We decided to buy a pool...

We decided to buy a pool this past year. To be completely honest... I have never wanted to own a pool and I am not sure where I am on it... still. But Maddux and his dad were begging for one. So I decided to give in and see how it goes... Under the agreement that taking care of the pool is 100% my husbands responsibility  And we got Maddux in swimming lessons so he knows how to swim. Because... pools and kids... FREAK ME OUT!

Our yard is crazy messed up. its a giant hill filled with weeds and craziness. so the idea of not having to worry about the yard is great. However... trying to tie a deck in with our current deck and patio is going to be.... interesting. But I think we finally came up with a plan... In my head it looks good. We will see if that comes across in real life or not.

They delivered the pool a few weeks ago and set up a time for the dig. So after the guys left...
Day 1 of pool installation left us looking at this...

We are going to attempt to design a deck and figure it all out with some help from some family and friends. I like that they dug into our yard so the deck will be relatively low, so I feel like it will fit in a bit more with the stone patio. We will see how it all goes over the next month.

And because I like lists... Our to do list is as follows

- Level out the extra dirt - use it to level out the side yard
- Have electrician put in electric line
- Have gas line installed
- Get a heater for the pool
- Build retaining wall around the pool so the yard does not cave in and ruin the pool
- Design and build a deck around the pool
- Build flower boxes between patio and deck
- Plant something big at end of patio to block site  of the pool
- Stain deck
- Add furniture and Accessories (the fun part!)
- Enjoy pool

It is quite the to do list... and because we are doing so much of it ourselves it will take some time.
This week we have someone coming out to move the dirt on the side of the house and we went out and bought all the materials for the deck and retaining wall.

We are hoping to get a good head start on the deck this week. And hopefully the week after that we can get the electric and gas going... and finally start enjoying the pool!
Fingers crossed for us. A lot of things have to come together to get it finished within the next few weeks!

Anyone love building decks? Anyone feel like just volunteering time to come over?

No??? Figured as much... Guess we need to get started...

Outdoor Updates

Every year we try and do something to the outside of this house. I can decorate the inside... but the outside... I don't know where to start. And believe me this house needs a lot of help on the outside.

Lots of EXPENSIVE updates.

Like a new fence.
And some serious weed control
And the backyard goes at a straight slope downhill that needs leveling
The driveway needs to be re-sealed.

Did I mention a new fence? I cringe thinking about the price on that thing. Ugh.

So I'm ignoring the big stuff right now...

Right now... I am going to show you a very tiny update.
But updates that are easy on my checking account make me happy.

So here is an old before photo of our entry

See that light? That lovely silver builder grade type of light?
The light itself is fine. Lots of people love these lights...
I just... wanted something a little bit more our style. And this past week... I found some at Lowe's that were 50% off! Which was perfect!!!! Then had my awesome father in law stop by and install them! (Thanks Rod!)

And here are the new lights :)

I like that they stand out from the house... rather than blending in like the old ones.
And I love that they were 50% off. :)

Have you scored any great deals this summer?
Wanting to update your lights??? Check out the clearance section this time of year! :)

And let there be ... more light!

Well I have always loved string lights across an outdoor space. It adds such... ambiance.

I came across a few of these on pinterest where people added in some 2x2s to their deck so they could string lights across and decided this would be a very cheap and easy update to our deck. 

So we stained some 2x2s the same color as our deck and then nailed them in randomly across the deck. 

Then we added hooks so we could string the lights across the top of the deck. and voila.

The patio lights came from Target. We bought 4 strands at 10 bucks a pop! :) So this entire project cost us under 50 bucks!

its perfect. 

Oh you might have noticed the rug changed.
Yeah... that rug they claimed was an outdoor rug... the pretty floral one. It was not. it rained and i had goops of paint all over my deck. Lovely.
Tip: when in doubt. just assume that it does not go outside :)

But I did luck out and find this Threshold rug on clearance at Target! :) 

Front Door Updates

So... I posted a while back about some planters I found on Shanty 2 chic.
And i love them on her house. i really really do. 

But they are huge... and i built one... looked at it and realized... that was enough for me...
So I left it at that. Maybe I will build the second one someday. But working on the library and finding time for other projects has been difficult. Have you heard me complain enough yet? Well I will continue to do so for a few weeks more :)
I do love the one I built. I can picture filling it with pumpkins or mums once I switch to my fall décor. 

But the real star of the front door update is … The Giraffe door knocker. Hello! Amazing. Right? 

Maybe not everyone adores it as much as I do. But I swear… I love this door knocker in a weird amount. She just makes me happy. I may or may not go outside randomly to look at her. And I named her.
Penelope.
We are quite fond of her around here. 

I love the amount of whimsy she adds to the front door. That and this justifies me never putting up those adorable seasonal wreaths that I always consider. So Penelope also allows me to be lazy without feeling guilty. Because who needs a wreath when you have whimsical Penelope? Not me.
Thanks Penelope.

Now I am just hoping to update the outdoor lights to oil rubbed bronze something or others. I just haven’t found any I completely love yet.
Anyone want to suggest some?

Plus all my summer flowers are slowly dying... I cannot wait to update the porch for fall. :) Anyone else looking forward to it as much as I am??? 

Shades of grey...

I think I have officially decided to wait until next year and stain the entire deck all at once.... mainly because I am lazy. I have a never ending to do list and staining the deck is not ranking very high right now. So I might as well not even add it..

But, I did get around to painting the doors. so they are no longer that crazy yellowish trim color as they were seen here 

I still want to paint them bright yellow. However, I had leftover grey paint from the front door. so for this year I decided to take the easy route and use what I have. 

Its not a crazy noticeable difference in the photos. In person though... it looks so much better.

Now back to painting stair railings and building libraries.
What was I thinking trying to do both these projects at once???

Patio - Finished!

Well mother nature was not our friend this week... and put our patio about a week behind.... actually about 2 weeks behind. Stupid rain. Seriously... this must be what it feels like to live in Seattle.

But once the weather cleared up... the guys did an amazing job.

Here is what we started with...(a bunch of before photos)

And here she is today...

Keelings Landscape did an awesome job. If you are in the local area.... make sure you check them out if you need any landscaping needs!

Now just waiting on that dirt to turn into grass... figure out what flowers to plant around the patio ... and decorate.

On a side note. first year of gardening and we have our first signs of tomatoes! So exciting!

Anyone else have any new outdoor projects? Any gardening tips to share with a first timer?

Deck... We have stairs!

We finally have stairs. We can finally let our dog outside from the kitchen and not worry about her running the streets. We are now back to chasing our child who enjoys a good morning streaking through the backyard (sorry neighbors!)

I am so excited. These stairs were pricey. but oh so worth it. It adds so much to our very boring deck.

So now we can put out our deck furniture. We bought an outdoor sectional... that I am in love with. This photo is a little wonky because I put a random stool on the other side of the coffee table... but that was me trying to visualize what chairs I should get to go across from the sectional. 

So up next on our to do list for the deck...

Painting these doors... haven't landed on a color. Considering light grey because I have that paint here and it would be free...
I also want a larger light fixture... so looking for something to replace that.

See how our sectional covers up the non working side of the french doors? It bugs me. but that's where the hubs wanted it...and sometimes I let him win. so that way he is happy and if I decide to paint those doors a bright yellow.. he will throw less of a fit. Pick your battle girls... :)

Oh and I should mention.... we hung the swing..  and by we... I mean... Jer :)

Not gonna lie... that swing makes me giddy. I am hoping to fill in under the deck with some pretty plants and add a very short stone pathway to my swing... however.. I am too short... so i might need a little step stool for that swing too..

So did you finish up any outdoor projects while the weather was behaving???

Deck Day 2 - We almost have stairs. Almost

Well... after we power washed the deck... and got the patio going. Our main concern was getting the stairs to go from our deck to our patio, which was a much more expensive project than I thought. Luckily, between my dad and my step dad... they have some handy friends that are usually willing to do some extra side work for cash... otherwise I do not have a clue what I would do. Because the materials of redoing the stairs alone was almost 1000 bucks. Seriously! Crazy! Maybe I am in my own world.. but I was blown away that this was so expensive. But we needed to do it.. so I had to suck it up.. and get over it. So if anyone has to do a project like this, do not live in fairytale land like I did. I was thinking 300 bucks... that should be enough. WRONG! And then not to mention the overwhelming fear that I am spending all of this money on getting an outdoor space for us to use as a family... just for the gosh darn rain to never end.

Okay rant over... continue

So now that we will have stairs... and a few boards on our deck we had to replace. and you are suppose to wait a year before staining exterior wood for the first time. I do not think we will stain the deck this year. I am wondering if I can put Thompson water seal on all of it though? Anyone know? Feel free to tell me please!

So Here is what our deck was looking like while the patio was being worked on (you can see it on the left in this photo)



see that big boarded off section up there :) well that's where our stairs use to be. and they went straight down. and that wasn't working. because well where they ended and the patio began.. it looked silly. So we decided we wanted the stairs to come off the back of the deck.. come down to a landing and then switch directions so that they landed on the patio.

So after day 1... Brian and Jerry did a lot. Here we are after one day


Side note * Please don't mind the chaos that is my yard right now. My neighbors have to hate us... but its not our fault. I hate mother nature. Because our patio cannot get finished until we have about 72 hours of no rain. And that is never happening. Tonight will mark 72 hours since our last rain.. and Surprise Surprise... they are calling for rain tonight and tomorrow morning. so the waiting game will begin all over again.  These poor people.... actually poor us. I mean, if my neighbors have guests over this week... I am pretty sure we will be talked about... we have a trailer with pavers laying in our yard, unfinished deck stairs, kid stuff pressed against the side of our house (so that it is not in the way of the guys putting in the patio) I mean... its chaotic.
Come on Mother Nature. Cut me a break. I am begging you.

So not bad after one day of them working. These outdoor projects are fun for me. I go to work, come home and magically stuff just keeps getting done. It's fabulous.

Is the rain putting a damper on anyone else's plans? Can you all cross my fingers for 4 whole days of no rain so we can put in a patio... and maybe bring out patio furniture out of storage at some point this summer? That would be nice.