This deck makeover post has been a long time coming, let me tell you.  For awhile, we noticed that some of the deck boards on uncovered side of our deck were starting to warp, and as a result, water would pool when we had a lot of rain.  Which means that I would go out and basically push it all off with a giant squeegee.  Not fun, and not the way a deck was supposed to function.  Honestly, I had chalked it up to a faulty product (this deck had a recall that we just missed, and it was out of warranty as well).  We were told that the structure of the deck was fine, but the boards needed to be replaced.  Definitely better than a complete redo. Before This is a photo of the covered portion of the deck after they had started.  It wasn’t as bad as the warped side, but water had started to migrate over to this side due to the warping.  No good. The stairs were also a hot mess, so you can see that it was time.   And then there was the question of the railing.  Do we replace it?  But then my carpenter […]

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With the official start of summer, and people itching to get out of their homes, I know many of us have outdoor spaces on our minds.  I definitely do.  We have to redo our deck (another whole story I’ll save for later – imagine warped composite decking that holds pools of water), and I’m really looking forward to having it done.  Several years ago we did a massive backyard transformation project in our backyard by taking out a pond and adding a paver patio.   But today I’m going to share a round up of some more great outdoor makeovers – I hope you find something that inspires you! Add a Fireplace or Fire Pit One of the items I still want to add to our backyard is an outdoor fireplace, and the outdoor fireplace tutorial that Kristin put together at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia is one that inspires me!  Outdoor firepits and fireplaces just draw me in every time, and hers is gorgeous! Fire features seem to be winners when it comes to creating a warm and welcoming outdoor space, and the circular feature of a fire pit just invites conversation and storytelling.  So, if you want to […]

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Hello friends! This post has been a long time coming, our pond-turned-paver-patio project was a success!  Well, we still want to put in an outdoor fireplace, but this was the “guts” of the project, if you will.  I couldn’t be happier with the finished project, and am excited to share it with you. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again.  Ponds seem like a great idea in theory, but the reality (for us, anyway), is that they are very high maintenance, and never look as good as you think they should.  Paver patios on the other hand, much lower maintenance, and a much higher usability factor too. Let’s get started with our journey – where we were, and where we are now.  Prepare yourself for photo overload. Before – U-G-L-Y, you ain’t got no alibi.  And this is during the winter, when things aren’t totally overgrown and crazy. At one point (before we owned the house), the pond was featured in a local home magazine.  So it did look good once…  11 years ago.  You can even see the bottom of the pond.  Amazing! Fast forward to real life. It’s not pretty, folks. This is probably the one […]

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Hey friends, First of all, thank you for all of the great comments and feedback on my questions about hardwood floors.  You all have definitely given me a lot to think about!  I have heard and read about how dark hardwoods can be a maintenance nightmare, so I’m definitely taking that to heart.  I was all ready to talk to the “Flooring Guy” who was scheduled to come to measure on Wednesday night, but alas, I was stood up.  Can you believe it?  Not happy about that, given that our schedules are only getting even more hectic now that baseball season is kicking into high gear.  But, I’ll reschedule. So, I figured I would take it outside and refocus on some of the happenings in our outdoor spaces.  We have people scheduled to start work on the yard this week (rain, rain, go away!), and I’m really excited to get things moving.  I swear, our only saving grace is that our house sits pretty far back from the road, so people driving by can’t actually see what a mess it all really is. But there is progress to report on the covered porch in the back of the house!   It’s not done, […]

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Hello friends, I have been in the middle of an Appliance Apocalypse here, so bear with me.  After six long weeks, we finally got a new dishwasher, so the dry dishes in my sink no longer resemble a house of cards.  But immediately after that, our air conditioning went on the blink, resulting in the financial equivalent of another new dishwasher to repair it.  And on top of that, my washing machine decided to join in on the fun.  Thankfully, my repair skills seem to have solved the washing machine problem.  Apparently, unplugging my washing machine essentially wiped its memory clean of all technical problems. 🙂 With the onslaught of warm weather, my mind is turning to outdoor projects, and in our case, there are many.  The yard was overgrown when we bought the house a little over a year ago, so we’ve avoided it long enough.  This year we’re going to try and whip it into some sort of shape so that we can maintain it vs. always trying to keep up with it, if that makes sense. Let me illustrate.  Ordinarily, I love anything tufted.  Except when it’s my lawn.  And yes, we do have a lawn service.  Actually, we […]

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