In typical Mark and Patti fashion, even before we moved into our perfectly acceptable house, we had BIG plans for change. We're already underway on some of those things and I wanted to share.
BACKYARD
As you already know if you read last week's post, our backyard of rock, flagstone, concrete, and a pool just isn't good enough for us. We need plants, grass, and trees! And I'm not talking about anything like the two potted cactus that were left behind by the previous owners - they don't count in my book. We still haven't bought any plants (except for the pretty plant I got for Valentine's Day), but we did buy artificial grass. Don't cringe yet. This isn't the 1/4-inch tall roll of turf you can buy at Lowe's that I remember having outside of our pop-up camper on trips growing up. This is "real" artificial grass. We're planning on putting this beside the pool so we can see grass out the back window and from our floats in the pool. Unfortunately, laying it down isn't as easy as one might think so we've only bought materials and rolled it out to get a look at it. If I have this right, we still need to dig down to make the ground level and lower, pour a concrete border, put in draining filler (sand), lay week stop (yes, weeds can still grow through it apparently), roll out and cut it to fit, pin it down, top it with silicone and brush it so the grass will stand up. Whew, who knows when we'll get done. I'm already tired just writing about it. But seriously, maybe we'll start working on digging and prepping for the concrete border this week if we can squeeze it in.
The other project in progress outside is the additional fence/gate and removal of a tree. In order to park our boat in OUR backyard, we have to build a fence to block the view from the back fence as well. And when I saw we, I mean the guys we hired to do it. Anyways, they built the wall last week and now Mark needs to hang the gate and I probably need to do some painting (I no longer trust him with a can of paint and a brush - although outside he may be safe).
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| Day 1 of wall build |
The good news is Mark picked the boat up yesterday and got it stored in the backyard! And you can't see it from the street, mainly because of the fence but the hill does help us with the part that is taller than the fence. We did have to cut down a tree in the front yard and will probably need to trim some bushes, but all in all it went rather well. We still need to plant a new tree and get the old one out of the driveway, but that project is close to complete.
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| Mark and his conquered tree |
But on a fun note, there is a Home and Garden show here this week and we're thinking about going to get ideas and see if there are any better ideas out there or any ideas of how to do what we want easier.
PAINTING
To make the house feel like ours, I have to paint. I started with the kitchen last Monday when I was off from work for President's Day. I picked green and it seemed really bright at first but it's growing on me. This green is on the two walls in the kitchen/living room that have cabinets on them. I think I'm going to go with a pale yellow for the other walls in that room but the furthest I've gotten is a sample jar of paint I've yet to open. I'll try to get that on the wall soon to see how I feel about it.
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| Before Kitchen with just tape |
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| Kitchen with edges painted |
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| Mark's awesome painting skills |
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| Finished kitchen with some mess |
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| Still a mess but finished kitchen painting |
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| Before bedroom with white lines started |
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| Old green color |
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| After taping and first coat of blue paint |
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| Close up of light blue - sorry you'll have to wait to see the dark blue and final stripes! |
DOGGIE DOOR
Well Bentley's life is finally back to normal - she once again has a doggie door. Although I must admit this one is 10,000 times snazzier. We brought her old door with us that went into our sliding glass door (called an Arcadia door out here apparently), but the door here is about a foot taller than our last one so we had to buy something new.
We started by putting the old doggie door on craigslistdoggie door was sold, paid for, and picked up and we had someone coming by the next day to look at and possibly buy the grill. Quickest and easiest craigslist transactions ever. At this point, I gave my stamp of approval to buy the outrageously expensive new High Tech Pet Door. We did get it on ebay though still expensive in my mind. This door is supposed to be more energy efficient which should help some in the hot summer months and keep wildlife out because Bentley now has a sensor on her collar that makes the door go up when she gets near it.
Mark was working from home on Friday when the door was delivered so of course he wanted to start installing it right away. The original plan was the put the door into the back right corner of the house - behind the kitchen table, under the covered porch, but when Mark started cutting a hole in the wall, he ran into a stud. He then proceeded to turn the corner and try the adjoining wall but he had a similar problem. Finally, he tries further down that same wall to the left of the oven. Luckily, he drilled right into the stud on the third attempt so it won't be as big of a mess to fix.
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| Mistake 1 and 2 |
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| Mistake 3 |
At this point, Mark called me to fess up and get my opinion of where to go next. We decided the best option is to the right of the sliding glass door. The reason I didn't want it to go there initially is because the door is massive (believe me, you'll soon see). But alas, we're left no choice except the dining room (NO), the spare bedroom downstairs (won't work because of the new wall that was just built to hide the boat), and the wall where our couch is in the living room (won't work because then where will out couch go). Luckily for Mark and the long list of holes he already has to patch - two of which are on my freshly painted green wall - the option to the right of the sliding glass door worked! All he had to do was remove an outdoor outlet to make it work.
Next problem, only because he hadn't done this before - cutting a hole in stucco. He was easily able to cut out the Sheetrock, remove the insulation, and remove the outlet by himself Friday afternoon. So then Saturday that left him to figure out the stucco, We went to Lowe's to get some suggestions and headed back home to tackle the project (while he was working on this, I was taping out Bedroom for painting stripes). First, drill a hole in each corner where the hole needs to be from the inside out. Connect the dots outside and score the stucco. Basically, pick at the stucco that is over top of chicken wire until you get it all off. Then cut the chicken wire out and the foam backing out. Behind that was a sheet of plywood standing between him and the hole that he gave up and bought a new tool for, luckily it was only $30. After the plywood was out, he took the Dremel to the metal flashing at the bottom. Time for a celebration! He got through the wall and the door fit. The door was close to the stucco "molding" outside so we had to trim the exterior frame of the doggie door with a utility knife so it would fit. I did jump in and help at this point after last summer's fiascoes with knives and fingers.
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| Mark working inside on the hole |
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| Now putting the finishing touches outside |
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| Bentley checking out her new door |
A bazillion hours later, the door was finally installed. Bentley already has it figured out for the most part although the noise of the door opening and closing makes her jump sometimes. Either way, today is as happy puppy because she can come and go as she pleases.
ALARM SYSTEM
We got our alarm system installed on Friday as well. It took him about 6 hours to install the new radio cellular box so we don't have to have a phone line and to check out all the pieces of our existing system but it's now in. Plus, we opted for the handy remote keys so we can click it on and off from the garage.
All is good in Arizona! Love and miss you all!
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