The Time Has Come To Sell Sell Sell

Well hello on this fine Friday afternoon. The time has come for me to proceed with selling and storing all of our things since we have HGTV coming next week for the BIG HUGE makeover. Now I can't lie to all of you, I have some jitters right about now. I just posted some things to Craigslist.com which can be seen here:
Designer furniture for sale
Stainless steel range hood

Let's face it folks, it's hard to get rid of things that you love even if you're ready for a change. With that said, I'm ready for David Bromstad and Color Splash to Bring It On! I am being more flexible than I imagined because I do practice what I preach and I work very hard at "La Casa Perez" to express that creativity throughout our home in every detail. It's definitely not an easy thing for me to blindly let go without any say on what will be coming back in. So now I will take a deep breathe and get ready to embrace our new home which will be as much of a surprise for us as it is for you.

Enough of my mellow dramatic break down and on with this post. Make sure to take a look at the craigslist postings above and also leave me a comment if you want to know about anything you've seen and are interested in adopting for your home. Here are some new and old pictures to refresh your minds:

Dinnind room set- table from Environmentfuriture.com designer piece, 6 upholstered chairs and 2 end chairs $2,500 table: 45"wx84"lx30"h

Custom photography art: driftwood in the caribbean on acrylic HUGE 70"x40" $350 

 Chandelier with teardrop crystals: $250 16"x48"l

 Unique wood buffet with doors: brand new mint condition have owned for 3 mos
$500/ 70"l x 14 1/2"w x 34"t

 Brand new upholstered chairs: $300ea Custom upholstery

 White sofa/day bed: custom made 70"l x35"h x 34 1/2"w
3 mirrors custom painted white: 25"w x 75"t $100/each
*Possibly the 2 wood chairs with circles, rustic amazing, linen upholstery $150ea
*Possibly the round silver coffee table with 2 glass shelves- 200

Wood tv unit console table with mirrored doors and dark finish to the wood. Slight markings on the top due to tv placed on it. $400

 2 brand new ottomans in light upholstery, also mint condition almost brand new (see the tags that were on them in the picture) $70 ea. Perfect for a coffee table with tray

Clearly I have more things in these rooms. Some of which I'm not sure about some of which I just know I won't be able to re-use, and some of which are spoken for. All  are great pieces and work well as a whole or in parts. If you want help on what might fit in to your home feel free to leave me your email and I would gladly make suggestions for you.

My photography sucks admittedly and I say it all the time, so I've done no justice to my own home. Regardless, let me know if there is anything you are interested in. HGTV comes on Tuesday, but that which doesn't sell will go in storage and can still be had if we haven't sold it yet.

P.S. I saw a groupon.com today for a digital photography class and I'm considering it. I just don't know if I can make magic from my Canon Powershot or if I would need a much higher end camera to do the quality of pictures that I would want. If any of you are photography buffs I would love a little insight on this. Is my Cannon Powershot capable of beautiful images and it is truly I who need the photography class? Please share~

True Blood Style, It's In The House

Good morning,

Since you now know that I entered a contest for HGTV's Color Splash/ Twilight's Biggest Fan I think it's safe to say that the cat's out of the bag on my vampire obsession. Crazy as it sounds, I can tell you that I know I'm not alone on this one. You know who you are!

Clearly it was an obvious transition for me to eventually find HBO's series True Blood. Now if any of you have watched the HBO original series before i.e. Sex And The City, The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, Big Love, Treme etc you would also know that they do something very right over there. If you haven't watched it, True Blood is a Twilight-esque series made for adults. It comes full of drama, crazy never gonna happen story lines, vampires, fairies, and ware wolves, but mostly really sexy characters and really sexy scenes (if you're in to that sort of thing;)

Well, one thing to certainly take note of this season is Bill's house. There is no way one would miss the amazing decor in that baby. Think edgy, sexy, dark, eclectic, A-MAZ-ING.

Take a look for yourselves:

 As you can see there are some great pieces in that house. Well, in doing research for a project I'm working on in South Carolina who's theme is a bit Country, French, Cottage, Glam, I was on a man hunt for that chandelier when I stumbled on a blog called High Fashion Home .  She did a whole write up on this house including resources for purchasing. Whoohoo! It is looking like the chandelier already made is a bit steep in price, but I'm looking in to having it made custom which is actually what they did for the show. This could also be a great DIY which I actually saw in blog land out there somewhere. I also found some great stores and resources which I will surely use at one time or another.

Well, if you haven't checked out True Blood at least you can check out the style. And, if you're in to something a bit out there and a bit racy then make sure to take a peak at True Blood itself. All I can say is "Yum".~

Garage Addition, Progress.....Little By Little

Good morning,

I wanted to share with you the cut windows in the garage which had to be altered so that the elevation matched the other windows in the house. This is a necessity for those who want to do a garage addition but not have it look like a garage addition. It also gives you the ability to put in larger windows, and windows equal light. This required the drawings to be revised as well as the permit, but it is well worth it in the long run and for those of you who may take on a project like this you can learn from our mistakes and have them put in your drawings from the beginning;)

Here is a picture of the original windows as they were framed:

Notice how small they are and how dark it is inside the garage which if you remember will be our master en-suite.

Here are the windows being cut and as they are now:

It's a bit challenging to see from the outside, but the windows were hand sawed up through the tie beams which were then reinforced. From the inside it is easier to see even with the framing that is up which separates the bathroom and closet. There is at least ten times more light in that room. It is bright and open and I'm so glad we made that decision.

The concrete walls have been poured and the windows have been ordered. Once those windows come in we will be closing off the garage to the outside and will only have to paint that part of the house. At that point it will no longer be referred to as the garage. Our windows with much urging from myself will all be framed in black which will be such a nice contrast with the light paint color and will compliment the door. We really cleaned up our house to make it less cookie cutter and more modern. On the inside we will be cutting the door from the house to the garage which will go from a door to a hall just like the one inside our house as seen below while it was still under construction:

After this wall has been cut and framed and patched it will open up that part of the house up and we will have a split floor plan which will lead from the kitchen/family room to the laundry room/ master suite.  It adds about 500sf and an extra bedroom and bathroom with laundry room and walk in closets. When all of this is said and done I will tally costs and give those of you who might be considering a project like this some idea of what it can cost you.


We still have a long ways to go with the new drive way and landscaping which have to be started, but hopefully one day my home can make me feel as good as the home in this picture below.

Clearly the house is a different style all together, but the main inspiration from this picture in regards to the feel and clean modern style is what I would love our inside and outside to feel like.

P.S. I am giving up full control of the main living part of my house to David Bromstad in a week. Though it is extremely exciting, I am a bit nervous all together and am not used to having absolutely no say in what my home will look like. To answer some of your questions, I have not seen ANYTHING and have NO CLUE what will be happening here in the Perez household. If I had to say one thing that I wish upon wish for it would be that I get a contemporary space that is great for entertaining and a family room perfect for our family and dog, and that my walls stay white Ha! Other than that, bring it on baby~

Commercial Office Project, Making Your Office Modern

Good afternoon, and long time no see!

I have been very wrapped up with 3 design projects that came about all at the same time and have been both consuming and exciting. I'll tell you details as we go along, and will also give you details on our house. We have HGTV and Color Splash coming next week to do the make over which has halted and delayed some aspects of our inside.

I will also be posting furniture for sale hopefully tonight or tomorrow and will be doing an open house basically all this week. If you like what you've seen come on by and take it away with you! Remember I have to have everything cleared out by next Tuesday.

One of the major projects that I am smack in the beginnings of is a 6,000sf office space that is in need of some TLC. They are doing an expansion and really want to make the space more clean and contemporary. What a project for me! I haven't EVER worked on commercial spaces before so this is new and challenging. I can tell you a thing or two about modern and contemporary though so I am excited to see how this one turns out.

Here are some pictures to give you a slight idea of the office in its current state:

Yup folks, it's an office. Complete with beige walls, carpet tiles and laminate everything. The owner team of this company are young successful guys and are looking for a fresher take on this work place. Bringing the colors and textures current with some unexpected surprises here and there should do the trick. I am a firm believer that you should put your all in to everything that you do and if the majority of your time is spent working you should make it a place that you are truly inspired by, and that's exactly what I plan to do here.

I'll have to keep you posted on this one, but here are some inspirations that I am currently working through while I'm finding a plan:

A project like this one is the same concept as a house, but it's just a much larger sand box to play in. I am planning to work around colors and textures that have some kind of organic feel to them as well as some elements of visual and textural interest.

Let me know your thoughts? Do you have an inspiring or uninspiring work place?