We freshened up exterior of the place

We have to admit something... we had the exterior of the house painted a while ago and didn't share!

As many of you know we live in a community with a homeowners association. For the most part we enjoy having one as it helps keep the neighborhood looking fresh and clean. With this we have a limited selection of paint colors. Various shades of brown. I know, totally my favorite colors. So after much deliberation and complaining to each other we picked one that looks the most "grey"; especially since or neighbor to the north is dark brown and our neighbor to the south's original color looks pink.

Kitchen/Family Room Current Status

We've given you details with how we've taken down the built in entertainment unit, how Husband was laying the tile, how we Wife painted, then we left you all hanging.  So while we are waiting for a decisions to be made - we should share where we left off!

Here is the stove/microwave with the pot filler line (not chosen yet).  We have not put up a back splash - we are thinking about a single sheet of glass to make it easy to clean up and simple.

What chirps when you are on vacation or at the worst part of the day?

If you guessed the smoke detectors, you'd be right!  We had quite an adventure on this one!

They started chirping late afternoon, and Husband proceeded to change all the batteries in each of the beeping suckers.  All of our detectors are  A/C connected, so when one goes crazy it shares the love and they all go crazy!  However, after he changed them all it still chirped.  This was at 8 PM, and after two trips to the store to get 9 volt batteries.

Be Our Guest

The Valley of The Sun.  Heat Advisiory,  100 plus degree temperatures, so hot you can fry an egg...  Sold you right?  What's that?  You booked your plane ticket?  Husband and I are honored, we can't wait to see you!!!  Okay,  while the egg part is all fiction (we tried) and the rest does describes the summer, we do have a surprise for you. Are you sitting down?  Okay,  it's not that bad ALL year.  Arizona has other seasons.  Shocker, right?  Three really Summer, Spring, and Winter; I'm sold Fall doesn't exist here.  Really it can't be THAT bad, after all baseball teams and their fans flock hear for Spring Training every year.  One of the many perks of living here - we don't have to pay for a hotel when it's quadruple the rates to see our beloved Angels play.

Pool Tips: Circulation and Filtration

Following on my previous post about chemical balance, circulation and filtration of your pool are the next important things to consider. The pump, filter and return jets act very similar to our own human heart and circulatory system. Consider the following similarities:

Pump -> Heart

Filter -> Kidneys

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ian_chilton/4328999216/in/photostream/#

Ideally, the water in your pool should "turn over" at least once a day. That means the pump should run at least long enough to have all the water in the pool cycle through the pump and filter once a day. This serves two purposes: 1) equal distribution of chemicals and temperature, and 2) adequate filtration of contaminants.

Protip: newer pumps on the market come with multi- or variable-speed options. Running an electric motor at a lower speed provides greater efficiency, and lower electric bills.

On to filtration...