Telluride

Joe and I traveled to Telluride, CO for the first time to celebrate an extend New Years Eve weekend. We loved it so much, we took another trip only a month later but this time enjoyed the experience with 6 friends. Telluride is a beautiful, small city nestled into the mountains. The whole experience felt like vacationing in a Snow Globe!

They Call me Mellow Yellow....

I love yellow. It should come as no surprise then that it is by far my favorite color. Yellow, quite simply, makes me happy.

I saw this folding bookshelf at Cost Plus and it immediately caught my eye. I saw a bookshelf.... and it was yellow. I am happy to report I did not impulsively buy a bright yellow bookshelf. Instead, I went home, carried on with my day and talked to Joe about the bright yellow bookshelf the next day. To my surprise, he instantly said I should go out and purchase it. This was a surprise because we did not necessarily need a bookshelf and because it was yellow and Joe does not have the same love-love-love-love relationship with yellow that I do.

We are now the proud owners of the above yellow bookshelf. It was $49.99 at Cost Plus and I am extremely happy with it. Because of Joe's non-love relationship with yellow, we don't even have so much as a yellow wall in our house. But that is okay, because now I have a lovely yellow piece of furniture that I get to see every day as I go in and out of the house. This will guarantee I smile at least three more times a day.

P.S. Now that I've said and spelled yellow a million times- I've found that the word sounds weird and looks weird. I better stick to just looking at it :)

P.S.S. The painting above the yellow bookshelf is an oil portrait of the Dobermans by Joe. Love it!

Current Living

I appreciate having a home that feels "lived in." From the furniture and decor to the four dogs we have running around the house all day -- our home truly fits us and it's designed to be functional for our behaviors, interests and attitudes. Decorating magazines, DIY television shows and home furnishing stores can easily turn any home into a depersonalized space. I can't even count how many homes I've been in that feel no different then any others because the homeowners put a decorating stamp, but not a personal stamp, on their home. I don't mean to criticize, but I hope that to others, our home feels like a warm space that screams "Joe and Sydney" as much as any place of ours can.

Here are some "Before and After" photos of our home when we first purchased it and the way it looks today (literally). Naturally, I cleaned up a bit before taking these photos. You're more likely to see dog toys strewn about the floor, toss pillows in no particular design on the couch, and miscellaneous odds and ends that haven't yet been put back in their designated place. But, other than that, these are photos of our main living areas as they are right now.

Year ones comes to a close

Joe and I have now been homeowners for over one year!! I had completely forgotten it had been a full year until Joe brought it up a few days ago. This is the first time that neither one of us has had to pack and move to a new place in awhile! It feels wonderful to not only have a place to call home, but a place that we know will continue to be our home for the forseeable future. We have done a lot to our house since we first moved in, and I put together a few of the photos and a list of all our projects. In the next year or so we plan to knock out a lot of our large renovation projects i.e. renovating the master bathroom and kitchen, adding new stair railings and stone to the fireplace, and replacing all the windows and exterior doors.


1. Removal of all pre-existing landscaping to the front and back yards
2. Adding granite and new landscaping to the front yard
3. Painting all interior walls
4. Replacing all main living area lighting (foyer, dining, loft, living room)
5. Replacing sliding patio door with french doors (and painting them)
6. Replacing interior living room mini blinds with wood blinds
7. Removing and replacing all pre-existing carpeting
8. Adding laminate wood flooring in the loft
9. Renovating Guest Bathroom - replacing sink, paint color, flooring and hardware
10. Replacing front and backyard gates
11. Backyard renovation - paver patio, curbing, sod, side yard fire pit, granite around the curbing, adding palms and trees

There have been lots of smaller projects to spruce up things here and there as well. We were able to fill out a lot of our home with new furniture when Costco Home closed down and our new hobby, oil painting, is quickly filling up the walls with original art. We are very excited for our second year as homeowners and our upcoming fourth year as husband and wife!

Trees

Back in August, we made a run to Moon Valley Nursery and came back with some trees and palms to plant in our backyard. We also added granite rock around the curbing and sideyard/firepit area. I just realized I never posted any photos but couldn't run outside and take some because we are in the process of transitioning to winter grass.

These photos were taken just after planting and before the granite rock went in. You can see a Queen Palm on the left and the right and a Navel Orange tree to the right of the gate.

One of the Queen Palms.

A Mexican Fan Palm. I love our flagstone stepping stones- you can see them peeking out in the picture below.

We planted a Tipu Tree between our garage and our house. I'll have to take another photo of it because it has grown a lot since we first moved it. It is a fast grower and will bloom yellow flowers in the spring.

And here is how Jake and Joe dug the holes for all of these lovely trees!

Reclaimed Space

Let me preface this by reminding everyone who reads this that we have FOUR dogs. Our house is definitely not large enough for all of them, so we slowly tinker around with our set up trying to find a way to make living with them manageable for us and living with us manageable for them.

Lately, we have done quite a bit of tinkering. We set up a dog gate (extra tall) in our hallway to block access to the rest of the house. This gives us a nice, pen like space to put the Dobes when we don't want them to have free run of the house but we don't want to kennel them either. Look- it even has a small door small enough for just the pugs!


Then, we decided to reclaim the dog room as our own. We had used one of our extra bedrooms as a space to keep the dogs kenneled. However, we realized we could use the extra space and it was better to get used to having the dogs in the main living area since that is where they will ultimately need to be.

Where were we going to put the dogs? We ended up pushing our couch forward which solved two problems. First, it created the extra space we needed for Max's kennel (which is huge). Second, our living room rug now fits perfectly inbetween the couch and the entertainment console whereas previously there was a gap of tile.


So far, keeping the kennels in the main room of the house has worked for them and us. Joe recently found out that he is allergic to dogs and we have had to find ways to make living with FOUR dogs as undamaging to his health as possible. We have four air purifiers, an Animal Dyson and have also insisted upon a "No Dogs in any carpeted area" rule. More than anything, this rule has eased up on the allergens in the house because dust and fur are much easier to spot and clean on tile then on carpet where they linger in the fibers. An old, unused dog gate is now positioned on the stairs and keeps the dogs out of the loft as well.

So, how are the humans enjoying their new, extra space? Very much! We are using the extra bedroom as a studio and spend a lot of our down time painting. Eventually, this room will become the nursery but until then we are enjoying it for ourselves :)

Oils

Here is some more artwork that Joe and I have been working on. We spend a great deal of our time painting and reclaimed the dogs room (more on that later) and transformed it into a studio room for us.

Joe's Gargoyle

My Tiger Lily (work in progress).

Joe's Rose. This is his first painting.

Joe's portrait of the Dobermans (work in progress). I think he is doing a wonderful job!!!