Sunday, 11 February 2018

Frosty Fridays

This past weekend was so good for my soul. Our family got away to The Colonnade in Boston’s Back Bay. It’s only about forty minutes from our home but it’s about as different as can be. I’ve traveled all over the United States and some of Europe and Boston still remains my favorite city. It’s unique in it’s history and walkability to so many different areas of the city.

This is as good as it gets… I’m wearing my absolute favorite PJs, which I put on the second were were done walking around for the day! They are a little expensive but I assure you, they were worth every single penny… they are super comfortable.

We got an adjoining suite and double room and I can’t even begin to tell you how great that was for our family. Four kids seven and under are a tricky package to travel with… especially when two of them are one year old twins. There is definitely no easier place to be than home but AJ and I remarked on multiple occasions that a suite is the way to do it when traveling with kids. I’m always concerned about our noise and if we are being too loud for the neighboring rooms but having a suite gave us a great buffer. Also thanks to a suite a full sized table in our room allowed us to nix fighting the dinner crowd and we brought dinner into our room (you know how it is with babies having melt downs and wanting bed!).  We did the same for breakfast the second morning (we walked to Panera the first). Without a doubt I’d shell out extra money for a suite again and save on going out to eat for every meal.

This was the view from our hotel room… hence getting food in. 🙂

Right across the street from our hotel was the Prudential Center which has incredible shops (normal and incredibly high end), facing The Colonnade is Barnes & Noble so it was the perfect spot for me to escape to with the older kids while the babies napped. I told them we would get them something but it had to be either a longer book or a Lego set so it could be something that could occupy them in the hotel during down time in between exploring.

Drew loves Magic Treehouse books (they are great for kids K-3) and Elle chose a Lego Friends set which she could play for hours with. My Kate Spade bag is from Thred Up, one of my newest obsessions (it’s second hand and in PERFECT condition!).

Walking around one of my favorite areas of the city…

This is one of my favorite photos of the trip. Elle had just fallen in a giant mud puddle in the middle of the Public Gardens, right by this Make Way for Ducklings statue, and was freaking out.

The first night we were there they Bell Hop brought a cart up to our room with a charcuterie board and the most amazing spread of fruit and sweets. I almost started crying when I saw that… we had a really hard January (a significant fire in a rental, AJ’s grandmother dying, Gray in the ER, Elle with pneumonia and having to spend thousands and thousands to redo a good piece of our septic system after it backed up over our basement) and so being away from home and having this hotel staff, that had never met us, pamper us felt amazing.

This morning Vera was so loud in the hotel so I took her and Gray out for a walk so they wouldn’t wake all the neighboring rooms. The twins weren’t fazed with this morning’s rain (they were mostly covered) and we walked all around the Back Bay while few people were out. It was therapy to be in a new place during these cold and dreary winter months and be able to just leave the hotel and see all these great sights within minutes. (For all of you home decor lovers: RH’s largest store is a 1/4 mile from the hotel and H&M Home is about a half a mile!)

We were at the hotel for the Frosty Fridays package. You pay the temperature at 5pm on Friday night for your Friday rate (which would have made it $33 for the Friday rate) and $289 for Saturday. The Colonnade has a great hot chocolate bar (which was actually more like the drinking chocolate we had all over Paris) and with the rate you can either take a Old Town Trolley Tour over the city (it was a great way to see the city!) or get tickets to skate on Frog Pond in Boston Common (we were rained out for the Frog Pond skating today but are going to come back and do it again!).

Without a doubt we’d do it again… and maybe have the babies stay with my parents so we could do even more around the city with the kids. If you aren’t from Boston I can’t recommend The Colonnade and location enough, especially for February vacation!

The post Frosty Fridays appeared first on Migonis Home.


Frosty Fridays posted first on http://ssmattress.blogspot.com

Grow a Meal a Week in Small Spaces With This Solar-Powered Gardening Assistant

How about growing a meal a week in less than 100 square feet with a robot who manages your garden for you remotely?

Imagine sustainably growing food at home with a personal solar-powered smart robot gardener that will automatically irrigate, … Read More...

The post Grow a Meal a Week in Small Spaces With This Solar-Powered Gardening Assistant appeared first on Urban Gardens.


Grow a Meal a Week in Small Spaces With This Solar-Powered Gardening Assistant posted first on http://ssmattress.blogspot.com

Friday, 9 February 2018

Budget Condo Redo

In October AJ and I were hired to do a budget redo of a condo out of state owners wanted to put on the market. I had $17,000 to redo the house well enough to sell at a profit. Our main job was to paint the walls, renovate the bath and kitchen and refinish the floors… I’ve included a few before and afters below. Keep in mind that because we had such a limited budget there are things, like the drop ceilings in the kitchen and the bathrooms, that unfortunately stayed. We figured that the new home owner could tackle those items.

Kitchen After

Kitchen Before

Bathroom After


Bathroom Before

Living Room

Living Room Before

Because I had such a limited budget to work with I opted to paint all the walls with my sister instead of hiring a crew. AJ took the kids up to Vermont to visit his brother and we cranked out 3/4 of the condo in a weekend. I chose to do white, custom matched to the new kitchen cabinets, on all the walls and trim. My goal was not to make it perfect, otherwise I would have done different finishes on the walls and trim, but just to clean everything up and give the entire condo a blank slate for the prospective buyers.

I decided to do the floors one of my favorite stains, Jacobean by Minwax, to contrast nicely with the walls. We used the same company we used for the flip and had  the same great experience this time around as well. They are incredibly affordable and do a good job. (As a major plus, the owner speaks English pretty well, which is a must for me…. we had a big mistake in our last house with the people we hired to do our floors when they couldn’t understand what we were telling them.)

It was tricky navigating exactly how to spend the $17,000. In one sense it’s a lot of money… and in another, it’s almost nothing to do a redo on an entire place. The tub in the bathroom was one of our largest expenses. It was a pink cast iron tub and it was completely disgusting. AJ was out straight with stuff at our rentals and we decided this would be one of the things we’d hire out. We spent $4500 of the budget to hire a bath company who specializes in liners to completely demo the tub and put in a new one with sides. The cost made me cringe when I knew what AJ could do it for but I promised him I wouldn’t ask him for much with this project. We then hired a handyman to put bead board over the pink tile and I purchased a new vanity and toilet which we had a plumber install. The costs for the plumber were about four times what I was estimating because he had to change so many pipes to make it up to code.

The kitchen was put back together with an almost identical layout with the exception that I purchased a counter depth fridge and put it in the actual kitchen space instead of down a hallway. Even though it feels like it’s right out in the open the kitchen is much more user friendly now. The cabinets are the exact ones we used in the flip but this time we wised up and had the company put them together instead of AJ and I doing it.

The condo had an accepted offer within the first few days of being on the market despite it not being perfect!

The post Budget Condo Redo appeared first on Migonis Home.


Budget Condo Redo posted first on http://ssmattress.blogspot.com

Thursday, 8 February 2018

Lamps, Streetlights, and Bomb-Detection Powered By Plants and Vegetables

 Photo via Living Lights.

Read by the light of your arugula and kale? Researchers at MIT in Massachusetts are embedding specialized nanoparticles into the leaves of plants and vegetables such as arugula, kale, spinach, and watercress to create…edible lights and … Read More...

The post Lamps, Streetlights, and Bomb-Detection Powered By Plants and Vegetables appeared first on Urban Gardens.


Lamps, Streetlights, and Bomb-Detection Powered By Plants and Vegetables posted first on http://ssmattress.blogspot.com

Finding Your Style by Figuring Out What NOT to Buy

I wrote about this years ago.  That lightbulb moment I had when I heard a designer say that the best way to hone your style, to really figure out what speaks most to you design-wise, is to come up with a don’t buy word or phrase. It sounds a...

Read the full article... »

      
 
 

Finding Your Style by Figuring Out What NOT to Buy posted first on http://ssmattress.blogspot.com

Monday, 5 February 2018

A Dresser Makeover & Musical Furniture Story

One of my favorite games to play in my home is – musical furniture.  Musical lamps is a second favorite.  ðŸ˜‰  I mean what’s better than a no-cost room refresh?!

In this case I finally took care of a little something that has been bugging...

Read the full article... »

      
 
 

A Dresser Makeover & Musical Furniture Story posted first on http://ssmattress.blogspot.com

Friday, 2 February 2018

These Five Urban Farms Creatively Transform Disused Spaces

 Pasona, via Kona Design.

Ever tried growing rice at work? A Japanese company did. The Pasona Group, not only produced a bounty of nutritious food, they’ve also helped reap a healthy profit — and they aren’t farmers.

 Pasona, via Kona … Read More...

The post These Five Urban Farms Creatively Transform Disused Spaces appeared first on Urban Gardens.


These Five Urban Farms Creatively Transform Disused Spaces posted first on http://ssmattress.blogspot.com

Escape Off-Grid With This Smart Self-Sustainable Mobile Micro Home

Here’s a civilized idea for getting away from civilization…or for hunkering down right in your own backyard. Escape off-grid (or not) with ...