The Artful Prairie

In our several decades of marriage, Karen and I have now owned five homes.  Our typical modus operandi has been to find homes that had "good bones," but needed some TLC to bring out their true potential, and improve resale value if/when we were ready to move on.  As such, we have made substantial improvements on every home we have lived in.  Our current home in New Mexico is no exception.  One of the major projects that I took on was this brick patio.  Several months, tons of base course and sand, and six pallets of bricks later, the transformation is complete.  Improvements on this house include:

• removal of 15 cubic yards of concrete, leveling, prepping and installing brick patio and walkways
  
• fencing the yard for the dogs (about 1/2 an acre)
• kitchen remodel/renovation
• upgrades of many of the light fixtures and adding ceiling fans
• gutters and rain barrels
• cloths line move and renovation
  
• rock landscaping
• garage shop cabinet installation and lighting upgrades
• painted house and garage
• garden with fence, and knock-down hoop greenhouse
  
• custom trellis' on back of garage
• replacement of 35 year old furnaces with high efficiency HVAC
• replacement of gas hot water heater with high efficiency tankless water heater
• bathroom remodel including custom tile sink counter

Our next project is the construction of a new house (we are calling Sierra Solace) near Cedar Grove, NM on property we have owned since 2004.  If things go as planned, we will break ground in 2012, and will be a totally off grid, passive/active solar home.  Karen can finally have her chickens, and I will have a place for bee hives.