New Wooden Swing 2022

 

 

 

 

 

Support beams - early 2016

        We had some strong winds that destabilized our fence. My dad and hubby put up a few temporary support beams. My dad has had to do the same to his fence a few times so he knew what to do. Eventually we will have to bite the bullet and get a new fence done by professionals, but honestly, we have more important things to do. I'm so thankful for the resourcefulness and wisdom my dad has when it comes to fixing things. It's slowly rubbing off on us! :-)

           My dad and hubby have also had to replace several fence boards on the other side of the house because the neighbor's dogs behind us keep popping them off in their attempts to fight my dogs. Thankfully when they have successfully managed to get into our yard they were all bark and no bite. They actually just played and ran around with my dogs. And when I stomped my foot and pointed at the hole they had dug and belly crawled through and said, "Go home!" they obeyed immediately LOL. But it doesn't mean replacing boards and blocking the dogs' view of each other doesn't get frustrating. I guess interacting with each other is the highlight of all of our dogs' day, so whatever makes them happy! lol

My dad measuring and cutting beams.

my dad giving out instructions

Hubby and my Dad

Dad making sure everything secure and stable

FlashBack: Painting deck 2013

      My dad and hubby painted our deck a few years ago. I found these pictures while updating my new computer and realized I had forgotten to share them.

Protecting our deck from the outside elements.

picking between several colors. We went with a grayish taupe (right).

 Finished! The boards across the bottom of the deck are there to keep the dogs from playing under the deck. Eventually I want to put something nicer, but for now it's working.

Our backyard looks so different from this picture now.

FlashBack: Fence

        Flash back to a few years ago when my dad helped us stabilize our fence, basically replacing our side. If we didn't have dogs we may not have bothered with it. I'm so thankful for the love and support of my parents and all the memories we collect together. My dad is really handy and can do many things Slowly hubby was learning to use my dad's collection of power tools and such.

 My mom decided she wanted to try out some of the power tools LOL

 I'm glad I caught this on camera!

 Our backyard before we fixed the deck 

No plants yet and grass is dead!

 

My dad did great! The fence is still standing today!

Tree trimming

       Nothing new lately. We haven't bought anything new for the house or started any new projects. It's been a bit slow. Hubby was laid off at the end of April, and found a job in June. I want to paint the outside of our back door and french doors in the dinning room. We also have the fireplace to tile. But we aren't in a rush.

       Today my dad came over and helped us trim our trees. He helped us cut some of the branches off our roof, and then helped us cut some branches in the back yard to make space for our growing Crepe Myrtle. 

      It's been extremely hot. Car temp read 105 degrees today. It's taken commitment to keep the grass alive. I'm out at least every other day setting up the sprinklers for an hour in each section. You'd think with all this watering our grass would be thriving and green, but it looks like it's one day from death, as you can see in the pictures. It's yellow, patchy and crunchy. I hope we get that heavy rain the forecast promised for tomorrow. July-August are always the hardest months on our plants. 

Dining room updates

 
     Our dining room as been a slow project. We went several years with it being an empty space, then we had only a table; no chairs. Finally, we bought a new light fixture and rug. I'm proud to say our dining room is complete. The only remaining large projects are installing arch molding and replacing our french doors, but that's on the end of our long list of house projects.

I really love the picture frame I purchased from Target.

I haven't filled the three frames yet.

We get lots of sun during the day. This is why we chose black out curtains. They aren't the prettiest curtains but they keep the summer heat out in the afternoon. I usually open them after 3pm when we get lots of shade. <3

   

Our new light fixture from Lowe's and our new rug from Kirklands. 

 

     This is the view from our Kitchen doors. For me, this picture captures the truest colors of our dining room.

My dad teaching hubby how to install the lights and do the wiring.  

     I wonder how long it will take before one of our three dogs has an accident on our new rug lol. I've  mentally prepared myself  and will not freak out. Our main perpetrator has gotten better, or shall I say, mommy has gotten better at letting her out when she notifies me lol. 

 

View of Our dining room in the evenings through our arch way.

Older Dining Room blog post

Before Dining Room PICTURES

Back Patio: Fountain and Chairs

 (My husband has always wanted a fountain, but the ones he liked were kinda pricey. So we found 10+ year old one that someone was giving away for free. It was white and covered in blackish mold, so we washed and painted it Behr's April Mist which is a whitish green color.)

 (Again these were free. Someone was giving away an old white set of whicker chairs. The white wasn't us, plus it was turning green. So we cleaned them and used a painted sprayer to paint them Behr's Cozumel)

 (Before the sloping. Power washing the patio)

 (I love this man!)

 (Prepping the fountain area. First we sloped the area, as I shared in an earlier post. then we sprayed weed killer, laid a weed mat, and for now a flimsy plastic boarder which will be exchanged for something more elegant later down the line. ) 

(Then we filled it with rocks and placed the fountain on a cement slab we had laying around the yard already.)

 

 (A reminder of where we started.) 

 

  (The umbrella finishes it off and adds much needed shade.)

 (We love our little area. It was super cheap and easy to accomplish. So many people neglect their outside space, when they can make it just as enjoyable as an indoor area. Think of it as outside living. Now for a bbq grill!)

( The pink carnations were a cute idea while they lasted, but they all ended up dying. I like the area without them anyway. All we need now are some lights to string across for the evenings.)