I HAVE BIG PLANS...

For those of you who know me... you know I have an irrational fear of putting holes in the walls.
CRAZY, RIDICULOUS AND IRRATIONAL!!
This fear makes it difficult for me to decorate my house. Here we are at 3 years and I still have mostly bare walls.
I HAVE BIG PLANS TO FIX THIS!



This is a hallway that you see coming in through my front door on the way to my kitchen. When we moved in our original thought was to buy a gigantic picture that would look good in that alcove. I spent 2 years looking. I could not find one that I liked enough to spend outrageous amounts of money on. So then this thought came to me when my friend brought me over the vinyl FAMILY for another project, (we decided that COLLIER would work better,) and another friend said she wanted to take our pictures.

Thanks to Alisha Hunsaker Photography for the pictures!!
Thanks to Chelsea, my crafty buddy for the vinyl!!
Thanks to my amazing sweetheart for allowing pictures to be taken!!

THANKS EVERYONE FOR YOUR HELP WITH MY BIG PLANS...

PROJECT #6 - THE BACKYARD!!

We bought a new house... and with a new house came a new backyard.... aka BAKED DIRT!!  It really was.  The entire backyard was dirt, and as the summer got hotter and hotter, the dirt got little cracks, and it was baked.  There were no weeds, no rocks, just dirt.  As it started cooling off a little, we did get 2 weeds, and I let them grow a long time, then eventually pulled them out.
So we thought and thought and thought about the backyard, and what we wanted to do with it.  My first thought was, I needed a pool.  Andy said no.  After further thought, and Andy's job moving locations, I decided that he was right and that we should not get a pool just to possibly move in a couple years...  Andy decided that he really wanted some grass.  I thought that was a great idea.  I also told Andy before we knew we were moving for sure, that if we ended up in Arizona that I was going to plant citrus trees!!  Other than those few things nothing else was official.

Last summer we asked my dad, and my cousins (who live in Tucson) if they would help us put in some irrigation when the weather had cooled a bit.  They both agreed, and we finally were able to schedule it for the last weekend of February.  The weather had been great, and then Saturday came and it started to POUR!! It rained and rained and rained!  In the end the boys were able to put all of our irrigation into our now mud pit, and even the Home Depot tool rental department was impressed they lasted through the rain.
The week prior to the irrigation, my dad and I did some extensive research on citrus trees, including visits to all the local nurseries, Home Depots, Lowe's and lots of Google time.  On the last day when I had decided trees I wanted, I ran into Costco for something else and what did I find?? Citrus Trees and for only $20!  They even had the types of lemon and lime I was looking for!  Then my we drove to one last nursery and they had the orange!  The ground had dried enough on Monday that my dad and I were able to plant the citrus trees, it still was a big mess!!

The next weekend I kept talking to Andy how right by the citrus trees at Costco, they also had palms.  I thought it would be fun to have one, and Andy thought so too, so we went to Costco and they were out!!  I remembered that I had seen them at Home Depot as well, so we went there and they ended up being even cheaper!!  We bought one, and drove home with it out the window of Andy's car!! (it's little.)

So in all my thinking, I decided that I wanted to extend the back porch a little with cement pavers, so I searched and searched and finally found some that I wanted.  With a lot more research and planning Andy decided that we could go ahead and put them in.  He was SOOO AMAZING and did most of the work by himself while I was at work!  They look SO GOOD!!!  We also found out that Pati and John were coming to visit, so we tried to work really hard and get as much done as possible before they got here!!

Somewhere in the middle of this time line I also decided to plant various other things around the house to provide a little more shade and privacy than we currently have, and to plant some grapevines and a heat tolerant raspberry bush along the back wall.  They are my little experiments to see how they do.

Now the pavers were laid, we had to decide what to do around the grass to separate it from the rocks.  We started thinking about the options and then talked with some of our friends, who had been helping a little with the backyard, and found there was someone in the ward who does curbing side jobs for a great price!!  We called and scheduled him to come the next day I had off work!!  They were amazing!! The curbing was able to be done in an afternoon, then we needed to be careful with it for a couple days.  We then ordered for the rock to be delivered in a couple days and Andy again was AMAZING and worked really hard to spread it out.  He wasn't able to get it all done before his parents arrived, but him and his dad worked REALLY hard and got it done the next day!!  It seems like it is getting so close to done, but still so far.  Eventually we will be able to put sod down in the middle dirt, put flowers around the trees with some bark and put up trellises for the grapes and raspberry bushes.  Until then...

THANKS SOOO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED!! WE REALLY APPRECIATE ALL THE HARD WORK!! (BUT WE'RE NOT DONE YET!!)

PROJECT #5- LAUNDRY ROOM FOLDING TABLE

Since we moved in, I have wanted to get/make/have a folding table with some cabinets for my laundry room. Our laundry room came with only that shelf that you can see in the pictures for storage, and I like my clutter hidden. Eventually I would like to get upper cabinets as well, but this is definitely a start.
My dad decided he would help us by buying the cabinets for our birthdays and then Christina, my cousin, told me that she would teach me how to tile a counter top. I thought tile would be the best option for the surface as granite is not in our budget and tile counter tops are beautiful! Thanks Dad!

After we had purchased the cabinets, I had gone to Lowe's to look at the tile. While I was there, I fell in love with this medallion. Christina helped me find tile to match it and when we got it home it went beautifully with the tile on the floor as well as the wood of the cabinets. Christina helped me all day, and then I was able to finish adhering and placing the tile later. I even learned how to use the tile saw!! I grouted the counter the day after, and it still has yet to be sealed. I learned a lot!! Thanks Christina!!

THANKS DAD AND CHRISTINA FOR ALL YOUR HELP!!
IT TURNED OUT GREAT!!

PROJECT #4: COURTYARD BISTRO SET

For the courtyard, I have really wanted a bistro set, and some sort of a tree like plant. It didn't need to be fancy, but that is what I really wanted. Our friends, Tommy and Alisha were at JOANN fabrics and they found some bistro sets for 70% off. I was excited and convinced Andy to take me there. We found a set that we liked, and then I remembered that I had seen some Hibiscus Trees at Sam's club the previous week. Here is our new and improved courtyard!!

THEY'RE HERE!!

The shutters have finally arrived!! They look awesome, and I am super excited that we might be able to sleep past 6:30 am.

The Office


The Nursery


Guest Room


Master Bedroom & Bath

Powder Room

Thanks Beau and Derek!!

PROJECT #3: RANDOM WALLS - COFFEE

Andy and I discussed for a long time what color the main part of the house should be. I wanted to paint my kitchen red, so I wanted a neutral that would work well with the red kitchen and the brown carpet and tile. We finally decided that when we do eventually paint the whole main house we would use Bran Muffin. For accent walls we set out to find a complementary shade that was the same, just darker. Thanks to Vanessa, at Lowe's, we were able to pick a Waverly Home Valspar color that was just perfect. I painted 3 walls Coffee, and they add so much depth and variety. I had no idea what adding a little color could do!

I LOVE LOVE THE BROWN!!

PROJECT #2: OFFICE - FOUNTAIN MIST

On my quest to add color to my house, I was using my computer one day and decided to paint my office a bright aqua blue color. After scouring blue items of our own we then scoured the paint isles to match it. We picked Andy's new light blue polo, and finally matched it with Lowe's Valspar Fountain Mist. It turned out to be a very light but vibrant, airy blue. Very calm and tranquil!

*We didn't put the room back together because we would have needed to move it again for the shutters to be installed, and they are coming soon...

It's BLUE!!

PROJECT #1-addendum POWDER ROOM

While we were at Lowe's buying the paint and supplies we found a formula of how much paint you need per square foot of area. We estimated the square footage and figured that we would need 3 gallons of paint! It sounded like WAY too much and so we decided to ask the paint girl. She said that 1 gallon of paint will cover 400 square feet or 4 10x10 walls. That sounded much more reasonable to us, and we decided to pick up 1 gallon, and if we needed we would come back for another. About 3 walls later I ended up making my second trip to Lowe's and bought another gallon. Needless to say we had A LOT of warm sun paint left over. I decided to put a couple accent walls in the Powder Room (1/2 bath.) It's really bright, and really fun!

 


MMMM.... Yellow!!

Moved In

I keep forgetting to post pictures of our house after we moved in. Like any home, it will always be a work in progress, but here are some pictures with our stuff right now.

*The light in my house is a little interesting right now so some of the pictures came out super dark and/or fuzzy. Sorry!

Hopefully the shutters will come soon!

PROJECT #1: GUEST BEDROOM - WARM SUN

Staying at home was great for a while. Then I started getting really bored and sick of everything being so white. I asked Andy if I could paint a room and he told me no. He said that he was really worried about the lines being strait and he was worried that it wouldn't turn out very good. What if we didn't like the color, what if paint got all over the ceiling, what if, what if, what if. I kept going over all the rooms and finally decided I would ask if I could just try painting one room and see how it turned out. I told him that I would paint the guest bedroom because we didn't have to look at it a lot and if it turned out horrible, then I would have time to fix it. He finally agreed, and we picked a soft yellow.

Andy was amazed and said I did a great job. He told me that I was now OK to paint the rest of the house as I wanted. Thanks baby, you're the best!!

We Love It!

We Found It!! (Weekend #3)

On the third and final weekend I was flying down to Phoenix to look for houses, we had decided that we would concentrate on looking at new builds only on Friday and the first part of Saturday. Andy had to work Friday morning so we coordinated with TJ (the real estate agent) to come and pick me up from "the hood," and we would meet up with Andy later.
We looked at many new build communities in the Laveen and South Mountain areas, and I just wasn't finding any quick move ins with the right things we wanted for the right price. Andy met up with us after his meeting and we looked at a couple more communities. One guy wanted to show us a house with " beautiful mountain views," but it was too hazy. Andy and I giggled, and said "Mountains?" When he learned we were moving from Salt Lake, he laughed too.
TJ had to leave so we ended up by ourselves, and Andy suggested that we go look at this little neighborhood that he had checked out a couple weeks earlier. I was game for pretty much anything Andy liked, and said OK. We came to a little neighborhood in Avondale that was so cute. We talked to the salesman who told us the house Andy was looking at had just sold, but they had another spec home that was ready. We got the keys and off we went.

We drove up to the front of the house, I thought it looked nice. Then, we entered the courtyard and I told Andy I loved the house. We hadn't even been inside. He said he knew I would love it.

Inside it had all the features we wanted as well, granite countertops, a beautiful kitchen, 2 1/2 baths, all one floor and a master bedroom that was separated from the other parts of the house.
We loved it!

We couldn't stop talking about it. Saturday morning, we met with Cheryl and TJ (the real estate agents) and decided to look at a few more houses. We just kept coming back to the Avondale house. TJ called and tried to make an offer, but the salesman kept saying that they don't accept offers, the houses sale for the price listed. We weren't sure what to do, but ended up saying that we wanted the house. We signed the 6 hours of builder paperwork on Sunday and decided a close date of 5.4.09. Closing went through very smooth, and we were able to move the stuff from Andy's apartment in "the hood" over that evening.

Our First Home!! 5.4.09