The Swamp

Unfortunately I do not have a photo that shows what the swamp in our front yard looked like before project began- but I think "swamp" conjurs up a good enough image.
We had a leak in our irrigation system that was causing a lot water to pool in our front yard. The moisture and the humidity caused a swamp to form. Joe and friends had to dig up the the swampy parts of the yard to locate the damaged pipe. We discovered that tree roots had literally grown around a pipe and cracked it. The only way to remove the roots was to also remove the pipe, so we replaced it.
You can tell by the photos that it was a very messy situation. But grass has almost completely been regrown over it, (see bottom picture) so we have finally bid adieu to our swamp. Many thanks to Pete who was stellar on this project, and of course Jake who has someone managed to get roped into all of our home improvement projects. Now I know that neighbors are good for more than just sugar!

After: The swamp was right underneath the tree-- you can reference the location by looking at where the tree is in other pictures.

And again, Lilly and Max were there to supervise.

The Weekend Warriors

Joe and friends have tackled a few weekend projects since we moved in. I'm updating them out of order, as the patio project was done the most recently. We attempted to seed our lawn w/ winter grass. Given what the yard looked like before, we actually did a pretty good job. But, there are still patches all around that have no grass, just soil. Since Arizona has clay soil, the dogs track in a lot of dust/dirt. So, Joe decided to place concrete pavers to extend our patio to cover the dusty portions and to expand the patio. I think it turned out very well, and thanks to Jake who was of great help through this project. You'll see photos of both him and Joe in all of our renovations. Also, thanks to Max and Lily who supervised!

After Pics!

Some updated pictures of the new house:

The Living Room, our sectional fit perfectly. Notice the french style patio doors-- no more slider! We found great blinds at Linens N things to shade the windows to stop the glare on the TV. We still have to install the ceiling fan.

Dining Area. In this photo and the one above you can see the wood blinds we added. They made a huge difference. We also purchased the Chandelier from The Great Indoors.

Another updated photo of the fireplace. Photo is courtesy of Judy Arsenault.

Our Guest Bathroom. Color: Argmanac by Sherwin Williams

Foyer. Color: Water Chestnut, Glidden.
The foyer light is my favorite part, it is a Tiffany style bowl pendant from Lamps Plus.

The Loft. Color: Coconut Husk, Sherwin Williams
Shaw makes the floor, it is a wood laminate, our only new purchase was the chair/ottoman which we got from Costco Home. The Loft is Joe's domain. The computer monitor on the left is set up with Direct TV.

The Guest Bedroom. Color: Macademia, Sherwin Williams.

Our Master Bedroom. The light color is Latte by Sherwin Williams, the darker color is Coconut Husk by the same. I love the room, it is very soothing.

Contractor Day

Last Thursday was the day all the contractors came. We had the bedroom and stair carpeting, the wood laminate in the loft, the patio french-style doors AND the Direct TV installer all here at the same time. Here are some photos of the process:

Wood lamainte flooring in the loft. The color is deeper then it appears in this photo. It is called Coconut Husk from Sherwin Williams. We also have wood blinds that have been installed since those photo was taken.


Our Master Bedroom. The wall to the left and the window wall are painted Coconut Husk (just like the loft). This photo is a better view of what Coconut Husk looks like. The other walls are Latte by Sherwin Williams. This was taken while the carpet pad was being installed. Joe had done some patchwork on the drywall as well.

We had the old patio slider removed-- here is a shot of the contractors installing the french-style patio doors. You can semi-see the wood blinds to the window to the left.

Naked stairs!!! Before the carpet goes in....

Horrible photo because the lense is dirty. But this is our green/dog/future nursery room. The color is called Koi Pond by Sherwin Williams.

And the carpet goes in!! We used a tighter/flatter carpet for the stairs. Anything that was carpet in the house got replaced with either of the two carpets we used or the wood laminate. As you can see from this photo, we removed the side railings that were originally on the left of the stairs as you start up. We removed another set of railings which will be visible in future photos.

I'm glad we were able to get everything installed in one day. It made the whole process go by much smoother. We are waiting on our foyer lamp to get replaced (the first one broke) and our last set of window blinds to get ordered (the first set was cut incorrectly). Once those are up, we are pretty much good to go and can finally rest! There is still stuff to hang, stuff to organize, stuff to put away, stuff to clean etc. But all in all everything has come together nicely and everything looks great. Joe and I keep talking about how perfect this house is for us. We are very happy.

Roosevelt Lake

This blog isn't all about the house (or else I'd be done w/ the blog in a week or two ha!) it's about everything that is going on that our whole family isn't here to witness. So until I'm current with all of our recent events, I thought I'd back track and show you some things we have been up too.
In September, we went to Roosevelt Lake w/ friends and Max. Here is a photo of us on our drive there, overlooking the Lake. Max got his posts very wet-- we discovered that he LOVES the lake. I'm looking forward to letting him play in the lake more next summer, since this summer he was either too young or had his posts in.

Max and Brady the BFFs

Max has been having a rough time at the new house. He appears to be homesick, but we aren't entirely sure. So far, there have been no accidents in the house. This is a good sign. But last night he moped around, wouldn't follow Joe or I if we left the room, and all around was a little blue.

So, we broke our own Dobe rules, and allowed Max some time to lay on the bed with us and the puppies. This cheered him up instantly! He found the perfect spot inbetween Brady and Joe. Max and Brady have a special relationship, they are truly best friends. Brady loves Otis of course, but Otis is much more of a people pug. So, this is how Max and Brady ended up. It got even better after this shot when Brady turned his head over and nuzzled into Max's neck.

Look at the size comparison if Max's paw to Brady's paw. Also, say Happy Birthday to Max, he turned 5 months yesterday!

Painting Round 1

Here is a semi-after pick. It was taken after our first round of painting which involved the foyer, hallway, fireplace, living room, dining area and kitchen. We used two colors:

Toasty Gray and Water Chestnut by Glidden. Toasty Gray is on the dining area wall (w/ all the windows) and also on the drywall beam and fireplace.

If you look closely at the photo where the dining area wall meets the pantry door- you will see the color change. The two colors are actually quite different, because of the amount of light our house gets in certain places it is hard to tell they are different sometimes. I am happy about this, because had we gone w/ Water Chestnut in the entire area (it is the lighter of the two areas), there are areas where it probably would have washed out and looked white.

By the way- we ended up not doing new stair railings. We did, however, remove two sets of railings, which you will see in later pictures. The cost was quite high, more than we wanted to spend on current renovations. Honestly, the old railings aren't quite as bothersome now that the flooring has been updated. We can update them later if we so choose.