I'm back! Sorry for my absence these past few weeks - this moving thing is hard work and incredibly time consuming! Lance and I have been busy trying to unpack, get settled, and of cource, dive into all of our projects.
We also got a heaping dose of "Home-Owners Reality Shock" during our first full week owning the house when the air conditioner, garage door, and pool pump all decided to break! Joy! But we handled it well, bought some fans, and had a good excuse to not complain about how hot it was outside :)!
Those of you who know us well already know that Kimber and Delta are the center of our lives. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that everything we have been working on since we moved in has been to accommodate our puppies.
The biggest project we have been trying to complete is installing a new back door, installing a doggy door into this new back door, building a fence for the dogs to have a "dog park" that keeps them out of the pool, and removing all bushes and shrubs and laying new sod for the dog park area. The reason why this project is #1 on the list is so that the dogs will be able to go in and out of the house while we are at work and not have to stay in their kennel all day.
Since I had already agreed to paint the whole house, this project was added onto Lance's Honey-Do List (oh boy!). He started by removing all of the ugly shrubs that are ALL OVER the back yard.
Here are some of the before pictures of the Dog Park area of the backyard:
Lance started by removing all of the shrubs and ivy that were underneath the bay windows and installing the beams that would support the fence. It took a couple of days to remove everything and dig the holes, especially with all of the pool and sprinkler pipes that ran underneath the ground in this area! Thankfully, he was diligent and did not bust a single pipe!
We then turned our attention to the back door. We used to have an all window back door which wouldn't work for our dog door to be installed into. So we made a trip to Lowe's and purchased your average, boring, white back door. I cannot wait to get some paint up on it - but that will have to wait for now.
While Lance is fully capable of learning and completing the task of putting in a door, we were under a bit of a time crunch and didn't need a hole in our house for an extended period of time. So we decided to enlist the help of an extremely handy friend,
Maricio. He and his guys spent about 2.5 hours at our house on a Friday evening and "TaDa!" our new door was in!
With the new door in, we could get started installing the doggy door!
Now I have to stop and take a minute to describe this doggy door. Most people think of a simple square cut-out with a flap - right? Well, not in the Buckley house. Due to the large size of our pups, we needed a doggy door large enough that a human could easily crawl through it. Seeing as how Lance is all about safety and home defense, it came as no surprise to me when he excitedly told me about a bullet proof, electronic doggy door he found online. High Tech Pet offers multiple different doggy door options for those customers who have home defense and safety in mind. At first I was skeptical about how it would work and if it was really needed. Now that it is installed I couldn't be happier! I sleep easier at night knowing that only the dogs (who have sensors installed on their collars now) can get in and out through the door while all raccoons, squirrels, humans, etc. are stuck on the outside.
Kimber took to the door a bit faster than Delta, but now they both know what to do and they love it! I tried to get a picture of Kimber using it, but it is a little blurry because she is a hard one to get to hold still.
The next step was to remove all of the front shrubery and begin putting in the top and bottom horizontal planks and then the vertical pickets. With the help of a good friend, Travis, Lance was able to knock out all of that in just one afternoon.
Doesn't it look great?? The last piece of this project was to have the sod laid down and that was completed today! So now we have a fully functioning dog park!!
The last two gates are going on it tonight and the dogs will get their first day out of the kennel tomorrow while we are at work!
This project took us a total of 2 weeks to complete, but let's be honest, who wouldn't want to give these cuties are wonderful dog park of their own??
Until next time, any guesses at what we will be turning this $20 oak door into that we found on Craigslist???
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