Garage Sale Finds

Hey there I am back.  I took a break for a few days from blogging.  I have been busy cleaning and organizing my oldest son Adams room plus enjoying the pool.  I will post more on that later.  I did hit some garage sales with Tom on Friday.  I got a couple of records, the Bangles who I love, and Bon Jovi.  I also went to an estate sale and found two vintage necklaces that I adored.  I have been watching Design Stars and kept seeing Britney with this fabulous gold chunky necklace.

I think she should have won on the show, she was awesome!

I then spotted this at an estate sale for $1.50.  So Cool!

                                               
I also got this cute vintage pearl necklace.  I think it would look cute with a black tank top and jeans.

I painted my nails for the first time in forever.

It probably doesn't seem like a big deal to you, but it's big doozens for me.
On Sunday we had Molly's first birthday party. I thought I should paint her nails for the first time as well.

I made a yellow cake with chocolate frosting.  I put Kit Kats around the outside, with a pink ribbon.  I saw this on pinterest and had to try it. It was so good!

I also had a small bouquet of carnations for her special day!

Have a great day!

Pool Gate and Railing

Tom finished the work on the pool gate and pool railing.  It was super important for us to be able to put a pad lock on the gate, mission accomplished.  He also put the balusters on the railings going down the stairs.  These are some pictures of his work.  

We need to add some copper solar light covers to the bottom posts, and that job will be done.  We have really been enjoying swimming in the pool lately!  It is a rainy today, so no swimming. How are things with you guys?  Done any awesome projects lately?  Love to see them.

Bowling Pin

I have this little spot in the living room that I never know what to do with.  I actually wish it wasn't there because I am never satisfied with what I do.  

It's a built in cubby with mirror.  I thought about adding some color in there, or some sort of design technique and that didn't work.  I found this sticky paper at Goodwill that you use when your in high school to cover your books for a dollar.

Then I put it on the mirror, and added a peice of electrical tape down the center.  This is so embarrassing, but you never know till you try.

I hated it.  I then was like alright, I have a bowling pin that I got at Goodwill last year and decided to put it in there.  It at least looks clean and simple.  I hate the clutter look.

 This is the view from the couch where I do my blogging.  The table that the TV is on is about to change.  I hate that thing.  I hope to have it all situated soon.

Sorry about the crappy photos.  I need to get a new camera, the IPhone isn't cutting it anymore.  Our laptop is literally on it's last legs too!  The little ones have knocked it down, and now the screen is falling apart, and I think I am getting third degree burns from it sitting on my leg right now.

That screen should be more attached to the computer.  Hope you all are having a good Monday.  It is about to storm here.

Gate on the Deck

Tom worked into the wee hours last night installing the balusters on the railing and gate going down to the pool.  Tom has been dealing with a bad back and I just did something to my right shoulder. I think we need a new mattress.  I haven't been able to do the things I want to do.  I have a huge makeover for the master bedroom in my brain.  It is completely done there, I just need to do the manual labor and bring it to life.  I have a dead right arm right now can't do anything.  I know, I need to go back to drinking from a baby bottle I am such a whiner.  Well luckily Tom was able to do some work to the deck.  These are some pics from last night.  The gate needs to be planed down because it is rubbing against the post on the right so the lock for the gate isn't installed yet.  This is how it is looking as of now.

Tom is installing the hinges here.

The mosquito's are a nightmare this year.

I hope you all have a good weekend.  I will be having a little pool party on Saturday.  Do you all have anything fun planned?  I hope to hit  a couple of garage sales as well.  Garage sales are like crack to me, I have to go. 

Deck Stairs and Railing

Yesterday was a vacation day for me and the kids, Tom stayed home for awhile and worked on finishing the stairs and railing.  We went to a camp my brother rented that was situated right on Lake Champlain.  It was beautiful!  While we were there my decorating brain was of course thinking about how I could use some of the drift wood, and rocks that were around.  I found two weathered pieces of driftwood that I thought would be perfect for the mantle.  This is them.

They are pretty neat, one looks like a snake.  While we were collecting this stuff Tom was working on the stairs.  We want the stairs to look a little dresser then most.  We wanted kick plates on the stairs that I will eventually paint white, we also picked out a nice pressure treated hand rail at Lowe's.  There will be some decorative trim added to the bottom of all the posts as well as the copper solar lights on top of the posts.  Tom  is proud about how sturdy the rails are, they don't move.  The gate will be the next addition.  These are some pictures of the stairs as they are now.

The stairs are totally level.  The cement down below slops down a little bit.  Chow!!

Entryway Marble Makeover

I never posted about the entryway makeover we did here at the house a little less than a year ago.  We had an old greenish slate tile floor.  It looked dirty and weathered so it was time for a new look. We also had to remove an old railing that separated the entry from the living room.  We wanted a more open concept and this defeated that idea.

You can see the vertical piece of hardwood with the holes in it to the right of Noah's feet, that is where the balusters had attached to the wood floor.  We thought it would be a good idea to put a strip of black granite there to outline the new floor and replace that old piece of wood.

Tom started to rip out the old tile and it came up very easy which was a welcome surprise.  

When it was finally all up, Tom had to replace the sub floor.  This was a nightmare.  The floor was screwed in with 1000 screws, along with glue.  We didn't want to tile over the old subfloor because we would have had a lip from the tiles to the wood, and we wanted the tile to be even with the wood.  Tom finally got it all up and placed the granite around the floor.  He put some weights on the granite to make sure it stayed flat and in place.  The granite was around $200.00  it had to be cut to size at a local granite store (cha ching).  It was nice because it matched the piece of granite that was used on the top part of the firebox of the fireplace.  When we did the fireplace makeover we decided that we liked the marble so much we bought extra marble for the entryway.  They were so cheap that our tiles for the entry were around $187.00. 

We bought the backer board at Lowe's.

Tom then screwed it into the plywood sub floor underneath.

 Tom tiled and grouted the new floor, and this was the result.  It is fabulous.  It really brightened the room up, and goes perfectly with the fireplace.

We are going to get to pantry doors when we get some extra money.  (yeah when does that happen?  Maybe with tax return money.)

Hope you have a good night!

Deck Progress

Yesssss I got my cord and I am back in business.  These are some pictures of the new deck.  The deck looks great, and I am so amazed that Tom and his friend Tom were able to do it because it was so freaking hot out.  When you are getting wood for a project like this DO NOT just depend on Home Depot or Lowes.  They quoted us around $2300.00 for the wood.  We called somewhere local... Sticks and Stuff for those of you from Vermont and it was $780.00.  That is a HUGE savings.  This allows a little wiggle room for special touches.

They then started the frame work.  That little area in front of the doors used to be our tiny deck.

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See that sun coming out, bring on the heat.

               

After the frame was up they put the beams in that would hold the floor.  I am sure there is probably a technical name for this, just telling what I saw.

Boom, we actually felt like we had a deck at this point.  It had to stay like this for a couple of days due to a little thing called Tom's job.

The railing was put up a couple days later, along with the metal balusters.  Tom had a !@@#% of  job with those.  He had to put a plastic washer between the wood and the baluster, leaning over the other side of the railing because that is where they screw into, and sun blazing on him (I just had to vacuum the pool and that wasn't even fun.)  Those were a little pricey, but love the look and think they will hold up better than the wood standard balusters.  The metal railings were $500.00, but since we saved so much on the wood we still paid less then what we would have going to Lowe's or Depot.

This is how it is looking now.  The decor will be different when all is said and done.  I need to think it out before we jump into anything.  We are also going to add some sliding doors to the right of where you see that table that will go into our bedroom.  I don't think we will be doing that this year, probably next.

I love the balusters, and the copper caps for the posts.  They are solar and light up at night.  Tom is going to build a gate going down the stairs to the pool deck as an extra line of defense for the little ones.

The stairs and hand rail are not done yet, but they are going to be sharp. 

Next year we are going to get a new fence for around the pool, but it still looks good for now!

But I have to say my favorite part is at night!  It feels like you are at a resort or something.  The water is so pretty.  We went for a swim the other night, and toasted with some champagne.

This has been a long time coming! So proud of Tom and his friend Tom they did an awesome job!