Pretty Patio and Pergola PLUS Picnic Table

Brentan is finishing up the pergola on the patio right now as I sit here and blog! He started a few days ago, sawing and drilling, and now we have a beautiful, California, redwood pergola, that seems ubiquitous in our neighborhood. After deciding to put one in, I started noticing them everywhere, even at the gas station down the street. It is going to provide some much needed shade in our backyard! It is still not quite finished, as I said before, but you can see the results.

In process:
And mostly finished!
We're looking for some cute, durable, cheap lights to hang around the pergola (since Brentan hard wired it for electricity, of course), so if you have any suggestions, please tell me!

You might also notice these cute built in planters that Brentan made all by himself:

I love them, and the colorful poppies and snapdragons he picked out for them! (I also love him, because he made me a pergola, AND a picnic table)

A picnic table for the patio is still in the works, mostly because I haven't had time to finish painting/staining it, and it was RAINING here for the last few days. From all that I've heard, rain in September in San Francisco is unheard of. But here is the table and benches in progress, they will eventually be a blue-aqua color on the base ("Wipeout"), and natural color stained redwood on top. More to come...
Also! We put up these cute mid-century house numbers to go with our mid-century house:
Also! You might want to know what we decided on the carpet! We dumped Home Depot, and went with the large carpet store. We managed to talk the sales guy down to only $300 above Home Depot, and we will get much better installation, continuing service, and product. I'm really happy about it. Installation in about 2 weeks!

California Update: Short Sales and Decorating a la Anthropologie!

I am just super excited about the two places Brentan and I put offers on. I just found out that we are the highest of two bids on the little house in Redwood City that I previously posted about. Since it is a short sale, and there are two lenders on the house, it has to be approved by both of them. The price was originally pre-approved, but I also found out that that has expired, so it is going to take a little bit longer. I get to excercise my patience. I hope I'm just not getting my hopes up too much. I think I might be a little because I'm scheming of all the pretty things I'm going to put in that house...
I walked into anthropologie today and got some inspiration. Like these chairs and table for a outdoor patio:

Or some cute linens:

And some lanterns:
Hanging under a lush umbrella for shade:

Ok, so I could put this stuff anywhere. But so cute.

House Hunting: Peninsula Style

Just got back early yesterday morning from a weekend of house hunting in the Bay Area! Brentan and I put an offer on two very different places. We're hoping to get the best bang for our buck. We saw about 15 properties, condos and single family homes, in various states of disrepair, all short sales (which is the step before foreclosure, the bank sells the home for less than what the owner owes). So here are the two we bid on:
"Dollhouse" on Northumberland Ave.




Condo in Shelter Creek


You can probably tell which one I am leaning towards.