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Room renovation part 2

Here's an update on what my daughter's new bedroom looks like. If you haven't read my past posts, all she wanted for her 7th birthday was her own room (plus loft bed). So we granted her wish and renovated one of the rooms in our house. You can read all about part 1 HERE.

Room renovation part 1

All my daughter wanted for her 7th birthday was a loft bed and her own room. She fell in love with the Svarta loft bed from Ikea, so we ended up ordering this from Mobler last November. It's still not here yet, so I'm getting a bit impatient na haha! But for the room, she currently shares one with her brother (see their room HERE and HERE). But of course we knew they would need their own space when they got older.

One of the rooms we have is currently a guest room/storage room. But the layout just isn't right for the loft bed. What I wanted to do was remove the existing closet since I think the loft bed would fit better on that side of the room.

Renting a Pico De Loro condo via Airbnb

Finally, my family and I were able to go to Pico de Loro for the first time about a month ago. It was my mother-in-law who organized the trip since my brother-in-law and his family were visiting from the States.

Before, only Pico De Loro beach unit owners or Pico De Loro country club members were allowed to enjoy the facilities. But now, Pico De Loro is open to the public via the Pico Sands Hotel or by renting a condo. At first, we were thinking whether to stay at the hotel but since we were a lot, my mother-in-law just decided to rent 2 condo units through Airbnb.

Nurture Wellness Village, Tagaytay

Tagaytay is a very popular wedding destination and we were actually invited to two weddings there recently, both on the same day (February 24)! One was for my high school friend at Balai Taal, while the other was for my hubby's childhood friend at Nurture Wellness Village. Since both hubby and my daughter were part of the entourage of the latter, we also went ahead and booked a room at Nurture Spa.

Staycation at Solaire

I was invited to a blogger lunch at Kiwa Korean Grill last January 14, which can be found in Solaire Resort & Casino. Since the kids had no classes on that day because of a school activity, hubby and I decided to just make a family day out of it and book a stay at the hotel.

The Tides Hotel, Boracay

For our trip to Boracay last month, I originally wanted to book at Discovery Shores since we were going to be with the kids (plus I haven't stayed there pa lol). But after checking the rates, I had to reconsider since I was sure there were other good hotels that were more affordable. We checked Agoda and we chanced upon a flash sale for The Tides Hotel.

My first AIRBNB experience (Tokyo, Japan)

I think the first time I ever came across Airbnb was in Instagram. I remember seeing this gorgeous house from someone's vacation with the hashtag #airbnb or something. I did my research and checked the website and to be honest, I wasn't completely sold. Staying at a stranger's place just seemed scary for me. I would imagine crazy scenarios where the owner would go inside the place (I mean they have the key right?) and kill me or something (yes I have an active imagination). But still, staying in a hotel just seemed safer for me. And more convenient with the all the services like housekeeping, concierge, breakfast, etc.

DIY Triangle Accent Wall

After I painted my kids' room blue, I knew I wanted to do something with the main wall behind their bed. It previously had an owl mural so the plain blue was just looking well a little... plain. ;p

DIY: Repainting my kids' room

I'm probably the most adventurous when it comes to doing painting projects in my kids' room since it's not that big. I know I can pretty much do it myself without spending a whole lot for materials. One of my very first DIY projects was doing this owl tree mural, which is probably one of my all-time favorites.

After, I decided to paint half the wall purple, just to give it an accent color.

Then, I went all out and painted stripes on the ceiling since I figured, why not? ;p

I guess I'd forgotten how much work it actually took to do these projects since after a while, I was itching to make some changes again. Plus the kids were getting older, which meant they could already give me input on what they wanted. Both my son and daughter stay in this room so I couldn't really choose between a "Princess Underwater" or "Power Rangers" theme. ;p

Basically, I knew I just wanted to change the color of the walls first. Of course, it had to be gender neutral and something that would match the striped grey and white ceiling (no way was I repainting that anytime soon since it took me forever to do that!). Honestly, it was so hard to choose especially when I was looking at paint swatches since there were so many nice colors!

In the end, I decided to go with an light blue color called PEACE RIVER in a satin finish. I got a gallon of paint which cost about P1k. This was honestly more than I was expecting to pay for the paint, but it was good quality which meant good coverage. So I figured it was fine since I was going to be looking at those walls for quite some time right? :)

Before I got started though, I first wiped the walls using a damp cloth. This is important since a lot of dirt and residue can accumulate on your walls over the years. Mine was super dusty, I didn't even realize it! I also sanded over any uneven parts from my previous paint job. You definitely want a smooth and clean surface when you start.

it was definitely hard to take the owl mural down, but it's time for a change ;)

Since I was repainting over the owl mural and also the purple half of the wall with a lighter color, I had to get a primer so I could even out the color first. Others might just go ahead and paint over everything at once, but you might need more coats to make sure the old paint color won't show through. Personally, I think a primer saves you time and energy and just ensures a nicer end result.

I loved putting on the primer since I didn't need to be neat about it. It doesn't have to be applied perfectly since you'll be covering it up with your new paint color anyway.

After everything was covered, it was finally time to really paint. I also love how my little assistant was back! She also helped me paint the purple half of the wall before. I had to kick her out after a while though, since honestly, we would never finish with her around! lol ;p

Anyway, if you think it was easy, it was NOT. I definitely need blog posts like these to remind me of the blood, sweat, and tears it took to finish painting the damn room! I blame HGTV for making it look like a breeze haha! And honestly, who here hasn't looked around a small space and confidently thought, "I could paint this in a few hours max!"

Well, it took me 3 days and I almost gave up and hired someone to finish it for me. I think maybe it was because of the cheap paint rollers I used, or maybe I just bit off more that I could chew. But I got the job done in the end and it's beautiful if I do say so myself!

I love how the color turned out! Even though it's blue, the light shade is still feminine enough for a girl. The primer definitely worked since it covered all the old paint perfectly. And the color made the room brighter and fresher, don't you think? My kids are happy and so am I!

My whole body was aching for days after I did this - from all the bending over, reaching up, and going up and down the ladder. I now have a newfound respect for house painters! I told hubby I won't bargain anymore when a painter charges for labor since I now know how hard it is to do their job haha! ;p

I honestly want to paint over a lot more walls in our house (like the accent wall in our living room and also our master bedroom). But with this weather, it will definitely take a while before I do manual labor again hehe! But stay tuned since I have a lot more home improvements coming up soon. :)

Our new bed (with tufted headboard!)

The first major purchase hubby and I made after we got married was our plasma TV. Then, we bought our bed hehe. ;p We just wanted something simple and classic, so this is what we ended up buying in SM.

Back when this was the only piece of furniture we had, when we were still staying at my mom's place. Sarap, walang kalat!

It held up fine all these years, but as the kids got older, they learned to jump on the bed. And they loved jumping on it until I noticed a couple of months ago that there was already a huge crack on the bottom of the frame:

broken right in the middle!

Hubby tried to fix it, but as you can see, he didn't do a very good job hehe! He used electrical tape and picture frame hangers haha! It was one jump away from fully collapsing so we decided to just buy a new bed.

This time, I knew I wanted a bed with a tufted headboard. Aside from it looking so nice and elegant, I wouldn't have to worry about the kids hitting their heads on the frame anymore (which has happened so many times!).

We went to SM Our Home and found this bedframe (queen-sized) which was on sale from P29,950 down to P23,960. And there was an additional 10% off since we got it during the mallwide sale and we had an SM Advantage Card. Plus, it was payable in 6 months, interest-free! Yey SOLD! :)

You can even customize the color of the upholstery (they showed us swatches like black, brown, red, blue) but in the end, we decided to go with what we saw on display which was this grayish color. With the new taller height of the headboard, my pole wire decal is a little bit covered though. Still thinking if I should keep it or just hang something on the wall. What do you think? :)

Anyway, super love these studs that run along the sides too!

And check out the sturdy base! I think it has enough support for the kids to jump on all they want haha! ;p The only cons would be that there's no space to put anything underneath (I used to have some orocans under the old bed for extra storage) and it's now harder to get all the dirt and dust under the bed (hirap walisin!) But it looks so nice so parang tiis-ganda na lang diba! :)

I think in the end, I'm kinda happy the kids broke the old bed so we could get this new one. Super happy with it! And hope it lasts a lot longer than 5 years! :)

How our bedroom really looks like...

You may think that my home looks perfectly kept together with some of the posts that I've done showing some areas of the house. You have to understand though that I've had to stage those shots so it looks really nice and post-worthy. I've always wondered if the homes I see in magazines and blogs really are so perfect and neat all the time. If ever they are, I guess the only explanation would be that they don't have children lol! ;p

THIS is how our bedroom looks like most of the time after my kids ransack the place. I've given up trying to clean up after them because no matter how much I do, they immediately mess up everything again.

This isn't even the worst our bedroom has looked since they usually dump more toys (and food!) on the floor, which they get from their room (which is also a mess). Once they're done with our room, they move on to the next area which is usually the dining room, then the living room. I absolutely hate clutter but I think I've gotten immune to it already haha! I can totally sleep at night with all their mess around me. Sometimes, I'll just be surprised to find a random toy or even a cracker under the sheets! haha! ;p

Well, I can't really take all their toys away or forbid them from playing. They're kids after all and we didn't get them all those toys just to store them away or just to look at them. I just have to accept the fact that I'll probably have an organized and uncluttered home in around 10 years? ;p

Guest Room REVEAL!

First of all, I just want to say that I have so much stuff to blog about but I can't seem to find the time lately! So sorry if there seems to be a long period between my posts, I just have a lot of things on my plate these days. :)

But the good news is, I was finally able to take pics of my son's room to share with you guys. YEY! ;p  In my previous post, I blogged about how the daybed I bought didn't quite work out in the space and luckily, I was able to return it and get some new furniture.

BEFORE

If you remember, I got a new bed, side tables, a desk, and some lamps. And after everything was delivered, it took me less than half an hour to fix everything up. That's how I knew I made the right decision! Anyway, here's how the room looks like now:

AFTER

Doesn't it look so much better? I know I had a peg of how I wanted my son's room to look like (see my post HERE on some of my inspirations) which I so did NOT follow. But since I just had to make do of what I had lying around the house (bedsheet, pillows, rug, accessories), this will have to do for now. ;p And since he won't be staying here until a couple more years, this is now officially our guest room. I'll just have to revamp it before he turns 5 or something hehe! I initially wanted all white furniture but now I'm in love with all the dark wood. And it looks more fit for a boy's room right?

These 2 lamps and the small cactus plant are also from Mandaue Foam. I love how the lamps aren't the same but they still work together. :)

Love how all the prints and patterns mix and match. And finally I have a spot for this antique rocking chair! I was supposed to paint it a bright color before but I'm glad I left it alone... for now. ;p

I love how the desk hides the aircon underneath...

Some accessories which I grabbed from other parts of the house...

S is for SABRE!

But wait! If you think the room is done, think again. Check out the opposite side of the bed hehe! Still have to buy a shoe rack or dresser, and put a TV on the wall...

But overall, I am so happy with the way the space turned out. This is now my favorite room in our house! :) Anyway, I still have lots of ideas which I want to do here, like painting the wall behind the bed (chevron or a nice pop of color), putting some frames, etc. I just need the TIME! ;p

Cintai Corito's Garden: Our Villa

Before summer is completely over, we were able to take one more little vacation with the family. This time, we went to Cintai Corito's Garden in Batangas. I chanced upon this place from a friend's photos in Facebook. After asking her about it and doing some research of my own, I decided to book an overnight stay through Agoda.com. I was able to get a Garden Villa, good for 6 adults with breakfast, for P11,550 (kids 12 y/o below who will be sharing beds with parents are free of charge).

We got there a little early at around 12noon, but we were advised that we could check-in at 1:30pm. I read from reviews that the food here was a little pricey (P550 per head) and not that great, so we opted to have lunch outside. There are a few restaurants just 10 minutes away near the Lipa area, like Hap Chan, Max's and Uncle Cheffy (where we ate).

We were ready to check-in by the time we got back. Since the place is really huge and sprawling, it was a bit confusing getting to our villa from the reception area. We had to drive the car around the back road so that it would be nearer our room and easier to unload our stuff (and with 6 adults and 2 kids, we had a LOT of stuff). Plus, we still had to walk quite a bit from the drop-off point. But once we saw our villa, we got all excited!

hooray for full-length "mirror" sliding doors!

love the high ceiling and the kulambo factor on the middle bed ;p

the kids loved jumping on the bed - my poor Sabe fell though and got a bukol :(

there was also a small daybed but we just used it to place all our stuff (pang overnight ba kamo? ;p)

There is no TV and Wi-Fi in the rooms (you have to go to their game room), but I brought my laptop and a portable DVD player to keep everyone busy. There is also a refrigerator (with complementary bottled water) and an electric kettle.

And I totally loved the large bathroom! I swear, it was even bigger than a hotel room I've stayed in haha! With a lot of people staying in one room, double sinks and a huge shower really help save time. :)

the shower area was so big my mom and I were able to give both kids a bath at the same time! 

There was a lounge area and a kubo outside the room that was also perfect for just making tambay or having drinks.

Sabe enjoying the welcome drinks

ready to go swimming!

can I just say, my little girl knows how to pose better than me! lol! ;p

They also have a personal butler service, which is basically a staff assigned to you to assist you during your stay. She was the one who showed us where the facilities were, arranged our breakfast, and all the other activities we wanted to do. Since the place is really huge, I guess a butler is really a must since the amenities are so far from one another. She also gave us a lot of mangoes to take home before we left which was really nice! ;p

You can read my post HERE on the rest of the resort's facilities and HERE on the activities we did. :)

Cintai Corito’s Garden

 Sitio Pandayan, Malabanan Balete, Batangas | View Map
 Mobile: +63917.833.1508 / +63917.833.1728
 coritosgarden@gmail.com