Honau Kai- Settling in

We arrived late on Saturday, so we made it to the condo and crashed. 

Waking up Sunday we really got to experience it in sunlight. 

I could not have been happier! 

We stayed in a 1 bedroom condo with an Ocean View with a full kitchen with dishwasher, full bath with both a bath and shower, with so many amenities. 

The Honua Kai had two work out rooms which we took advantage of!

Three pools which Joe took advantage of while I read...

Beach front access....

Not to mention very helpful customer service.

Sunday morning, we woke up and headed of to the grocery store to get some supplies we needed for the week.  OMG Hawaii is expensive!  We purchased stuff for breakfast, lunches, and some dinners.

This was by far the smartest thing we did because eating out was so expensive!!!

 

We spent $130 which included

Loaf of bread

Turkey lunch meat

Cheese

Avocados

Onion

Basil

Stuff for pizza

Pasta

Sauce

Beer

Wine

Sparkling Wine

Cereal

Yogurt

Chips

Tortilla Chips

Butter

Coffee

Creamer

Pineapple

Mango

Bananas

This turned out to be the perfect amount of food.

We made more than 15 meals of it. 

$130 divided by 15= 8.6 per meal,

divided by 2 = 4.3$ per person per meal. 

Up next.... How we spent our days....

New Color of Life

Sorry I have not been blogging lately but life has been busy!
So I have alot to blog about after a month of not blogging..

First up... New Guest Room
Lately I have fallen in love with Gray...

Yes I know this is crazy but I have seen it in the magazines as a new cool color.  

So I decided to start working on my summer project- the extra guest room.  

Joe and I have putting this off for a while now because I did not know what I wanted to do with the room.  But after a lot of consideration, I have decided to turn it into another guest room. 

First process was heading to Home Depot to get some color swatches.  

I brought them home, tapped them up to the wall.  Then Joe and I looked at the swatches in the room both during the day and at night because the shades of Gray really change based on the lights.  Thankfully, we both picked the same favorite.  

Next we headed to the store to pick up the Behr Paint and Primer in one. 

I then came home one night to find the room already tapped!!!

AWESOME HUBBY!!!!

The following night after Joe got home from work we went to work on painting the room.  

We did it all in under 1 hour which was awesome.  

We have gotten so we have a good system of painting.  

I do the trim and touch ups while Joe does the big portions.  

I am also the washcloth lady- i.e if me make a mistake we clean it with a wet wash cloth ASAP so there are less touch up later.  

I decided to also paint the light switches white, they were previously yellow the same color as the room.  I thought the white would help them pop!

 Finish Product!!!!

Now I just have to work on getting furniture which I am hoping Craigslist will help with!!!

My plan is to add a bed, skinny tall dresses and small side table!

Another Project Complete

Awhile ago, I blogged about looking into getting new carpets for our basement. 

The carpet was old and coming up.  

Well a couple weeks ago they came and installed them!

We ended up going with CarpetLand because they were the only company that did not nickle and dime you.

We moved everything out except for the couch prior to the workers showing up.

The workers showed up at 10 am and were done by 12pm.

 

Previous pictures....

New Pictures.....

The color we decided to go with was similar but the carpet itself is so nice and soft!

No more carpet coming up!

 

Saving Money!!! Doggie Style!

I am always looking for ways to save money!
So two weeks ago when I was doing my normal monthly Costco visit, I knew I needed to get Clemons' Flee and Tick Medication.  Up to this point we bought Frontline, which I think cost us about $35.99 for 3 months.

However, next to the Frontline, I saw a new product-  Kirkland's Flee and Tick Dog Medication.
6 months for $19.99.

So I scooped one up and continued shopping.
So instead of spending $143+ dollars on Frontline a year, we will not be paying 40$.
That is saving $100 a year!!!

WAHOO!!!!

Changing it Up

Lately, I have been reading all these articles/books to help make your living area more functional.  

So Friday night while watching the Shark Tank (oh how I love this show) with the help of my husband, we rearraged our living room.  

Let me start by stating, I love our house but our living room is an interesting room because it is so big.  Over the last year, I have just grown to hate it.  Primarily because when we have people over, it is so spread out that you feel like you are yelling at people across the room. 

So when we moved in, this is how we arranged it. 

What it looked like before

Then after Friday Night...

Where the blue chair use to be we are going to place a desk there (add that to the to-do-list).  

I am hoping having our computer in a more convenient location will make our lives easier.  

Yeah for making our house more functional!

Peeling a Pineapple.... Can it be done?

I love pineapple!

I hate peeling pineapples because it is so messy and just a pain.

I purchased a pineapple peeler on Clearance at Bed Bath and Beyond.

5.99 with 20% coupon with gift card= $0 spent

So I picked up a pineapple at Costco last week and 

decided I would peel it for my fruit this week for lunch. 

Cut cut off the top of the pineapple and then place the device with the whole over where the center core of the pineapple is.

You then put pressure downward while turning the nob. 

At first I just put light pressure but I would recommend medium to hard pressure.  

You then pull the hand out and the pineapples comes with it.  

Inside of the pineapple- pretty cool!

You can see that it made a little mess because of the juice but was not nearly as messy as doing it the old fashion way. 

The you just pull the pineapple of the device.

Awesome!!!

Empire Today.... no no no!

As you might remember, I made a list of things that I wanted to get accomplished around the house this year. 

So far I was able to check off a couple things:

1) Installing flooring for attic

2) Move bush out front

3) Install Storm Door

Number 4 on my list is Carpet for the downstairs.

See picture below... 

Down stairs is comprised of two rooms- family room and a spare room in the back. 

 I am going to be making the spare room into a bedroom and want to have the carpet replaced prior to doing this just because it will be easier since there is very little furniture. 

The carpet that is now in our lower level is probably the originial carpet and it is a Burbury and is coming up.  I have been putting it off for over two years now and I finally decided to bite the bullet. 

 I got a couple recommendations and so I decided to get a couple estimates. 

The first place I went to was Carpetland in Springfield. 

It was the easiest trip ever!!!

I told him what I was looking for- he pulled out three samples that ranged in the price I was looking at. 

The nice thing about the Carpetland is their pricing is all inclusive-  so for $2.99 to $2.25 a square foot- that includes the carpet, the pad, the installation- the whole thing!!  (Home depot charges you for the carpet, then the padding, and then an installation fee- no thank you!  I hate being nickled and dimed).

He arranged for someone to come out and measure Tuesday and by Thursday I had pricing estimates. 

I decided to look into a second place because I am always a firm believer of getting two pricing just to compare and also to give you leverage in negotations.  I already had priced Home Depot in my head based on what their sales rep had told me when I went into to get color samples. 

However, I knew we did not want carpet from Home Depot so...

Enter... Empire Today

I scheduled them to come Monday. 

The sales lady arrived and was very pleasant at first but it just went down hill from there.

The lady showed me the carpet samples, measured the room for me, priced it (keep in mind that it was two room getting carpeted, and I was getting one room from free- according to their deal).  Way expensive!  Like 600$ more than the rough estimate that I did in my head from Carpetland. 

When I told her this, she because very upset. 

She kept going on and on trying to get me to sign a contract, asking me to call my husband at work and get his permission (not that I ever need his permission but I was using him not being there as an excuse because I do like him to be involved in purchases for the house.)  She went on to ask my why I had her come to my house today if I was not going to sign a contract today- "Because I wanted to get a quote!"

OMG!  It was the worst experience ever and made me feel so uncomfortable.

I was so happy when she left my house- even if there pricing were better, I would still be going with the Carpetland just so I never have to deal with that woman again. 

Talk about agressive sales!!!

So coming to a Fairfax Town Home near you..... Carpet