Winter finally hit Utah. Kind of. We had a dusting of snow on Saturday morning — that melted by noon. It’s only the second snow fall of the year. After a 300% precipitation year last year, this year we’re at something like 2%. And, OK, it’s 40 today and above freezing every day this week. [...]
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I’m not much of a winter person. I want the snow to start falling the day after Thanksgiving and to stop — completely — on January 2. That’s when spring should begin, steadily growing warmer and warmer. Today, with the Lindon, Utah, temperature sitting squarely at 26 degrees fahrenheit, I’m fantasizing about our pool. The [...]
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I realize I stil haven’t completed my final post on the landscape. With the end of summer and the cooler weather closing in, we’re trying to wrap up all the final issues, replace plants that didn’t survive the year (or the deer!) and get everything ready to sleep for the winter. We love the yard [...]
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When we began the search for our first home in 1992, it was with the condition that there be no swimming pool. That might not seem like a hard constraint to meet in most areas, but in south Florida it was. With two little girls in our family, I just didn’t feel comfortable with the [...]
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Guest Blog by: Sarah K. Certified pool operators are pool owners and professionals who have undergone extensive training to properly and efficiently manage commercial swimming pools. After completing the CPO online training course and passing all exams, CPOs are educated and informed on state pool regulations and industry standards.
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Spring is (finally) upon us. If your neck of the woods is anything like mine, you’ve been mired in unusually cold, unusually precipitous weather — and you’re pretty darn sick of it. Waiting for the sunshine and some outdoor living can’t come soon enough! With spring weather upon us (most days), we’ve been getting out [...]
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This post brought to you by Pier 1. All opinions are 100% mine. A few years ago I dropped by a nearby Pier 1 while waiting for my brother. I hadn’t been to one in years — and it took me by surprise. For some reason I had mentally classified the store in an ethnic oddity [...]
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We are ready (finally!) to look for landscaping bids. We’ve been looking forward to this stage for…forever. In addition to a landscape design, we would like a maintenance schedule to explain needed watering, fertilizing, pruning, etc., of the plants in the yard. If you’re interested in bidding, please use the contact form or comment below, then [...]
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If you do fencing, we’re looking for you. We are ready to accept bids on the fending for our backyard. If you’re interested in bidding, please use the contact form or comment below. Specifications: White vinyl Private or semi-private 6′ high Back (southern) boundary is already fenced Eastern boundary — 80′ Western boundary — 120′ [...]
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Our first “home” after graduating from college was a small townhouse in Boca Raton, Florida. Sam was a newly anointed professor at a university and I was the stay-at-home mom of two little girls. And we had a little patch of lawn and a tiny garden space just off our front entrance patio. After years [...]
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For years Sam and I have toyed with the idea of getting a greenhouse. We really like the idea. At least in theory. Kind of how we like the idea of having horses and goats and chickens and those cool little mini-cows. And when we bought the mansion, we thought we’d use the five acres [...]
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With the temperature hovering in the teens on the building site, it seems on odd time to talk about barbecuing. Most people are hunkered down in front of the fire with a steaming mug of cocoa. But in our house, Christmas is the perfect time to break out the barbecue grill and get cooking. When [...]
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You may remember that we were originally planning to include a wood-burning fireplace our custom home. We love the ambience a real fire creates and the fun-factor is high. Over time, however, the logistics (and mess) overcame our sensibilities and we gave in to the gas fireplace craze. But we found a perfect solution: we [...]
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For the first many months of planning, we had determined that our new, custom home would have a real, wood-burning fireplace in the family room. We’d still use a gas fireplace for our master bedroom, but not in the main living area. Neither of us is terribly enamored with gas fireplaces. We have found four [...]
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