I had a meeting and an open house get canceled this morning because of this:
SNOW DAY!!!
We’re going to be bundled up all day in front of the fire, hopefully with hot chocolate and a good book and most likely with basketball in the background. Hope you’re having a lovely Sunday, too!!
P.S. This is bananas, it’s almost April!! And we’re in Texas!!
You know that saying, if you can’t take the heat get out of the kitchen? Well, the same thing applies to the backyard at our flip.
That puppy gets H-O-T in the Texas heat, so heat and sun-tolerant plants were a must when we were thinking about landscaping around the pool.
We also had a really cool existing, unidentified palm-like tree that we wanted to work around:
With our requirements for hot ‘n hardy plants that fit in with our funky palm tree, coming up with a tropical, oasis-like landscaping scheme was a no-brainer.
Now that you’ve heard all about how we transformed the backyard, I thought I’d give you the scoop on which plants we picked, and why. Here we go!!
These plants below form the main focal point of the backyard. By choosing plants of varying heights, we were able to break up the large expanse of fence behind the pool, and add some texture and visual interest to keep your eye moving from plant to plant so that you don’t miss a single one of those beauties.
While we wanted the majority of the plants to be green to form kind of a backdrop for the gorgeous pool, I couldn’t resist a few fun pops of color with those giant hibiscus – they had me from hello!
Each one of these tropical plants is tolerant of full-sun (a necessity in this backyard) and lots of heat. The few days a year that Dallas gets below freezing, all the new owner will need to do to keep these plants happy is cover them with a sheet – easy!
We also added a little planting vignette over by the new fence that was constructed to hide the pool equipment from view. Our goal was simply to break up the fence a little bit (a common theme, it seems) and add a little pop of color in another corner of the yard.
So now you know all the nitty gritty about those fun tropical plants hanging out by the pool! The word on the street is that the pool will be ready to swim in this weekend – yippee!! Now, here’s my big question to you guys – does anybody know what the heck that unidentified palm-like tree is over by the pool? I wanna know!!
This post is shared with Hooked on Houses.
As you may remember, last Tuesday was a big day – we closed on the flip AND it was our 2 year anniversary. Talk about a lot of excitement!
I’ve already told you all about the flip, but I didn’t tell you how we celebrated our anniversary. My cute hubby really outdid himself this time. Take a look at where I got to spend last Tuesday night:
Oh yeah, baby – The Joule. The Joule is a drool-worthy boutique hotel in downtown Dallas that is a converted bank building, with the impeccable new interior designed by Adam Tihany of Tihany Design. And isn’t the facade amazing with the juxtaposition of the gothic-inspired tower against the modern, cantilevered pool?
But wait, I’m getting ahead of myself – let me back up a bit and start at the very beginning. We began our anniversary by eating a leisurely breakfast on our patio, went to the tile store to start looking at tile for the pool at the flip, closed on the flip, and went to one of my favorite restaurants in downtown Dallas – Campisi’s!! Here we are stuffing our faces with their delicious pizza (my half was sausage and jalapeno – delish!):
Then we made our way across the street to The Joule, with me gawking like a tourist and taking pictures like this one:
The pool just defies all logic, hanging 8 feet over the sidewalk 10 stories below – how cool is that?? As I found out later, the plexiglass holding all that water in is at least 4 inches thick – I was really grateful for that when I was splashing around in the pool later that afternoon! The spray that you see coming off the pool is actually a fine mist from a misting system that cools the pool and the surrounding lounge chairs – such luxury! (And check out Dallas’ trademark Pegasus on the next building over.)
This was my first stay at a five-star hotel, and it was tough for me to pick my jaw up off the ground the entire time we were there. I’d heard the buzz about The Joule opening up last June and I’d certainly admired it’s gravity-defying pool from afar, but I never dreamed I’d actually be staying there!! Once we got inside, the picture-snapping continued . . . in the rich, contemporary lobby . . .
. . . in our gorgeous suite . . .
. . . at the spectacular, please-never-make-me-leave pool . . .
(my sister and my dad work in that building to the left – the whole time I was frolicking in the pool I was looking at their office building and thanking my lucky stars that I was floating in the pool instead of being stuck inside!)
. . . and at dinner at the acclaimed Charlie Palmer’s (the swanky restaurant off the lobby of the hotel, which was sooooo delicious) . . .
The entire day and night was a total dream, just tons of relaxing and fun with my best friend. It’s amazing how just a single day off of work in the middle of the week can really feel like a vacation – I bounced into work the next morning a whole new woman. And we didn’t even have to feel guilty about our extravagant anniversary plans since my resourceful hubby paid for our entire stay at The Joule with reward points – score!
What’s your favorite anniversary memory? Stayed at a fancy hotel recently that you want to dish about? Spill the beans!!
For more gorgeous pics of The Joule, click here.
Images courtesy of me, Starwood Hotels, and Wikipedia.
