Into the Woods & Jen's sofa project

Three years ago we attended one of the most spectacular musical productions we've seen thus far! It was Guys and Dolls and it wasn't on Broadway, nor was it in Seattle, it was at Nooksack Valley High School. Since then we've been regular supporters of local high school musicals. We recently attended the "Into the Woods" musical put on by Cibola High School just 5 blocks from our home. High School musicals are often hit or miss but with just a $5 admission the risk is worth it.

Jen has been consumed with her outdoor sofa project. This project idea was born even before we purchased our home. Here are a few photos of the sofa in progress. Jen still needs to add hinges to the two top lids, make the back and arms for the sofa, paint it a medium wood brown color, then add the cushions to the sofa. More photos to come soon.

Law Center Carb Party

Levi's office had physical fitness test coming up so invited the entire office and their families over to stuff themselves with carbolicious spaghetti and bread. It was great to show off our work we've completed so far. It was a steamy 103 degrees this day, the 7 kids we had here played around and in the pool while the adults hung out in the shade and hydrated for their big run the next day.

Summer has arrived!

This weekend we Levi and Luke ran the Pat Tillman race together ending while Kristen, Kendall and me waited at the finish line and had a picnic on the 50 yard line of the ASU football field. We coincidentally received four free Nascar tickets for the same date we had planned to be in Phoenix. Nascar was such a fun experience! The people watching scene here cannot be beat and the wind generated by the looping vehicles litterally blew our hats off. We're planning on making this an annual event while here in Arizona.

Our new favorite Yuma destination

The Old Town Wine Cellar has become our favorite destination for a night out. For just $5 we get a tasting of several wines and a lively environment located in the only walkable part of Yuma. With another week or more of work our backyard has the potential to become our favorite Yuma hang out. We've decided to remove 1/3 of our backyard grass and replace it with a patio made of pavers. The table and chairs here will be moved to the patio once it's created and an outdoor sofa set will replace it. We have plans to remove the barred fence in the background and landscape the perimeter of the pool.

The Kitchen before and in between photos

It's been 2 1/2 months and we've been working diligently on our house. We've made the most progress on our kitchen and while it isn't quite finished, we've decided it's far enough a long to show a dramatic difference from the before and after.

The current "after" kitchen photos

This "after" photo is not our final after photo but it's close. We still have 2 cabinet drawers to paint and attach, finish the under cabinet lighting, add base trim to the island, reinstall the trim around the dishwasher, tuck stools beneath the island overhang, hang pendant lighting over the island, replace the window shade above the sink, and finish updating the fixtures.

Floors complete!

Originally we budgeted two days to install our dark wood colored floors in three rooms and through the hallway. This two day project has taken us nearly two months to complete. Our first order of flooring ended up being three boxes shy. Two weeks later our three boxes arrived but two boxes were damaged and unusable, two additional weeks later our third shipment of flooring arrived undamaged and today Levi finished the installation! It was a challenging task and while Jen put together the media center in the living room there were an abundance of colorful curse words and slamming sounds coming from the hallway, but alas the last patch of exposed concrete in our house was covered!

We made yet another trip to IKEA and purchased an outdoor bench, table, chairs, a media center for our living room and stools for our kitchen island. It's always a disappointment to spend hours putting together furniture to find that it doesn't work in the space at all. The stools need to be returned for something less bulky and the media center photographed above will be shortened a bit in length. Then we'll replace our tv with a mounted LCD that Levi has been coveting for some time. It's such a great feeling to have most of the laborous work behind us and to be able to focus on the details.

The light

It's amazing how one small detail can completely change the feel of a room. Jen installed most of the glass/stone/metal mosaic backsplash strips in our kitchen and it really makes the place feel complete. We feel like we've finally turned a corner and can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Jen also installed a new chandelier in our dining space, it's still a work in progress but like the back splash it's one of those details that signals we're near completion. Hooray! The wood blinds in the background came with the house, we were considering changing them out for white blinds. The current blinds blend with the chandelier and dining space and also with the backsplash tile but we're undecided on how we feel about how it looks with the very dark color on the cabinets.

We've been spending most of our time working on the backyard. We're about half way done on the landscape and are excited to share photos soon.

Porch Idea

The first photo is our porch roof, the other photos are of another porch found online. We're considering replicating the roof of this photoed porch. Which would mean painting the braces in our roof brown, or perhaps painting all parts of the roof brown, and then installing these more permanent low voltage lights along the roof instead of our sloppy strung lights. Opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Jen broke up her week by making a quick overnight trip to stay with the Phoenix Larsons and to do a little shopping.

Baby Kendall is now four months old with a slew of adorable new tricks including the pictured shoe snacking to the left. We made yet another trip to IKEA and filled Kristen's SUV to the brim with boxes and bags.

Jen's Phoenix trip happily coincided with Luke's hometown hero billboard featured in the Tempe Marketplace. Congrats Luke, this is very exciting!

Adios blue painters tape!

Jen is winding down a week on her own at the house while Levi was away for training in Virginia. This uneventful week was the perfect opportunity to tackle our long list of renovation projects.

Jen finally finally finished painting the two largest rooms in the house. She also tiled the backsplash in the kitchen, wired and hung the chandelier, finished grouting the kitchen floor, installed most of the under cabinet lighting, built raised beds, planted birds of paradise, wandering purple hearts, kangaroo paws, aloe, agave, midnight lilies, bougainvillea, queen palms, an ornamental fig, a mexican palm fan, and potted a few succulents. Phew, it's been a busy week.

Included here is an "after" photo of the pool. No more algae blooms, no more green gunk. We're saving the kitchen photos for when it's completed for a good before and after shot, same goes for the backyard, right now it's sparse and incomplete. Pictures to come soon.