May 2020: Home improvements

Since moving into our home last November 2019, we have made countless improvements inside our home, outside our home, and to our home. We enjoyed every project--some more than others, and it was a LOT of work. Hanging pictures and decorating our house brought it to life and makes it look and feel more homey. I also purchased some furniture and lamps on Craigslist for our upstairs bedroom and game room.

Night stand for upstairs guest room

End table for upstairs game room

Lamp with pistols for upstairs guest room

Lamp with rifles for upstairs game room

Solid pine queen bed for upstairs guest room

Pretty table runner that my friend from Los Lunas made for me

Lovely tulip centerpiece for our kitchen island

Jessica gave us this lovely framed watercolor picture to hang in our home. The colors go perfectly in our house, and it looks beautiful in our stairway. Jess painted the flowers in glasses when she was taking an Art class at BYU. She's a wonderful artist, and we love having one of her pieces in our home.

Lovely watercolor graces our stairway wall

Pretty glass block accent windows and
decorative cutouts in our stairway

For my 20-year Service Award from the Church,
I chose this framed watercolor entitled "A Mother's Faith"
 which we hung in our dining room

All of our old orangey oak cabinets have been replaced with beautiful maple cabinets with a light brown and gray finish and brown glazing. Our friends, Mike and Jennifer Park who own their own furniture making company called Millwork Resource Inc, built our new kitchen cabinets and drawers for our complete kitchen remodel last fall. 

This summer they built new cabinet faces, side panels, and drawers for our bathrooms that match our kitchen cabinets. Now the whole house is updated and looks beautiful. 

In the near future, I would like to paint the pecan-stained baseboards to match the light colored walls. I'd also like to paint the doors, the door frames, and the moulding around the doors an Antique White color in a semigloss finish. But that will take a long time!

The half bath

The master bath--my favorite

The upstairs bathroom

I found this solid pine bed on Craigslist and paid $100 for it!
We put the bed upstairs for a third guest room

We put our old leather sofas and recliner upstairs

Our new east wall with hardscape lighting that Mike installed

May 2020: Plants, glorious plants

Part of making our house a home involves planting flowers and shrubs around our property. I enjoyed selecting specific plants for our courtyard, our front xeriscaped yard, and our backyard along the patio. Most of them survived but some didn't quite make it, so I dug them out and trashed them. Many of the plants featured below already existed when we moved into our home. I think we discovered a Garden of Eden this spring and summer!

A gorgeous Ocotillo cactus like this is what I really want in our yard, 

but they are too expensive, and the blooms and unpredictable. 

This one belongs to our corner neighbors.

Autumn Sage and pink and white desert plants below
are tucked between rocks in our backyard garden

Newly planted Purple Fountain Grass

Purple and yellow pastel colored Calibrachoa we planted

Bright red miniature roses adorn the backyard garden

Three English  Lavender shrubs we planted

Bird of Paradise tree

Pretty pink wildflowers grace the rocks

Desert shrubs in our backyard, including
Birds of Paradise and a yellow flowering shrub below

Yellow flowering Prickly Pear Cactus

A flaming Bird of Paradise

Fuchsia flowering Cholla Cactus

Yucca Cactus

Goldfinger Cinquefoil shrub that we planted

Guara Wandflowers that we planted in the courtyard
and in the front yard are my favorites after they bloom

                       Autumn Sage we planted in the courtyard

Our front yard in early spring

Memorial Day

These Silver Lace Vines hang abundantly over the back fence

Bright red Geranium plant I bought for our courtyard

Dainty yellow Columbine flowers sprung up in late spring

Our healthy Austrian Black Pine

Bird of Paradise

The Cholla Cactus in fuller bloom

Japanese Maple tree in the courtyard

Plumbago sprouting up (but not in bloom yet)
shaded under the Japanese Maple

Dark purple and yellow Calibrachoa that we planted in the courtyard

Purple Bell Heather and CD Eason Heather 
we planted struggled to thrive and grow

These white Daisy May Daises also did not do well in the full sun

This Variegated Aptenia Ground Cover took off like crazy in our courtyard

Golden Spirea in our front yard

Dark Knight Bluebeard we planted

Little John Dwarf Bottlebrush we planted

Colorful Lantina we planted are annuals that will die in winter

Closer look at the Japanese Maple

This pretty plant was growing wild on the east side of our driveway
before we had the east wall built and the area rocked

Emerald Gaiety Euonymus shrub we planted

Royal Red Butterfly Bush is another favorite that we planted

This Little Volcano Bush Clover we planted grew big and wide

This Crepe Myrtle came back to life this summer after a major pruning

We have two of these beautiful Moses Bushes
that turn bright red in the fall

Crimson Pygmy Barberry bush that we planted

Red Flowering Yucca we planted

Unusual Kangaroo Paw we planted