Real v. Fake

Get your mind out of the gutter!  I'm not referring to boobs.  I'm referring to grass.  In an earlier post, I mentioned that we were having another contractor come out to give us a quote on synthetic grass.  Well, we only had to have two quotes to know that there was no way were going to pay what they were asking for 350 square feet of grass.

The first company came in at a cool $4,200 (give or take).  The second company came in at $5,050, but were having a special and would not charge the $931 installation fee, so it came to $4,119.  So, just a scosh (yes, I just said scosh) under company numero uno.  We could probably pour a very nice entertaining patio for $4,000, so we weren't going to shell that out for just 350 square feet of fake grass. BUT, if we had decided to go with the fake stuff, here's why I would have gone with company number 1.

1). I didn't feel like their sales guy was smarmy....it really does make a difference.
2). They don't use infill.  Most companies use some sort of infill to make the grass stay down.  This company completely nailed it down all throughout the yard, so no need for infill.  Why do I like this....well, for starters, it doesn't make the grass so stinkin' hot!  If a company used a rubber infill, imagine how hot that would get!  Ouch on the feeties!
3). Their Bermuda style grass didn't get has hot as the others (the actual blades of grass).
4). He didn't try to sell me on a bunch of extra crap to spray on it to keep the urine smell down.  There is this stuff, not recalling the name right now, you can spray on the grass every once in a while, to deodorize the dog urine smell.  He explained that he has the same grass, has a large dog, and has never used the stuff, didn't think we needed it, but if we did, we could get it for cheap at the local hardware or garden store.  Cha Ching...just saved us money.

I won't go into everything about sales guy #2, but I just felt that he was lying.  They used a rubber infill, no thanks.  And when he left his samples of grass out in the sun for only about 10-15 minutes, it was hotter then the concrete patio!  It was seriously scorching hot!

I am sad about not being able to go for the synthetic grass, but when it comes to home improvement, you have to roll with the punches.  But, we still really needed a remedy for the backyard.

Enter Lynn; we've actually known Lynn for many years, as she's our close friends mom.  She is a landscape designer.  She came out and gave us a quote last night for a very sturdy grass (for So. Cal) called St. Augustine, plus irrigation (a.k.a. sprinklers).  St. Augustine is a self regenerating lawn (holla!), so Zoe's atomic pee won't be staining this hardy grass.  It does die out in the summer, so it will get to be a "golden" color...(a.k.a it will look dead), but it will come back as soon as it warms up.  She was also nice enough to confirm that NO!, we hadn't killed our Japanese Maple and to not replace it!  Whew!  She gave us some tips for what to do with our side yard, and planter box (which is nothing, since our silver sheens will get so big, putting anything in there will just get covered up soon anyway...womp, womp, womp :(

I really wanted to incorporate some color in the back yard, so I'm contemplating staining the planter box, and of course, bringing in some potted plants (I just have to figure out if the dogs are going to eat the flowers).

In my next post, I'll give you before and afters.  I really have avoided showing you the before, it's very embarrassing!  But, I'll do it for just for you ;)

Until then...

Guest Bathroom

I'm having serious panic attacks about the guest bathroom.  I really cannot figure out what I want to do with it.  I could care less about the master bathroom right now, because only hubby and I use that one.  I've contemplated just painting the cabinets and framing out the mirror, painting the walls and adding some artwork.  But, I just cannot get over the nasty marble counter top.  It's yellowed and stained and has a rough feel to it, which I think is odd.  I found this great desk table yesterday on craigslist for $150:

 I adore it!  It will look great white washed. It is the perfect height, width and depth!  I'm envisioning something like this antique table turned bathroom vanity. But, I haven't pulled the trigger on it yet, mainly because, ripping out the existing vanity means I'll have to re-do the flooring.  "Yay!" on one hand, "boo" on the other.  Yay, because I can control what flooring I want in there, boo on having to have someone install it.  So, my next big feat....installing tile floors myself.  My vision is a hex tile, in either carrera marble or just plain ol' white, or a nice penny tile.  Some tile visions floating in my head are:



Then I was thinking of painting the walls a darker color then I had originally ever thought...being a small bathroom, I wanted something very light, to make it look bigger, but the more I search, the more I see designers painting small bathrooms dark colors.  I'm thinking something like Thousand Oceans by Benjamin Moore.  Thoughts?  If you've run across the same color issue in a small bathroom, which way did you go?

San Francisco

Two posts back to back!  Woot woot!

Here's some shots from our trip to San Francisco back in May. 

It's only been 5 months.....

Ummmm....sorry?!  Is that the right word to begin this post?  Little did I know, more people read this blog then I knew.  So, I'm here for some updates, and I'll try my hardest to continue to keep it up!

What have we been doing since February?  Well, between throwing bridal showers, graduation parties, hosting dinners and all around, living life, we've updated the house some more!  We have paint, pictures, lights, and much more.  Unfortunately, a lot of things were done in haste, as I was preparing for a late May bridal shower, and needed the house to look more "done" then it's previous state, which means, I don't have tutorials or project pictures.

Without further ado, here are the progress pictures (very amateur photography here!):

As you can see, the fireplace is done!  We chose a travertine as the surround.  It doesn't get hot, and it A) matches the hearth and B) has some grey tones in it to match the wall.

And the walls are painted (Harbor Grey by Benjamin Moore)!! We ended up hiring a painter....renting scaffolding, and/or a ladder that reached 20 foot ceilings was not my cup-o-tea.  Visions of a broken back from falling off the ladder danced in my head!

However, I have a confession:  I'm refraining from showing you the backyard....it is dying to put it simply.  The silver sheen are thriving, but the grass is kaput!  Between Zoe's atomic pee, and Jakes incessant running back and forth chasing bugs, it's all but brown.  Our Japanese maple is not doing so great either :(  But, we are trying our hardest to make the tree live, and we are having our second estimate for synthetic lawn on Saturday.....I will be so relieved when we are not responsible for keeping grass alive with those two dogs.  With synthetic lawn (which has come along way since it looked like a putting green), all you do is wash it down and occasionally rake the "blades of grass" when they start to bend (from walking, dogs running on it, etc).

My upcoming posts will probably be focused on the bedrooms.  I've been working to renovate the guest bathroom on my own (until we have enough money saved to do them both professionally).  I'll also have some ideas/inspiration on what I want to do with the master bedroom.

Until then....

Green Thumb

After my last post, on ripping out the wall and fireplace, Tige and I were getting a little frustrated at the fact that we had all these semi-started projects, and nothing actually complete.  So, we decided to fully finish the backyard.  We are a bit stuck on the wall/fireplace situation, because we have to wait on Karl to come look at the damage before we can move forward.

So, we took Sunday to really spend some time in our teeny yard and with the help of my green thumb of a father, it start to take shape nicely.  Tige and I started our Sunday off bright and early, renting a roto tiller from Home Depot.  We rented a medium sized one, and for the most part, it worked out.  We probably could have gotten the job done a lot faster with the largest one, but then it wouldn't have fit into some of the tight spaces.  Overall, it only took about 1.5 to 2 hours anyway, with the medium sized tiller.

Once the tilling was done and the new soil was mixed in, we sloped everything, for drainage and headed off to Armstrong for some plants and a tree.  I really wanted to do a silver sheen tree, they are one of my favorites; little did I know, they came in bush form too!  I was so excited, we snatched those babies up right away!  We started off with 4 for the time being, due to the fact that there were no more, and we wanted to see about spacing.  We'll need 3 more to finish off the planter.  

As far as the tree goes, that was all Tige.  And I love it!  It's a Japanese Maple tree (I'm partial to Japanese Plum trees, but the maple is quickly becoming a favorite for me too) and the contrast of the purple and the green is just lovely!  Here's some progress pictures:

Here's Zoe, exhausted after all her hard work, LOL!

As you can see, we still need to sod; I've ordered sod for delivery for this weekend, and we can finally say we are almost there!  After the sod comes the outdoor furniture, which needless to say, will not be purchased for a long time, but it's always fun to browse!  We'll also be putting a decorative cap on the box planter, so it looks more decorative and less like a cement form.

Until then...

What did we get ourselves into!

The title pretty much sums it up.  We always knew we were going to rip out the paneling above the fireplace, but I sorta pushed that it get done last weekend.  We started by taking the mantle down, then ripping the paneling down (luckily, it was one big sheet).  Then, since there wasn't much reason to keep the rock, we tore it out too! Unfortunately, after the drywall came down, we found out it was going to be a lot more work...but then, isn't that how everything goes.  There was a lot of termite damage and rotted wood underneath.  Luckily, we did find out that the tenting really did what it was suppose to do!  However, this means that many of the boards, including the header, will have to be replaced/reframed.  We'll then drywall, tile (we'll most likely do Black Pearl granite tiles, to match the granite in the kitchen), hang a mantle and mount the television.