Our humble home in the desert

Front Yard

I had to relandscape the whole front. All the old plants looked like weeds. I added more color because there was none there.

Front of house
I am going to paint all of the trim work a cream color to make it stand out more. It will be around the bottom columns and windows (all of the trim). I don't know if you can tell from this picture where I intend to make the improvements.

Project in back
Our back yard is sooooo small! I'm planting lots of plants, though, to make it feel more homey. I hate all the desert rock. I'm planting leiland cyprus, indian hawthorne, jasmine, roses, and others. We're laying a patio with a raised deck- like portion on the far right hand side of our yard. We'll put up a canopy and have part of our lawn furniture under it. Once it's completed, I think it will look very good. We have a long ways to go. Interesting trivia: I'm having the boys dig a hole for every time they say something mean. I figure if they want to show their bullying strength in a negative way, I'll have them show me physical strength in a postive manner. And let me tell you, the ground here is hard!!! You have to use a pick axe to even loosen the dirt. Either my yard will look like a jungle or they're going to learn a lesson. By the way, I've already got 15 holes dug in just a couple of weeks!

Entrance

Front room
This has the tile that we had lain when we first moved in. It was initially all carpet, but we ripped it up to give it more charm. You can't tell, but we also put up plantation shutters. They are very convenient and Kela loves messing with them.


Living/Dinette
Down the hall to the left is Brandon's down stairs bedroom and bath. We also have our laundry room down this hall as well. Interesting note: I made my window treatments.

Living Room
Kela is watching country music videos in this pic. She is leaning back in her banana chair. On the left wall I made these huge displays that match my windows. I think they're kind of cool.


Kitchen
We're going to make that middle island into a bar and place two barstools there.


Master bedroom
I painted this room a chocolate brown because Frank has to sleep during the day on weekends because of his limo driving. We needed this room to be as dark as possible. I haven't hung the curtains that will block out the light yet. Also from this view, you can't tell how spacious this room actually is. It's a nice size. We dual this area with our library of books and computer. Off to the right of the room we have our shelves and to the left is our bath and closet.


Loft (kid's space)
Frankie and Brandon are painting me a picture of the Las Vegas temple that will be hung over the couch that Noah is sitting on. It will have antique colors in it that will match the clock. I tried to make this room cheery in hopes that it would cut down on contentions with the kids since this is their space. Down a hall to the right is three more bedrooms and a full bath. Also on this hall is hung my picture that Michael painted of our family. We are all wearing blue in it so it matches nicely with the loft colors. As soon as you come up the stairs you see it.