Garden updates!

It's so gorgeous and summery out right now that a garden update post seems appropriate. We wanted to re-plant our back raised bed with something and decided to plant the whole thing with 6 varieties of chili peppers! We've got habaneros, jalapeños, Caribbean reds, two varieties of cayenne peppers, and some asian chili peppers going on right now. It is one spicy box.

I always have better luck growing plants from seeds to seedlings in this mini soil pots than straight in the ground, so we did that and then two weeks later plopped them into the bed. 

All except our Caribbean Reds are going strong. We'll see if we can coax them back to life. I hope so because I can't for the life of me find the seed packets ANYWHERE! I think Elsa threw them away.

We ran out of room in the back bed for our 18 seedlings, so the three jalapeños got moved to the beds by Linus, joining our four lemon cucumber plants. Can't wait for those suckers to get going.

And speaking of Linus... look how healthy he is! We picked all of his ripe lemons but new green ones are in there. He's so much bushier now, and his branches are starting to grow up and not just out. I'm hoping he gets taller though. No offense Bradford and Donnie- we love you as neighbors but a tall tree would look really nice here.

For comparison, this was Linus from a few months ago:

 And this was Linus when he was a baby!

Our bougainvillea is also looking much better and is even flowering!

For comparison, this is how he was looking right before my dad came to visit and helped straighten him out:

Much better. Our potted succulents are also thriving and propagating (when Elsa isn't pulling them up).

 Trying to escape into the alley. Not a good idea without shoes, Baby.

Speaking of thriving succulents, our Christmas gift from two years ago from Mandy and Seth is looking amazing! It was touch and go for it for awhile because it was unhappy indoors and the cats kept eating it, but after we moved it to the dining table outside, it totally thrived. I love all the variations in colors and textures. Makes me happy.

Our front yard is looking pretty great too, and the neighbors just tidied up our rose bushes and put down pretty rocks around them because they have to look at them too and we didn't have time to do much with them. Maybe if you're lucky I'll do a follow-up post with pictures of the front. We'll see.

While in San Jose...

Grammie shared her Pirate's Booty with Elsa, 

sat in a big kids chair at Grammie's over lunch,

probably ate a succulent leaf,

learned from Nonnie about not eating plants,

took a bath in a laundry basket,

visited the meerkats at Happy Hollow,

drank Diet Coke,

realized she did not like Diet Coke,

 ate powdered donuts,

jumped on a staticky trampoline,

pooped behind trash cans like a hobo,

 reached for the stars with Auntie LeeAnn,

made faces at Auntie Jane's lovely albeit ginormous salad,

read "Where is Spot" probably 78 times with Nonnie,

and had a Mexican feast at Grammie's while wearing a hipster scarf bib.

Needless to say, she was very entertained and well taken care of while I was away in Miami. :)

Worry about yourself!

Miami 2013

WHOA! A whole month has zipped by while I've ignored this blog. You all must be pissed. What has been entertaining you this whole month, if not me?? Apologies.

I always have pictures to share, but these days I've been relying on Instagram and Facebook to keep you all updated. (Btw, you can follow me on Instagram if you'd like, screen name @livmcmillan. Stalkers.) This time I have a transcontinental trip to share, which I feel warrants a blog post. Not to mention a family member's wedding!

My grandfather, mom and I flew out to Miami for a week to attend my cousin Diana's wedding and just got back. The trip out there was great... Elsa dealt well with the car drive up north, we had no problems at SFO and they even upgraded us to Economy Plus (whoop tee-doo for 5'4" me but that extra leg room made SUCH a difference for my two travel companions and their supermodel legs), and we arrived on time. The way back was much less awesome. A thunderstorm prevented us from taking off, keeping us strapped in our seats on the runway for two hours, in addition to the 6 hour flight, and then another 30 minutes of waiting once we landed for emergency personnel to board the plane and take off a woman that had a seizure mid-flight. We got home around midnight which was 3:00am to our bodies, and crashed hard. Jeff, Elsa, and I drove home to Long Beach the following day and she was less than stellar on the car ride, but at least traffic was good.

The actual traveling is never much fun anymore, especially when you throw in a cranky toddler, but the trip and wedding were lovely and it was so great to see the family. Here are some pics:

Wrinkles and Nick could sense my Mom was a kindred spirit and would cosy on right up to her. The rest of us had to work for their attention.

Breakfast most mornings was my favorite- a cortadito (sweet Cuban coffee with milk) and a guava paste filled pastelito pastry. Awesome. I'm going to miss those.

Nick bit Abuelo the last time they visited Miami, but his manners have improved. Abuelo came away unscathed this trip.

The extended family at Diana and Francisco's wedding- in our fancies. I didn't realize my posture sucked so much until I looked at these pictures. Pam East (my old dance teacher) would be horrified.

My cousin Alan and my gramps, making me feel little.

Wasn't Diana's dress gorgeous? That's what mine would have looked like too if I had her figure. My aunt's dress too was amazing, albeit a little hard to see here. Slinky and black with sheer stripes at the top and bottom. So elegant.

The first dance. Awwww....

Jeff thought Ricky was my new Miami boyfriend. I did kind of want to put him in my purse and bring him back to California with me.

Wrinkles was less of a threat to Abuelo than Nick.

New appliances!

Part deux of our March home improvements includes new kitchen appliances! Home improvements are always a domino effect. We had the plumbers come in to fix a drip in the tub before the resurfacers came and while they were there, they looked at our other plumbing to make sure we were getting the most out of our $75 house call. They said our dishwasher (which came with the house) was on it's last legs and we should consider a new one. We kind of figured that because it was doing a worse and worse job cleaning the dishes with every wash. We decided to start looking for a new dishwasher to keep an eye out for really good sales. Just so happened that the day we went to Best Buy to browse (after me doing hours of obsessive appliance research on the internet) they were having a really great kitchen appliances sale. We found the dishwasher of my dreams (you don't dream about dishwashers? Weirdo.) and it was on sale for $165 less than the normal price. Sold.

Then we started browsing the refrigerators because they were so pretty. The refrigerator we currently had that came with the house worked fine, but the part in the water/ice dispenser in the door cracked and a rust problem ensued. It got a little out of control and rust dripped down the door. Oopsies. It's supposedly a reasonable fix to sandpaper out the rust, buy a new part for the dispenser, and spray paint the door with appliance spray paint, but neither of us felt up to the challenge, plus having to lug it outside, store all the food somewhere for a day, and then lug it back in made all those shiny new refrigerators in Best Buy VERY tempting. Not the most responsible and frugal decision we have made, but work is going really well for Jeff right now and we felt like splurging. GET OFF MY BACK!

Anyways, we found an awesome Samsung refrigerator with LED lighting powered by mini magical unicorns that live in the refrigerator that was also on super sale PLUS I found it online for even less from a competitor which Best Buy honored the price of giving us the additional discount. Only problem, we went home to measure and realized that we needed a counter-depth refrigerator which guess what, surprise surprise, are a lot more expensive than normal and larger fridges. Bah! The same Samsung we wanted came in the counter-depth so it was an easy switch, it just cost a bit more (still got the price match discount though!).

Geez. So many words for two appliances. Anyways, here they are:

Dishwasher:

 

It's a vintage kitchen with old cabinets obviously, so the brand new modern dishwasher sticks out a bit, The black control touch panel is supposed to be hidden but with our short cabinets it's visible. Oh well. Stainless steel inside with adjustable heights on the rack so we can now properly wash all the tall beer glasses and travel mugs.

The fridge:

LED lighting! It's not just me, everyone is impressed with the lighting when they open the door.

Sigh. I love new appliances. Our range and microwave are still in good working condition so no plans to upgrade those for the time being. I think next on our wish list will be resurfacing the kitchen tile (we're resurfacing addicts!) and doing something about that awful vinyl floor.

New (kinda) bathroom!

It's been the month of home improvement projects for us, so first up, our new bathroom!! When we moved into the house, the one and only bathroom was pretty dated. It luckily was in very good condition, everything being clean, not chipped, nothing rotting, just dated and pink and not great. We had already ditched the pink toilet and replaced the linoleum floor with tile, but the pink tub and sink, and pink tile surround still haunted us. I'm normally a fan of retro tile, especially if it's in good condition, but the pinks were slightly different and it drove me nuts. Plus the grout was old and mildewy and impossible to clean. I don't know why it took us so long, but it finally dawned on me that would could get the fixtures and tiles resurfaced! 

If you don't know about resurfacing, then you obviously aren't watching HGTV. They resurface stuff all the time on their home improvement shows. Anyways, professionals come in, tape off every damn thing in the room, and then spray this enamel on the fixtures and tile (and over the grout lines), and you basically get a shiny and clean new surface without having to rip everything out to the studs. The enamel covers the grout so no more scrubbing grout. Just a smooth swipe and it's clean. 

You can get just about any color done, but to do a custom color match, they have to send it out and it takes a few weeks. I wanted a white tub and sink, white tile horizontally on the vanity, and a light gray tile on the tub surround and vanity backsplash. They said they could mix the gray on site in front of me to approve, which we did, but the wet gray I approved in the can was SO different from the final look. Not a surprise because grays are stupid hard to get right (this one dried very blue and I'm a fan of the warmer, browner grays) but still kind of a bummer. Oh well. I still like it and it's growing on me. Ready for before and after pictures!?

Toilet/tub/tile/floor before:

Toilet/floor after (you've seen this before):

 Vanity before:

Vanity after a new mirror and gray paint on the cabinet:

Vanity after with resurfacing!

Those crazy patterned tiles on the vanity stayed, but with the solid color, the pattern is super subtle and kind of cool. Here's a close-up:

Tub, tile, and shower doors before:

Tub and tile resurfaced and no more doors after:

We went all out and got a new shower head too. (Btw, this picture was taken after my shower- I couldn't wait- and you can see the water drips and condensation. That's not the enamel dripping I swear).

The patterned tile in the shower is also still there (all tiles were in great condition so nothing had to be chipped out and replaced) but classier now in gray/blue.

And the stupid soap dish also stayed. It would have been work to take it out and replace it but this thing was COVERED in mildew and mold before the job. I swear I scrubbed the crap out of it trying to clean it but it was impossible. It's sealed now and I'm going to keep on top of cleaning it regularly so it won't be a breeding ground for bacteria.

For the details, we used ProTub Resurfacing in Signal Hill for the job and they were great. Very nice and easy to work with, we'd recommend them. The job took two days because we did two colors (they can only do one color per day) and you can't use the bathroom for 24 hours after the paint job so our bathroom was out of commission for two days. The enamel takes 30 days to cure fully so you can use the bathroom normally after 24 hours but you need to be careful and wipe things down and not put heavy stuff on the resurfaced surface for the 30 days.

Resurfacing the tub and adding an anti-slip surface to the bottom (like a sandpapery finish) was $290. The sink cost $140, and the tile on the vanity cost $315 ($45 per foot of vanity, we have a 7 foot vanity). The tile surround in the shower cost $290. So altogether, $1035 for a much cleaner and more modern bathroom. Ripping out the tile and replacing everything can go up to over 10K in labor and materials, not too mention it's pretty wasteful if your existing stuff is in good condition, so we feel like we made the right decision. We also got a new ceiling fan to combat the moisture issue in the bathroom (about $100 for the fan and free labor from our electrician neighbor who wanted to get paid with a Jeff McMillan print) and Jeff repainted the whole room and ceiling, so I think it's safe to say that this room is DONE. We're calling it a wrap.