Master Bathroom Before & After

Posted on June 16, 2017 by vbvicwc

This room is still one of my favorites in the house, probably because other than the kitchen, it’s the most different from its original. In case you missed it the first time, this is what it looked like in the original listing photos.

this vanity….yuck

glass blocks really are a modern touch, don’t you think?

view of master bathroom and closet from listing photos

the view of the closet and bathroom in the master

So really, the same issues present in the guest bathroom were here too. The countertop was massive, yes, but underneath, no real way to store anything without buying a million Container Store boxes and organizing thingys (which isn’t the worst thing in the world to do, but I wanted to avoid that as much as possible). I also didn’t want our countertop to be FULL of stuff because we had no other place to put things. Too cluttered.

The floors again. Ugh, I hate these tiles so much. The big builder mirror and the soffit fluorescent light again. I mean, HONESTLY, WHO PUTS FLUORESCENT LIGHTS IN A BATHROOM?!?!?

But the previous owners, I guess in an effort to update something in the house (the only thing updated in the house since 1994), did change the shower, so this is what we saw when we actually toured the house.

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slate tiles in the shower pre-purchase (cabinet doors and countertop removed post-purchase)

We removed everything you see here. EVERYTHING. LOOK AT THAT EFFING LIGHT.

And just like before, we started demoing things before I took real “before” photos. Oops.

The tiles in the shower look nice, yes, however upon entering this shower, it was immediately clear that in order to wash one’s hair, it was one arm or the other. Both arms could not be up at the same time or else you’d be outside of the shower. So yea, not functional at all.

Thankfully these tiles were the EASIEST to take off because they had just been put in. We felt a little bad since they had just renovated it, but it probably would’ve been wiser to leave it alone to begin with.

Also you see on the right side of the shower, that little wall that extends halfway on the side of the countertop? I hated this wall. It was dumb, made no sense, and was one of the first things to be torn down. We discovered about a foot of empty space behind that wall, so the major change we made here was to make it a double shower.

How’s that for romance?

Obviously, everything else went too.

master bath gutted

Already, staring at the empty, completely gutted master bathroom is calming my nerves from the before pictures.

See all the metal studs? This has been very annoying. Apparently, when the house was constructed, only the external walls received wood studs; internal walls are metal. This has driven me insane as I hit them time and time again trying to install things or even just hang a picture. And this is why we hired a professional to mount our TVs.

Again, we bought the double vanity and countertop/sinks from Ikea and constructed it ourselves. We had plans to have two high storage cabinets on either side plus a huge mirror cabinet in the middle. However, we didn’t really measure correctly, and after I assembled this massive cabinet, turns out, it didn’t fit. Never to fear, we returned it to Ikea and bought a $15 mirror instead.

(Yes, you can return fully-assembled items to Ikea. And it was totally worth it since we couldn’t put it anywhere else realistically and damn, it wasn’t a cheap piece.)

After the whole re-plumbing issue was resolved, onward we went with the renovation. These were the pieces we selected for the overall look, including the kitchen and both bathrooms.

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So pretty and classic, right? We chose to do the exact same subway tiles in both bathrooms, but in the master, floor to ceiling! Same dark grout, because it’s just a good look. Also, the same wood-grain tile tied the entire look together.

More photos during the reconstruction and beautifying phase:

shower floor, yes please!

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Yes, this bathroom was also a dual paint job. The original teal really set Timmy off in a bad way, and while I didn’t mind it, I’m glad now we changed it to a much more neutral color. So much more calm and relaxing in here now.

Timmy and I must have gone back and forth a hundred times about shower door vs. shower curtain. A shower door here was really expensive and because we extended the shower, had to be custom-made since our measurements weren’t stock sizes. A shower curtain was obviously inexpensive but unfortunately REALLY unrealistic. Looking at these pictures, I don’t even know why we had that discussion in the first place. There’s no way we could’ve gotten away with just a curtain.

When we finally did order the shower doors, we had already moved in and had to wait a while for them to be installed. They delivered them after the renovations were done, and then the installers suffered an injury. So for 2 weeks, we had these MASSIVE shower doors taking up major space in our master bedroom that were so heavy, they just had to stay where they had been delivered.

That was fun.

Also, I hope you notice the covered floors in the last picture. This was something we didn’t do with the wood floors in the main spaces at the very beginning to protect them and it has really been a frustrating point for me every time I come home.

Back story: We donated all of our old appliances (except for the old fridge, which we moved to the garage) to Habitat for Humanity. Timmy was there for this exchange, and unfortunately, it was terrible! Not only did they break the wood plank at the top of the stairs in half, they also managed to scratch the SHIT out of 3 main spots in our living room. And I mean, nearly GAUGED out the floor. This was before we even got really started on the renovations!

It drives me crazy to see those spots. I’m not done trying to fix them, but I think at some point, the floors will just have to be sanded and restained to get rid of them. Lesson learned.

I really can’t explain how much I love this bathroom now. It has PLENTY of storage space (and I mean plenty!), and best of all, nearly everything is hidden from view. It makes everything cleaner and so much more relaxing since clutter is not visible. We chose the same waterfall faucet as the guest, and again, went with chrome for the sinks and brushed nickel for the showers.

And without further delay, here’s what our master bathroom looks like!

just before the shower doors and right-hand side shower fixture were installed

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shower doors installed!

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greatest storage and custom light fixture ever!

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another unique touch from our designer Meg! And the framed picture (totally her doing) really encapsulates the feeling of being done with renovations (and weddings)

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love this custom shelf!

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these shower doors are just beautiful

Our bathroom now rules. It’s 100% our style and can totally appeal to another buyer whenever we decide to sell. Extending this to a double shower was a stroke of genius (if I don’t say so myself), and it’s just an excellent space in general.

Again BIG PROPS to our designer Meg at ME Style Designs for helping us through this renovation in particular. All the plumbing issues, the color changes, the timeline, the ordering and re-ordering of parts and tiles and installations, there’s NO WAY I could’ve handled this. I had no idea about 1/2 the things involved with this type of renovation, and without her assistance, ideas, and patience, this would’ve been a complete disaster.

Next time, prepare yourself for the reveal of the kitchen, maybe our favorite space in the entire house!

♥, VB

Guest Bathroom Reno

Posted on June 13, 2017 by vbvicwc

So let’s start at the front of the house shall we? I said I’d share our before and afters, so let’s get the guest bathroom out of the way first. Not because it’s not interesting, but because our renovations in the other rooms are much more captivating.

Before, our guest bathroom looked like this:

We removed everything except the toilet, which got a gooooood scrubbing.

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Ok so I obviously started demolishing this room before we got any real true before pictures. My bad. I have little patience and since I’m not getting paid to blog, I don’t remember these things until it’s too late.

But as you can tell it was ugly. We had already removed it before this picture was taken, but there was a sink/countertop that extended over the toilet uselessly because there was barely any space to put anything on the counter over the toilet. You can see in the first picture there was this drop-down soffit fluorescent light fixture that was heinous. It seriously took up like 2.5 feet of the ceiling height (there was also one in the master, unfortunately). Then there were those 4×4 in. square tiles in the shower with a really shallow tub. The laminated particle board for the sink cabinet, and no real place for storage. The handicap railing in the shower. The one long builder mirror and hideous square floor tiles that looked like the color beige threw up everywhere (including our kitchen, master bathroom, and stairs).

In short, this bathroom was nasty.

I had a Pinterest board going with our designer, Meg Brannigan of ME Style Designs. We decided on items that had a lot of function but had classic yet updated looks, enough so that when it comes time for us to sell our house, the retirees/snowbirds who love this area will love the design enough to consider this house turn-key. Always gotta think ahead.

First we tore it down to the studs, which is much harder than it sounds.

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Parts of the wall where we were trying to take just the tile down off the shower crumbled underneath, so even though we weren’t trying to take it down to the studs, we really didn’t have another option. Also, the tile jackhammer (even the small one) is so incredibly heavy; make sure you have a protein shake on hand or something to keep your energy level up!

I left the tile removal in general up to Timmy. It was just too difficult for me to operate either the small or big jack because of their weight and the angle that I had to stand which killed my back. A big shout-out to Timmy on these jobs!

I was able to take down that mirror with one pry since it was only being held up by those black adhesive splotches you see on the wall. I almost killed myself trying to hold onto it so that it wouldn’t break while Timmy raced in to help me with it. I was absolutely not expecting that, so when it slid down in one piece rapidly, all I was thinking was “PLEASE DON’T SHATTER PLEASE DON’T SHATTER PLEASE DON’T SHATTER.”

Once everything was exposed, we realized we had a major issue with our plumbing. Our type of plumbing was considered illegal (but not at the time it was put in the house). We could choose to leave it and then have a major issue once the walls were closed up somewhere down the line and ruin all our renovations or just replace all the plumbing up front. It was an expense we hadn’t budgeted for, but considering how much more we were risking going forward with the old (and the fact that the plumbing hadn’t been used in years at this place), we bit the bullet and replaced everything.

Which set us even further back when the rough plumbing was inspected and approved but the final wasn’t. So odd how inspectors work.

We also had a major paint issue crop up that was the basis of many many arguments Timmy and I had during this process. At the beginning of the design stage, Meg and I met to discuss colors and such. She had the biggest color swatch collection I have ever seen and told me to go through it and select colors I liked. I think I chose like 46 colors.

I tend to go for big sections of neutrals and pops of colors everywhere. However, I was so overwhelmed with everything else going on that I told her to go ahead and select the colors for the bathrooms. She decided on a bright yellow for the guest and a bright teal for the master. Neither of these options bothered me massively, but since paint can be difficult to envision unless it’s all up, I went ahead and painted both rooms so Timmy could get the whole look.

Timmy was not happy. And Timmy thought I had decided paint colors without him, which made him angrier.

Needless to say, this was not the only stupid, worthless argument we got into during this past year. But it was definitely a sticking point. So back we went to the drawing board and Meg selected a much more neutral, gray/beige color.

We repainted, and are very happy with the color now. So let us never discuss the process of selecting the color again!

Another issue I had was with the original tub. I love baths. I know, some people think they’re super wasteful but they are me-time. They help my back pain and duh, they’re great for pure relaxation. The problem is everywhere I’ve lived, I can only get EITHER my boobs OR my knees underwater. It’s been a life mission to get what I call a “knees-and-boobs” tub; this way, all of myself is underwater at the same time. Ladies, I know you feel me.

The rest of the design choices came easily. I love a clean white subway tile with dark grout. Timmy wanted a wood-grain tile for the floor. And boom we got it all.

Here’s the guest midway:

love this subway tile

classic lines for days!

knees-and-boobs tub!

laying down the floor

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our final floor tile

The floor tile is the same now in the 2 bathrooms and kitchen. Eventually we will redo our stairs to match this tile, but since it wasn’t a priority, we’ll do it sometime in the future.

Tiling the shower and floors were originally on our DIY list. It looks hella easy on HGTV, right? But after looking at the finished product and the fact that our contractors only took 3 days to complete the showers and floors, we’ve since thanked our lucky stars we didn’t try to take this on. One, it would’ve taken us 10x as long to do it correctly, and look at the lines here! We would’ve sucked at it, let’s just be honest with ourselves.

We selected all our vanities from Ikea because the prices just couldn’t be beat. We selected based on cost, style, and ability to appeal to other buyers. Timmy and I built all of the vanity pieces and our contractors installed them. We chose this one for the guest.

We did run into a little issue with the sink drain from the Ikea countertop/sink in that it was chrome but our other fixtures were going to be brushed nickel. Since the guest bathroom is much smaller than the master, it was going to be obvious the differences in finishes since you could see them all quickly. So we switched to all chrome in the guest, yet in our master, the sink fixture finishes are chrome, and the shower fixtures are brushed nickel.

Again, another design element that no one thinks of! I would’ve never thought about that in a million years, so thanks to our contractors for noticing this!

Our designer created some of the other pieces and found similar ones to complete the industrial/vintage/contemporary look, like our light fixture, towel bar, and toilet paper holder. All in all, the look is very us but I think could appeal to anyone else as well.

So without further ado, here’s the finished look!

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the view from the stairs

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a peek inside

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towel colors just pop!

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Timmy and I have said, since our first place together, that the secret to keeping our relationship afloat is having 2 bathrooms. Looking back, maybe sharing 1 bathroom in my apartment all last year is really what made our lives so difficult all that time.

We love our bathrooms, in particular the mirror and light fixture in this one. It’s so unique and bright, but still feels so homey at the same time. It’s functional (knees and boobs!) yet feels like a hotel bathroom with some of the touches, like the waterfall faucet and showerhead.

A little PSA, if you can, hire a designer. We couldn’t have survived renovating this house without Meg. She led the way, did more couples counseling than she probably bargained for, and made all the difference.

Up next, the master bathroom!

♥, VB

Motivation

Posted on March 7, 2017 by vbvicwc

No, I haven’t felt particularly motivated to update this blog in a long time. Part of it was I had too much to say and the energy required to write it all down was too much. The other part was that life has been more difficult than I’d like to admit this past year and while everyone around us has been like, “Oh great, life milestones, amazing, be happy, you’re going places,” for us it’s felt stifling, stressful, and oh so not amazing a great majority of the time.

I know it sounds like I’m complaining or ungrateful, but the reality of my emotions is far from that. But stress is stress, and in one year, we planned a wedding, got married, bought a house, renovated the house, moved, and tried to find our normal again. Which is so hard when for nearly 2 years straight, you haven’t had a real normal. Timmy moved from Lake Mary to my tiny apartment last January, we were on top of each other all the time, he traveled a lot, and between the wedding planning stress, the house hunting stress, the house buying stress, the renovation stress, the money stress, and then the moving into said house stress, I had literally used up all my coping methods.

I was a ticking time-bomb that went off in January.

The reality of our life is now more normal, more settled, more calm for sure. But that reserve of emotional mess that I had been carrying around and stockpiling just became too much and I broke in a very real way. I was ready to run away and leave this all behind. Which is not at all a very adult way to handle everything, but I was struggling big time. And my partner was struggling in his own way too, and we just weren’t clicking.

I absolutely sank around election time. Trump and the racial hate and misogyny and general hopelessness became the weight that sank me even further, as though the stress of everything else in our lives wasn’t enough. I cried for nearly two weeks straight. I have been off of Facebook since November, about a few days after the election because I simply couldn’t take it anymore. I miss it a little, but after the withdrawals wore off, I’m good without it.

I took on an additional class, Human Sexuality, to teach this semester, so my life is really busy and full, but emotionally, it’s been challenging to catch the happy ride back up the downward slope. My back pain has been worse than ever, and after a failed radiofrequency ablation (where they burn the nerves in a particular area), I’ve been depressed about my back and wondering if life can ever feel normal when all I think about is my pain.

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Maybe it’s the January/February/March blues that get us all. Maybe it’s a combination of our stress, Trump for me, and the winter meh that got us. But we’ve been in a dark place, and we keep wavering in and out of it. Lately, more out of it than in it, which is definitely progress.

It certainly helps that all the boxes and wedding gifts have been unpacked. Our house is beautiful and we still have a few more projects to go, like painting a few spots, rescreening our porches, redoing the floors in our garage, but those weren’t necessities to getting settled. We’ll be getting started on those soon enough.

We love our neighborhood and the quiet nature that surrounds us. We are starting to fish on our fishing pier with the addition of new fishing equipment, courtesy of Timmy. My parents came to visit a few weekends ago (which was so needed) and they brought my bike. So the other night Timmy and I biked close to St. Pete Beach (and stumbled through a ridiculous argument, again), then to a local restaurant for drinks and games.

It was awesome and it felt like us.

The sun is out more, and it’s warmer, so me likey. I can’t wait to start spending afternoons after work paddleboarding around the waterways, and really soaking up the mood-improving Vitamin D. And we’ll get there soon.

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But Timmy misses Jake and his dad and James, and I’m missing my friends and family a lot. Timmy and I working on our connection harder than we have before, but we need our support system around us to help ground us. So friends and family, come visit us! We have space, and it’s close to everything. It’s honestly like being on vacation all the time, living in our new house.

It’s just now starting to sync for us. Just now. If we haven’t been reaching out to you as much, be patient because the ground is just now starting to solidify underneath us again. That’s just life, I guess, and I know we’ll get back. It’s always ups and downs, and we just have to have faith and put the work in.

Winter sucks. Trump sucks. Hate sucks. But we will rock again.

♥, VB

VicTim Bach Bash

Posted on September 9, 2015 by vbvicwc

Bachelor/bachelorette parties are a funny thing. Sometimes they are just the most incredible, most memorable experiences where the groom/bride are surrounded by their best friends who turn the world over to make it all about them for one night/weekend.

Labor Day weekend was Timmy and my joint bachelor-bachelorette parties. They were joint in the sense that we both had them in St. Pete and planned a Sunday beach field day, but other than that, they were separate.

My weekend was amazing. My friends who I invited that are either in my bridal party or are my best friends in the world couldn’t have made that weekend any more incredibly relaxing, chill, and overall exactly what I wanted. We hung out at the beach which was no joke, about 50 yards away from our Treasure Island house. Or what we called it, the 80s Porn Palace.

Yeah. It’s exactly what you would picture in your mind. In fact, a few of us thought we recognized it from somewhere…:)

My maid of honor Lyndsay, my past roommate of 5 years and one of my best friends in this world, went ABOVE and BEYOND. She shopped, she cooked, she prepared, she planned, she had anxiety, but she did the damn thing. I kept telling her that I didn’t expect her to plan it like how I would plan it, because really, that’s crazy, but man I can’t believe what an awesome job she did. If anyone’s in the market (she may cut me for offering her maid of honor services), she left no stone unturned. I couldn’t have asked for anything better than what she did.

And all my friends! AHHHHHH, they were the best! I had two surprise guests show up who I thought weren’t coming, and my other friends were there for me all weekend. No one complained, no one was dramatic, no one was bitchy, and everyone stayed by my side the whole time. Sure, we were kinda boring, taking naps, and reading books, and laying out, and getting in the water, but we’re in our 30s now. My days of clubbing are over because that’s pretty much all I did in my 20s. No need to re-live the good old days because I’m still having lots of good days now.

We did have a few incidents with someone, but other than that, the rest of us were no-drama, sun-loving, relaxing fools. I love you all, there’s a reason you’re in my life — you make my life happier and brighter, you celebrate with me and you grieve with me, you’re there when I need you and I’m there whenever you need me. Thank you for being you.

Two of my bridesmen (my 3rd couldn’t get on a flight unfortunately) stayed at Timmy’s place and spent the weekend going back and forth between our house, our Saturday night dinner, and their house. I planned a private dining room dinner at Station House Saturday night in downtown St. Pete where we stuffed ourselves silly and just really really really enjoyed ourselves, went to one bar, then went home to get into our pjs. Sleep was such a necessity that weekend, I’m really glad all my friends are now in the same “I kinda love sleep more than people” space that I am in.

I was so sad to say goodbye to everyone, it was just enough time to get comfortable with my friends, but not enough time to feel like we had all really caught up with each other. Seriously you guys, you made the trip, you took the time and $$ to celebrate my life with Timmy, I’m so humbled and honored and blown away that you would put me first like that. Thank you thank you thank you thank you.

living room views

dining room views

day bed room

my sis taking advantage of the massage chair

goodie bags for everyone!

pool at a beach house?! heck yes

too pretty

the back side of the porn palace

I love this lady, my maid of honor

my NYU bitches are the best

my beautiful matron of honor

of course there’s time for beach yoga

sunsets for days

love my girls

sigh…

dance party USA in the living room, y’all

gift basket time!

I’m a dork

yes! gift for the win!

two gifts in a row, for the win!

Lyndsay and Jenny

beach time!

view from the balcony

My bridesman Alex

the crew

Lindsey, Alex, and I

love this lady! Two visits to St. Pete in a row!

Emory crew representing

duh

NYU friends fo’ eva

NAHS crew in the house and bridesmaid Lindsey and bridesman Matt

my maid of honor Lyndsay and my matron of honor Carla

the man of the hour surrounded by beautiful women…tough life

It’s true, the time went by too fast. The weekend shot by like a bullet. And at certain times, I wish that it had been a real bullet directed at a few people who attended the parties that weekend. Timmy’s experience…well, let’s just say, it wasn’t the same as mine. But that’s his story to tell, not mine.

But to end this post on a happy note (because by nature, I’m not a negative person), I love all of you who made our parties a place to celebrate not only our love, but our friendships with you, our bonds, our connections. You spent money on us, you blocked off time for us, you came because you love us. Without y’all’s support, Timmy and I definitely wouldn’t be the people we are today.

♥, VB

Life Lately + Head Trauma

Posted on July 17, 2015 by vbvicwc

Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. – Ferris Bueller

SO FREAKING TRUE. While we haven’t done anything monumental lately, we have had some really awesome weekends, and the more I forget to share, the faster the time seems to go.

Let’s start out by categorizing what’s been going on with our life lately!

Wedding Planning

I. AM. SO. EXCITED!!!! This is the stage where I’m the most comfortable being at when I’m planning anything. It’s the anticipatory, to-do lists, breathable, productive, I’m-going-to-conquer-the-world stage and I’m loving it.

Obviously, the beginning was ROUGH. Like, beyond rough. Like crying every day for a month rough. Once we set that date, it was a ticking time bomb strapped to my back. Looking back, it was a combination of everything in the world that overwhelms me, hitting me all at once.

Ginormous price tags? Check.
Guilt beyond belief at my parents paying? Check.
The idea of being married when I had never wanted that? Check.
Decisions that I never thought I would ever need to make and try to make them with someone who doesn’t like making decisions? Check.
Planning a major event from a different state for a reason that I never had wanted before? Check!

One of the main problems was that Timmy and I do not approach decision-making in the same way. In fact, we’re complete opposites. I’m a snap decision-maker. I don’t like to over-analyze anything and I just want to move on and get shit done. Timmy becomes paralyzed. He gets frustrated easily when it’s time to decide, and then he will just stonewall until he feels he’s had enough time (usually about 10,000 times longer than I’m okay with). This does not make for smooth decision making and it’s been an issue for a long time in our relationship in general.

But we sat down, hashed it out, and now we’re excellent. Timmy and I finally found a groove to wedding planning. I’ll do some research here and there and compile some ideas and send it to him, and then 2-3 weeks later, we’ll basically knock out like 3-5 decisions in one day. And I’ve had time to digest the fact that my parents WANT to do this for us and I can accept it now.

We have just under a year until we get married. This is what we’ve done so far:

wedding coordinator hired
date and time chosen
venue chosen
guest list almost complete
photographer chosen and engagement pictures printed
caterer, food options, baker, and design chosen
band chosen
alcohol package chosen
wedding website nearly complete
invitations printed
registries complete
save the dates designed
rehearsal dinner space booked
wedding dress and bridal party and outfits selected
bachelor/bachelorette party scheduled

I told you, I don’t mess around when it comes to planning. I want as much done now so that we can just pretty much coast up until the wedding. We have about 4 things on the docket that should be complete in the next few weeks, so as that to-do list gets done, I get happier and more and more excited to marry my partner.

Travels and Visits

The first weekend of June, I traveled to NY to celebrate my best friend Denise’s daughter’s baptism. Seeing as how I hadn’t met the little lady since she was inside her mom’s uterus, I thought it would be a great time to meet her and chill out with my besties. This trip, I didn’t even step inside Manhattan, which was a nice change of pace. It always feels like the city is trying to run me over when I visit because I try to fit so much into one weekend, and this time, we just stayed in the suburbs and enjoyed beautiful weather with family and friends.

Not going to lie, their apartment does not absorb sound well, so in addition to little Mary’s screams, I also was privy to the fighting Puerto Rican family below them, and good god, getting 4 hours of sleep is just not okay.

A few weekends later, my good friend from grad school, Alex, came down for a half week of relaxation and fun. This woman, god I love her. She’s amazing. Strong, driven, intelligent, and with a heart as big as the sun. I admire her in so many ways, and it’s always such a nice calming feeling to be around her. She pretty much came down to escape a little drama in her life in Atlanta, so we ate well, beached it, had a boat day with my old work colleague Leila and her husband, and just enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

fun with Tia Victoria

starting them young on the Stuart Weitzmans!

this little lady…

boat day!

Leila and I

Alex comes to visit!

Pride Weekend

It’s really really fun living in monumental moments. Timmy had made the trek to St. Pete a few weekends in a row, and so Pride weekend (the last weekend in June) was supposed to be my weekend in Orlando. But then the Supreme Court upheld marriage equality Friday morning, and because Timmy is the most amazing person ever, he decided to come to St. Pete to help me volunteer and experience what a major civil rights victory feels like.

This year, I’ve been trying to volunteer more around my community, and Pride felt like another perfect moment to help out. I volunteered earlier in the week for the Stonewall Reception and got to meet the mayor of St. Pete. We volunteered together at a concert with someone from Glee (no clue, but holy cow they could sing!), and then we made it out to the nighttime Pride parade on Saturday night. Of course, Timmy is the greatest flirter in the world (which I warned him about), so he won the bead war. Hey, it’s not my fault most of the floats were men and Timmy was practically throwing himself at them!

Slut.

But all in all, it was pretty much the perfect weekend, and I can’t wait for next year! 🙂

Stonewall Reception

volunteering at Pride

nighttime Pride Parade

yes, this is on a float

Destin and 4th of July

UGGGGHHHH, this trip was no bueno for me. It seems like every time I’ve been to Destin, it ends in E.R. visits (which is actually the case for Timmy. He and his friends really have never been able to finish a trip to Destin without visiting a medical professional). They actually still had my information on file from the last time, like 5 years ago, when I jumped in the water and stepped on some barnacles which tore the sole of my foot up.

This time, it started out great. Magda and Corey, who so generously donated the BOTE board for our “30 Years, 1 Wish” party, invited us to stay in their renovated, white, shiny new home. Their house is super gorgeous and seems to be the perfect party pad. I’m not a huge alcohol drinker, so I knew I would have to psych myself up to hang out with this crew who have livers of steel. Not that I went overboard, but I definitely had to pace myself to get through the day drinking part (which for those of you who know me well, is NOT a strength of mine).

Friday, they had a get-together at their house where people just drove their boats up or paddled up on their boards (which is the greatest way of life, let me tell you) and we all hung out in the sun by their pool. Saturday started out much like Friday. The sun burning our eyes out (they hadn’t put up drapes yet), children crying, that sort of thing. But we were heading out to Crab Island, so I was excited to have a really awesome day.

The only photo I got of the weekend.

We made it out there, anchored the boat, played a frisbee game, met people, it was great! BOTE is constantly trying out new designs, and this weekend they were trying out a prototype for a wake surfing paddleboard. It’s smaller than a regular paddleboard, and way less stable. I tried it out a few times, was able to get the hang of it, and even tried (and failed) to do a little yoga on it.

But then, it all went downhill.

Here’s where my memory gets a little fuzzy. I remember talking with Timmy, facing their boat, and then all of the sudden I heard, “Look out!” and then BAM, the paddleboard came crashing down on the back of my head. If you’ve ever been hurt by something that’s also taken you by complete surprise, you understand the feeling. It was horrendous.

After that, I remember things in bits and pieces. I remember being brought on someone else’s boat to ice my head, I remember feeling really sleepy and just wanting to rest my eyes, and then I remember being at the E.R. with a brace around my neck, going in for a CT scan. I couldn’t remember who the president was at first (which made me cry because I was so scared).

Timmy was by my side the whole time. He was my rock, calming me down when I started to freak out, asking all the right questions, and helping me with insurance and confusing payments. In short, he was incredible.

The following week, I had some nausea, trouble sleeping, headaches, and general confusion. I had a lot of trouble getting words out, and am still kind of struggling here and there with speaking smoothly and quickly but in general, I’m completely back to normal. Timmy hated it but loved it because he eventually said, “I finally feel smarter than you!”

Slut.

After that, I felt good enough to have another St. Pete weekend (the last one in a while, since it’ll be my turn to visit Orlando multiple weekends in a row. It’s only fair). We had a really good time at the Rays game last Saturday night for an Emory alumni event, which I may or may not have outed him to everyone as a non-alum. As though his Auburn hat didn’t give him away. We had a delicious dinner at our new favorite place, Brick and Mortar, met a couple and talked with them the entire night. Sunday, we had lunch at Locale Market (an incredible, jaw-dropping place) and saw Jurassic World (which pretty much sucked. We were uber disappointed), and had ourselves a delightful weekend together.

Emory Alumni event, Tampa Bay Rays game

Timmy, the non-alum

on the field!

sunsetssssssssssss

the wine list at Brick & Mortar is top notch

the St. Petersburger at Locale

The weekends are getting harder and harder when it comes time to say goodbye. We may be seeing an end in sight as we try to figure out Timmy’s job and what moving will look like. We’re not there yet, but we’re definitely having the talks.

Life is so funny. As I’ve been going through the summer, I haven’t really felt like what we’ve been up to has been that interesting to share. I haven’t been taking as many photos, I’ve really been trying to be IN the moment. But now that I’ve finished writing this post, damn, we are busy people. I love our life.

♥, VB

From Peaches to Beaches

Tag Archives: St. Pete

Master Bathroom Before & After

Guest Bathroom Reno

Motivation

VicTim Bach Bash