Pool and paint

The pool is fixed! And it was under $200 which I was relieved about, we had been prepared for it to cost so much more. One of the couples we know that live out here had been in a similar situation with their pool and recommended this guy to us.

 

 Ignore the pool float. It was too cold for me to get in and drag it out this morning. We have a family with a bunch of kids living in the house behind us and the amount of their stuff that ends up in our backyard, mostly balls of various sorts, is ridiculous. Luna adores the pool. She is such a good little swimmer too, with her tail wiggling the whole time. That was actually a really big part of why we wanted a pool.

Mesa wasn't our first choice location by any means. I wanted to stay in Ahwatukee, I've basically lived there since I moved to AZ in third grade with just a few short stints elsewhere, but we didn't want to sacrifice on the size of the house, or the backyard, or the pool, so we had to expand our search a bit. 

 

Also, our bedroom paint has officially been purchased! So excited to get started. Right now we're living in one of the guest bedrooms so the sooner we can get everything situated, the happier I will be. The sun has been waking me up by 630 every morning so I am ready to be in our master that doesn't get a crazy amount of morning light. I keep falling asleep by about 1030 or 11 every night because I'm completely exhausted. And B has been sleeping until almost noon since he can sleep through anything. Time to synch our sleep schedules back up!

We're here!

I hate moving! Fortunately, my parents are saints and helped us out, especially dad to help B with the heavy lifting, since I am a self proclaimed weakling. The most exciting part... this is the last move we're doing for a very long time. Since B and I started dating almost 3 years ago we have moved 5 times now. I know, it is completely ridiculous. And most of those moves were in the summer when it was 100+ outside.

It was actually pretty nice this weekend and it is so good to actually be living in the house that we bought way back in January. We were hoping to use the pool this weekend but apparently our filters or something got rocked by a storm that came through not too long ago and it is looking a little green. B and I have never owned a pool so we're calling around to get some advice on fixing it, not really an expense we had planned for.

The house is a disaster zone right now. Time to get to work making our house look like a home!

Shades of gray

We finally decided on our master bedroom color! To be fair, I actually fell in love with this color a long time ago but was really nervous to go so dark, B loves it though and since I really haven't given him a whole lot of choice with anything else, I'm ready to take the plunge.

Also, this beautiful bedroom on dear lillie is painted in Kendall Charcoal (Benjamin Moore) as well, and I am obsessed. Romantic and cozy without being overly girly. I'm picturing white bedding, picture frame mirrors over the nightstands, black and white canvas prints, and plenty of dark wood.

Besides deciding on another shade of gray, no progress. But we did decide to just take the plunge. Instead of trying to drive back and forth we're moving on the 20th! So excited to finally be out there, but kinda stressed about everything we have to do.

25!

I'd like to start this on a good note since I am so completely annoyed with how today went. Before I start complaining/ whining, I'd like to congratulate my parents on 25 years of marriage! So proud of them and so grateful for the amazing example they have always set of a healthy, loving relationship.

And congratulations on the new family member. S, my human sister, and I are officially outnumbered by our 4-legged siblings as my parents just adopted their third rottweiler, Zona. She has no idea how completely spoiled she is going to be. Unfortunately this is all of the pleasant news I have to share today.














B and I decided to get started on the staining project. Knowing it is a huge undertaking we decided to start in the guest bathroom, it is a smaller area and if it isn't perfect at least it isn't in plain view in the kitchen or the master bathroom where I'd have to see it everyday. Part of this is probably because we were lazy and, instead of sanding, bought a deglosser that we were told would do the trick. Can you see where this story is going?

Bathroom prepped and ready to go. It is hard to see but the stain we picked out was dark walnut, so gorgeous as pictured. I all but rubbed my arm off going over the front and back of all the drawer and cabinet fronts and then B got to work with the stain. We waited, removed the excess, applied a second coat, waited, removed the excess, and then cried. Alright, we didn't actually cry, although I wanted to-- hours of work, completely wasted, because you can't see a difference. Or at least it isn't noticeable enough to have been worth all of the effort.

This shows what we "accomplished" on one of the drawer fronts. It is leaning against the kitchen cabinets as a frame of reference, since they started the same color. We're not giving up, but we're definitely taking some time off to regroup. When we re-attempt this down the road I am 1) insisting that we actually sand, based on our results I think the extra effort will be worth it. And 2) going with a stain gel. Everything I've been reading since this fiasco recommends General Finishes gel stain in java. The color looks like exactly what I want for the kitchen and bathrooms so I'm going to take the time to get it right. I think B would rather just throw in the towel, he has no issues with the cabinet color, but he says he wants me to get my beautiful kitchen so we'll make it happen :)

Until next time

Roadblock

I feel like we have hit a dead-end. It is almost a 30 min drive from the house we're living in to the house that we bought. It is so hard to make the time to get out there and actually get anything done before we have to drive home to feed Looney and make sure she isn't feeling otherwise neglected. It has been weeks since we were last here and today, instead of painting as we had intended, we instead had to tackle the jungle that sprang up in the backyard. I wish I had a picture somewhere but I kept expecting Robin Williams and a herd of monkeys to leap over the fence, him shouting at me to take my turn as the quicksand enveloped his head. Also, I googled it, a group of monkeys is actually called a barrel. A barrel of monkeys, who knew?

In all seriousness though, we had a letter in our mailbox (that I don't think has been checked since we bought the house, poor post person) from our HOA telling us that we had 14 days to address our weed problem. It is a good thing they can't see what the back looks like... Anyways, 3 very full trash bags later, the majority of it has been fixed but nothing was done inside the house. Oh! We did pour some drain cleaner down the master tub and it seems to have cleared whatever small blockage there was so I'll take that as a win.

Sometimes kismet happens

I have had my heart set on a french door refrigerator since B and I started the house search what seems like forever ago. And probably even before that. Imagine my disappointment when we measured-- and measured again as I was in complete denial-- and discovered that the fridge of my dreams was not to be. If you're feeling at all as distraught as I was, don't worry, this story has a happy ending.

B and I went to the Sears outlet. I'd been recommended there to find a washer and dryer and since we need a set it seemed  worth the trip. That was definitely a strike out. Everything was basically the same price as Best Buy/ Home Depot/ everywhere I looked which was basically everywhere. And since B is a premier silver Best Buy rewards member, (read: spends WAY too much money there. The tv was a worthwhile investment during football season though so my mind is at peace with this.) it honestly doesn't make sense to go elsewhere if the price isn't right. We almost left. Since we were there we decided to look at stand up freezers and then, by proximity, at refrigerators. So many french door beauties. And then....

In my searching for a side by side refrigerator I had actually already looked at this Whirlpool, it has the ice maker in the door which was sort of a must have if I had to manage with a side by side. But at just over $2600 I had decided to pass in lieu of a slightly more wallet friendly piece. This was marked at $1100 because of "scratches". After triple checking the price tag, B and I searched the entire thing, inside and out, and there is nothing. Twice we thought we'd found a microscopic scratch, but it was dust. I am over the moon. It was delivered today and our kitchen finally looks complete (ignoring cabinet color of course)!

I'll take this as my good fortune for the year!

Check and check

Goals for this week were to finish painting the living room and hallways and to decide on a color for the trim. Mission accomplished! We ended up giving puppy to her grandparents for the weekend so she could hang with her aunties (her favorite rottweilers) and so we could accomplish more than usual without all of the driving back and forth. Living room, kitchen, dining room, and ALL of the hallways are painted, talk about exhausting. More exciting... not only did we decide on a trim paint color, but we got it all taped and painted too! I could not love it more! We've been color matching and using the Ace Royal collection of paints because they were highly recommended over big box brands and half the cost of Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams paints and we have no complaints so far. Our trim color is called Chalk and is the whitest white offered by Ace.

I think this picture does a good job of showing the trim before and after. Our new bright white is along the horizontal trim and the creamy, kinda dirty looking white up all around the door still. It was dark out by the time we got around to painting trim so we decided that removing our front door from the hinges probably wasn't the smartest thing to do. For now we're dealing with the mismatch and have a new project on our to do list. Hopefully removing, and more importantly reinstalling, the front door won't be too hard. I would love to paint it when we take it down, but B and I haven't come to any sort of consensus on a color. It just seems so unnecessary to do the same thing twice.... we'll see how this one plays out I guess.






















I love how much more crisp the gray looks with the super stark white. We have been using satin finish for the walls because B liked it more than eggshell but went with a high gloss for the trim. As white as it is I want it to be easy to scrub clean if it gets scuffed or otherwise dirtied. We're still trying to figure out the door situation. My original thought was to match the doors to the white of the trim but as I sit here I am dreading the amount of cleaning that will lead to.

Pinterest may have inspired me to take a different direction with the doors, particularly this image from Moore Designs:

The post has information about painting doors and vanities so check it out if you're at all intrigued. I love the side by side comparison.  Fortunately we were already planning to paint the doors, builder white just looks dirty next to our beautiful white trim, so I'm not TOO worried to tell B about this new huge project.

Next on our list: buy a washer and dryer, buy a refrigerator, paint the master bedroom.