Arizona

We drove down to the Phoenix Metro Area today to do some furniture shopping. We have gone furniture shopping before but haven’t seen anything we liked. I mentioned that we were going to do our interior with a southwestern theme to the man that installed our shutters. He has a friend and associate that handles a lot of the southwestern styles, so we drove down to Mesa to check him out.Southwestern Sofa – click on the image to enlarge

We found several pieces that we liked and placed the order. In all, we bought a dining room set, a sofa and love seat, a coffee table with matching end tables, two southwestern style table lamps and a sofa table.

Next week, we’re going to shop for bedroom sets for the master suite and office – we already have queen bed for the guest bedroom but need a headboard and night stands. Stay tuned!

Our Contractor installed a rain gutter along the patio roof before we left for California last week. Today, he replaced the lights in both bathrooms with bronze lighting fixtures to match the plumbing and other bronze hardware. We decided to donate the chrome fixtures we installed in error to charity.

Image: Sconce and address plaque on the exterior garage wall. Click to enlarge.

We also asked the contractor to install a peep hole in the front door and to install the plaque with our address. We ordered the plaque at the same time as our sconces to match the style and colors.

Verna and I drove to Congress, AZ today to work with the artist who is building our custom courtyard gate for the archway. He presented several sketches on tracing paper from which we were to select the art to be carved on the gate. We furnished him with some photos and ideas based on the southwestern motif of our house and furnishings. He did the rest and today we made the choices.

Image – rough layout of the lumber with the sketches placed at their approximate locations – click to enlarge

Verna made the choices for the artwork. At the top of the gate, just above where the saguaro ribs are going to be, is an image of a quail. Below the ribs, in the center of the door, there will be a kachina. The bottom panel will contain images of a bear and the famous dancing piper, Kokopelli.

Other features we negotiated were to install iron straps for strength, wrought iron above the top of the wood, antique hinges and gate latch and, as previously mentioned, saguaro ribs at eye level to allow us to peep through the gate.

In a week or two, we will have the gate installed in the archway. We will certainly post about that when it happens.