preppy i guess

This gal has great style. I stumbled upon her blog somewhere and it's just so nice and do-able unlike a few other style blogs that just seem... impractical. Which led me to the discovery that I suppose my favorite dress style lately is preppy? I dunno when it changed from t-shirt and sneakers but I am a big fan of looking dressed up now that I'm thirty. With age comes wisdom I suppose.

The fantastic bonus about this lovely lady is that she is a DIYer in the practical sense. Making things in a cheaper way that don't look cheap and DIY, which is the worst thing about doing things yourself: when they LOOK like you did them yourself. 

See: pretty much all of the website regretsy for examples of bad DIY but go to her blog to see good stuff.

dis my office right now

Well I finally had the room all ready to go for pictures and immediately upon putting these pictures onto the blog post I found about 10 things I wanted to change. So here's what it looks like for the sake of having something post today and then in a few weeks after the tweaks have been made, I'll upload pics of it again.

Need to change the art. I've had placeholders forever and I need to find something permanent.

That tray is terrible on this stool. It's gotta go, the scale is all wrong.

The picture and the box are not right. Trying to find another solution.

I totally copied someone's idea of the nail polishes in the jar. It's staying.

Matt finally bought me this copy of Alice in Wonderland I'd been wanting forever. I'd already read it but I really wanted the pretty cover with the flamingos.

These fools were nothing, they were seeds, I made them, behold my power! *lightning strikes me*

This one was $2 last year at Home Depot. Still alive.

I'm unemployed for a week and have lots of cleaning up/sorting/throwing things away/getting projects done/preparing for moving sort of things to do. Nothing that will stay with the house, stuff that I would want to tackle when we move regardless like painting the office chair legs so I'll get those things done and have less to do when we move.

Hope your weekend is spent getting something done you've put off for awhile.

i could do a lot of damage on this site: flight 001

An online store of all kinds of things that help make travel much more convenient, which appeals to me since I have to have a gaggle of gadgets and supplies to keep on hand and keeping them organized is imperative.

Plus it's sort of a dream site. Imagining the check in, the flight, oh the places you'll go...

four things i'm into

Tropical/Desert/Palm Springs Chic. Big ole palms. Bright Colors. Flamingos, obviously. These things appeal to me right now in a big way. I love the heat, so sue me, I do, I grew up going to Mexicali, and the images of poolside lounging mixed with glamour is something I imagine incorporating into my life.

Not so much in my clothes though. I like the idea of making a room out of the concept. Like that wallpaper in Blanche's bedroom that's so classic.

Stars and celestial type things. This has been ongoing for awhile, most of my master bedroom pin board is about the heavens.

Neon. Big time. I like to incorporate it in small ways though, just a little flash shining through, unlike the family I saw at California Adventure who wore all matching neon green t-shirts. Yuck.

Art Deco + The Combination of black and white and green or mint. B&W make me happy always but I'm particularly into what it looks like with green or mint. And art deco, though I'm not quite sure this thing qualifies maybe just a little, think Hollywood Tower of Terror style. I'm inspired by the art deco table tops, so much glamour in an old school way.

It's 2:24am PST and I was up partly because my family's in town from San Diego and we went to Disneyland for awhile and had a late dinner and partly because I had to be on the phone with London pretty early to handle work ish. I can't remember the last time I've been up at 2:24am. 

burbank houses: dumpy house

The journey has begun. It's been two weekends in a row we've spent looking at homes in Burbank. We've been pre-approved for a certain loan amount so this ish is for serious on the real my homies.

We're learning a lot about the home shopping process and it's a lot of fun looking at houses as EvY circa now vs. EvY circa whenever I didn't read blogs because I can look at a house and completely picture scenarios I wouldn't have pictured before. Also I'm not naive about how much time and money and effort it takes to make a house a home. Thanks to one particular blog I can see realistically how much it costs to remodel a kitchen if you do it all yourself. So basically nothing scares me when it comes to what a house looks like which is why this particular house we're referring to as "dumpy house" is a prime example. 

I will be doing this kinda pictures of houses we liked post every once in awhile. I don't want you guys to get excited about things that aren't happening so we'll just use a few home tours to illustrate points when home shopping. I just want to help people so hopefully our journey will someday help you on your future journeys.

So... dumpy house. Lots of pros, lots of cons. This is what the outside of the house looked like. Kinda a wreck but cute and instant potential. Front yard=front gardening. Long driveway for parking our cars and visitor cars.

Major negatory but also kind of something I could deal with if I had to: see that big long brick wall in the distance behind that tree? That's the 5 Freeway Northbound. Yup. I live about 15 minutes away from any freeway in La Mirada now, I would literally live next door to one in Burbank. Noise was a major concern and also giant hideous wall to the right of our house. But... lots of parking alongside it.

The house had just what I wanted, three beds and two baths. Here's the living area with decent floors and good lighting.

Dining area next to the living area.

Other side of dining area. Cute little cubby I'd probably knock down eventually. This is the view from the kitchen.

This is the view to the kitchen, with this weird opening.

That wall would come tumbling down in my world. Maybe make it into an island of sorts?  

Kitchen. Decent size.

Other side of kitchen, more storage, very nice.

Bedroom 2 that's closest to the kitchen. Good floors.

The room was a decent size but they put the door for the closet and entrance right next to each other which doesn't make sense and is stupid 'cause you keep hitting the doors against each other. Morons. Why not have one open the opposite way geniuses!

Another brilliant move. Oh yeah let's make it so the door opens INTO the toilet. How about out guys? Other side of the door might have been better no? Amateurs. 

This bathroom was a dirty hot mess. Blech! For the condo we hired a serious cleaning service and I'd probably do the same 'cause it was not very expensive and time = money. And I love cleaning my house day to day with my own ickyness but I don't want to clean up after some strangers.

Bedroom 1 that is at the front of the house and looks out towards the front yard. This would be my office because I wouldn't want my kid sneaking out with her boyfriend or his girlfriend and front of the house would be further from our room. I'm nipping crap in the bud left and right here! So by default, this would be my office/other guest room/area to watch Netflix while Matt plays video games.

Other side of the kitchen is the laundry area. 

And across from the laundry area is the master bedroom.

Which upon entering our realtor (and sister in-law) said "EvY, now, don't get scared." The sign reads Enter At Your Own Risk.

"AHHH!!!" I yelled. Water damage. Big time. The floors were all warped and well, come on...

THE FREAKING ROOF HAD A HOLE IN IT. This is what led the house's nickname "dumpy house."

This is what would make this house, listed a lot higher, a lot cheaper. We could get some inspectors and estimate dudes to see how much it would cost and then see how low we could go and if it's just a simple problem or a red flag of a more serious problem that would be too expensive to repair and not worth taking care of. Not that we're doing that, I'm just saying, IN THEORY.

But beyond that. See that? Master bathroom. Do you know how badly I want a master bathroom? When we have guests over it's just so magical that we have our own bathroom and can stay secluded.

And this ladies, walk in closet. Two sides. 1 1/2 sides for me. 1/2 side for Matt.

The home came with this awesome dress. Let's move in NOW!

View from the master to the backyard which was okay sized and I think had a shed on it 'cause there was shed remnant. Beyond the wall... we'll talk about that other major con in a second.

Then this was the little surprise nugget that we all just went WHAT?!!!! THAT IS TOTALLY AWESOME! Slash/Another Con: NO GARAGE. The home owners had converted the garage... into a full on little apartment/guest house.

Sis said we'd have to remove the gas stove 'cause something about it being considered a second house which is fine by me but how cute would that be even without the stove. Guests would have their own little bar area.

I wasn't kidding when I said it was a little apartment. This is the front "living area". We imagine setting up Matt's drum set here in the corner.

Then there was the actual bedroom.

And of course, it's own little bathroom.

What the hell with their doors opening IN scenarios?!

Oh and the guest house has a sizeable closet too. 

The backyard was decent, had a peach tree. 

BUT. Big butt. Beyond the back of the house is an alley. Which seemed really weird and ghetto but also nice not to have to worry about being loud for the back neighbors, there wouldn't be any. I looked at the alley and it looked pretty empty and hardly used but still...

But the location... oh the location. On the other side of the freeway: a giant shopping center that has a Target, Best Buy, and all kinds of other stores. Down the street from us: SPROUTS AND IKEA. Airport about 5 minutes away. Work: 15 minutes.

I kinda really really like this house. But the cons of the freeway proximity and the alley behind it were pretty gnarly. The neighborhood itself seemed terrific.  What do you guys think? Too many cons? Will I regret not making an offer on it later? Will I always look back and say "it's okay but not like that dumpy house."?