My Green(er) Thumb

Now that the patio is 99% done, I have turned my attention to yard work, gardening, and all things that require a green thumb.

YARD WORK
1)  We need to remove the moss.  Hubs and I bought some moss removal material
2)  Mulch mulch
3)  Aerate the yard
4)  Seed and fertilize the yard (probably late April) in the hopes that some type of grass will grow

GARDENING / ETC
1)  I reallllly want to start a garden, but I am not sure if we will have the time.  We are trying to determine the best spot to put our garden so that all our little plants get enough sun. Since the leaves haven't come out yet on the trees, this makes it a little trick.  Especially since we have 4 large trees in the backyard
2)  Make a compost bin or buy a tumbler.  Best way to reduce waste!

{via electrictreehouse}

{via apartmenttherapy}

{Unsure}

3)  Build a Pallet Garden ... maybe for herbs?

{via lifeonthebalcony}

{via dearlydee.blogspot.com}

Show Me Some Sun, Sand, & Water

I am ready for a vacation.  Preferably to the Carribean, where we can relax, sip come cocktails, and soak up some sun.  Something like this looks nice.

{via national geographic}

Patio Progress - Part 4

I apologize for the minimal posting (as in 1 post) last week.  I went out of town for work on Wednesday and Thursday, had meetings and catch-up on Friday, and worked Saturday.  Needless to say that meant zero time for blogging.  What is sad about this fact is that we accomplished so much last weekend on the patio.  To the point of it being 98% complete!

Lets see ...
We came home from seeing Gram in PA on Saturday afternoon ready to work with a belly full of yummy pancakes and sausage from the Maple Festival.  We wasted no time and started prepping for a full day of working planned for Sunday.

Sunday kinda went like this -
1)  add sand base, level, add pavers, repeat

2)  hubs takes trips to Home Depot to re-stock supplies; I stay behind and work my butt off
3)  glue-on edging pavers at retaining wall and stairs

4)  install edge strips
5)  work on stairs and the 'mud pit' (aka the well at the bottom of the stairs that gets extremely muddy when it rains and causes a 'mud pet'

You can see in the 'mud pit' pic above where we needed to add retaining wall and edging paver caps.

6)  sand pavers, vibrate pavers, repeat.  And, ta da ...

We literally worked from 8 AM till 7 PM on Sunday.  But, it was so worth it!  We were left with correcting some 'mistakes' and finishing our edging pavers and strips.  Our mistake(s) included not correctly edging the pavers around the planting bed leaving ample opportunity for the sand based to wash out from under our pavers during rain.  We fixed that yesterday (pics to follow).

On Saturday though, we could finally enjoy a little patio sitting after work (yes, we both worked on Saturday).  We started a fire in the fire pit, ate cheeseburgers, had some cocktails, and made smores!

Grouper obsessed about his ball.

Dreaming of Ski Season

It is flurrying outside my window right now.  What is up with March snow.  Oh, how I wish this white precipitation would have come in January and February.  I would have definitely welcomed 6" or more!  What this snow has caused = day dreaming about hittin' the slopes in CO or UT + gathering art ideas for our office that we have subconciously/conciously dedicated to skiing.

Some items I would love to add include:

1.  A Gray Malin 'A la Montagne' Series piece of art.  They often pop up on sale on One Kings Lane (https://www.onekingslane.com/sales/20369)

2.  Some DIY Ski Signs (I don't have references for these signs ... bad blogger ... but they are likely from a Joss & Main or One Kings Lane sale).

Gallery Wall Reveal

This past Saturday I got to it and hung plenty of pics around the house to include those for our Gallery Wall.

A little history.  I first thought I wanted to do a gallery wall full of different size and color frames; then I decided that maybe something more uniform would look best; but ultimately changed my mind back to a non-uniform gallery wall.

What a uniform gallery wall would have looked like 

What our mix-matched gallery wall looks like

The photos in our gallery wall are all special to us - two are scenes from our wedding, two are us from our wedding, one of Grouper as a pup, one from skiing, a freebie art piece from the mail of two people in front of Burruss Hall at VT, and a J+T pic.

It is what you see right when you walk in the door.  Below shows how the gallery wall is oriented with our living room.

And, what you may have noticed to the right of the couch is... our new chair!  That also came (finally) from C&B on Saturday too.

It is honestly the perfect size for our living room.  I was really worried that our furniture would take up too much space in our awkward shaped living room.  But, it all really worked out perfectly.  Go me on the design front!

Now, I have to find a cool piece of art or mirror for behind the couch.  Still looking.  And, that itsy bitsy lamp needs to go. 

Patio Progress - Part 3

My last post showed you progress on our retaining wall construction and backfill for our patio.  Last weekend we also tackled more steps on our patio to-do list.

1.  We finished our excavating/backfill process, which basically meant taking dirt from the right side of the yard (as you see it in the pic below) and placing it to the right of the wall.  You can see at the planting bed (where Grouper is standing) how the yard sloped before.  We placed the wall where the largest slope occurred and flattened it out where the patio was going.  We then checked to see how level the ground was - we did want some slope to the patio for drainage, but didn't want anything drastic.

2.  Once the yard seemed somewhat level, we did some Redneck compacting - used a good ole F-150 to make sure our ground was compacted well.  This ensures any settling of the patio is kept to a minimum.  

3.  Then it was time to place around 2" of 21A stone for our base course.  21A stone is pretty much self compacting and provides a foundation for the patio.  It took us 2 tons of stone that we hand shoveled and placed from out of the back of the truck, which = sore arms.  We kept checking how level our patio was.  

4.  We also worked on the stairs up to the patio.  

5.  Headed to Home Depot to order our pavers and ... bought a Grill!  Of course we tried our new grill out and made cheeseburgers that night, yum :)  

 So, our pavers were scheduled for delivery today, Wednesday.  Home Depot admitted that their delivery service is sub-par.  But 4 pallets of pavers that could only be transported by an F-150 half a pallet a time was just not going to work.  We were supposed to get a call 1 hour ahead of the delivery time.  What really happened today ... I got a call from a Bulgarian driver whose English was rough 10 minutes before the delivery.  Strike 1.  He asked if the address was correct; it wasn't, it was our old address!  Strike 2.  I corrected him and gave him our new address.  He went to put it in his GPS, but kept confusing a 'T' with a 'P'.  He said he couldn't find the address, but was going to deliver it anyways.  What?  I asked quite frankly 'how can you deliver something to an address you don't know'. His response 'that's my job, I figure out where to deliver things'.  Huh?  Strike 3.  Panicked, I hopped in my car and headed home to make sure our delivery made it safe and sound.  I got a call about 5 minutes into the trip home from his boss.  He confirmed that our road with a 'T' existed.  I was already on my way so decided to make sure this delivery really happened.  I got home right when he was about to pack up and leave.  But wait a minute ... it was the wrong material!  It was 1.5 pallets 0.5 of it retaining wall pavers and 1 pallet of brick sized pavers.  Not even close to what we ordered  - which was 4 pallets of 1 type of 6"x12" pavers.  Strike 4, shouldn't they already be out?  Anyways, I got it all straightened out with Home Depot and we should be receiving the correct material tomorrow.  Fingers crossed.

Gallery Wall Items

I will share the progress I made on our gallery wall this past weekend sometime this week, but in the meantime, I have been brainstorming gallery wall additions to include...

1.  A lovely portrait of Grouper that I will DIY, kinda like this:

From ElizaBCrafts etsy shop

2.  An ode to the Commonwealth of VA - where we both grew up, went to school, met, and have lived

From 'delovelyArts' etsy shop

Patio Progress - Part 1.5 & 2

Hubs was sick last weekend, but that didn't stop us me from being super productive.  I woke up super early on Saturday, took the dog out and immediately started reconstructing our retaining wall that tipped over earlier during the week.  We headed to Sisler's Stone to purchase some 57 stone backfill material, back filled the first three courses of the wall with it and then back filled as much of the wall as possible with dirt.  As you can see, Grouper was such a great 'help' - if you call pouncing on his ball and nudging it between the wall and ground 'help'.

Sunday morning Hubs and I tackled the flagstone wall around the planting bed, transplanted an azalea bush that will be in the way of our patio, completed slightly more backfill, and then called it quits.

Kitchen Update Progress

Last weekend was full of various home to-do items.  Considering the Hubs was sick, I was anxious to keep myself busy in lieu of sticking to the couch.

Progress was made on starting the kitchen update process.

First, I tested BM's Dove White and Kendall Charcoal on our cabinets.  I love the colors... it provides the contrast against everything else, especially the tile floor, that I was looking for.

Test of BM's Dove White and Kendall Charcoal

Second, I took off all the cabinet pulls and the 'country trim' at the top of the cabinets.  (Excuse the mess....)

Here is what it looked like before - notice the lattice trim at the top of the cabinets, the country hardware, and the trim piece over top of the sink - all gone!

 

Outside My Window

Outside my window right now it is snowing!  We haven't seen snow, besides some flurries, all season.  I have been patiently waiting all winter and now I have my snow.  Winter storm Saturn... Bring it!

In other news, on Monday night I noticed this faint black line in the background of my new iPad.  Hubs (kinda) saw it too.  I asked him if I was crazy to take it back and get a new one.  He said 'whatever makes you happy', which I am sure is code for 'you are kinda silly'.  I headed back to the Apple store on Tuesday during lunch.  Showed the guy the faint black line, he didn't really see it, took it to a younger guy who kinda saw it.  I glanced their direction to see them kinda chuckle at the situation.  But hey, we just spent $800 on this thing and I am not going to be bugged by a faint black line.  Truth be told, the guy was really nice about it.  He said that 'you have to live with it, so you better be happy with it'.  He even did a merchandise swap instead of a warranty issue so that it doesn't count against me (I guess they keep track).

So, I am with a brand new iPad, again :)

Happy 29th to Me

I am a year older.. and a year closer to 30.  Whoa.  Happy 29th Birthday to Me!

Monday Birthdays are 'interesting'; I guess that is the right word.  I couldn't bear waiting to celebrate my birthday on Monday all weekend.  Hence, Hubs and I did birthday activities throughout the weekend.  Unfortunately, Hubs was not feeling great (another cold, whomp whomp), but that didn't stop us!
Saturday - headed out to dinner at Sweet Water Tavern
Sunday - opened Birthday Eve Presents.  An iPad from Hubs and money from the parents that I spent at Target already for picture frames for our Gallery Wall

Love my iPad

Gallery Wall Pictures Ready to Hang

We also headed to our new movie theatre to see Silver Linings Playbook which was fantastic.  It was a great way to spend a cold Sunday with a sick Hubs.  And, we watched Argo Sunday night, another great movie, from the seat of our couch.

Today, the actual day of my birth, I am at work.  Hoping to be able to leave slightly early to relax and maybe hang the pictures for my gallery wall.