Work-in-progress

One reason we bought this house is that it's so close to Google's shuttle bus stop. So we drop daddy off at the nearby park, and daddy goes to work in this luxurious wifi-equipped double-decker Google coach.

And Jonathan cried every morning when he realized he couldn't go to work with daddy in this coach.

 

Google Ads Summer Picnic

Large capacity washer/ dryer – hurray! almost twice the size of our previous machines. No more multiple daily loads. 🙂

Our 19th c. Rococo chandelier was delivered in pieces like this.Â

Hopefully, once assembled and installed, it will look like this.

With temperatures reaching the 90s, central A/C was on top of the list! Luckily, we found a company that can do it 2 days after we moved in. And how lucky our house was prepped, meaning that everything was ready to go - we just needed to buy compressors. We chose the fastest and the lowest bidder and here are our 2 new Trane A/C's. Daddy says it feels like a hotel. Just cool all around, but no harsh air blowing. 🙂

We’re really happy with the fresh, cool air from Trane central A/C, but the weird thing about it is the Honeywell thermostat. Our old thermostat died the second night, and after we replaced it with a new one – the system is still way too smart for us as we prefer the simple system that can be simply turned off and on. These smart thermostats seem to have a mind of their own, and won’t turn on when we want them to, and won’t turn off when we want them to. We’re still figuring out.

Another thing we had been looking forward to (but no time) was to have our windows tinted. Finally, mission accomplished. I think the car still looks as good as ever. The funny thing is - as San Jose is hotter than Palo Alto, we feel the same (or even more) heat even with the windows tinted. Jonathan was crying to go home, and struggled to sit in the car every time as the seats were so hot.

17th C. Monastery Dining Table and the Vintage French chairs - อันนี้มามี้แซวแด๊ดดี้ว่าชื่อก็บอกแล้วว่าโต๊ะอาหารโรงเรียนวัด (Monastery) สวยดี เราโชคดีไปเจอโต๊ะที่ Outlet ลดราคา 60% เชียว

Mommy said this table and the chairs are not to be touched by me and daddy… :p ใช้เสร็จมามี้ต้องเช็ดๆๆๆทุกมื้อ…ยังงี้นั่งโต๊ะ Crate & Barrel กับเก้าอี้ Ikea เหมือนเดิม ดีกว่ามั๊ย?

One annoying thing about Restoration Hardware is that…despite their high price tags, the colors of the chairs don’t match exactly. We bought the chairs in 3 batches, and the colors don’t match at all!!! So now we have 3 distinct colors for 6 chairs, if we look closely enough. Mommy and daddy still can’t help wondering whether they delivered the wrong color – dark oak instead of weathered oak…

Painting our baby girl's nursery. The moment the paint can was opened, Jonathan dipped his whole hand in the can with excitement. Then after a while, he stumbled into the paint tray. He was afraid he was going to have pink feet forever, and let me carry him to the washroom right away.

And here is Baby Hope's beautiful pink room, painted by daddy and Jonathan - with mommy cheering and serving cold drinks.Â

The Elephant Pink color looks great here, kind of like pale strawberry milkshake, but because this room gets so much sunlight, at certain times of the day the eggshell finish gives a glowing aura…too bright and fluorescent. So we learned two lessons – 1. Don’t use the eggshell finish if the room gets so much sunlight. Otherwise, the color will look really off. Instead, use a matte finish. 2. Use 2 coats of painting, despite the advertisement that the brand needs only one coat. You’ll always miss some spots and the uneven painting makes the pink color looks purplish.

To fix these problems, we bought the matte samples to paint one side of the wall gray to subdue the brightness and reflectivity of the pink paint (and we think pink and gray go well together). Then, we applied matte Pink Cloud paint all over the rest. So much work for daddy, but the result couldn’t be more perfect. =)

The previous owners left the grand piano in the living room.Â

This one feels GREAT, mommy.