Creative Do-It-Yourself Ideas and Inspiration for Your House and Family. Currently making _______________.
July and August have been a little crazy, to say the least. Here’s a little update to where we are in assessing the storm damage and moving forward with repairs.
Things might look bad, but really it’s nothing compared to the hurricane damage people in Texas are experiencing, so we’re counting our blessings. If you have the means to support them financially or give blood, just do a quick google search for the best organizations to provide relief.
Mother nature can be twisted, indeed. This summer will definitely go down in the history books as the summer of twin tornados. It’s the talk of the town. They officially confirmed there were two F1’s that did some pretty destructive work. We suffered a tree through the roof, but fared a lot better than some. Luckily everyone was okay! Since we took a bunch of photos and videos for insurance purposes, we might as well share ’em.
While Joe was busy installing his in-ground sprinkler system, I took up a project of my own – the front porch area. I’m proud to say I did this project entirely myself in a couple days’ time. Granted, it was way easier than installing a whole irrigation system, but I still feel good about it.
This project goes down in the books as not a Pinterest fail! In fact, we love the finished product. It was an overall inexpensive, quick and EASY fix for our quirky little kitchen. I’ll tell you some of the tips I learned and show you my stenciling technique below. I’ll also share what to consider before stenciling your own floor, along with some before-and-after pics.
So here’s the dilemma. We have an eye sore of a floor in the kitchen. And that’s the next big room on our project bucket list. But the entire kitchen overhaul might not happen for awhile, so I’m hoping to paint the floor to make it work in the meantime. I have everything – the paint, stencil, rollers and sealer. But I’m completely torn between two paint options.
It’s official! We’re finished with the movie room. Or at least, finished for now. Truth be told, most of the work was done towards the end of last year, but all the finishing touches took some time. Instead of posting a play-by-play like we did with the big bathroom remodel, this time around we thought it would be fun to do one big reveal.
Enter if you dare.
My trees are all abloom! This is proving to be the perfect low-maintenance tree I’d hoped for back when we planted all three of them in August. These dainty white flowers are just poking their heads out. I’m so relieved they survived their first Minnesota winter, albeit a mild one. There’s a one year warranty in case they didn’t, but the fact that I didn’t need to use it gives this brown thumb a vote of confidence.
But wait, there’s more. With the $500 free plant grant, we had some extra spending money left after buying our trees, so we went wild and got some flowers and plants too!
We always run into this problem of not having enough seating around the bonfire. We have a handful of beach chairs on hand, but when we have an impromptu fire night, we’re left scrambling. I think I stumbled on the perfect solution. And they are actually comfortable! I plan to make a whole bunch more.
Happy Arbor Day! Do you like free plants? Then this post is for you. Showing our habitat some love today with this front yard project. I wish I had some before pictures for you — I’ve looked high and low, but can’t find any — so you’ll just have to take my word when I tell you how badly our front yard was in need of some landscaping. This is a project we actually tackled in the fall, but the fruits of our labor are finally starting to show!
In light of Earth Day, we have some outdoor updates to share. (Although Earth Day should definitely be everyday.) We are hitting spring in full force to tackle the outdoors that are in much need of some TCL. Here’s a list of outdoor projects that are top of mind: