Stefan and I decided against doing wood floors in the kitchen, so we bought cream colored marble for the floors. Next step was to figure out what the hell we are going to do for the kitchen counters. Originally we wanted to do a modern concrete counter top, but we couldn’t find anyone skilled enough down here, that we would trust doing them. So, we went granite shopping the other day. Quite honestly, I thought all the granite was ugly, but we found one that we think we like (of course it’s the most expensive of the bunch…):
Here is a picture of the cream marble (floors), mahogany (cabinets) and green granite (counters):
What do you think? It will cost over $6000 to do granite in the kitchen. Ouch.
The blue DecoLav sink arrived while we were playing poker the other night (The UPS guy showed up after 9pm. Weird.), so Stefan and I were excited to find a vanity so we could get it installed. We went to way too many bath stores, that we have already been to multiple time and still couldn’t find anything that we liked even a little bit. Just so happens that we found the perfect thing at Rooms to Go (which is a furniture store)! Here is a picture of the table we got and the Decolav sink in our bathroom:
Looks good with the walnut travertine, doesn’t it?!
It’s actually a table that is supposed to go behind a couch, but it fits the space in our guest bathroom perfectly. Now we just need to get everything hooked up. Faucet.com forgot to send our drain and mounting ring, but it should be here tomorrow.
As I mentioned before, we’ve picked out a dark brown marble for the walls in the master bathroom and a light brown/cream travertine for the floor. Here is a picture of the tiles and trim we spent a good few days trying to decide on. The trim is small travertine tiles accented with copper:
Well, Stefan just told me that Gino (our tile guy) doesn’t like the trim. He thinks it looks too rustic for the marble. What do you think? I still think it looks good and we’re not trying to be all bling-bling marble with gold trim ;).
Stefan already axed my 1st choice of trim, which you can see here. Why doesn’t anyone trust my design ideas?
Here is a video walk through of the downstairs of our house. The cement floors have been polished and coated with two coats of high gloss concrete sealer.
The walls are going to be plastered this week and then we are going to work on the stairs. Stefan is currently researching designs and of course the hardest part is trying to decide what we want…
This week we moved a lot of dirt. One of our neighbors up the street did some excavating down by the quebrada and dumped about 70 meters of topsoil at the top of our property. Instead of hiring an earth mover to come in and move the dirt, we decided to move it by hand (shovel it into the back of the bronco) and bring it on down to the planters. There, we emptied it onto a piece of plywood and mixed with high grade topsoil and pete moss. Then we shoveled it into the planters….a great place for happy plants to live.
It took us all day, and when all was said and done, it probably would have been more economical to hire a back-hoe, but our lesson was learned and now we finally have some green on our property.
The back of the truck is filled with free topsoil…then we mix it with the goods
Mixing dirt with our plants set up for planting
Closeup of the Palm Trees we scored for the Landscaping
The finished product. Grow, grow, grow!
Summer and I hosted our first friendly Texas Hold’em tournament at our house this week. We had about 9 people show up and all were well armed with beer, rum and sunglasses. The perfect combination for a Poker Tournament.
Halfway through the first game (we played two), one of the guys at the table called our neighborhood Sector Vegas instead of Sector Vargas. I think that nickname is going to stick.
Texas Hold ‘em No Limit Poker Game in Sector Vegas!
When we purchased ceiling fans for our house, Brian gave us some recommendations on good fans and good fan brands. He is very diligent when it comes to installing fans and wants no wobble whatsoever. His ceiling fan schpeal all came back to me when i was sitting in my office in California, listening to this annoying wobbly ass fan…
I was just waiting for it to come flying out of the ceiling at any second.
Stefan and I really want to get our yard/landscaping going since greenary makes SUCH a difference for a property (plus it takes years to grow into the lush tropical jungle we imagine our property being, so the sooner the better).
In California, I always thought “a palm tree is a palm tree”, but now that we’re actually looking closer into plants/landscaping, there are hundreds (thousands?) of different types of palm trees to choose from. And everyone seems to call the same palm tree by different names, here in Puerto Rico, which makes it difficult when you’re trying to tell someone what kind of palms you want. Stefan and I love the royal palms. And we’ve been told that they are queen palms, king palms, christmas palms and royal palms (the palms we like are ROYAL PALMS). So I did a little research on palms on the internet and put together the pictures here.
Coconut Palms - Coconut palm trees are VERY common here in Puerto Rico, because they grow like weeds. Any where we go there are coconuts chillin’, with roots and leaves growing out of them. Hills, valleys, beaches, etc, you will find coconut palms. They’re so common that here in Puerto Rico, people rip them out of their lawns and toss them over their fences (or tell us to come get them…haha). I call them the “messy palms” because they are kind of scraggly and not as neat looking as many of the other palms, but hey, I’ll take what I can get when my yard looks like this
King Palms - I’m still confused on what exactly makes a King Palm, a King Palm. They look very similar to what I’ve been told are Christmas Palms and Royal Palms…hmmmmm.
Queen Palms - Queen Palms look similar to the coconot palm (to me at least) but are a little cleaner looking, but still kinda scraggly. They grow fast though (2 - 3 ft a year), which is great for our barren property.
Royal Palms - Royal Palms are one of my favorites. They are very clean, symmetrical and neat looking palms. You see them all over the place in Puerto Rico, since they are very aesthetically pleasing.
Areca Palms - Areca Palms are also one of my favorite types of palm trees. To me, they look like a cross between a royal palm tree and bamboo, since they grow in patches. You can get 2′ Areca Palms at Home Depot for $14 and they have a decent growth rate, so we are stocking up.
Stefan and I just got back from a mega shopping expedition and there was a delivery attempt notice from UPS stuck on our front door. That may not sound like a big deal, but our physical address (Carr. 414 Km 0.5, Sector Vargas, Rincon PR 00677) is also the exact same address for EVERYONE in our neighborhood. So essentually, the UPS guy has to roll into the neighborhood and just ask around for Summer Hogan or Stefan Rest. That’s so awesome…haha.
While we are waiting for the landscapers to bring us our estimate and computer generated image of our landscaped yard Summer and I have been researching how we can landscape ourselves for cheaper. We already know their estimate is going to be expensive.
I mentioned that we found Bermuda Grass Seed online..that will cost us around $500 for 20,000 square feet of seed. Add topsoil, spreading the topsoil, laying the seed, spreading more topsoil and then covering it all in hay…and we are looking at about $1,000.
We found out about a tree store (what are they called again?) in Cabo Rojo that works in conjunction with the University of Mayaguez that gives away baby fruit trees. They base how many trees they will give you by the amount of land you have. The majority of the trees they give away are crazy hybrid trees like PinaMango (mango and pineapple hybrid), lemon/lime trees, orange/lemon trees etc…but they also give away orange, lemon, kanepa, mango, avocado etc.
Now, when it comes to getting the tropical look and feel that we really want to have in our front yard, that is going to require palm trees. Now, that is where the dollars really get spent. Palm trees range in cost, but they usually start around $400 (4-5ft) and go all the way up to the thousands. Summer and I really like the Queen Plams which are one of the more expensive varieties you can buy.
Here is a little info I found on the Queen Palm:
The Queen Palm is a pinnate, plumose palm, gracefully arching, with dark green, spineless fronds. The trunk is 12″ - 24″ thick. The bracts are a striking ivory with orange colored, fruit. The queen is a fast growing palm and can grow 2-3 feet per year to an ultimate height of 50-60 feet.
Queen Palms on the beach in the Caribbean (Spell checker always corrects the horrible way I spell carribean, carribbean, carribeon…so on and so forth…do you get it right every time?)
Here is the good news:
Mark just called me from one of the houses he landscapes and said that the guy there has been growing palms, with the hopes of selling them, for a number of years now. He is going to sell us 16 three year old Queen Palms for $300. We are stoked. We are heading over there right now with cash in hand to rid this guy of his pesky palm tree garden.
It is easier to pull the trigger on this today…Summer and I went to the Mayaguez Casino last night and played both poker and black jack very successfully. Today, we will spend $300 that we didn’t have yesterday. Thanks Mayaguez Casino / Landscape Funder!
Stefan and I really want to get our yard/landscaping going since greenary makes SUCH a difference for a property (plus it takes years to grow into the lush tropical jungle we imagine our property being, so the sooner the better). 
