La Casa

    Here they are- pictures and video of our house looking all spiffy. There are still a few places where I would like to add some wall art and we need to find an area rug we like for the living room, but for the most part, it is done. Except for the outside landscaping and the garden...so...almost done.

So this is the house. When I first saw the red, I was like "AGGHHHH!!!!" But then I thought about painting and sanding and the fact that it is 169 degrees outside, and I decided I could live with it. Now I actually kind of like it. Besides, we fit in better. Our next door neighbor's entire house is gold, and the one across the street is blue, so we've got the primary colors covered. Also, a note about the gravel yard. It is pretty typical due to the climate and I was stoked about what I thought was going to be a relatively low maintenance set up. There are these little fluffy green weeds that like to pop up, but they are fairly easy to pull up by hand. However, I did not realize how committed my neighbor was to growing grass two months out of the year. Whatever stringy, tangly variety he seeded likes to creep into our yard. Oh well, I will definitely take weed-eating every two weeks over mowing!

  For those of you who never came over to our apartment in Memphis, this is our shield. We found it in the toy department at Target. It has been on our front door ever since. Why? Because shield and pirates, that's why.

Upon entering the front door you are now in the kitchen/living room area. It's an open concept space so everything is kind of together. The back half of the room is the kitchen, the front half is the living room (the ceiling beam is pretty much the only divider). In order to define the space a little better, we picked two different color schemes. The kitchen is done in neutrals (note the earthy green accent wall) and the living room uses bolder, Moroccan inspired colors (red, orange, turquoise, magenta). Oh yeah, and that's Joey sitting at the island...eating some cereal. 

  Here is another view of the living room. There is our couch and entertainment center. I need some wall decor and an area rug but haven't found much we like yet. Oh, and that is Gimli on top of the DVD rack. 

                            

Another living room view. And there is Fender on his bed. That door behind the sofa is just the coat closet. 

 This is Fender's little corner in the kitchen. I only include this picture because I worked really hard on that sign and want everyone to tell me how awesome it is.

Off of the kitchen is the utility area. There is the storage room which is our pantry/ laundry closet. Soon it will also hold a deep freezer! Yay! To the right is the door to the garage and to the left is the back door. 

And here is the little cubby for the water heater and laundry machines. This also serves as Jiminy's room. 

Here is the backyard! I love our palm tree. My garden will go between it and the shed eventually. And I LOVE our new back fence. It was a dilapidated old chain link fence that was super ugly. Plus, the lady on the other side of the alley has a bajillion dogs that like to bark at Fender and wake up the entire neighborhood. So nice to have some privacy!

                          

And here is the back of the house. We are eventually going to put up one of those pergolas on the patio outside the back door for some extra shade. Also, non-Tucsoners, notice the blue trash can. Not a trash can. Our trash can is a large thing out behind our fence we share with our neighbors. That, my friends, is our recycling bin! Crazy, huh? People here actually recycle. Regularly. The infrastructure supports it well. No more sorting then hauling it all down to the recycling center ourselves! Yay! 

                           

Back inside on the opposite side of the house is the one and only hallway. You can see the front door through the archway there. That is our living room (for perspective). Behind me is the office door and bathroom. 

We have a nice little area in the hallway by the bathroom where we put this dresser/credenza. Since we don't have much storage in the bathroom itself, this holds all of our medicine, spare toilet paper, etc. Great for extra storage. 

Speaking of bathroom, voila! It is small, but it serves it's purpose. We kept all of our red and black decor. I do like the pedestal sink, even though it doesn't provide any storage space. We still need to get a toilet paper holder though! 

                           

This the office. There on the left is my desk and at the back of the room are our bookshelves. We still need curtains for this room but haven't found any that we like. We will probably just end up making some. 

                           

Here is Joey's desk. He has plenty more posters to hang but hasn't quite got them all up yet.

This is the yoga room (and also the room where Joey does his little ab wheel thingy). There is my desk with my yoga books and references, a chest full of props and other work out equipment, and my mats and rugs. I love it. 

Oh, and this is Joey's monkey picture. My mom has the same one in her house, and had a spare, so of course Joey wanted it. 

And finally, this is our room. No, we are not going to get a "real bed". We are perfectly happy with our imaginary one. Also, there is no coverlet because it is hot as Hades right now and we have no need for it. It is folded up in the linen closet. And yes, that tree is painted on the wall. I couldn't find a picture I liked, so I made my own. 

This is my dresser with my antique mirror I repainted. That red pile in the corner is Fender's blankie. That is where he sleeps at night. 

And this is Joey's dresser. Also, we each have our own closet, which is kind of nice. Somehow I got stuck with the one behind the door. 

So that is pretty much the whole house! We didn't have to do much to it. Just some paint on our part. We painted all three bedrooms and the living room a warm terracotta like color, then added the two accent walls in the large living space. We also painted all the white trim and cheap doors a dark chocolate. And yes, we meant to leave the areas on the door streaky. We were going for the rustic/distressed look, which I am pretty sure was invented by a very lazy person not unlike myself. The point is, it is dark, looks great with our other colors, and will not show hand prints or dog slobber. After apartment living, we are over anything white. Then we had the carpet pulled out and laminate flooring put down in all three bedrooms, and that was pretty much it! It was all pretty simple stuff but it looks a lot better.  And in case the pictures didn't do it for you, here is the video tour:

Sorry for the video quality, by the way. We originally made it on my camcorder, but realized we have lost the cord to hook it up to the computer, so we had to do it on the regular digital camera. The better, camcorder version will be added as soon as we get a cord.