Shag Carpet and Backyard Remodel Part Deux

It's been a first few days of our yard remodel, and I have to say---it's way more bearable doing an outdoor remodel compared to having to live in the shambles! (See: Kitchen Remodel Part Three) Our daily lives have hardly been affected by all the work going outside, so we can breathe a little bit and enjoy our home----well, at least until tomorrow.

We're re-carpeting our stairwell and all of the upstairs bedrooms. Daniel and I were butting heads on whether or not to change out the upstairs flooring with carpet or to put hard flooring down. I have a dust mite allergy which comes and goes and angrily flares up in the summertime, so I tried really hard to convince Daniel that it was for my health's sake to get rid of all of our carpet.

I should've figured it was going to be a losing battle! (P.S. All you married couples out there---nothing tests the strength of a relationship more than a house remodel. Love, the noobs.)

Since Daniel won the decision for re-carpeting, I got to choose what kind of carpet we'd be putting down. It wasn't too difficult to find exactly what I wanted. Right now, we've got this icky, shag carpet. It sort of looks diseased, and most times after a shower at night, I get creeped out having to walk on it just to get to our bed. Yeah. It's THAT bad.

This matted heap of nastyness is what we're currently living with. SO cringeworthy. Eek.

Per the photo above--you can see why every ounce of the germaphobe in me has strictly enforced Manslaughter-Current-Carpet-Zone.  

Replacing this ailing hot mess is a style that I loooove from Home Depot that I think we've decided to go with called Winterthur by Martha Stewart in the 'Potters Clay' color.

It has a trellis, diamond pattern that we can really appreciate. (Although, I'm pretty sure almost anything will be enjoyed over what we have now.) 

Oh, and we're also planning on restaining the stair railing and spindles. Right now, it's an 80's oak color railing. (The same oak that engulfed the whole  kitchen prior to our remodel. So hawt---not.) 

This one is still up in the air, but I'm thinking of a more non-traditional route, and staining the railing and the spindles 100% black. I tried to find examples of other people who had pulled off this style, but it seems as if very few people are bold enough to try it. (Most examples were black wrought iron or just the black railing and white spindles.) Here's one remodel I found that is similar to what we're aiming for:

The color schemes are similar to what we already have going on, and it's still in current discussion between the hubby--but I have an inkling this is what we'll end up with. Hooray!

As for the backyard, it's progressing--slowly but surely. The concrete hasn't been laid yet, but we have started construction on the outdoor built in BBQ. This is Daniel's forte--and I wish he'd blog about how much we've ended up splurging on this, but since he's so busy with work, I'll handle it for him.

Something along the lines of...barbecue, stucco, stained concrete, mini outdoor fridge (what outdoor fridge? Oh you want one last minute? Sure, why not, let's throw that in, too) yadda yadda yadda...needs to be 3 ft from the property lines....yadda yadda yadda---I''ll just show you with updated photos instead.

And here's the BBQ base going in:

The backyard is not the largest, but it serves it purpose for the time being until we upgrade to a 'real house' when we're all growed up.

Making use of the few thousand square feet was critical to making it a functional, low key yard. We ordered a 4 seat outdoor set with a fireplace/table in the center that will go to the left of the BBQ unit. Most of the yard will be stained concrete, and we'll have a corner of the yard with a built in planter for growing herbs. The rest of the yard will have desert succulents on a drip system. We'll also be stringing some cafe lights to add to the ambiance.

It's pretty difficult to picture since it's still a pile of dirt---but in no time, we'll finally have a working backyard! Welp, time to down this Nespresso and get some work in. Have a wonderful week, folks! 

Jackhammered.

BOOM.

We've finally begun the demolition destruction in our backyard! After the backyard had gone to sh_t for the last couple of years, Daniel and I are super, duper, duper stoked to have a yard to entertain and play in! It's a surprisingly good size and overlooks the city garden which is awesome for privacy. For the longest time, though, I wasn't sure the sprinklers even worked. Part of our backyard would stay fairly leafy, while most of it was dead. The grass dirt has been a huge inconvenience, and I think our dog has been out there three times total since he's lived here. (He freaks out in dirt, runs/rolls all over the place and stirs up giant, stormy dust bowls.) 

Here's a rundown of the before that I snapped quickly this morning before all the workers came to start all the demo: 

Right outside our double doors to the yard

Same area outside of the double doors from inside the house

The giant Podocarpus trees with giant roots lifting up the existing concrete.

Looking into the house. (Hi, Fall pillows!) 

From one side of the yard 

The angle from the other side---hey Mickey!

The other side. Covered with old flagstone and dirt errrrrrwhere.

I was surprised with how much was accomplished in a few hours of work. The guys came around 1 PM, left by 5 PM, and had basically demoed all of the concrete, moved a giant tree, dug up the gas line to the built in bbq, chopped down a HUGE lime tree, and then some. This was the final product right after they left: 

Haul away happens tomorrow morning!

Gas line to the BBQ in the middle!

The front planter is also getting a full makeover

One issue that was discovered whilst digging up the BBQ line, was the gas line from the main pipe to the chimney was originally connected with a plastic pipe: 

Seriously. WHAT THE???? Who does that?? Our guy said it was a cheap (not to mention illegal) way of putting in a gas line. I'm absolutely dumbfounded. In any case, I was on a business trip last summer when I found out about a gas leak on my main gas line. The gas repair company apparently capped my chimney gas line while I was away, and I didn't discover it until recently. Unfortunately, we'll have to repair the whole line with "legal" pipes--a few hundos later. On the bright side, though, we'll have our gas back in our fireplace--just in time for winter. (Not to mention a new outdoor bbq!) 

Well, that's that. The guys are coming back tomorrow and finishing even more work----hooray! 

And with that, I leave you with a couple goodies I found today at my local Homegoods store: 

Super cute, fabric bound photo albums for all of our travels.

Scored on this succulent centerpiece for our dining table. 

Almost as cool as my REAL succulent. ;)

Time to catch some shut eye and get ready for my long day of home showings tomorrow with clients. Oh, and Sunday, I get to visit our new baby niece. Can't wait!! Goodnight, y'all.

Fall in Full Force!

After closing five escrows last week, I've found my schedule just a wee bit slower this week. (Thank God!) For a couple months, I thought I would seriously lose it with all the chaos. With time to breathe a little bit, I'm at a loss for what to fill my time with. While I was driving to an appointment the other week, I heard a radio commercial for Rosetta Stone, and decided to give them a call. I've always wanted to take Mandarin language lessons, but at $600 a pop, buying the 5 cds have always been difficult for me to splurge on. (Kicking myself in the butt now for not listening to the p-unit growing up. SHOULDVE stayed in Chinese school. ugh!) Anyway, there was a great promotion going on, and I just happened to nail it in the last day of September. The whole Chinese language course....for $299!! I got super excited and called Daniel right away, and he ended up ordering the Spanish course. Between the two of us, we're pretty much tri-nternational-lingual. ;)

I've already started the first lesson, and having to pronounce words out loud is surprising. (I can't believe I never knew how to say "sandwich" in Chinese. Weird.)

Since I've had extra hours in the day to fill my time, I've gotten started on some fall baking and decorating. (I love, love, love Fall time, Christmas time...basically the next 3 months straight.) The other night I was craving pumpkin pie, so I had Daniel pick me up some pumpkin puree. He came back with about 4 cans of puree, pumpkin pop tarts, and pumpkin butter. (It's a good thing we share the same appreciation for errrrrrthing pumpkin!) Oh, and the first pumpkin pie and macarons baked this season---success!

Not to mention the Fall decor I've already started working on: 

 

 

Oh, and one last non-seasonal item that I found while shopping at the mall that literally made me laugh out loud:

 

 

Well, the countdown officially begins down to our trip to Thailand. I'm so excited you wouldn't believe. Cannot wait! I'm off to get started on healthy dinner planning for tonight (since Daniel's gotten his wife back) so until we meet again, au revoir, and happy Fall!!!!