Have a great day Everyone!
Cheers!
M J
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In my over-active, decorating brain, I look at spaces, no matter where they be, and find a space that could use some light. Light can be anything, not just the visually perceived radiant energy from the sun. Light can be a smile that brightens your day or a pleasant feeling that warms your soul. In decorating, light is anything in a space that pops and catches your attention, creating depth and dimension. In our back yard, behind the fire pit area, was an area that needed some light. Just a bit of attention. I created a little banner with my own sentiment to brighten up our back fence... Being in the woods has always been very calming for me. I grew up camping, hiking, and hunting, sitting under the trees and enjoying the peace. Having this little oasis in our own back yard now, is pretty special for me... This was very simple to make, just a cheap jute table runner folded in half, a few dowels poked through some holes and then my sentiment hand-embroidered with some yarn and ribbon. Took me a few hours to backstitch, but embroidery has always been relaxing to me, just like being under the trees...
Have a great day Everyone! Cheers! M J
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As promised, we got the shutters built and hung on the house! And can I just say, I am soooo relieved this project is done... :-) We simply used all 1 X 4 cedar boards cut to the dimension of each window around the house - all eleven of them. That makes 22 shutters all together... Hi Raven! ;-) Just to remind you of what the house looked like when we bought it, here is a before picture from the listing with plastic shutters, hunter green everything and the dirtiest roof ever... Lovely, right? After having the roof and house professionally cleaned, the new entry, new paint on the foundation and stairs, new shutters and lots of gardening, here is what the front of the house looks like now: It's a huge improvement. There is still work to be done, but we are calling it good for now... I hope you all have a relaxing weekend! We'll be kicking back with friends enjoying the fruits of our labor! Keep cool Ya'll!
Cheers! M J Remember last time I said I was looking forward to some downtime this past weekend?? LOL! HAHAHA!! LOL!!! ;-) If only... We spent the better part of the extremely hot and humid weekend working on outside projects. AGAIN. I know we both lost at least a few pounds of water weight... Anywho! We are in the process of building new cedar shutters and replacing the old plastic ones which I will show you later this week. Today I just wanted to show you our updated front entry... To give you an idea of just how horrible this looked before - here ya go... Cute, huh? Blah... Hunter green everything! The storm door, the front door, the steps and green over-spray all around them. Don't you just love when realtors hire the cheapest contractors to do the ole' lipstick on a pig thing?? Idiots. The storm door even opened the WRONG way! It would have been better left as it was, I am sure, and less work for us in the end. But we do what we gotta do, right? Hubby replaced the storm door with a nice, shiny new one, we prepped and painted the concrete steps, and scrubbed as much over-spray off as we could. I painted the old steel front door a few weeks ago and made a new wreath for the spring/summer. We will be replacing the front door at some point, but I just could not stand that green door any longer! Hubby got home that day and walked into the house smiling. He had no idea I was gonna paint the door that day, but neither did I! :-) I got a little antsy another day and built this house number sign. Sometimes you just can't wait for the Hubby to get home to cut, sand and screw some wood together, am I right Ladies?? Besides, I can use a chop saw and drill just as well as he can! Wiring up the new light fixtures, however, definitely waited for him... ;-) We still have some touching up to do with some white paint, but our new greeter is hangin' out on the other side of the door... Isn't he darling? Lucky little ceramic gecko. He is from an artisan shop in town and I couldn't pass him up! He matches the front door color way too well. :-) Support Local! Here is a little glimpse of the new paint on the foundation and concrete steps along with our front garden. I also picked up a cute new flag with our beloved Chesapeake blue crab, of course! After we manage to dodge thunderstorms and get the rest of the newly built cedar shutters up on the front of the house, I am hoping to take a break! We'll see...
I will show you the new shutters later this week! Have a great day Everyone! Cheers! M J Well, hello there! I hope you have all been enjoying your summer so far! We have been enjoying it somewhat, but we have also been enjoying the rewards of some hard work on the back yard. When we bought this house last August, the yard had been allowed to completely run wild. We even had to hire a landscaper to tame the wilderness that had become our back yard. Being the consummate DIYers, that was a hard pill to swallow, but with all that this house needed on the inside, we just couldn't handle it! Off of the screened porch, there was a sort of "fenced-in garden". If that's what you would call a garden... See what I mean? A weed infested mess. And this is after the landscapers had cleaned up the yard. And that shed. OY. We stuck that iron piece on an old nail and said good enough for a while, but we just couldn't stand looking at this anymore: Seriously, the shed looked like it had been in a dog fight with an F-16 there are so many holes in the siding! The plastic shutters look super cheap and faded. And those lights. Just. Urgh. While tearing up the landscaping ties from the yard, I thought, Hey! Wouldn't these make a really cool, rustic potting bench against that awful shed? So this is what we came up with... Hubby nailed the ties together and then attached the whole bench to the side of the shed. It is very chunky and worn, just what I was hoping for! Hubby also banged out some quick cedar shutters and we wired up some new, inexpensive lights from Lowes. A MUCH better view from the house and porch, I can tell you. Next we tackled the "garden" and walkway between the shed and the porch. Hubby dug up the weed infested area, then we worked with the existing plants, adding in new plants here and there to fill in. Our generous neighbor wanted to get rid of a few sedum plants and asked us to dig them up if we wanted them! Score! After laying down bag after bag of pea gravel and river rock, here is what we have now: My succulents and portulaca are really enjoying this area. It floods when we have heavy rain, but dries out pretty quickly and gets lots of hot mid-day sun. This little pea gravel patio reminds me of Tuscany, the little seating areas in the gardens. With our umbrellas up, it is a great spot to enjoy some iced tea and get out of the sun. We also added a cedar screen to hide the HVAC unit and added a temporary walkway around to the side of the house. We will be taking up all the walkways and deck boards at some point and laying new walkways around the entire yard. We just don't have it in us this year, it will have to wait. But this looks just fine for now... Last weekend, we got around to painting the foundation and the back steps. Here are some more horrid before pictures, gird your loins... First of all, what the hell is with the useless little deck sitting on the concrete steps? Second, why is the deck painted red when the concrete steps and foundation are that wonderful 90's hunter green?? Honestly people, I don't know how I've lived with this situation for the few months I have. It HURT just to look at it! LOL! Hubby tore out that little deck then we got to work prepping and painting the foundation and back steps. We also created a small vignette in the corner with an old post, old pavers and bricks... And more gifted flowers from our neighbor! Now to do something with that door... :-) Of course, all of this is temporary for now. We need to tear out some rotting wood on the screened porch and rebuild the whole thing. We will most likely close the porch in with large sliding doors and windows and add a wraparound deck with steps to cover that concrete eyesore. Last but not least, I got to get a little crafty for the grilling area! I made use of my Silhouette cutting machine and adhesive vinyl to create a little sign to cover a nice grouping of holes in the siding by the grill. SOOOOO many holes... Sigh... We cannot WAIT to get new siding put on this house! What back yard is complete without some Grillin' n Chillin'? While I had fun creating the graphics for the little grill and martini glass, getting my Silhouette machine to sync up with my new laptop tried my already thin patience yesterday. In the end, I prevailed and I get to show you all of our hard work today. I hope you enjoyed seeing the transformation of this little corner of our yard! Lots more to do and show you, but I am hoping for some downtime this weekend! Hope springs eternal... Happy Grillin' n Chillin' ya'll!
Cheers! M J |
AuthorHi There! I'm MJ, a 40-something professional woman with a love for art, crafting and decorating. Here I hope to share my experiments and inspire others as they have inspired me... Archives
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