We have a backyard!!

Finally after months of waiting and researching, we found the right people to do the job. We have filled in what used to be a barren dismantled patio, and made it into a beautiful useable outdoor space that both us and Zoe are going to enjoy to the fullest for many years to come!  

Retaining walls were built, tons of sand and dirt were brought in, concrete was poured, and sod was put down. Then along the sides we have river rock walkways and a new little trellis .  We still have to refine it all with decorative details, but the hardest part is now behind us!   Check out the results ...

 (and to see what it was like before go back to some of the earlier entries) 

An Overdue Update!

     Ok... so I know I have seriously been slacking on updating this blog! It has been a very long time since the last post and soooo much has happened. We have been living in the house for 2 months now and everyday we are doing something to improve and complete it.  We have made it functional and comfortable for now. But of course there are quite a few projects still before we are fully settled in.

We have the master bedroom pretty much all together... There's just a few more things we need to get for it, like drapes, new nightstands, mount for the tv, etc. The living and dining room are fully set up and functional, we ended up using all the stuff that we already had to save money for now.  Eventually when we have filled our accounts back up we will get new furniture for both rooms.  

Our kitchen is pretty much completed, the gas line was just installed so now we just need to buy the gas stove.  Family room (off of the kitchen) is somewhat together but not how it will end up... we still have plans to do a built in bench and cabinet/bar. Bathrooms are done, guest room is pretty much together but is also housing my overflow of shoes and clothes at the moment.  

The two big things that need to be finished are the office and the backyard.  The office wont take much, just a nice desk and storage system to get us all organized.  As for the backyard, I couldn't be more excited, because it is supposed to be done this weekend!!  We will be filling in the canyon that is between the pool deck and the house. Most of it will be grass but there will be a concrete deck for the grill area.  I can't wait to let zoe run around back there and have pool parties! :-)  

Here are some recent pictures of the house to get everyone up to date:

Kitchen
(new floor, new backsplash, new hardware, new range hood, new fridge, refinished cabinets)

Master Bathroom: 

(completely redone)

Living and Dining Room:

  (all new dark bamboo floors, paint, and baseboards, new french doors, widened door frames to the kitchen and family room, also brought the old chandelier back to life with a high gloss red lacquer...)

Master Bedroom

(new closet system, new bed, new paint, floors, etc)

(the 'headboard' is meant to be a fence or room divider of some sort, I found it on homedepot.com $40)

the tv will be mounted above the cabinets...  

closet system from ikea :) 

Exterior

(painted exterior, installed gutters, fixed roof tiles, cleaned up by removing some bushes, added some flowers and red mulch, installed gas tank, put in sod)

Looking good...

The bamboo floors really transformed the house...  they're a bazillion times better then the cheap white tile with the thick red grout that was there before!

Light fixtures in the master bath were installed... they put them in upside down at first... but now they're upright and looking spiffy.

We spent our Sunday putting this little guy together... We had a sushi picnic on the floor in the office and busted out some tools.  I think it ended up looking pretty good, definitely allows for a lot more space in the guest bathroom, and is more of an updated look than the old corner sink that we took out.


Tomorrow morning we will have the master closets installed! Can't wait! I'll post pics asap :)

Getting closer everyday..

We are finally at a point where we can almost move into the house, there are only a few more projects that need to get done first.  This past week we have seen our beautifully repainted cabinets go back in with new hardware, base moulding was installed, and the exterior of the house was painted. We also went out and got a fridge and a washer/dryer at Brandsmart, and a series of closets from ikea to build out in the master bedroom.  The fridge and washer/dryer were delivered yesterday and look great! We have all the pieces for the closet but it won't be put together until next week.  From now until next saturday is going to be a pretty busy 8 days... We will have the range hood installed along with the proper ventilation to the exterior, the backsplash in the kitchen will be arriving, the master bedroom and bathroom will be finished up, the security system will be updated, and the guest vanity should be assembled and installed. On top of all that, we are going to have to get our apartment completely packed up since we are going to Colorado for a week. Then right after that I go to Jamaica for a week for work. Our lease is up at the end of August, so we have to take advantage of every spare minute that we have.

Here are some pics of the latest adventures and updates:

Cleaning out the lint and dirt in the garage before the washer and dryer arrive...

Freshly painted cabinets with new handles...

New Fridge

 

Master Bedroom Closets (from Ikea) and the design plan I drew out for them...

The Home Stretch..

Things have been moving so fast over at the house these past two weeks, that I didn't even have time to put in any updates! So I'll try to catch you up with what has been going down at the Arnold casa...

The master bath has started to take shape.. all the tile has been laid..still need to seal the stones, put in shower doors, fixtures, etc etc.

Here's a look at the almost completed shower that I designed:

and a sketch that I drew out for the placement of the vanities:

The pool has started to come back to life, now that it has been completely resurfaced, tiled, and filled.  No more green swamp! yay!  :)

 All it needs now is a nice new deck surface surrounding it to replace the icky pinky cement paint color...

This weekend is when the vision really started to come to life.  Finally...What I've been waiting for since I stepped foot into this house... new paint and new wood floors!!

We chose a soft light gray from sherwin williams called 'Ice Cube' for the majority of the house.

Then we chose an accent color called 'Foggy Day' to go on the fireplace wall and in the entry to our master bedroom... and for one more pop of color we went with a deep teal/blue called 'Amalfi' for the wall that will be at the head of our bed. The entry to the master has been revamped as well, we took the door off where it used to be and made a private little entry way to make it feel more like a master bedroom.  I think it made a huge difference!  

 

The carrera marble tile at the base of the fireplace is also new... we are thrilled with how it came out.  All the window sills in the house are carrera marble so I thought it would be nice to tie it in here.  Love it against the new dark bamboo and the gray accent wall!

That's about it for now, we are hoping that the newly painted kitchen cabinets will be going back in on wednesday. Once those are in it will mostly be final touches before we can start moving our stuff over there! 

Actually we have already started that process ... I was fortunate enough to have my mom come down to visit this past week to help me begin the packing stage.  She did such an amazing job and really got us off to a great start... I don't know what I would have done without her! Thanks mama! xoxo

Decisions Decisions...

This past week we were pleasantly surprised by our contractor telling us that a whole bunch of new projects could start asap. But we had to make some game time decisions on the vanities, all the tiles for the master bathroom project and the pool tile.  I wasn't about to be the one holding up any progress so I immediately went on a mission to get it done. Luckily I have become quite familiar with what seems to be a construction district of some sort out in Doral.  I had done my homework and had narrowed it down to two stops, D&B tile and The Home Design Outlet Center.  From what I could tell these both had the best selections, and more importantly the best prices.
    Arriving at D&B, I find myself in a giant show room of nothing but tiles of every sort. To say that I was overwhelmed would definitely be an understatement. But after what was probably about 2+ hours spent meticulously piecing together a design plan with a wonderful salesman, Tony, I came to my final decisions on all of my tiles.   It felt like such an accomplishment to have this part out of the way. The best part is that I am really so happy with what I ended up getting, and I got deals on every single one!
Once I was finished with the tile mission, I only had about 45 min until the district was going to shut down for the day. I still had to get the vanity for the master bath so I had to hustle.  I had picked out a few options online already so I knew what I was looking for once I got in there. Due to the lack of space in our bathroom, I decided to go with two separate small vanity sets next to each other, rather than one large double vanity.  Of course the one that I had liked most had been out of stock online for quite a while.  I thought I would go out on a limb and ask if it happened to be there anyway... and to my surprise it was! They had arrived earlier that day, and again I had a wonderful salesman that was very helpful, so he took me to the warehouse and showed me what they looked like in person.  I was sold, the price was sooo right, it has a beautiful porcelain vessel sink, with a solid dark oak cabinet, and a glass countertop. Done and done... I ordered two and was on my way.  One small step for the renovation, one giant leap for my piece of mind.

Here are some of the samples that I chose for the master bath (and a rough sketch of the shower):

*Porcelain tile (coming in three different sizes, one for the floor, and two for the shower walls)
*Smooth River Rock in 'Sumatra' for the shower floor, and for the back of a small niche in the shower wall. (once it is sealed it will have a more polished finish)
*Accent Strip made up of a variety of stones and glass pieces, to be run vertically on the back wall of the shower.

Here is a pic of the single vanity we chose to buy two of, to go side by side :

Here is the sample of our pool tile:

It sparkles.. and that makes me happy ;-)