This Week At Kirk's House

Sorry about the quality of pictures this week--they were all taken on my I-phone and so aren't as good as normal.

Most of this week was spent working on the backyard and the outdoor kitchen.

We started last Saturday by welding on the back wall. The metal wall is made of 30' long corrugated steel that is treated to make it rust so it will slowly evolve into a warm orange color in the back. Brennan worked hard as he always does and enjoyed learning about welding. I got a bad sunburn on my neck from standing too close to the welding.




And here's what it looks like with the wall in place. I love how the light reflects off the pool and onto the steel.


Next came the beginning of painting. We welcomed Holden home from college on Saturday and so he's painting now. One of the things we love about Phoenix is the bright colors on the buildings from the Hispanic influence and so we decided to bring those bright bold colors into the backyard. Our concept is blocks of color--kind of like the building blocks we played with as kids.


That mark on Holden's head is his stiches from the day before when he got hit in the head with a 4"x4" post.


I think the bright colors will work well with the contemporary steel look of the structure and all the bright plants we're adding. We met with the landscape architect last night and picked out the plants. It's going to look really amazing. His house is being featured in Phoenix Home & Garden this next month and our backyard will have a lot of those same influences. He says that it will take about three years for the landscaping to mature but after that who knows, maybe we'll be in Phoenix Home and Garden!

But in the meantime there is a lot of dirt. This is the second dump truck load to get taken out of the back yard.
In other news, its great having Holden home for the summer. Lezlee and I spoke in church on Easter Sunday. I took the kids to the carnival. We ate a lot of Indian food. We're excited to go to D.C. and see Jenny on Saturday. Holden is making I-Pod speakers built into plastic dolls. Brennan is wrestling. Jordan is driving us nuts. And we had a great Easter.