Our Sanford and Son deck

Well…it’s time to show you the before and after pictures of our deck clean up! As you know, I like to show you the good and the bad around here. And this one was BAD.

After reading this, you will either be highly motivated…or just highly sleepy. ;)

I showed you how we upgraded our deck just a bit last year by adding some new furniture and a faux pergola to the seating area. We LOVED it:

I get a lot of questions about that pergola -- we got it from Menards. I especially love that it opens and closes – so during the day it keeps temps much cooler underneath, and at night we can open it up to see the stars.

But this summer the deck kind of went downhill…fast. It was so stinkin’ H.O.T., we were just never outside. Our backyard gets full sun and it can get unbearable, even under the pergola.

I’m not what you would call an outdoors kind of girl anyway, so when you add the potential for sweat to that…well, I’m just not going outside. :)

Anyhoo, it kind of fell apart. So now I present to you…our crapified deck…

First up, our hot tub. We had this installed when we built the deck, and put it right by the back door. This is good for soaks in the winter, (proximity to the door), but not so good for as far as the beauty factor. It’s hard to make a hot tub pretty. :)

We hadn’t replaced the hot tub cover in five years, so it was disgusting. I mean…EWW. And, it was FULL of water – it took two people to lift one side of it because it was just soaked:

Let’s take a closer look, shall we?

Those little yellow things are great for propping up paint projects. And they had been out there since I painted our island doors seven weeks ago. I had pretty much just given up. :)

The table cover had been draped ever so beautifully over the railing since ohhhhh….May?:

And the hose had been connected to the hot tub and spread out all over since the last time we drained it in ohhhhh….March?:

Told you – pure AWESOMENESS!!!

:)

Earlier in the summer, we woke to a huge mess – the middle section of our glass table was in itty bitty teeny tiny pieces all over the deck:

We had planned on replacing the whole set, but the little Dave Ramsey voice in our heads told us to wait.

So wait we did…and we had a busted table on the deck all summer. :)

I especially love the next two areas --

HOT. MESS.

Do you hear the Sanford and Son melody playing yet?:

No? Do ya now?:

Maybe now:

I told you our neighbors were really proud.

But it gets even better!

Remember the DIY window boxes I showed you last year?:

Awww…look how cute they looked! Adorable huh?

Well. Huh. About late winter, they started looking a little rough. By spring they started splitting a bit. Just a tad.

By summer, they were full out disaster:

The shutter wasn’t lookin’ so hot either.

Because it was as hot as the surface of the sun out there all summer, I left them…hanging. :)

Oh, and all three boxes fell apart. As you can see in this picture with the “new” outdoor rug from Home Depot that we left rolled up all summer:

Neighbors = loved us.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I used the help of my sis to clean up some of the out of control spots in our house, and this certainly fell under the “out of control” category.

It took us a few days to finish everything up, but it wasn’t hard. We just got rid of almost everything. ;)

The first day, we took about five trips to Goodwill, loading up the table, chairs and matching lounge. The whole set was in bad shape – missing glass, paint chipping off the chairs. And I had already repainted them all once a couple of years ago.

We decided since we’ll be DEBT FREE next summer, we’ll save up for a new set. YES.

Sis and I also took a trip out to the hot tub place to get a new cover:

Oh my goodness – SO much better! You cannot tell how bad the old one was in the pictures, but it was so nasty!

The table cover draped over the railing was FULL of wasps nests. We used a whole can of wasp spray while out there that day because they were everywhere. Because we weren’t keeping the table anyway, the cover was gone too!

After we built the deck years ago, we realized we never created access to the hot tub drain. We had a friend come out and cut the boards so we could access it:

Because I had installed hinges that were way too small and were not meant to be outdoors, they were falling apart and it had become a major safety issue.

True Value to the rescue! I picked out some heavy duty hinges that will hold up to the elements:

I know they’re not pretty, but they are necessary. Function over form and all that.

And oh yeah…this was my selection of hinges and screws at my True Value:

Fantastic!! I am like a kid in a candy store in this place! :)

My favorite part of the small town feel of this True Value is that you can buy individual screws – just as many as you need. They bag them up in the little paper bag – love it!! If you ever went to the hardware store with your Dad when you were little like me, this place would SO bring you back. ;)

Next, I took the beautiful window boxes down, and braced myself for the holes in the siding. UGH.

I do plan on installing new boxes at some point, but in the meantime I didn’t want the holes to be open to the weather, so I picked up some of this fun stuff as well:

I just sprayed it in the holes. A few things to watch for with this stuff – it GROWS. I know, DUH. But it grows a lot. You need very little. And it dries way darker than it looks. And finally -- it’s a one time use can, which I didn’t realize. It seals itself up pretty fast, so know exactly what you want to use it on before you start!

It did the job, but it made a mess! Some elbow grease and a razor takes it off, but I’ll finish that up in the spring:

I gotta have something to do out there next spring, right? ;)

I cleaned up the pergola area, tossed the dead flowers and packed away some of the items in the garage for the winter. We’ll put all of the furniture away in the next month or so.

I finally laid out the new outdoor rug – and after being rolled up in the sun for five months, it was bleached by the sun on just the edge:

I can’t let go of the Sanford and Son look completely. ;)

We had lighting installed on our deck steps years ago, and the bulbs have been burnt out for probably eight months now:

Each one only takes one bulb, so I picked up a few packs of the little halogen bulbs from True Value as well:

You want to make sure not to touch these with your fingers or hands when you install them – the oils from your hands cause them to burn out faster. I always use a paper towel or tissue to plug them in.

Now the deck is so empty…but I actually like it for now!:

It’s a breath of fresh air. I know by spring I’ll be itching to put a table and chairs back out, but it feels SO GOOD to have it decrapified!!

I feel like I’m ready to hibernate for the winter. ;)

There are still a few things we need to address though – one is the stain:

When you use treated wood – WAIT to stain it, for at least a few months. Our construction guy told us six months…after we stained it.

That was a great day. :)

If you do it too soon, it won’t stick. It is such a mess, and we’ve done it twice now. Next spring, we plan to use a power sprayer to really get the old stuff off, then do a couple of coats of stain again.

We still have to get the nasty old hot tub cover hauled to the dump:

Sis and I had to cut slits to get the water out of it! It was SO CRAZY HEAVY.

And the basketball goal has been moved down to the lawn:

Complete with random landscaping bricks to make it steady. Steady on the dead grass. Dead grass from the blazing hot summer.

Awwww yeah….we still got some bah ba ba duh, bah ba ba ba ba ba dum in us baby! I know, you are so jealous of our awesomeness!

And now that song is in your head …buwahahaha!!

So that’s project one of the three we tackled – the garage is pretty much done and our closet was done, then it wasn’t, then it was, now it isn’t again.

I cannot keep it clean to save my life.

But I will show you! :)

 

*I was one of the bloggers selected by True Value to work on the DIY Squad. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program as well as my writing about my experience. I have also been compensated for the materials needed for my DIY project. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.*

Mood lighting in the kitchen

Well hello! I hope you had a wonderful weekend! My stepdaughter came home for fall break and we had a blast! The Bub was so thrilled…the two of them are 16 years apart, but you would never know it -- they play (and fight) like they are only a year apart.  ;)

I finally finished up a project last week that was about five months past due. I installed under cabinet lighting in our kitchen years ago – it was just the kind you mount under the cabs and plug in. It worked great for us because of the old black backsplash:

See the cord plugged in? I know…if you’ve read this blog for two hot seconds, you know I loathe cords. BLECH. Hate them.

But the black cords blended right in…even I didn’t notice them. ;)

But when I installed the new, white, beadboard backsplash, those black cords could be no more. I mean…are you kidding me? I would quite literally just pass out from it. Black cords on white?

No way Joe-say!

So the lighting sat in the basement for months while I tried to figure out what I was going to do. My first though was to have an electrician run connections from the outlets in the backsplash into the cabinets…but that just sounded like a mess (and not cheap).

Then I decided to try the battery-operated LED lights, similar to this one:

I liked that they were dimmable. But I wasn’t thrilled with their bright white light. (I know, I know…I’m supposed to love the energy-efficient lights but I am a warm white kind of girl – the LED is so harsh!)

I was living with them for a while, and then one night they were left on all night long, and by morning every. single. one. needed three new batteries. I knew it wouldn’t be the first time that would happen, so they went back to Home Depot. :)

So I kept thinkin’…and finally figured out what I was going to do. Last week I decided to just make a (HUGE) mess and finally git er done!! (Or is that “dun?”)

I figured I had three hidden outlets throughout the kitchen I could use – one behind the fridge, one in the appliance garage and one in the cabinet above the microwave. I only needed to plug in five under cabinet lights and knew I could get to all the outlets needed by going through the cabinets.

I used my 1 1/2 drill bit and started drilling holes under the cabinets for the cords to go through:

I drilled through the sides of the cabinets too, till I got to where the outlet was. To make the cords stay put, I covered them with my handy dandy cord covers:

Then I installed the lights under the cabinets, which is done by simply using a screw:

This part pretty much stinks. You have to contort your body under the cabs just so. I used a small drill bit to make a hole first, then drilled them in – otherwise the screws go flying and you may or may not say a cuss word.

:)

Because I positioned the lights so the cords would barely be showing underneath, I could have just left them alone. But I HATE CORDS (remember?), so I used my cord covers again:

In the past, I used these little jobbies to wind the cord around under the cabinet:

The cord fits in there and you nail it up into the cabinet so they are secured safely.

On that side of the room, I put two of the lights into the appliance garage, and I was going to put the third into the outlet behind the fridge. To operate it, I planned on using a remote to turn it on and off – but the box you plug in wouldn’t fit into the outlet because of the honkin’ cord from the fridge. So I just took it through to the appliance garage too.

The lights around the stove went to the outlet above the microwave, and while I was up above the microwave drilling, I had quite the mishap. :)

I (knock on wood) rarely have accidents…but this one had the potential to be a doozy. I was standing on a chair (first bad idea), and while I was drilling, I leaned against the front of the stove (second bad idea).

It started getting SO HOT all the sudden…and I’m such a fruit loop my first throught was DANG, two drills in one week are burning up on me! (The first one happened when we installed the new pantry door.)

I was so mad! But it just kept getting hotter…and hotter. Then I looked down and saw flames coming from the stovetop. (Within inches of my legs.)

Yeah…I had turned on the gas with my knee.

Awesome!!

In the process I melted the cord of one of my lights – so this free project turned into a $15 one (for a replacement) pretty fast.

But at least I realized it was ME that was almost burning, and not the drill.

Good Lord. Fruit loop, I tell you.

Oh yeah…and I have to warn you. This is easily the messiest project I’ve ever done:

An insane amount of sawdust. Crazy. Use eye protection.

I’ve had lighting above our cabinets for years now too, and I just drilled a hole through the top of the cabinet and used the plug:

On the other side, it’s simply snaked down behind the corner cabinet into the appliance garage.

I use rope lights for soft light:

Everything is plugged into a surge protector with a switch, so all of the lighting in the room is turned on with two switches. Which is WAY better than going around and switching on each and every light as I had it before. ;)

I missed our soft kitchen mood lighting so!:

I have them on every. single. night. Most nights, they are the only lights on in the kitchen.

Like I mentioned, this project was almost free – I’ve had the lights for some time. But if you’re interested in doing this in your kitchen, the small, (about ten inches?) lights are about $10. The medium size (20 inches) is about $15. I know they have a larger size and I think it’s $20.

I use the incandscent version because I like the warm light:

But they have a ton of options! I’ve purchased them at both Lowe’s and Home Depot.

Ideally I’d love to have them all wired and flip one switch…but for now, they take approximately four seconds to turn on and it was just a couple hours covered in sawdust to make it happen. 

I have noticed lately that I can see the reflection of the rope lights in some of my accesories above the cabs, so I think I’m going to try moving them behind everything to see how that works:

(Ignore the placement and accessories…most of it is changing.)

Oh, and I’ve mentioned my luscious dimmers (yes. I called them luscious.) before – I have them on almost every light fixture in our house:

They save money and the low light just plain lovely in any room!

Have you installed mood lighting in your kitchen? Did you do it the real way or the pretend way like me? ;) (If you’ve blogged about it, please link to it!)

DIY disclaimer: Again…I am no electrician – putting cords through cabinets is probably not the way an expert would accomplish this project. Be sure to watch rough edges so the cords to do not rub against them. (I have put duct tape around the edges of the holes I drilled just to make sure everything is smooth.)

OK…I promise to blog about something other than the kitchen this week! (But I’m on a ROLL!!)

A new pantry door

One of the many reason I love to blog is because I know some of you get excited about the little projects that I get excited about too. Or at least you act like you do. (That is so nice of you.)  ;)

I was so happy about this one, I couldn’t wait to share it with you. I even took NIGHT pictures. Which means I REALLY wanted to show you, cause you know that’s just asking for horrible pictures. (Which with the new camera are not nearly as horrible, by the way. Kisses to you Canon Rebel.)

I have a warning though – so far in our mini kitchen redo, there are now two DIY projects I suggest you hire out for if at all possible…the sink/faucet installation and hanging a new pantry door.

Both were just insanely annoying and full of issues, one right after the other. Maybe not for most people, but for me. Because that is how I roll.

I’ve been dreaming of a glass paneled door to our pantry for years now. I don’t know why – I’ve just wanted to do it forever. I think it’s because I always see them on those fab, walk in pantries you see – it seems like there’s always a cute glass door. Our pantry is TEENY – so I just want it to feel good about itself. ;)

When I got the opportunity to work with the free Amex points, I knew my day had finally come to get the pantry door of my dreams.

I went straight to Home Depot and got it!

And it sat in our dining room for six months. SIX. You can tell how excited I was to install it, huh?

Well, in an effort to get more of the redo wrapped up, I called my Dad last week and asked if he could help me out. Dad to the rescue (again!!). The first issue we had to deal with – the door was too big (wide). Buy a millimeters, really.

Of course it was. :)

My sweet Dad loaded the door in the car and took it to the woodworking shop who cut the butcher block for our island. They whipped it through their machines and got it planed down in less than ten minutes.

Have I mentioned how awesome this shop is?? When I was there last, they had built an 18 foot butcher block counter for a butler’s pantry in a mansion. Eighteen feet. For a butler’s pantry. It was GORG. Stunning. HUGE.

Anyhoo, we got it home and Dad started the process of installing the hinges in the door – he got them all screwed in and issue number two was realized – the door was upside down.

Of course it was.

He fixed the hinges, we hung it up, and even though the door had been cut down plenty, it still didn’t fit.

So…I had to do what we were trying to avoid – mortise the hinges:

(That would be issue number three, if you are counting.)

It’s actually quite easy to do – it’s just time consuming and messy. If you’re interested, I’ll show you how to do it in an upcoming post. Heck, I’m going to show you even if you’re not interested, so booyah.

I borrowed a knob set from a friend that locks into place and shows you just the spot to drill into the door:

Issue number four came when I was trying to drill the hole – I kept telling Dad something was stinking bad…and as I was drilling it was getting worse and worse.

And then I saw the smoke coming from the drill. Lots of smoke. The smell was the insides of the drill burning.

Of course it was. :)

It was thisclose to bursting into flames. Dad thinks I exaggerate just a bit, but seriously…thisclose.

So…off to Lowe’s I went for another drill. YAY!

The new one got through in no time, and then I did the side hole for the latch as well:

The kit pictured included both hole saws you need – I would definitely recommend it if you are going to hang more than one door!

I installed the knob again, and it was finally hung:

And it only took two days! Sheesh.

I couldn’t decide between black or white paint for the door – I was leaning toward black because I knew the white would look too similar to the windows and door in the bay area next to it.

I wanted it to shine!! :) So I asked my friend Layla to do her Photoshop mojo on a the picture above, and the black paint version looked AWESOME.

One coat of tinted primer and two coats of black later…

I am in luuuurve!! OH, I am so thrilled. It looks JUST like I’ve pictured in my head for all these years.  :)

Oh I forgot to mention my least favorite part of the whole project…taking the plastic off the glass:

OH dear LORD…I think I lost my mind just a little bit. It was insane. I mean…like nothing I’ve ever experienced. I will be pulling itty bitty bits of plastic off of the windows for months.

Reason number 88,348 I love my husband – he walks into this mess after working for 12 hours straight and doesn’t even bat an eye. We were meant to be, my hubby and me.  ;)

My plan was to put some window vinyl stuff over the glass panes:

But the kind I got wasn’t the frosty look I was going for. Then I wondered if I could just use the frost spray paint – has anyone tried that? My only concern would be how it holds up – I figure it would scratch easily. I wonder if I just spray the windows from the inside, maybe it would hold up better?

I gotta tell you though – once I rearrange my shelf labels so they are centered (yes, that’s giving me hives) and clean the pantry a bit, having it open doesn’t really bother me.

Crazy? Maybe. But I’m allowed – it’s my pantry.  :)

My little glass pantry door dream has always included a soft light shining down inside. I tried sticking an LED light inside just to see how it looked and it accentuates the mess just a tad:

So that may not be happening. :) I would use a softer, non LED light if I did it, but we’ll have to see if I cover the windows first.

So there you have it – one of the most annoying DIY projects I’ve encountered. But, yes, grumble – it was totally worth it. I absolutely love it.

One of the little things I love about the new door is that it allows SO much more light in the pantry – even during the day, when the old door was open it would block the light from the window. Now the light shines right through and we can see our food! (And I can find my cheddar and sour cream chips soooo much easier.)

Do you see the little extra project (above) I started while I had the paint out? I primed and painted some of the base on the table and OOHHHHHH, it’s going to look FAB!!

I was too tired to finish the table today, cause our kitchen was a disaster area – this is what you don’t see in the pictures:

Paint tarps wadded up and tossed out of the picture. Little pair of jeans on the floor. Island covered with things I took off the table:

Our dinner still on the stove. Dishes everywhere. Popcorn popper from four nights ago. A massive bag of Dum Dum suckers on the counter. (Why?? I don’t even know.) Bag of supplies from True Value (from a week ago) that I haven’t put away yet.

I told you I chuck stuff out of the pictures. The clean house is all an illuuuuusion. ;)

So, do you have a glass pantry door? Do you have a pantry closet? Or a itty bitty one like us? Do you even have a pantry? (Bless you who are pantry-less.)

 

P.S. Why does spell check still not recognize “booyah” – helloo??

P.P.S. I did some organizing in our pantry last year – to see that post, go here.

 

Thanks to this week’s sponsor!:

Spooky in the house

Well, it’s about time for some Halloween decorating up in here!

At least that’s what the Bub said – without the “up in here” lingo. OH my goodness – he is SO exited about Halloween this year! He’s been decorating all over the place. Which in his way is pulling everything out of the bins and lining it up along every. single. surface. in the house.

Adorable. :)

It feels like I just put the fall mantel together yesterday – I never know how to do the whole fall/Halloween decor. I usually pull fall out, then do Halloween, then put fall back out on November 1. Seems like so much extra work, so next year I think I’ll just start with Halloween. Decor is so confusing.

Our spooky mantel hasn’t changed much from last year when I ended up taking a few Goodwill frames:

And spray painted them black, then filled them with various graphics I printed out:

This year I added some height by adding my $3.50 (originally $20!) sparkly haunted house to the middle:

It’s stacked up on box you can’t see. Sneaky, I am.

Do you see the adorable addition Stink Eye Sis added?:

UGH! I could DIE from the cuteness!!

Then I just continued to layer the frames:

I showed you how I made these cutie little spooky votives here:

  

I absolutely love those little eyes. ;) I used my LED candles again – you can find them just about anywhere now!

They’re all nestled in black tulle and a string of lights. Just wish they made black Christmas tree lights, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

Would it be wrong if I spray painted the white cord black? Nah…even that’s a little much for me.

Maybe.

The glass jar is filled with some netting and a glittery skull – both from the Dollar Tree:

The sparkly spiders were from Pier 1 – I think eight for $1.50? Ewww…they are so grody.  But cool.

And of course, the crows are from the Dollar Tree too. That place rocks!

For a little finishing touch, I cut out some bats with my Silhouette and placed them here and there:

    

My friend Jen did it on her mantel and I just had to copy it. How fun is that?

It’s got a lot more going on than I would usually do – but Halloween is the one time of year I’m OK with that. And it’s only up for two more weeks anyway – when the fall decor comes back out. Gah! (At least I didn’t say Christmas decor – wink wink.)

I’m also working on our foyer as well – it started with a little friend on the mirror:

He’s just a cut out made of the vinyl texture stuff for windows. ;) I’ll show you the foyer when the Bub’s I’m done decorating it. ;)

** I’m linking this up to Beth’s Halloween mantel party –- uhhhh…my mantel is child’s play compared to some of these. Gorgeous!!

Thanks to this week’s sponsor!: