where the grass is green!!!

I will fully admit that one of the biggest perks (in my mind) of having our home part of the parade of homes is that we have to have some of the landscaping done. Part of our agreement when we signed on for it was that we'd do some of the work and have a smaller budget for landscaping (thus meaning more of it had to come directly out of our pocket--even though it all comes out of our pocket in the end). Today we got sod! Blake, as mentioned in the previous post, did a lot of rock shoveling over the weekend to help with some of it. And today when we got out there the sod drove up so i left him there with the crew and i went and got the boys from school took them to piano and then headed back out. They had just finished laying the sod and were running the sprinklers on it as we pulled up. Now that the part that HAS to be done for the parade is done they are running sprinklers for the back and they will hydro seed the back yard too. It was a small amount more to have it done that way, but it will be really nice to have it all done. Not to say it's going to be done to what I'd say as complete, but at least we will have grass and sprinklers and future projects to dream up. Oh and as a side note. just as we pulled up i jumped out to go give a friend a tour of the house as the boys were putting their books and games away and i left them to get out of the car on their own. After the tour and as we got out side the boys told me they had seen a snake. Chills ran down my spine as they told me that as Sam was getting out of the car he saw a snake about 3 feet away from the car on the curb of the driveway. EEEEEKKK!!!! Sam (who didn't want to move out to saratoga because there were snakes) then got back into the car really slowly and quietly. Then Sam turned to Ethan and Ryan that were still there in the car and whispered to them about it (so he wouldn't scare the snake). A little bit later when Blake came out of the house, there Sam was motioning from the car window for him to see the snake. Luckily it wasn't a rattle snake, but either way it was a big snake! Sheesh. what kind of welcome was that?

I asked Blake if there was a spray for snakes, he said yeah a 12 gage shotgun spray. I guess I'm gonna have to get me a gun.

Lots of Stuff

I have decided that I just plain don't understand the decorator mind. What I would see as ugly and weird is artistic and unique. What I would see as loud and obnoxious is bold and making a statement. What a decorator thinks about or puts into a home is beyond me and yet it somehow works.

The house is now staged with a whole bunch of furniture we could never afford and things I would have never chose to put in our house but it gave Lori one or two ideas of what she would like to do and me ideas on how furniture will fit in the space we have.

This is the back living room with the fireplace. As you can see, I will likely required to buy a flat panel high definition TV at some point...only because of space not alterior motives. What else would I put over the fire place? A family portate? I think not.

The front room will have a baby grand placed in it before the show, I think that will look very nice. The topiary you see on the little table there is only $200 if anyone wants they can send me the money and I will keep it for you until I can get it for you.

I love the plant shelf by the stairs and the large clock on the way up the stairs is great. We will be likely finishing the large clock we have in the front room to look at little more antiqued like the one seen here.

The master bedroom is closest of all the rooms in the house to what I would like to do.

Lastly, I shoveled 9 tons of rock. And this is what it looks like as I am trying to xeriscape the west side of our house. The crushed rock has an average of 2-3 inch rock size. Shoveling dirt or pea gravel would have been easy, it is hard to scoup this rock. So far it has taken me 7 hours of shoveling and we are almost done. I actually don't feel sore but my poor secretary soft hands are blistered and in pain. When the hardest substance I usually touch is a key pad and cut grass, this didn't come as too much of a surprise. Only 7 days to go and the parade will be here.

Old Towne Mental etc.

Last picture before the landscaping begins...tomorrow!
We went and did the final clean on Monday and Tuesday before the inspection. It makes me just that much more excited to get there, and have it be home!

I think i totally went brave and got black washer and dryer. Heidi (Stevenson) told me to get red, but i felt getting black was a big deal for me....sorry Heidi, I'm not as brave as you. but i do love my black ones.

For those that know how much we love to cook, most also know how many tools and gadgets we have. So this is a big deal to me to have all that floor to ceiling storage space for it all.

double oven.....need i say more?

deck and railing, oh I'm SO excited!!!

Blake has known Paul George for a long time now. He originally met him back in the day when Blake did life insurance. He has kept contact with Paul all these years. Back when Blake was doing the life policy for him he had mentioned that he had gotten some mail for "old towne mental" his company is called "Old Towne Mantel" (kinda makes mis-spellings of Priday and Young seem harmless). It was in Paul's shop that Blake made me a kitchen table for Christmas back many years ago (one that both Hailey and Zach have been lucky enough to use from time to time). We have both seen some of Paul's amazing work. I knew he would make me a nice mantel, i really did, but i just hadn't wrapped my head around how it was going to look with the color and crackle and skill that he does all things. I love it. He did great job. And just so you know the picture doesn't do this mantel justice. As for the Old Towne Mantel i give them major kudos for the work well done and would highly recommend them.

All flowers remind me of you!

For mothers day i told my mom I'd be giving her flowers. So this post is mainly for my mom, but i guess all mothers can enjoy the flowers as well. Being a mom is truly the best gift, and having been blessed with many great mothers/grandmothers/sisters in my life is a treasure. Thanks for making it look easy so I'd sign up. Thanks for all the long hours, timeless efforts, encouraging words, self-less sacrifices, endless lessons, and constant examples. Happy mother's day to my moms.

Where's Ethan? (like where's waldo)

Last night Ethan along with 72 other schools 5th graders participated in the "Hope of America" program. They hold the program at the Marriott center at byu. I figured it would be a nice program but i do have to say i was impressed by it for a few different reasons. The lady that organized it has done this for the last 14 years and it didn't start out with all 72 schools but grew to that so i guess she had no idea that it would be this big. My understanding is that she helped write the music and the actions. Just from the organization level it's amazing. Because of the size that it's grown to they have split it into a 2 night thing so there are two student flags this same size for two different nights. Again, just from the organization side of things it's pretty amazing. Plus it was a nice program. And the final number was pretty cool (see video clip--its a short video). Ethan's class was in the third red strip down from the top, off to the far right (Ethan's in the middle of that row). I can pick him out but can you? Where's Ethan?

no rakes necessary

we have carpet people!

it's soft and beautiful and just perfect, if i do say so myself.boys room
the carpet around the fireplace in the back family room is darker than the rest of the house although now that i'm looking at the pictures i don't know if you can really tell. in person you can, just not so much in the pictures.

master bedroom looking into the master bath. even though we have a longer thread, its not shag so no rakes necessary.

everything including the kitchen sink!

half bath on main floor

Kitchen sink/window. we have some extra space behind the sink....I'm still thinking of ideas of things to do there.

boys bathroom (toilet and all) i told someone last week when we went out the only change was that there were toilets and i didn't know if everyone would only want to see just the new toilet so i waited to post the pics till we had the counters too.

master shower. it's the glass that looks like water falling down it. it's really pretty. I'm very happy with it.

we were able to work out getting a large piece of our granite for the fireplace. so it flows through the house. and it was 1/2 the cost of what the tile would have cost us.

Kitchen. it's coming all together.