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Our First DIY

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One day I was sitting in our family room and got the itch to sand down the mantle and re stain OR paint it. I instantly pulled out our electric sander and began sanding. Don quickly stopped me so we could go to Home Depot to purchase all the items needed to finish this project. **Beware… the photos REALLY enhanced my wall color… i can assure you they are not that color***

When we started the project, we did not have a clue on how to stain wood. Naturally we asked the person at Home Depot what to purchase and the process of staining wood. He recommended  paint stripper, prestain, stain and protective laquer.

We got home and instantly painted the mantle with the stripper.  We both were a little excited that we weren’t going to have to put the leg work into sanding… boy were we wrong…or misinformed I should say

It only took off the clear laquer. The employee said it would strip the entire stain off the wood. I knew it sounded to good to be true…so for the next couple of days and a few curse words here and there, the mantle was fully sanded. For any one who is going to be sanding down any kind of wood with intricate grooves and frame work , I WOULD NOT SUGGEST USING THE PAINT STRIPPER ( Its really hard to remove from the small hard to reach areas).

After all of  Dons hard relentless work, I was second guessing whether I wanted to stain the mantle OR paint it white to match the molding around the floors. Three people suggested  to paint it white. One of those three being an interior designer. Well… Dons mother is also an interior designer and suggested for us to stain the mantle. At this point I am going crazy and I literally have the rest of my work day to decide, because when I got home from work we were going to begin staining. I called Don and talked to him about it, He was very quick to state, we did not do all of that sanding just to paint the darn thing.  I agreed and we were to continue our original plan.

We prestained and stained the mantle. Finally after a weeks worth of work we were getting to see what all this work was for.

I am really happy with how it turned out. The wood stain matches all the furniture we purchased for this room and adds richness. The tile on the other hand was done very poorly, and will need to be redone soon.

There were a few disadvantages to doing this …

1.We had freshly painted walls, during the sanding process the walls around the mantle were scratched and will need to be repainted ( See above photo) .

2.The tile within the mantle was so poorly done that the grout extends onto the mantle so when you are close up you can see stained grout.

3.Due to our lack of knowledge about staining, we purchased way to much pre stain and stain. We could have saved a few dollars knowing that a little goes along way. Oh well…

I am glad we ended up doing it, I am much happier with this mantle than the old mantle :0)

Happy Pi Day !!!

Backyard Project #2

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Its a whopping 75 degrees here in Orlando so we decided to continue working in the backyard. Thanks to our American Express points we cashed them in for a home depot gift card. We used them to buy plants and soil to continue our landscaping.

The picture above is before we started the second part of our landscaping. Notice all the rocks and pavers along the back fence. I am so sick of rock I want it out of my sight for a very long time. I almost paid a neighborhood kid to pick them up for us.

These pictures aren’t the best however you get the idea. We planted podocarpus along the fence line. The goal is to have them grow  up the fence to hide the neighbors back yard junk !!! They are supposed to grow very quick. Tomorrow we plan to lay mulch around the bushes !

Thankfully Dons parents came over to help us ! I was very grateful for that !

Next Project : Pick up more rock and pavers. Lay sod.

Tomorrow I am trying TWO new recipes for dinner. Will post results!

Backyard Project #1

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In my first blog post, I mentioned we bought a home in August. The house is older but really just needs a few face lifts. One of the deciding factors to purchase our home was the outdoor living area; it has  a huge screened porch, enough room for Lola to do a little bit of running AND a pool :0) We love to entertain at our house!  The backyard was something that definetley needed some love! ( The potted plants were given to me by my mother just to add something there until we decided on what we wanted to actually do ) This is a photo of what this side of the yard looked like.

I could not tell you whether I have a green thumb or not because I really haven’t planted anything before. I can tell you that I have not killed the potted plants yet :) Don has also been a huge help with keeping up with them. We decided we wanted a more tropical theme in the back because of the pool. Off the bat we already knew we were pulling up all of the pavers and laying down sod; That project will wait closer till springtime.

One Saturday while I laid by the pool, Don started to pull up the pavers. He wanted my thoughts of creating a garden wall. To be honest, I really did not know what that was until he fully explained his idea. Before we started on the garden wall, we lined the pool with liriope.

I say WE, but I did not help at all. We have a very kind neighbor who really enjoys doing projects like this and offered to help Don. After the finished this project, Don had the itch to continue going. While I was at work, Don and our VERY VERY VERY kind neighbor built the garden wall frame.

The garden wall set empty until the coming Saturday. Don and I woke up bright and early to venture to Home Depot and Lowes. We purchased a few large bags of red bark, the plants and a whopping 2000 pounds of dirt ( rough estimate ).  Don and I both have 2 door vehicles, imagine what that looked like having 1000 pounds of dirt in a 2 door car.It looked  like I lowered my car! I was embarrassed and to make it worse I had to make 2 trips ! After all said and done, we were left with this . . .

Friday night my parents came to visit. They have a HUGE truck. We kindly asked them to help us finish up our project by hauling the last part of our project home! We certainly did not care to leave the wood to show. The framing finally was covered by stone. The final touch :)

We are extremely satisfied with the finished project. As you can see, we still have TONS of pavers to continue to pull up and sod to be laid. A little at a time is okay with me. We have a lot more planned for the back yard. You will have to wait and see :)

Till then, Happy Sunday … I hate Sundays, it just means tomorrow is Monday ! Blah !