As promised, I am back with more pictures of the house we stayed at while on vacation in the British Virgin Islands last week. These pictures cover the common areas of the house. There were actually 4 (yes 4!) other bedrooms in the house, 2 of which the owners rented out to us and 2 that they kept private. The 2 we rented were being used by our friends and I didn’t want to invade their privacy with my house tour. The other 2 belonged to the owners’ children and I thought it was nice that they didn’t let strangers sleep in their beds. If I was a kid and lived part time in another country, I think I would like to have my own little space kept private! Each of the 4 remaining bedrooms had their own bathrooms.

Once again, I’ll just let the pictures do the talking

The view from the upper deck by the entrance of the house, which had a mini-putting green. Master bedroom is on the right.

On the left side is the kitchen and dining area.

The kitchen had a few sets of double doors that led into it. We kept them open during the day and closed them at night, but since I took these early in the morning, I forgot to open all of them.

And there’s Mike checking his email! There’s another bedroom behind him and one on the floor below that.

The kitchen was in use for breakfast, so I only snapped a quick picture.

There was a small sitting area off of the kitchen.

The views from the patio area outside of the kitchen were unbelievable.

Down some stairs from the patio outside of the kitchen was a deck area with a small plunge pool. It was like a stunt infinity pool… sort of looked like it, but not quite the real deal.

Then on the opposite side of the pool was another part of the house that was a newer addition. It had a family room and 2 more bedrooms with bathrooms.

The family room had a big tv that we had no luck getting any good channels on (they had a satellite). So we only sat in there for a few hours one night.

The crooked cable box and wires are bothering me. Which is weird because we had a wire hanging from our TV for over a year and it didn’t bother me…

This room also had an awesome ceiling. AND it was painted a pretty blue color. I love ceilings that remind me of the sky. More about that another day (hint: on the nursery list)

And the views! Are you seeing a theme to this house? All about the views.

There was a bedroom and bathroom behind the TV area and another one underneath it, which was accessible from these stairs…

Here’s the view from this portion of the house looking back towards the kitchen area…

The property was huge and had gardens, walkways, banana trees, papayas, a laundry area underneath the master, an outdoor shower and a library room. They were all hidden around little paths that I only walked down a few times (stairs are not my friends right now).

Here’s a video of some of the areas in the pictures. I tried to go down a few steps of the path to some of the more hidden areas so you’d get an idea of how big it was, but I changed my mind. Sorry for the shaky camera work, it ain’t easy walking and filming!

And that’s the end of our vacation posts (and our vacation) Thankfully it’s been pretty warm in NJ this week so the transition hasn’t been awful. It’s going to be a sad reality check when the freezing cold weather comes back though

ps- the downside to staying somewhere not accessible by car? Carrying your luggage up a hill to get home….

Which was followed by a taxi ride, a ferry ride to Tortola, a ferry ride to St. Thomas, a taxi to the airport and finally, a flight home…

I planned to share all of the pictures of the house we stayed at while on vacation in Jost Van Dyke, but as I started going through them I realized that I’m going to have to make this a 2 part post! There are just too many great parts I want to share without overwhelming you with a 50 picture/video post. For today, I will share the master bedroom suite area that we stayed in. I loved loved loved staying in this room. Sometimes I just layed in bed and stared out of the windows. It was like going to the beach, minus the maternity bathing suit

Our bedroom was the first one you came across when walking down this path from the entrance.

The house was actually made up of several different buildings, connected by patios with loads of outdoor living. Like, if I wanted water in the middle of the night we had to walk outside.

Hey look! I have a tour guide

The room started with a small sitting area.

Yes, I am kicking myself for not opening these shutters above the desk so you could see the ocean…

It just rained a lot at night and the water would blow right in through those shutters, so we kept them closed most of the time to avoid the random tropical storm.

The sliding wood doors lead to the main part of the bedroom…

Complete with king sized bed (we are now even further convinced that we want one) and Tempurpedic pillows. Do you know how much a Tempurpedic pillow costs? I can tell you. $129. I know this because I was so comfortable in this bed that I struggled when I came home. I figured hey I’m pregnant, maybe I should get myself a new Tempurpedic pillow! What could it cost, $40? The one I was sleeping on is $129. I shall suffer with my old pillow I’ve been sleeping on for about 5 years…

The bed only had light sheets on it because the temperature was perfect. Nice cool ocean breeze. No AC necessary in Jost. Could you imagine a climate where you didn’t need heat OR AC? It was wonderful and the windows opened completely to let the breeze in. It wasn’t so good when it would randomly start pouring, but such is life in the tropics.

Even more wonderful? The views from this room. Seriously the greatest views I’ve ever seen.

These hardcore binoculars were fun to play with too. I kept calling it a telescope…

Here’s the view of the bed area looking back towards the entrance/sitting room…

Besides the views, the first thing that caught my eye when we came into the room was this half wall thingy behind the bed.

The sconces above the bed each had their own light switch and acted as bedside lamps. This is exactly what we planned to do for our master. Equally as great was the wood planking behind the bed…

This wall acted as a room divider to the dressing area.

Oh and the wood planked ceilings! Another thing we wanted to add to our bedroom! The high ceilings in this room made it even better.

There were his and hers closets back there, a vanity area and open shelving full of baskets for storage. At first I didn’t get why they split the room in two, but then once I lived in it I realized that this was a genius idea. It allowed me to change while keeping the windows open (I figured if I have high powered binoculars and can see people lounging on the beach way out in the ocean, those people on boats probably have them too!) The room divide also allowed the bed to be that much closer to the view. If the bed was pushed back, it wouldn’t have been as enjoyable.

I loooved the idea of the mixed and matched baskets.

I’m that person that never unpacks on vacation. Not because I’m lazy, but because a) I have a fear of forgetting something and b) hotel dressers creep me out. But I unpacked here I liked being able to throw my clothes in baskets and be able to see everything I had to choose from. Plus I could break everything down easily, like one basket for tanks, one for tees, one for accessories, one for pants, etc. I like being able to see my clothes and only use our dresser at home to store off-season clothing.

The door on the other side of the room led to the bathroom…

The room had a walk-in shower, sink, clawfoot tub and separated toilet.

The shower was tiled with slate and all of the floors were a natural stone that felt like you were walking outside.

The ceilings in here were amazing as well!

If only I could replicate the feel of this room here in NJ. We had a pond view from our bedroom for a few months, but then they built the house across the street…

I’ll be back to share some pictures of the common areas of the house and the views later this week. I don’t have pictures of all of the bedrooms, but I do have a video I can share

If you stalk my Facebook or Twitter pages, you already know that Mike and I were on vacation all of last week. We spent the week in Jost Van Dyke (pronounced Yoast, like toast, it took us all week to pronounce it correctly) in the British Virgin Islands. I planned to blog as usual from there at night, since I have yet to master the art of writing additional posts on weekends, but the internet connection was very unreliable and slow. The post I wrote about mobiles seriously took me 2 nights to get through because the photos took so long to load from Pinterest. Lesson learned: schedule your posts if you plan to secretly go on vacation.

Anyway, this vaca has been in the works for several months since we went with some friends of ours. With Darwin being sick, we were late to commit to the trip and didn’t get our passports renewed or buy plane tickets until about a month before. Mike surprised me with a first class plane ticket on the way there. We had to cancel our vacation in July because Darwin was so sick, so we had a hefty airline credit to use. I have never flown first class and MY GOODNESS. I never want to go back to coach. But I did, because we are too cheap to pay for first class both ways. So coach it was for the way home! And it was awful because we hit so much turbulance and I get motion sickness. Oh and no one handed me a warm cookie and a blankie…

We all rented an amazing house on the island, which I will share some pictures of another day. The island is very very small and secluded. The house we stayed in was not accessible by car and we had to take a major hike to catch a cab. And by cab I mean an open safari-like vehicle that doubled as the island’s school bus. We had a small boat that was included in the rental of the house, which the owners use to get around the island. But considering I’m nearly 6 months pregnant, neither option was really ideal for me. Non-pregnant me would have loved all of the hiking on this trip. Pregnant me was winded and swollen for a good portion of the trip.

There was a small beach within walking distance (a hike down a rocky hill) of the house and any other place we had to take a taxi or a boat to. We made our way around to most of the main areas of the island, so these pictures cover a little bit of everything. The views from the house were seriously unreal.

I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking!

View from the house

Beach by the house

Captain Mike on the boat that was included in the house rental

Bubbly pool, as it’s called

Just some rocks that I thought would make for a nice print around the house

Gingerly strolling along the rocks that kept poking through my flip flops

The pier for the house

Great Harbor

View from the house

Beach by the house

One of many rainbows we saw from the house

White Bay

I have tons of pictures of the bedroom we stayed in to sort through (as well as the rest of the house), so I will share them later this week. If I could have that bedroom for the rest of my life I would die happy. All it was missing was 3 cats. Don’t think we didn’t consider flying them down in first class to meet us…

Up until this point, I think we’ve had a pretty good vision for what we want for the nursery. One element I haven’t put much thought into is what the heck to put over the crib. Though mirrors and pictures always look nice and classy, I still like the idea of having a fun mobile for the baby to look at. I’ve been assembling some happy medium choices on Pinterest since, well apparently, before I was pregnant.

First there are the tissue pom installations, which I always find appealing…

(from Melanie Bauer via Pinterest)

(from Sweet Tea Paper on Etsy via Pinterest)

I’ve always liked big poofy things on the ceiling and they remind me of the paper lanterns we had at our wedding. I’ve even seen paper lanterns used in nurseries, which is a great option because those lanterns are cheap

(from Cheap Chic Nursery via Pinterest)

Though I like the idea of something large that catches the eye, I think I’m leaning towards something smaller and more subtle. I love the idea of sticking with a pom, but on a smaller scale like these…

(from Petite Lemon via Pinterest)

(from First Time Fancy via Pinterest)

Then I found some mobiles made out of various shapes and they got the wheels in my head spinning. I definitely want to DIY something and here are some of the non-pom ones I’m currently loving…

I love the idea of pretty circles…simple, not complicated, but with major impact.

(from Lil’ Sprout Creations on Etsy via Pinterest)

(from The Whimsy Boutique on Etsy via Pinterest)

(from Jenna Bee on Etsy via Pinterest)

I also like the idea of more unique shapes, like this butterfly mobile…

(from Little Nest Box on Etsy via Pinterest)

Or this one made out of letters…

(from Project Nursery via Pinterest)

Here’s one made with stars…

(from Little Dreamers Inc on Etsy via Pinterest)

I also love these little crocheted hearts…

(from Fave Crafts via Pinterest)

I do know how to knit and I started to learn how to crochet right before I started this blog. But then, my ‘hobby’ time went here. I wonder if I could knit a shape instead, considering that is more natural to me than crocheting? Hmmm…

Regardless of whether I use fabric, paper or yarn, I definitely want to make something that is appealing to a baby, but keeps some style to it. I’ll have to think of something creative to go with the rest of our nursery… whenever we start it

Since I finally put away our Christmas things, I feel as though I need to write out everything we want to get done around here while it’s fresh in my mind. If I could have tackled all of this tonight, I would have. I am so anxious to finally organize this house and make some progress on projects that were put on the back burner when I was busy with school.

Oh, and we have a baby coming in May so many of these items are marked urgent. Some are just marked as “they are bothering us and we’d like to do them ASAP”. Since we realize we have to prioritize (I’m approaching the third trimester here, eek), I’m putting them in the order we’d like to do them.

1. Finish built-in bench in new office

We scratched our heads and shopped for wood this weekend, but hit a standstill when we realized we need to buy a table saw or something. And we’re cheap a–es. Solution pending.

2. Move office furniture in

Mike needs this room to work in and be organized and our goal was to get him somewhat settled in the new office before the baby comes. We’re going to use the furniture we currently have with some potential hacks.

3. Remove wire rack from the baby’s closet, paint, stencil and add closet system

(from Roomzaar via Pinterest)

I put this as first in the baby’s room progress because the closet is the most needed to start to organize some of the stuff we already have. Hanging tiny little clothes in a huge closet is killllling me. Must. Make. Closet. Pretty.

4. Add board and batten to the baby’s room

(via Decorchick)

We plan to add molding high and all the way around the room, like Emily’s living room. Pattern to be determined

5. Add crown molding to the baby’s room, paint, add furniture, etc.

I know this category is huge and can probably be another to-do ist in itself, but we kinda have to wait until we get through other stages to work this part out. We have furniture in mind and a general idea of where we’re going, so we’ll share as much of it as we can as we go along (being sure not to spill any gender specific details )

6. Replace playroom carpet

We originally planned to do this before Christmas but that didn’t happen. Since it’s not a space we’ll be using right away, we put the new office and the baby’s room first. But this carpet has got to go. If carpet wasn’t so expensive, we probably would have committed to this already.

7. Add bookcases to playroom

(via Centsational Girl)

We want to add some Ikea bookcases to the wall where the shelving is in the picture above and make them look built-in, like Kate did with hers.

8. Finish up the molding in our entryway

We need to add the box portion underneath our chair rail in the entryway and upstairs hallway. Mike is itching to finish this one but we reeeally need to do the baby’s room first. We’re just dying to get to number 8…

9. Start our gallery wall(s)

(via Sawdust and Paper Scraps)

I’ve shared this inspiration picture from Sandra before and we’ve been slowly accumulating frames to hang all the way throughout our entryway. We haven’t hung any yet because we figured we’d have to take them down to nail into the wall to finish the molding, so we wanted to do #7 first.

10. Build outdoor kitchen

Despite the fact that we’ll have a newborn, we’re hoping to make some progress in our backyard this year. We seeded back there in the fall and we hope to do something with the landscaping and start working on the built-in grill we’ve been dreaming of (and drawing in Paint )

Um anyone else overwhelmed by this list? I’m about to have a Jessie Spano freak out moment and start screaming “there’s never enough time!!!”….