Windows – Cannot Join Client Computer to Server Domain (Windows Server 2012 r2)

I'm having trouble with trying to join my client computer to the server domain. My client is Windows 7 Professional and the server domain OS is Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard. I tried the usual method of going to System-Change Settings-Change-and entering the domain name to join. However, I get the message saying:

An active directory domain controller (ad dc) for the domain sean.local could not be contacted. Ensure that the domain name is typed correctly.

I know for a fact that the domain name (sean.local) is correct. On my DC, I have Active Directory, DHCP and DNS installed. Its weird because I could ping the server IP just fine and get a response, but when I ping the domain name (sean.local) I do not get a response. I get a message saying:

Ping request could not find host sean.local. Please check the name and try again.

I think the issue I'm having with not being able to join the domain has something to deal with the DNS server. I will post the network configurations for both the client and the server domain and hopefully we could get this client to finally join the domain once and for all. Thank you everyone for your help, I appreciate it.

Both of these machines had their IP settings manually configured, not obtained automatically.

Client:

local: 
IP address: 10.0.0.7
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default gateway: 10.0.0.1
Preferred DNS server: 10.0.0.1

Server:

IP address: 10.0.0.5
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default gateway: 10.0.0.1
Preferred DNS server: 10.0.0.1