The Painted Deck (Finally!)

One of our first projects when we moved in was fixing the deck so it was safe for kids. Fast forward to almost two years later and we finally painted it. The weather has been better for painting and I couldn't stand the deck the way it was any longer.

I spend 3 hours scrubbing the dirt off the deck and the mold off the posts (since it took us so long to paint that part). I just used TSP, bleach, and water.  That was Thursday night. Friday I went to Sherwin Williams to get "Super Deck" paint so I could paint it all Saturday. The guy was nice enough to tell me of an upcoming sale with 40%off all paints. So I had it mixed up and waited to pick it up one week later when the sale was on. The only trick after that was keeping the deck clean for a week after all that hard scrubbing. It stayed pretty clean but on Friday I had Cameron power wash it off just get the last of the dirt off.

On to the good part, pictures...

 Here is a before. It looked so horrible!

 The boys earned some play money by helping.

Before and Afters:

 Before

 After. I had it color matched to Behr's "Mossy Oak". We are going to paint our house the same color soon. Its a little darker and warmer than what is on their now.

 Before

 After

 Before

 After

 

Before

 After. You can see the test color on the house. 

 Before

 After

I don't know how we lasted so long the way it was. Cameron was sitting behind me on the couch as I was uploading these pictures and saying how disgusting it looked. He was so used to it, he didn't notice how bad it was. I was like yeah, we had a birthday party for Kian and had people over and it looked like that. And he was like "oh nooo!"

I'm kind of glad he realized that, because I'm always the only one who is embarrassed about the condition of the house! Only 247 projects to go until it's not embarrassing anymore :)

Garden Update- August

 {Whoops! I wrote this post last month and realized I never posted. Better late than never!}

The kids have affectionately started calling the garden the "Garden Jungle". And rightly so, as it literally has become a sea of overgrown green plants.

 As you may remember, I was going to experiment growing pumpkin up a trellis. Truth be told, it grew too well as it took over the entire garden. Well that and pumpkins just take up a ton of space. I recently cut it all back but took these pictures prior to that.

 My sweet potatoes decided to run a muck as well but I use sweet potatoes all the time so I don't have the heart to cut them out of my aisles. I hope I get a bunch!

(They are in the back bed in this picture)
Now you can see why garden #2 is necessary. I like to grow too many things.

Here's one of the pumpkins. They stay green and have been pretty squash bug resistant.

I planted this bed of raspberries this year and they are producing now. They really need a trellis but with the million other projects we have, we haven't built one yet.

The kids eat them as fast as they come!

And it was all yellow

I've been waiting until the perfect painting weather came along to paint our front door. A few weeks ago, it was time! I normally would try 5 swatches of paint to test but I knew I wanted yellow and I not a super bright yellow. I went with more of a buttercream yellow that I saw on the "Exterior House Colors" book for Behr at Home Depot.

We took the door off and I painted over the previous blue color with four thin coats. The we flipped it over and painted the other side too. It was at this point that I started to freak out because it was way too light. Cam told me to wait till we got it reattached to the door then decide if we need to get a darker yellow (more like a gold). It actually got too cold and the paint wouldn't dry as fast as we needed to get the door back on so we could sleep. Consequently, we moved the door into the garage and I blow dried it dry, then added the last coat.

Cam put the door on and that was a whole other story. Long story short, the door is steel and when he had it propped up against the wall it tipped over and feel into the opposite wall leaving a HUGE hole in the sheet rock and chipping the light switch. We patched it up but you can still see it in the photos.

 Here's the interior door with old floors and baseboards

 Here it is new baseboards and door trim. 

And here is the after. I ended up liking the color on the interior. The color is called "Early Harvest" by Behr. We just spray painted door knob, lock, and hinges and oil rubbed bronze.

 Here's the exterior right before painting.

And here it is now. Cam was right, once we got it up the color looked darker and better with the house than I thought. Whew. I love it now!

Dining Room- baseboards and pictures

 Here's another way before picture. Dining room is in the same room as the living

Here wall paper is off and popcorn ceiling gone.

 Here it is now. We are on the hunt for a table/ thinking about making our own. I'm not sure what we will do yet. I have a new fixture in mind for the ceiling but I'm waiting for the table first. Pictures on the left are recent portraits of the kids and their baby pictures underneath. The frames were just cheap $3 front load ones from Walmart. I'm happy with how they look for that cheap! As you can see in the photo we still need to finish up the corner baseboard that goes into the kitchen. I painted the windowsill in here too.

On the opposite wall I have a print from a favorite artist, who I also got to take a workshop from, Mike Malm. It's small but I love it.

Baseboards and New Shelves- Living Room

Here are some before and afters with baseboards finally installed. I decided I can do one room at a time, so first up- the living room.

 A way before shot. I took this during our home inspection- This is a fun reminder of how far it's come!

 After painting walls

After putting up pictures

 New baseboards installed! Yay. Cameron sprayed them before installing which was a huge time saver. Also, I primed and painted the window casing and window seat. All the trim is BM Advance in white dove.

Some of the other changes I've done in the living room are a new family picture (thanks to my Dad for taking it!) up there in the frame, plant, and yellow throw. The yellow throw makes me smile every time I see it. It's so cheerful! I think I need more yellow things. I picked that up from home goods. The plant is a fiddle leaf from Home Depot. I've been wanting one forever but never saw them at Lowes where I normally go. I toyed with buying a fake one for practicality (I hear they are hard to grow) but the faux ones that look real are $250. I was walking through plants at the Home Depot one day and saw the real deal for $16 on sale!! Score! I figure I (or the kids) could kill a lot of them before it would add up to the fake for $250.

 Here is a good floor picture. This is most accurate to what they look like in real life. You can get a peak at my new shelves in the mirror.

 Here is the before for the shelves. Sorry I forgot to get a true before! Cameron started with middle shelf brackets. The unfinished board isn't attached, we just put it up there to make sure everything was level.

After. The shelves are 2x10x10's cut in half. Cameron sanded them and I stained and polyed them. I already had some Minwax dark walnut which matched the floors. Brackets went up first, then shelves. Brackets are from home depot. Oh and I had to move my imac upstairs since Cruz now has spelling homework on the computer. Crazy!

I'm also excited I finally get to do more seasonal decorating because I have shelves. Summer's not over but I was too excited and decorated for fall with a pumpkin, acorn, and pine cones.

Also Cam did a good job with baseboards here. See that intake vent? He carved the baseboard around it. I think it turned out awesome.

Next week dining room pictures... should give you a better view of baseboards since there isn't any furniture in there!!