Craving Sunshine

If I'd have any cravings so far this pregnancy, I'd have to put SUNSHINE on the top of that list. It makes it very convenient that my good friend Becky and her family live in the Phoenix area, so I decided to go pay them a visit. The girls and I made the road trip with no problems... well, Havi threw up once, but that was about it.

Teah was on the look out for a cactus, and she saw plenty. We had to stop once so she could get out and touch one- she was actually scared. Havi was fearless enough to fall... she almost landed on one, but only landed next to it where the pokey things got all over her hands and knees.

Becky and Steve let us stay with them and their cute little family. They have Jaxton who is the same age as Havi. He's such a sweet little (but not really little) boy. Teah would have brought their little Makaelyn (7 months) home with us... I wouldn't have minded that one bit, she's such a good baby. It was fun to spend time with Becky, I wish she was closer and we could hang out more!

The girls loved being able to go to the park... in shorts and tanks. We had plenty of good food (In n Out, Oreganos... mmmmm). Then it was back in the car to drive home. Teah and I played a game on the magna-doodle where we tried guessing what word the other was writing. Teah guessed all mine (fat, cat, hat, etc.) and she had some good ones for me to guess- I had to take pictures of some of my favorites. Can you guess them?

(Mountain and Nail Polish)

cc + mr 4eva

If I had to name my "style" of decoration, I think I'd have to call it: Coastal Contemporary (cc). Yes, I do have a husband who has taste and style, which he has declared to be: Mountain Rustic (mr). Total and complete opposites. So how did we build a house we both love... and stay married? It can be done, and here's the evidence: see the pictures for evidence that our styles can blend, and see the positive pregnancy test (not pictured, but trust me there were definitely TWO lines) for evidence that we can stay married :)

So here we have the Grand Tour!

Picture 1: here's the front of the house, with all the board and batten, rock, shakes. The only thing that remains to be done here is to stain those posts on the front porch (the ugly orange things). They'll be stained to match the front door once the weather allows.

Picture 2: The entry way. I had to have this light, I think it's pretty cool. My Aunt Dana does vinyl stuff and I had her do this for my entry. She did a perfect job!
Picture 3: The family room. Can you hear what our couches are screaming? Listen... hear that? "We're TEMPORARY!!". Eventually they'll be replaced with a comfy L-shaped brown leather chaise sectional, but we do have to pace ourselves. I didn't get a good picture of the fireplace this time, but it looks the same as it did in the last house update. This is mostly kitchen. I love my kitchen.

Bathroom picture:

Here's the girl's/main bathroom. Look at this cool step our awesome cabinet people put in!

My room:

This room is such a cool get away. We went from a queen to a king size bed when we moved, and let me tell you... it's heaven! I was so excited to put this bedding on, too. I love it.

Master bathroom:

I know I'm over-using the word "love" in this post, but what else can I say about our master bathroom? Love, love, love. Tons of storage. Square sinks. Did you notice the blow-dryer cabinet? I won't have any more wardrobe problems due to lack of a full length mirror... I'll just have to come up with another excuse.

The girl's room:

This may be my favorite room in the house. It's such a happy room! I love the colors, the simplicity, the little details here and there (see the pillows Jayme made for them on the window seat?). Over each of their beds is a light controlled by a dimmer by their individual nooks. At night, we just turn it on to a soft glow and they can fall asleep in peace. Other times, like this morning, they can sit in bed with the light a little brighter and look through books. Perfect.

I still have a lot of ideas for this room... desks, white canopies, window treatments... but it's like I said before- i need to pace myself.

That concludes the grand tour. Areas like the "club house", the deck and the office either haven't changed since I last put up pictures, or they're simply too messy to take pictures.

And now I'm going to have to find other things to blog about... Thanks for following along this last year as we went through this grueling process. We're thrilled with the results, and thrilled to be done.

We love visits, so please, if you're in the area, stop by!

We're in!!!!

I'm happy to report that we've moved into our new house and are getting unpacked and settled. The bad news is that we don't have internet, so posts will be few and far between. When we get a bit more settled, I'll do a photo "grand tour" here on the blog... stay tuned. In the mean time, if you're in the area, I LOVE showing my house, so please call or just stop by! (email me if you need directions- holly.montano@gmail.com)

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy

As much as I LOVE changing Havi's diapers, I just can't stop her from growing up. And if she wants to potty train in exactly 1.5 days I guess I'll have to deal with it.

Don't you love the pull ups pose?

Sneak Peak

I'm planning on doing "The Grand Tour" of the house once we're in and everything's done, but I can't resist this little sneak peak.












Here's how the exterior's going to look. This is actually a horrible picture of it, you can't see the garage (dark brown), the tan siding up in the gable looks beaming white, and we have the exterior lighting up by the garage, but of course you can't see that either.

Here's the shot I take every time, as we slowly watch the kitchen evolve. We now have a few appliances in, the lights, and even some countertops.
This part of the kitchen always gets cut out of my picture. On the right side of the island in the above picture is this, the desk area.




If you go out the door on the left side of the above kitchen picture, you'll walk out on the deck. Here you can see more of the red exterior, the cursed black deck rail (it's been LeRoy's worst nightmare lately as he's been installing it with the help of my dad and some friends), and part of the chimney (the rocky thing on the left).


Going back inside, this is the finished fireplace, we got the mantle and the lighting done.

Here's the stair rail on the other side of the room. Nothing too spectacular.

For those interested in ceilings, this is the ceiling in the family room. The master bedroom is this same coffered style, but not as deep/tall.

I'm so excited to have this mud room. It's not a great picture, but the wood matches the kitchen island. On the right is the garage entrance.

If you go upstairs and take a left, you'll be in here- the girl's room.

If you go straight you'll be in the girl's closet.

And if you go straight some more, you'll be in here- the "club house"! (we've started moving in this area- the girl's need some entertainment while LeRoy and I finish up... besides, we didn't have room anywhere else for the Christmas toys!)

That's what I have for now, thanks for checking in on us :)

Torture

We didn't make it in the new house by Christmas. I was hoping to have a New Year's bash there... but that's not happening either. Dang. Without going into details of who and what are holding us up, let's just say we're working on it. The race is on- which will finish first, interior or exterior? It's going to be a close one. I'll keep you posted.

Cabinets!!!
I love my cabinets. I don't know what I like more, the rounded island with wood bent around the arc or the clean white lines... I just love them.



Here's the master bathroom- I'm really excited about this. Our toothbrushes will have their very own tilt drawer! My blowdryer will have it's very own spot! The hairspray, medicine, curling irons, etc. will all have a place... heaven.

This is the fireplace, it was just done yesterday. There will be a mantle in that empty spot.

We're getting there. The 'to-do' list seems to never end, but it's getting there. Today the carpet is coming, by the end of the week we're getting countertops, the exterior is coming along (I'll have to post a couple pictures of it, it's cool!), and we're still really hoping to be in by Christmas. I'll keep you posted!