more. Then, I picked up the paint brush and went into the zone.

The finished product? I guess I would just share pictures of my fireplace (before and after makeover) and leave it up to you to decide if I have achieved something ;)

I hated how our old fireplace looked like. So much so that I didn't bother taking a picture of it before the actual makeover. So, here I'm sharing an old picture that was taken last year during Vonn Kaleb's first birthday. Behind me, you can catch a glimpse of what the fireplace looked like when we first moved in. The ugly fireplace screen, black soot in the firebox, ashes, burnt wood and grate. That's what I was talking about!

From drab...

...to fab!

CAN'T WAIT FOR SUMMER

Last month, I mentioned in a previous post about our outrageously soaring high utility bill. Other than it was winter and that our house has two heater/AC units, our main suspect for the sudden increase in our bill was actually the pool, and to a lesser degree, the dishwasher might probably have played a role too. Since then, we had set the pool to run only for two hours every night as opposed to running it for eight hours every night as before. Needless to say, I stopped using the dishwasher too, and much more needless to say is that I have dishpan hands again. Boo!

Well, guess what, our utility bill for this month came in and we were able to cut it in half. Yebah!!! *insert happy dance here* Hehe! From $600+ now down to $300+. Imagine that?! Vince and I were soooooo relieved. Honestly, we're not going to be able to keep up with this house in the long run if this will continuously consume that enormous amount of electricity and water. I mean, $600 was just absurd! What household of two-and-a-half people consume that much in a month? Jeez.

So anyway, even now that we brought our utility bill down to an acceptable amount, we're still looking for ways to make our house energy efficient as possible. We have an energy audit scheduled this month and from that, we're hoping to glean more info on how to lessen our energy consumption.

Also, to minimize our expenses, we temporarily discontinued the professional pool maintenance service that comes to our home once to twice a month. We had asked our neighbor for pool cleaning tips and we learned a lot from her. As well, we watched a few videos at YouTube and Vince has been reading up on the Internet about the different pool chemicals and testing and the works too. There's a bunch of stuff to know but Vince was confident that we could do our own pool maintainance and care. 

So, this past couple of weeks, during the weekends and when we're free in the afternoons on weekdays, the three of us had spent some family time by our pool.  While Vince and I was trying to clean it, Vonn Kaleb insisted on testing the water.

Our 13-month-old didn't flinch at all, not even a toe, despite the pool being as cold as freshly melted ice. I almost changed into my swimsuit to oblige my son but I couldn't stand the cold. When summer time comes, all three of us for sure will have a blast in our pool, and I'm so looking forward to that, but until then, little Vonn Kaleb is going to have to settle with merely waddling and bicycling his legs on the surface of the pool. Hehe! :)

NEW LOOK FOR THE NURSERY ROOM

The play yard that I bought for Vonn Kaleb turned out to be a big hit (at least for me). After setting up the first set, I knew right away that my active boy would need a bigger play area, hence, I bought a second set. I also knew that a bigger play area meant that we have to rearrange his nursery and put away some of his toys particularly the big ones like the Activity Center/Exersaucer (which he doesn't play with anymore anyway). Good thing is that our home has big bedrooms so space wasn't much of an issue.


When I initially set up all two play yard sets (16 panels), this is what I came up with:

My plan was to put a small table by the small window and set up my laptop there and use that as my work area. That way, I'm inside the play yard with Vonn Kaleb, and he wouldn't feel neglected or deserted, as this boy likes constant attention and reassurance. Well, Vince and I tried that last night and we found that to be not ergonomic (rather back straining) for me. My very much supportive husband took upon himself to move my computer desk from our room to the nursery and helped me set up my work station and Vonn Kaleb's fort (that's what we call his play yard now... hehe!)

So this is how the nursery looks like now:

Notice that instead of 16 panels, we only used 14 to create Vonn Kaleb's fort. The room is big enough to accommodate all 16 panels but it got too cramped when we did that. Vince wanted to make sure that we have a good space to walk within the room, especially at night when it's dark with all lights off that we might trip and fall because of the fort (and Vonn Kaleb's growing toy mine!)

My ever loyal computer desk. If I remember it right, I got this for only $35 in 2006. After eight years and six moves within Canada to US and within, it's still holding up and serving me. What a great buy!
I use two computers when I work. Since this side of the room was not hooked for modem connection, I retired my ancient HP desktop (Windows XP circa 2005 - does anybody still use that?) and I'm using Vince's laptop for my second computer.

From a different angle. We had to move the diaper pail over beside the TV to make room for Vonn Kaleb's fort.

In one of the captions above, I mentioned of Vonn Kaleb's toy mine -- you know, bunch of toys that when you step on them, you set them off (pretty much like a real mine), they make noises and they hurt you too. He has soooo much toys! Honestly, his toys overwhelm me. To think, we only bought him three to four toys at the most. How did he accumulate so much toys in this short time? Maybe it's just me who's over reacting but when I was a kid growing up, toys were one of the luxuries my frugal mom would not afford for her children to have. She thought they were a waste of money. She would rather buy us clothes and food than toys. Makes sense, right? So now that I'm a mom myself, I appreciate that a lot of people have been showering my son with love and giving him toys of all sorts and that he gets to experience one of the things I never experienced, but one thing for sure, Vince and I are determined not to spoil him rotten with toys and gadgets and stuff. He will have some and he's definitely not going to be deprived but he is going to have to learn and appreciate the value of things. To that, Vince and I bought him two toy hampers to keep his toys organized and his room clutter less, and also to spare us the ouch from stepping on them.

Vonn Kaleb's small toys will easily fill up these two hampers!

So that's the new look of Vonn Kaleb's nursery. I can't end this post without expressing my big THANK YOU to my husband who was very supportive of my decision of going back to work. He knows how stressful my job could get, and working and caring for our son might become too challenging and too much for me. He is all for me quitting my job, but still he supported me of my decision to return to work and give this stint a try. I appreciate his kindness so much and out of respect and love for him, he can be rest assured that I will uphold and prioritize our family all the time, and that even if I'm now back in the workforce, my role as a wife and mom still always comes first.

HOME SWEET HOME

A couple of months ago, Vince and I became first-time homeowners. Yay to adulthood, LOL! We were planning on buying the house we were renting -- we loved that house a lot -- later this year but God's timing meant for us to buy sooner and a different house. You can say we were sort of rushed into that decision but God's timing is always perfect. He has truly been faithful and His goodness is unceasing that we are very much thankful He lined up everything for us in buying our first home. His provision and sovereign was with us all through the way. Despite that: 1) We didn't have enough savings to pay the required 20% downpayment for a lower interest rate; and 2) Caring for Vonn Kaleb meant we could hardly get any housework done (so much more looking for and buying a house??), God sent good people and provided means along our way which helped and taught us a lot in the process.

This picture was taken by the previous owner before we bought the house.
We had the lawn maintained and the exterior of the house pressure washed since we owned it.

It's a given that there are so many associated costs into buying a house. Because we were trying to maximize our disposable savings so that we could put in as much as downpayment as we could to get low interest rate, we didn't hire an agent, which meant that we had to do our homework and research on the what-and-what-nots of buying a house, and deal and negotiate with the seller personally. This would have been easier if we weren't first-time buyers and if we didn't have a child to care for. Those circumstances made it somewhat challenging for us. I really admire my husband for his dedication to our family because I would say that 99% of the hard work into purchasing our home was his. He spent late nights reading online about the ins-and-outs of buying a house, squeezing phone calls in between his busy work schedule to arrange for viewing houses and speaking with mortgage loan specialists, negotiating with the seller, and basically doing all the paperwork needed from start to finish. He fed me all the info he gathered and all I had to do was review them and say my thoughts and if I had questions, he was the one who fired up the emails and made the phone calls to the respective persons. We seriously both had to do a lot of reading and researching and asking whatabouts because buying a house is a serious matter after all. Honestly, I learned so much in that experience that after it was through, I felt like I could be an agent. LOL! Bottom line is that one can buy a house even without paying for an agent's expertise ;) I should mention too that it helped us a lot that the seller of the house was one of Vince's colleagues who was moving his practice to a different location and was very eager to get the house off his back. He was in fact the one who told us that rather than us paying for an agent, we could just negotiate with him and his agent directly, and he'd discount the selling price for us, which he did. Thank God!

Pimped up on Vonn Kaleb's 1st birthday. Hehe!

So with that very long segue way above, you could probably tell how happy and proud I am about our home. Hehe! Well, to be true, Vince and I wasn't very much impressed with this house compared to the rental house which we really liked. There are some aesthetic and functional improvements that need to be done in this house to suit our taste and make it more efficient as we would like, but the enormous size (5-bedroom, 4-bathroom, 2-car attached garage, outdoor shed) (and the swimming pool of course!) of this house made it a better buy than the rental house. The main thing is that this is a well-built and structurally sound house (brick, baby, yeah!) according to the home inspection, so we don't have to worry about it falling apart on us anytime in the near future. Again, as Vince puts it, even if it wasn't our dream house, this is the house that the Lord provided for us, that's why we are to be thankful for it every day. We'll just work on it to make it the beautiful home sweet home we want it to be. In fact, we already started on beautifying it. We already had it pressured washed and lawn serviced, that even our neighbors noticed and told us the house looks better now than before. We already obtained several quotes from various builders and we're getting there. We just need to do it step by step and save up for more costly improvements like the master bathroom (which is kinda' tacky... hehe! Vince doesn't even use it... He said he couldn't stand the "pink and gold" fixtures. LOL!)

Can't wait to take a dip in our pool!

I intend to blog about our home every now and then to document our quest in making it as much as a "Valencia" household it could get. Home improvement suggestions and DIY tips are very much welcome. Until my next home sweet home blog post, ciao!