DIY tile~ cooling the storage room

We have a small cool storage room under my stairs but it was time to fix a couple of issues.

I store the produce I bottle from our garden in there so it needs to be cold and dark.

It was also a bit of a squeeze through the doorway.

I thought if I took the insulation off the outside walls it would cool off more and I wanted to cover the floor in something. We had used the sticky tiles in our other house and they worked great! This was definitely a project that needed to be done before canning gets going full swing.

I found some nice (but cheap inexpensive) vinyl tile at Home Depot. I didn't have room to empty the storage out completely so I enlisted my boys help and did the job in 3 sections.

 First I started under the stairs. My boys were great helpers at taking out all the empty bottles. Once the tiles were laid they went to work moving the bottles back in place. 

Now for section 2. We had to move my homemade shelves, no easy task mind you. Those babies are He-avy!

Most of the tiles went down nicely. We have to do a bit of cutting but not much. I am not good at that part so thankfully dear hubby indulged me after he got home from work.

Then we finished off with the last little bit, working my way out the door.

The insulation I took off the walls gave me 8 inches more space. I know that doesn't sound like a lot but it was perfect. Now the shelves fit better and my lunch bins easily slid in between the shelf and wall. Remember that tight fit~ yep, no more.

Ahh, that is wonderful! So much better. It's amazing how little things can make big differences.

Now my bottles are no longer right on the cement. Did you know that water bottles can leach the taste of  cement into it. Uck! This is better. I plan on putting my water on pallets as well.

I don't mind the cement walls. They are outside walls and will help to keep the room cooler.

Now for a door and light switch of it's own....

Canvas Awning how to....and a summertime word art.

Now that we have a wonderful deck I made great plans to enjoy family BBQ's on it every evening throughout the summer. My boys love Love LOVE eating outside. Great idea right?! Well, the kicker was dear hubby spends all day working in the desert sun. He said he didn't mind the heat but he just couldn't handle anymore sun. By the time he gets home he just wants to relax in the cool shade. I totally understood. We still need to finish the cross beams for the pergola but that won't really shade much. Our umbrella for the table bit the dust last fall and another umbrella was out of the budget. Instead I found inspiration in the paint section of Home Depot...

(Just a funny side note...pulling into Home Depot one day my sweet 5 year old lamented, "Mom, I don't want to go in that store!!" I asked why and he proceded to tell me, "Because I don't wanna do any crafts or projects!!" Oh, my dear son knows his mom so well. Home Depot is often worse than a craft store for me. Outa the mouth of babes right)

So back to my project (hehehe).....CANVAS!! Yep, canvas. You can get large drop clothes for a fraction of the cost of canvas at the craft store.

We found a large drop cloth (12x15) that I thought would work great. 

The plan was to use pipe to hold the canvas but YIKES that was expensive. It needed to be strong enough to hole the canvas over 15 ft....PVC was to light but conduit just might work. Only 1/3 the cost too.

 

 I had to use this connector to piece 2 sections.

 They were long!

 Then we used these brackets to screw into the beams.

 Now when I want to take it down in the fall I can just undo the brackets but I don't have to take it out of the beams. Perfect!

 Now I needed a way to hold the canvas to the rods. I had pictures several different ways but actually getting one of those ways to WORK was a whole other story. Remember I was trying to keep the cost down as well as be functional and versitile. I thought these curtain clips would work but nope. They weren't strong enough to hold up against the wind.

 I tried sewing a 3 inch seam to slide the bar through. That worked great until I needed to close the brackets holding the rod in the center. The center bracket on the middle rod was impossible to get the screw in the right spot. 

Back to plan A I went...large snap gromets.

By now I REALLY wanted this little project done. I was getting frustrated that I hadn't accomplished anything on our weekend off. Just when I was close to getting it figured out the heavens opened and DUMPED on us. 

I couldn't just let it go though. OH NO!
I was out their in the rain frantically trying to finish my little big project.

 Can you see the drops? They were huge! And came on with a vengeance that only a rain shower in the desert can do.

 Undaughnted I trudged on. I needed to get the holes for the grommets marked and cut. I am so thankful for a wonderful hubby and a son who is learning that mom just needs to "get it done" sometimes. They were out there like troopers helping me as I barked orders ahem, asked calmly. (I mean come ON! It was pouring rain!)

 In the end we did get it done and I LOVE IT!

 We can open and close it as we need and now I can easily take it down at the end of the season.

 Now dear dad will gladly go out on the shaded deck and BBQ juicy steaks for his family.

 I love sitting on the deck, just enjoying the fresh summer air. I love our time at the patio table as a family. The boys love it too.

Did you notice my pillow? We found that at Home Depot. I loved it but dear hubby didn't think it would match the new cushions. When we got them home I knew I needed it! By the time I got back to Home Depot the pillow was gone. Every day thereafter I would check to see if they had gotten another back in. Finally my patience paid off. My sweet hubby just laughed but knew exactly what I was doing. He gets this little twinkle in his eye that says "I knew it!" Yep, he's got my number all right. I love what it says:

Click the picture for the download.

Deck building 101

We are creeping along on the last stages of the deck. We managed to put up a couple of the cross beams only AFTER which did I realize it would have been easier to paint them BEFORE going up...ahh, the learning curve. So with the next ones I made sure to at least get a coat on them so we only have to do a bit of touch up.....

While I work, the boys enjoy the dirt..... You know, the noise with dirt on it....

See the trees? Yep, right there....and there....we got those a while back but waited to put them in until we finished (or almost finished) the deck. It was a good thing because I ended up putting them somewhere different. They are Autumn Blaze Maples. They grow fast and provide great shade in the summer and brilliant color in the fall. Just thinking about the shade makes me smile.

Give us a couple of years and the back side of the house won't be quite so hot anymore. Lovely shade over the lovely deck.

And now we are still waiting for the composit.......

Moving Right Along- deck building 101

The past month has been taken up with finally getting our deck on. In our Idaho home we spent the summers having dinner on the deck in the evening shade. It was a great way to unwind from the day while the boys ran off the last of their abundant energy. Dear hubby and I would relax with strawberry lemonade and just chat over the family events of the day.

The past few years however, I have increasingly missed those cool summer nights in Idaho. Our back yard now faces the west...DESERT! Yep, it gets quite hot. The boys are less likely to be running around outside and more likely to be pushing mom and dad the the brink of insanity with cabin fever. We decided we couldn't put it off any longer! We needed the deck on and hopefully the return of summer dinner/BBQ's on the deck.

We plan to have a pergola over the top to help with the summer heat and add some lovely shade. We also want to add a mister to the west side. That should help to cool it down a bit while we relax. 

We saved our pennies through the summer so we could do composit flooring with vinyl railings.

I have pictures...on my phone of the beginning but I can't get those uploaded. So this is what you have. We didn't have a clue about starting so we hired a handy friend to help us out. Now we are just waiting for more composit to come in. We shorted ourselves not figuring in the treds for the stairs. Oops. lol

Step-by-Step, Inch-by-Inch we are getting it done. We are all so excited to get it done. We have missed those cool nights out on the deck. We'll have to fit in as many as we can before the cold finally drives us inside. It's gonna be great!!

Headboard bench

Remember this post? Well here is the finished project.

Miss Kaylyn painted it a wonderful red. I love red! And this just looks amazing!

Now her sweet sis has in mind for us to make one for her.

Of course I still need to make one for myself too. That will have to wait until our deck is on, I don't have anywhere to put it right now.

The Joys of Sheetrocking

I have been busy this past week finishing DS#2's room. We are having a family retreat next week so we wanted to finish this room and have it set up as a temporary guest room. DS#2 sleep walks so we can't move him downstairs until the bathroom is finished too. That is planned for next month. 

Anyway, I am way excited for this room to be finished. I share several of my ideas and now I just want to see it finished. Dear hubby is great with computers, not so much with construction. I have to say though, together we make one heck of a team. Walls up, insulation done, wiring in, sheetrock up and now the texturing. I actually finished the texture this morning. Now to let it dry overnight and prime tomorrow.
Ooohhh, we're getting so close! Of course the retreat is creeping closer and closer as well....

Keep watching. I will post pictures of more boys room decor ideas and our finished project. DIY in it's truest form!

Oh, and I am hoping to finish my sisters nightstand redo in between paint coats. Lots of happenings around here. Be patient and you will get to see them all!

Landscaping with rocks....

Our backyard has a bit of a slope to it. Thankfully it is not as bad as the houses up the hill but it still meant building some sort of retaining wall to get our somewhat flat yard- a must with our trampoline. We were going to put in a castle rock wall like this....

The cost was going to be quite a bit less than rock but T.I.M.E. is a 4-letter word. We soon realized we just didn't have the time or resources to get all the supplies and build a 3 foot wall properly. Also, I fell in love with the rock wall being put in next door. All things considered we opted to go for the rock wall. It meant giving up our fence for this year but with finishing Josh's room, work, school, and other projects of daily living we just didn't know how we could accomplish everything. I told the landscapers to go ahead with the rock then talked to Robin. Thankfully he agreed (otherwise I would have called the guys).
We were originally planning to just do a straight line.....
Oh, how glad I am we changed our minds! The rock wall looks incredible! It has texture, curves and adds character to our backyard. Frank Powell is the guy who did it for us. He finished the retaining wall but then used his skill and creativity to start our backyard retreat. I was so excited I had to share photos tonight. The rest of the landscaping will go in over the next week or so.....
here is the semi-before. Frank was working on the house next to use. Once we get our landscaping in they won't be able to get tractors back there to work. So even though it hasn't sold yet they opted to do some of the yard work. 

Getting closer to use. They excavated out for us to lay the castle rock but....

I had to change my mind.....

There would have been ALOT of castle rocks to lay. I'm tough but not that tough......
And now the after....

Here is Frank, working hard to create a enjoyable backyard.....

He asked if I trusted him enough to just let him go at it. After seeing his work I didn't have any trouble letting him do what he pictured. I liked his ideas and he seemed to enjoy doing more than just a straight wall. Start with a nice wall and build your landscaping around that- he said. So we did....

He built in stars at the end by the garden.... LOVE IT!

And added a couple of curves for flower beds or even a fire pit- Dutch oven anyone?

At the other end is a gentle slope so that we can get lawnmowers or whatever down to the bottom. We plan to have fruit trees down there.....

Our fence will sit on the rocks at the far end.....

Sometimes paying a bit more at first reaps great rewards in future enjoyment. I am ever so glad we went this route! Picture trees, grass and flowers built around this wall! Beautiful!

Potential projects

With all the other activities around my house and working I haven't crafted anything for a bit. I have several ideas in my book but I am looking for something quick and easy. I have ACLS (advanced CPR) class this week, painting to finish up and a house to prep for sale- eekks! But I still want something fun for Monday. Here are the ideas I came across tonight. What do you think? Take a guess at which one I chose and come back on Monday to find out....
A table runner

A laptop bag

Accent Pillows

Artwork for one of the boys rooms

Or perhaps the full length mirror I have in mind to cover the nasty hole in my bedroom door (yeah, don't ask ;-))...... hmmmm, I will have to see what I am inspired by when I stop by the store in the morning. I plan on picking up some of those baskets to organize my laundry room. I am liking the artwork though.

Deck staining

After digging numerous slivers out of feet, mostly Matthews, we were in desperate need of sanding and staining our deck. I told Robin his "honey do" list should be non-existant by the time he gets another job. He is working hard on just that, eliminating his to do list. We had picked out a lighter grey stain but it ended up having too much blue tint. Robin picked this darker color for the second coat. It looks great! I think it might get a bit hotter but the deck is shaded most of the day so it's not bad.
It looks so good next to the trim on the house. I love it. Plus- no more slivers. Robin sanded it down really well before staining. I don't think a finish had ever been applied. The weathered grey wood went with the grey of the house but this is so much better on the eyes and feet. Just don't mind the footprints from the garden, it is a deck after all. Honey do list #1- stain deck- CHECK! Thanks babe!