What Ana Does

 Made a quick improvement at the start of the school year that I'm pretty excited about.  And yes, I'm probably the only one excited about it, but here goes ...  Here's our "command central" in our kitchen. This is a good landing spot, and a central place to all look at the family calendar ... it's that huge wipe board in the middle of the photo. All our activities are supposed to be written on here and our electronic family calendar on Google.  (Brief aside: my family is the WORST at writing their plans down in either calendar and Dave still doesn't share his events on our Google Shared Family Calendar consistently, which makes me nuts. And they all ask me "what are we doing today?" instead of looking at the calendar, usually directly behind me. But, that's another post.) I went to so much trouble putting this little area together and that huge calendar with wobbly writing was really killing the sophisticated look of that space. PLUS, we don

Completely forgot to post the final bathroom pictures. We're so pleased about the way it turned out. And the room feels so much larger First, this might be the most important view. It's what I see from bed while I'm reading at night. Before it was super ugly, especially when I put paint samples up on the wall. And the terrible tile around the huge tub and all the junk we put on it. Isn't this dreamy?!  And here's the tub accent wall with the new light, ledge and the gleaming shiplap painted with water-friendly paint.   Before I forget, the paint color on the shiplap is SW Fleur de Sal and wall is SW Greek Villa . The floor is a cheap porcelain tile and this star tile is from Home Depot.  The blue tile in the shower is the one thing I would change. I love the dark blue but if I had another go, I'd pick the denim color I looked at. OR a white tile to really brighten the room.  On the other hand, I'm so glad I used the same vanity and mirror/lights. I'm so

 Surprise! We're renovating our bathroom!  At the beginning of August, we noticed a wet seam in the ceiling of the kitchen. We assumed it had something to do with the kitchen renovation last year, so we called our contractor to come out and take a peek. Lo and behold our toilet in the primary bathroom, just above, was slowly leaking.  Gross. To sum up, we got the mold remediation guys involved, submitted a claim with our insurance company and hired our buddy General Contractor Bruce ... and now we're renovating the bathroom.  Look, in the back of my mind, while I'm falling asleep at night or while strolling through Pinterest, I have thought about what I'd do when the time came to redo that bathroom. When we moved in, it has been "updated" with grey & white matte tile and marble hex tile. But the bathtub takes up 80% of the bathroom and the tile was never sealed, so it grows dirt/mold like no tomorrow. And it's painted an offending beige and you know h

I'm on the hunt for a cozy reading chair for our bedroom. While I have plenty of cozy reading spots around the house, I'd really like one up in our bedroom where I can hide away with a book in late afternoons.  While I was sick, I really missed having that second place to curl up, too. So, I'm hunting around for the best option.  My criteria is comfy, a little higher on the back so I can rest my head, large enough I can curl up my legs, and maybe blue to match the blue room. My budget is around $500. Here are my current favorite contenders ...  This is the Albany Park Swivel Chair in a blue or green velvet. It's $900, so out of my price limit but I'm waiting on some good sales. The sofa in our basement is from this company and I really like their mission and quality. I like finding pictures of people in the chairs.  This one is a more modern version in a heather blue color ...  It's the Mod Chair from Article , a store a few of my Insta-people really like. I li

California here we come!  I planned this family summer vacation to California like it was a European vacation -- minus all the cultural and ancient sights. And more driving and modern shopping malls. We wanted Leah to see LA with us first, a city she may someday end up in if she continues to pursue directing. And we wanted to show the girls where we lived in the Bay Area and the beauty of Muir Woods. So, California for our summer vacation it was!  Our general plan was the fly to SFO, spend a few days in San Francisco visiting Muir Woods, Sausalito and a little of the city. Then take a few days to drive the 6 hours to LA, stopping a long the way. And then a few days in LA before enjoying two days in Disneyland.  In hindsight, it was too much moving. Not enough lingering in places we wanted more time to explore. But it was all of us together, so it was perfect, too.  Stop 1: San Francisco  We stayed at Hilton San Francisco Financial District Hotel that was close to the Ferry Building an

It's July, the half-way point in the year and a good time to look over where I am in the "Books Read" list. I took a month off from reading around Leah and Alice's B'nai Mitzvah, as I was using all the brain space to plan and work through my introvert-planning-huge-party neurosis that I couldn't fathom digging into a book. Regardless, I'm still on track to hit 100 for the year.   Here's just a few of my favorites:  The Stolen Heir by Holly Black -- part of her Elfhame series that I'm all-in on. I was looking forward to more Oak.  Georgie All Along by Kate Clayborn -- gah, I loved Georgie sooo much. Her messy-and-not-changing-for-you thing was so relatable.  Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood -- so far, she can do no wrong and this one was extra steamy and so fun.  First Comes Marriage by Mary Balogh -- I heard her interview on Fated Mates and decided to reread one of  her family series. This is the Huxtable family and it's been over a deca

 We've now spent a bit of time the last four months touring colleges with Leah. Either through official visits or swinging by the campus and walk through. And it's such a weird feeling on a few accounts.  First, perspective for me is so different. When I was looking at colleges and making this decision, it was obviously a much different time, a different world, everything. Totally different. And looking back on what I used to decide on college was probably totally wrong. 40-something me would look at so many other things than the things I looked at then.  Mostly, I wouldn't look so hard at the $$. Because regardless, that whole "how to pay for college" sucked and to a point it almost didn't matter what the price tag was. I was going to be applying for loans and repaying it into my 40s no matter what.  What I should have paid attention to was the equipment and who could get me the job at the end of the four years in the field I thought I wanted to do. Experienc

It was time to paint our bedroom. The flat gray was just too dull and the hue didn't work with our furniture. It's like matching grey pants with brown shoes -- fashion faux pas.  And, sure, I considered replacing all our furniture, it's a decade old and showing a little wear and tear. But quickly realized that it's just cheaper to paint out the gray. Though, I'm committed to switching out our upholstered headboard later this year.  Not to mention, there is a few places where we patched up the wall that needed to be painted over, and we don't have this gray paint from the former owners.  So, I went through all my color chips. Decided on blue. Picked a hue and ... no surprise ... it's about the same as the front room and the back hallway. Clearly, I have a favorite. Here's a few swatches I went through to decide on the blue. Some where too dark, too purple or too much gray in them.  I decided to leave the bottom part white, though I did look at a bunch of

Just so good!  I'm so happy with the final result of our back hallway. Removing that wall... just the thing. And I added some fun framed art along the top to bring UP the eye (don't look at all the shoes on the floor) and add a ton of character.  An English boot room? For sure.  Ok, I'd be remiss if I didn't think about the next "phase." Because, as much as I love this, I'll be tempted to add a small cabinet in the corner so I have a countertop to drop keys and mail. But that's likely well down the road.   Even Pepper loves it.  If you missed the evolution of this space ... and it went through several iterations before we got to this ... you can check out this blog tag . 

As mentioned, we found some extra budget and made all my back hallway dreams come true this month.  This is where we started. Note the awful pink "terracotta" floor tile that was cracking in the laundry room. The door to the left is the garage, the powder room is to the right. And that door at the end is the coat closet. And the laundry room door is at the end to the right.  Make sense?  My beef with this poky hallway is this closet and this wall. It cuts the floor space into nothing, and if it was gone, it could be an awesome little back ROOM.  Don't worry, this is one of three closets back here. Remember the coat closet at the end? And the laundry room has a closet, too, and cabinets.  We need to remove this wall. And as much as I teased Dave about doing it ourselves, he wasn't buying it. So I made this little drop zone to make the best of it ( here's the post here, for more details ).  So the simple PLAN: Remove the closet, retile the floor -- all the way into

I love books and read lots and lots. When I tell people how many books I read a week, they think I'm crazy and say "I could never read that many books, no matter how much I love to read." To that, I say, you're probably doing it wrong. ( YDIW series ) First off, some people don't care about reading or they're just not in the "book reading season" in their life ... totally get it. When I had young babies, I didn't read more than a very few books a year ... maybe. Not biggie. I don't judge. But if you're eager to read more, and think it's impossible, it's probably not.  Pick easier books. If your goal is to read three books a month, a pretty attainable goal, don't pick books from a MFA- English program. Skip the Tolstoy or Vonnegut. Sure, they're worthy but "War and Peace" is a damn dense brick! You're not being graded, so pick more "easy" books, than classic that require a comprehension guide. Mix it

 As someone who makes a living creating social media content I have a lot to say about this subject. But mainly most people are DOING SOCIAL MEDIA WRONG.  Don't get mad at me. We didn't have any of this 10 years ago and we're all not on the same page about how to use it. We've been experimenting. But, yes, there's a right way to do it. And most people do it WRONG.  At its core, social media apps (Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat, TikTok, etc.) are for CONNECTION. And to sell things and gobble up your time. But, at it's best, they are a means to be inspired and connect to people with similar interests or ideas. And even keep up with family and friends. YAY!  But, if you're taking hours to scroll through your feed. If you're not interacting with any posts. If they make you jealous, uncomfortable or angry. All red flags. YOU * ARE * DOING * IT * WRONG.  Curate your feed! Follow only those that ADD to your day, not subtract. Look for influencers and content cr

In the first of my series of "You're Doing It Wrong (YDIW) we're starting with houseplants . Lately, I've been collecting a lot of houseplants. This house loves the plants. Our windows are large and bright, and I'm home to look after them. So, I'm covering every available surface with plants. And I have a few friends who also like plants, but mostly, I hear "I can't do houseplants" and "I love houseplants but I always kill all of them!" Of course you do. Everyone does. And that's why people are doing houseplants wrong. You don't buy them to keep them to just "keep alive." You buy them to enjoy until they eventually die. Because yes, they will probably eventually die. Killing houseplants isn't really the failure everyone thinks it is. We buy bouquets of flowers and they all eventually die, so why don't we accept the same will happen to most of the house plants we buy? Even houseplant experts know a certain numbe

 One of the DIY merit badges I've been excited to earn was as a tiler. Every show and contractor/construction guy I've talked to has been insistent it's an "EASY" DIY. "You can totally do it," they say. But I never had the opportunity to give it a go. A nice easy low-risk project.  Until the powder room!  I gathered up my courage, watched all the how-to videos, picked up all the supplies needed (about $250 with the tile) and took a deep breath ... and just GOT WENT FOR IT.  Everything is figuroutable, right!?  It was easy, though there were definitely lessons learned. And quick solutions I had to come up with. But I would very confidently tile another small wall.  First, here's a photo of the IN REAL LIFE mess of a room mid-project. It's important to be OK with creating a mess. Tiling is messy.  Here's the room after the tile is up (took about four hours) and the clean up. Hauling clean water in and out of the room was the worst part. I'l

The downstairs powder room is really coming together much faster than we thought. After an initial text with our contractor, once we had all our materials picked out and our vanity delivered, he was able to fit us in THE SAME WEEK due to a two-day hole in the schedule.  So BAM! In two days they removed the old vanity and floor tile and had to new floor down and vanity nearly installed. Ugh, there was a minor plumbing issue that got resolved on day 3, so on day 4 they officially installed the vanity and were done.  Here's where we started, to where we finished off with the contractors ...    Also! I was able to sell the old vanity on Facebook Marketplace for $350!! That was a solid piece of granite, people! And got it out of our garage in less than 24 hours. A new record!  Next up ... TILE!  

I've always thought this house deserves a lot of green. And dark blue. It's that center hall colonial vibe I love so much. So when it came time to paint the guest room, I wanted to use one of those colors. And after painting the back hallway blue, green just seemed to be the right direction.  The guest room gets a ton of light, since it faces east. So it can handle a moody color. I picked Peale Green from Benjamin Moore and got it from the TrueValue near the house -- it's the closest hardware store. The walls were painted in a blue/grey flat paint with lots of nicks and a few spots where the old paint was showing -- not in great shape. I knew an eggshell finish would pick up some sunlight and give the room a little shine. (I will never understand using flat on these walls. SO weird.)  Here's one of the walls before:   And after the coat of Peale Green later ...  Of all the lovely colors in this house, this might be a favorite! It's a great true-green with a little

 Just a few more updates from the back hallway. And here's where we currently stand.  (Will I be buying a third dark gray basket for the top shelf? Yes, yes I will.)  So last weekend I painted the pinky/terracotta floor tile a matte black. Other than not being able to step on it for a few days, it was one of the easiest DIYs and cheap -- about $70. Looks just like the black tile in the kitchen. Unless you stare at it, it's a total dup.  I always forget what a huge difference flooring can make.  Then I decided to paint the interior of the closet/drop zone to match the rest of the walls in this hallway. And I love how it turned out. That oversaturated blue on the beadboard ... it's so good.  I also finished that lower shelf and found bulbs for the ceiling fixture that is SUPER BRIGHT.  Here's a quick walk through the progress of this much-used space ...  I wish I could have taken down that wall, but Dave was not interested in a demo project. Maybe someday.  SO, all that&#