Yessiree bob, I just got back from a long weekend in Chicago to see my sister Sarah graduate college (*sniff, sniff - it's crazy how fast they grow up) ;) Here's the smiling graduate now...
Aww, look at her all studious and stuff, with honors and all :)
Here's the fam. From left to right: Mom, Sarah and me
On Sunday the sis, who was at school in Illinois on a soccer scholarship - I know, smart AND athletic, right?! :) ran a HALF MARATHON downtown. That's 13.1 miles folks - CRAZY! In my eyes anyway :) It was a craptastic day weatherwise, with the temp in the 30s and rain and wind like you wouldn't believe...well, unless you're reading this and you live in Chicago, then I suppose you would believe it.
Here's Sarah all ready to go, so perky and chipper and excited...this is before she got totally drenched :)
Since the start of the race was at the Navy Pier, there was a group of sailors playing upbeat parade-type songs on all kinds of instruments (see that tuba?!) to start things off:
Here's Sarah again, this time looking like she might be second-guessing her decision :)
Here she is at the starting line:
She was in the first quarter of the line (there were thousands of people in this race - I forget exactly how many now). Here's a shot of alllllllll the other peeps lined up behind her:
Here's Sarah at the halfway mark, around mile 7.5. Pretty sure she was totally soaked by then. I was and I was just watching! :)
And here she is just after she crossed the finish!
Since we were all soaked to the bone by the time she finished (which was in 2 hrs, 10min - AWESOME for her first race EVER in such horrible weather!) none of us were in the mood to sight-see. So here are some pictures from our very first trip out there 4 years ago when she was a freshman...and the day was much nicer :)
We had taken the train into the city:
Saw the Navy Pier:
Rode a FUN trolley car!
And took in the view from the top of the Sear's tower:
We had such a fun time and made some GREAT memories. She's staying out there to look for a job, this summer and into next year, so if you'd like to hire THE best physical education teacher/soccer coach in the world and you're in a Chicago-area school district, she's your gal. Feel free to contact me and I'll put you in touch with her ;)
Ding dong, the landscaping's done...well, ALMOST! Still have to put a few more pots in the ground and mulch, but other than that I worked really hard a few weeks ago turning our nothin-but-a-lotta-fence-in-your-face backyard from this...
Into this!
I planted four, 6ft. arborvitae evenly spaced across the back, so that when they grow taller than our 6ft privacy fence, they'll hide some of the park's tennis backboard and fencing that you can see now (I actually bought 6 of the arborvitae and the other two are planted closer to the house, one on each side of the right and left of our fence for a little privacy from our neighbor's raised porches - yeah, they can see and snoop if they wished right down into our patio and backyard :/ But hopefully not so much after these puppies grow!). Also, I planted some boxwood-looking shrubs (can't remember their real name now) and other perennials that'll keep our backyard looking perty all year round :)
In the left corner, I planted a non-fruit bearing pear tree (now I can put a partridge in it at Christmas and really mean it when I sing that song! :) - cue eye roll from husband, haha :) because it'll only get, maximum, 25 feet tall and the base won't get much bigger in diameter than 1-2 feet...perfect! I needed something that loves sun (which this pear tree does) and would cover up the view of that unsightly 10 or 12 ft. chainlink park fence that shows above our shorter, 6ft. privacy fence (which it will when he grows up) - yay!
Remember this side with the grill and fire pit?
It still looks like that, only now, it's a little more lush:
I have plans to eventually create a patio of pavers there to put the grill, firepit, and chairs on, but for now, it works.
Here's the right corner of our back porch where I transferred some flagstone that used to be in the front. Eventually we'd like to put a patio here too for some lounge chairs, ideal for chillin out and relaxin.
Oh, and apparently, all my hard work made Winston reeeaaaally thirsty :)
Anyone else out there been landscaping or have plans to something similar? I suppose it is the season!
Well, I did, even if I shouldn't have. And guess what...
I love it!
It's the interior of our front door, and now it matches the rest of our living room's hardware finish:
It's been painted like this for about a year now and it's held up surprisingly well.
Sorry to have been MIA lately...it's been a busy Spring. I was super busy with yardwork and landscaping our no-longer-bare backyard (pics to come!), then last weekend we traveled to my mom's for Easter, and this past weekend we flew to Oklahoma for a wedding - phew!
Here's a photo of the groom and his blushing bride entering the reception hall - aren't they cute?! And is she not absolutely STUNNING?!
So needless to say, I've been a little tired from all my outdoor work and travel. BUT a resurgence of more blogs posts feels like it's on the horizon - thanks for you patience and I appreciate you flying reading Storm Cloud Nine :)
First I'd like to start off with a big 'THANK YOU!' to my readers who left such lovely words of affirmation on my last post about turning the sunroom into an open porch. It was a great confidence and motivation booster - more than you know! :) Thanks again!
In in my last post about the back porch I mentioned wanting to make the "new" space an area to relax, dine and entertain. We had the 'relax' part covered since I'd snagged two Teak rocking chairs from Christmas Tree Shops (anyone else LOVE that store?!).
So as for the dining and entertaining aspect of the porch, this sad, plastic table and chair set seen in the middle of our yard here just wasn't cutting it on our porch. It's from my single, apartment-renting days when that's all that fit on my apartment's small patio.
Enter Craigslist :) I found a desk listed for sale on CL and went to check it out. It had all the lines I wanted (very farm table style) but the top was a formica/particle board type product and the entire thing was grey/blue.
(This is where one would normally insert a before picture of said desk, but as you probably know, I was too excited to get started working on the thing and forgot to snap one)
:)
The seller was asking $40 but I talked him down to $20 since I new I'd have more costs incurred revamping the thing. He agreed on $20 and my new patio table came home with me! :)
Once I had the table home I was brainstorming ideas and had a moment of brilliance (those don't happen very often) :) I thought, "lemme see if I can remove the top and replace it with boards from the hardware store, then paint it a different color." And that's exactly what I did. The top was secured with screws in each of the table's four corners, so I unscrewed them and painted the body in black exterior paint that I happened to get for free from last year's neighborhood yard sale - Love it!
In the photo above you can see the underside of the top that's leaning against the porch post. That grey/blue color was what the whole piece used to look like.
I didn't sand the apron or legs of the table prior to painting because I knew this piece was old...like maybe 1950s old...like when they still used lead paint old. So to be safe I just painted right over top of everything. When all was said and done, I did lightly (and with a sanding mask) distress the edges with a sanding block to give it that time-worn look.
This photo shows where the drawer goes:
Aside from the top, which I'll show you momentarily, this is my FAVORITE part of the table.
Look at that beautiful, original hardware! SWOON! :)
Okay, so here are the boards I picked up. I can't remember if it was at Lowe's or Home Depot anymore since I did this project last summer, but they're 1x12s, about 6 feet long. They were the PERFECT length! I didn't need to do ANY cutting - that's my kind of project :)
I bought three boards at 11 bucks a board for a total lumber cost of $33.
At this point my husband joined in the project - cuz he's smart and knew this was the fun part ;) - and once we glued and nailed them into the base, we scratched and dented up the boards using a hammer, screwdriver, and some nails for "wormholes" and stained it with some left-over stain we had in the basement.
VOILA!
(It's hard to see the scratches & dings in this photo but they're nicely highlighted after we added coats of polyurethane)
The next step we took was adding about 4 protective top coats of semi-gloss polyurethane we already had on hand. We allowed 3-4 hours dry time between each coat.
Sorry I don't have a finished product photo after the polyurethane step. I'll have to remember to take one and post it later. But I'll end on this note: Our total cost for this project including the table and lumber was only $53!
After we put in our fence, the next project on our DIY list was to revamp this walled-in sunroom. For being a 'sunroom' it hardly let any sunlight in at all, as well as hardly any fresh air so in the summer it was absolutely stifling.
So hubby and I set out to make it a porch instead. We took off the glass shades and screens, and then ripped off the aluminum doors and paneling. Here's everything we took off, in a big pile ready to be recycled:
We took it all to a local metal recycling place and were surprised at the cash amount we received for the aluminu. We're glad we did that (for both our planet and our wallet), as opposed to just chucking it. See, recycling pays - litterally! :)
And here's the result of the demo:
Much more open and inviting! :)
Mike had been working out in this space (see his weight bench set?) So he moved it to the basement and set up his workout space there.
Here's the before and after, one more time:
The next thing on our list was to make this porch a place to eat, entertain and relax outside. More on that to come later, but here's a sneak peak...
Good Wednesday morning all! It's Day 3 of this week's themed posts about our home's back yard.
Today you get to see the Before and After total transformation of how we went from this:
To this! :)
If you're just joining us, Monday I showed you how this time last year we cleared the yard of forsythia bushes, lilac trees, and a gate to nowhere. Tuesday I showed you how we took down a crumbling wood fence and dismantled an old shed with a little 4 wheel drive action :)
Also yesterday I left you with this sneak peak of a photo of our fencing:
So here's how Project Build a Fence went. First decided on the type of fencing we wanted. With a 100lb. Weimaraner who likes to put his paws up on things, we knew we needed a 6' privacy-style fence.
As for deciding on fencing product, we chose composite (a wood and plastic mixture) because 1- we didn't want the required maintenence that comes with an all wood fence, 2- metal fencing was out of the question due to its cost, 3-we didn't care for white or beige (really the only color choices) vinyl that over time can turn green or show dirt, plus we heard vinyl fencing can split or crack easily like if the lawnmower were to spit a rock out a rock at it, and 4- we wanted something more aesthetically pleasing than chain link fencing.
So we went with the Woodshades Brand of composite fencing from Lowes in the Dog-ear style and Barnwood color:
Composite has the rich look of wood with low maintenance, it won't rot, split or crack. Plus it has a 20 year limited warranty. Sold :)
Based on the dimensions of our yard, we calculated how many panels, posts, cement bags, and gates kits (we put in two - one in the back leading to the park, and one at the side of the house leading to and from the back yard) we needed and placed our order.
Then when it all arrived we rented a 2-man auger from a local machinery-for-rent kind of place that we used to drill our post holes. It looked like this:
Then we measured according to the width of the panels (6ft wide) and marked each spot where we used the auger to drill our holes (about 3 feet deep). The auger-drilled holes are shown the photo below (except that in this photo our holes weren't spaced exactly 6' apart because we were ending at the side of the house and needed less than that to finish out the row).
If you've never used an auger before, here's a tip my husband would give you: Prepare to be sore :) If I had taken a video of the hole-drilling process, here's what it would've looked like:
Do you see all the work they did just for that one hole? My husband and our neighbors Dave and Mike did that for more than 40 post holes. 40 HOLES! ouch. I'm thankful we had the guys helping because there's no way I would've been able to do that. My only responsibility with the auger was pulling the engine's start cord (just like on a lawnmower) while the guys stood braced for the spinning action of the giant drill bit.
After all the holes were dug we started with setting the first post in concrete in the back left corner of the yard. Then we slowly worked our way outward in a reverse 'V' fashion doing a panel and post on the back line, then a panel and post on the left line, and so on, like so:
Each panel has 3 horizontal planks that are exposed at the ends (you can see them in the panel photo 5 pics above) and those fit right into the post holes shown in the example below:
Here's a shot of the back line completed up to the gate:
(You can see that there's much more space under the fence closer to the the gate than there is at the starting left corner. That's because there's a slight negative grade in the slope of our yard from left to right. We solved this issue by bringing in a load of dirt fill and shoveled it under and around the gap.)
And here are shots of the left side done from the back corner up to the front gate:
As we went along, we used 2x4s at strategic posts (as seen in the above and below photos) to serve as extra support while the concrete set in the post holes.
Here's a shot of ours and our neighbor's front gate kits assembled and installed:
(Ours is on the right and our neighbor's is on the left. That weird discoloring was just from that panel being wet, once it dried it wasn't noticeable.)
Here's a wide shot of the back and left sides done:
And below is the right side before we put any posts and panels in:
You can see the all the holes we dug and if you look close enough, you'll see the white string line our neighbor Mike set up. Mike's a contractor and is very knowledgable about fence building. The line is there (tethered to a stake in the ground, from the back corner to the front) as a guide so when we set our posts they were all touching the line making a straight and level row of finished fencing. Of course we also used a level to double check that everything was straight and plumb.
Also in the photo above, can you see all those rocks piled in front of the gate? Those were some doozies we came across while augering. Every time the drill bit hit one, it was not a fun time digging it out :/
BUT as you'll see in the completed fence photo below we put all those rocks to good use:
We used them around our fire pit! It worked great. And as you can see, Winston loves running around at hyperspeed in his new back yard :) And after all our hard work, we sure love it too!
Let's have one more look at the before and after.
Before:
After:
Thanks for coming along on this trip down memory lane. It was a fun ride :)
If you stay tuned, later I'll show you what me and hubs did with this sunroom portion of our back porch.
Anyone else take on a backyard, DIY fencing project? Let's commiserate! :)
Linking up to Thrifty Decor Chick's Before and After Party!
