With all of the texture throughout the house finished yesterday, the first coat of primer paint went on the walls today. Thought I would post a picture of the poetry found in one of our bedroom closets before it was gone forever. ~ A cryptic reminder of the sad economic times that the real estate market is currently in. So many people have been affected by such loss. 
We have 4 huge palms in our front yard. Three are located in a cluster at the front of the house. They look so happy and content to be there and we are very happy to have them there. But this one, the fourth (I named him Hairy) is a loner (not to mention he is shaggy and incredibly unkempt.) Sitting way off to the side of the property, he looks so out of place and sad to be there... Tomorrow is a big day, he is being adopted by the city of LP! And will soon be right at home, nestled in with many friends along one of the palm lined city streets.
I just realized our new house is like a box of LUCKY CHARMS!!! Pink Hearts, Orange Flagstone, Diamond Windows, Purple Horseshoes, Blue Skies and Rainbow Rooms! WOW!!! I have always loved that cereal, but who would have ever guessed I would want to live in it... I am going to go check the yard for a 4 leaf clover...
Seriously... if anyone wants them, come and get them! I have heard they are protected (you can't just knock them over and kill them, so we are stuck trying to figure out what to do) I love these big, beautiful cacti... just not in my front yard!!! Of course they were the ONLY vegetation that survived the drought, when the house's water was turned off :P
It wasn't in the original plans to replace the garage door right away... but the old one just didn't want to cooperate when being used everyday. So we went ahead and changed it out. Tucker helped Billy build the new framing for the door. I just love the way it turned out! Adds a bit of character to the side of the house :)
This space completely transformed when we opened up the wall that separated it from the kitchen. The two lower pictures (before construction started) show the wall before it was opened up, when it was a solid wall, lined with built-in book shelves. The original layout of the house had only two entry areas to the kitchen, one through the laundry room, the other through the formal dining area. The segmented ranch house styling of the 60's was in definite need of some modern day tweaking.
Needs no words... kinda speaks for itself. (Though I will note that the window above the toilet looks into... the GARAGE!)
Small, dark, soffited ceiling, hideous light fixture, window to a room... wait a minute!?!?!? window to a room? what? why? wuhwuhwuhwuhwhat!!!! ok... OK... now that is what a I call a room with a view! Some people have trees, some people have pools, some people have golf courses, some people even have a frickin ocean view, but me... ME... I have a view of... another room! (and yes if you look closely you can see that the dining area, just past the countertop, also has a view... to yet another room!) Hmmmm? we thought long and hard on this one... and decided... that we did not want to keep things this way. So we tore out the kitchen completely, down to the studs. We removed the dining window and made it an entryway into the other room which will now become our breakfast nook. The room that our kitchen window looks into will become (what it was originally intended to be) ... a porch.
You have heard the saying "The kitchen is the heart of the home"- well here is an interesting interpretation of that... right smack-dab in the middle of my kitchen!!! I know what you were thinking, "Wow that is a fascinating idea, putting a heart shaped flagstone inset on the patio" but nay... not the patio my friends. This flagstone was in my kitchen, my bathrooms, my entry way, MY BEDROOM... anywhere and everywhere "pee stained carpet" was missing... you would find this fantastic "outdoor" flooring in its place! Needless to say it is gone now, luckily it popped out with the greatest of ease. In its place will be hand-scraped antique hickory throughout the entire home.
Here is a taste of what we started with... This is the Master Bedroom, THE MASTER BEDROOM!!! seriously, I am not joking! This is exactly what we saw, and we STILL BOUGHT IT!!! If you look closely, you will notice such fine details as ~ mix and match carpeting (stained with excrement of various species, possibly even human) fancy paint finishes and a "plaster of paris log ceiling fixture" which stretches the length of the room (admittedly my favorite detail of the entire home ; )
Here she is! Our "new" home. Built in 1963, the exterior of the house reflects our style very well (except for the cacti, but hey what can we expect, we do live in AZ ;) Eventually the entire front yard will be grass, Billy even wanted to remove the circle drive, but I fought hard to keep it, so far, I am winning this battle... The rock and vegetation have already been removed. We are replacing the windows at the end of February, it was a tough decision, we like the historical aspect of the 60's diamond design, but they are not energy efficient AT ALL! (And truly, they are quite hideous if you give them even the slightest glance from a distance any closer than the street :/) Once the interior is finished we will paint the exterior trim and stucco, and also replace the shutters around all of the windows.
