Weekend "Treasure" Hunters

This weekend Frank and I were busy out in the yard. We cleaned up lots more sticks, moved more random wood from the yard, moved more rocks, found all kinds of "treasure" in the yard and knocked down the back fence. Here's our now huge pile of wood collected out of our yard...

  What's sad is that we still have a ton more to remove!  There are gardens that still have the wood border and there's also some lining the yard.  The wood is mostly rotten, so it's gotta go!

Here's a picture of the 15 bundles of sticks Frank and I tied up yesterday... We wanted to clean up the yard and also the path through the woods where we walk Tyson sometimes.  It was a very productive time picking up sticks, haha. I must say, this was mostly Frank!

Regarding the "treasures" we found... apparently the last homeowners enjoyed throwing anything and everything out in their yard! We've found old tile (two yellow buckets full above in the first picture), lots of old wood from furniture and other structures, soda bottles, plastic bags, buckles, and our largest find so far - this firewood wood hoop!

Isn't this ridiculous?? Who knows what else we'll find as we keep going with our outside landscaping!

Next up are some fun photos of our backyard before and after (fence removal only).  We haven't done too much else back here yet besides cleaning up things, but I think it looks so much better already with the fence gone! So here are the before reminder photos...

And here's the after... thinned out the garden a bit and tore down that "fence!"

The last thing we did was tape out where our future closet will go... so excited to see it taped out!  Here's a little preview...

The long line along the bottom will be a new wall that creates a walk way to the bathroom (off the the right out of this picture) and the closet which is the back square in this picture.  If you look hard, you can see where our king size bed will most likely go with the blue tape dots on the left.  Can't wait!!! More to come soon hopefully. 

Love,
Jess

Fireplace Reveal!

I've mentioned a few times that I was staining the mint green brick in our basement charcoal gray.  I've posted the before and after photos of the bar, but now it's time to post some pictures of the fireplace. So, just as a reminder, here are some before photos...

And now for the after!!

Tyson wanted to get in on the action too... he's enjoying all of the house renovations and running around things place. Hope all is well there!

- Jess

The BIG storm...

So we had a very big storm last weekend, and as a result our power was out for seven days.  Luckily, we were able to head up to NJ for a few days for some relieve from the heat.  Before we left, we drove around to check out the damage.  Here are a few of the photos...this was at the end of our street:

Here are a few from the neighborhood:

And here's one of Frank and Tyson in NJ!

Frank and his new Tractor

Frank's  been looking for a tractor for some time now.  Although it may seem a bit crazy, but I'll have to agree that the tractor is necessary for now.  Our yard needs some major help, and this kind of tool has definitely helped make the tasks easier already.  So without further adieu, here's Frank and his new toy!

Frank was on the tractor all day Saturday and Sunday!  I even gave it a try and have to say it was a lot of fun.  Tyson even took a spin with his "daddy!"

Things we accomplished so far are:

1. Grass is now cut!

2. The top of the ugly old birdhouse was removed (base to be removed soon):

3. We collected and moved lots of yard debris:

4. Started moving and collecting rocks for future landscaping projects:

So that's it for now...more to come soon. I'm almost done staining the fireplace, so hopefully soon I can post before and after pictures of that project.

Love to all!
Jess

Lower Level Bar - Before and After, Round 1

When we moved into our home, the lower level had a room with green brick on both the fireplace and bar! Can you believe it... mint green brick!  Here it is in all it's (now former) glory...

We did some research on our options to change this look.  Since we are focusing on renovating the upstairs for now, we didn't want to spend a ton of money re-doing the bar and fireplace downstairs right now.  We found that masonry stain would work and cover the color.  Since we aren't sure what exact "design" we want to execute down on this level yet, we went with a more neutral slate gray to change up the color.  At first I painted each brick individually, to maintain the grouted look.  This is how that turned out...

At first I wasn't really sure about it.  It's better than the mint and it's a low cost option.  I thought about painting the grout too, but I think this look is growing on me now.  We plan to replace the bar top as well since that grout is also mint green.  We'll look to paint and replace the rug down the line as well... for now, I've also been working on staining the fireplace brick, so look for an update on that very soon!  Let me know what you think!




What do you think?

Hydrangeas Galore!

Our blue hydrangeas have been producing so many flowers... they are just beautiful and I've really enjoyed cutting them and bringing some inside or even into work.  Here are a few photos...

Bye-bye bi-folds!

Stangely enough, we had bi-fold shower doors in one of the lower level bathrooms!  Since we're all living in the lower level while the main level is under renovation, we're using this shower as our primary shower.  The doors worked, but were absolutely hidious!  They also did leak some water, so they weren't ideal.  You may have noticed them in the house tour photos, but here's a reminder just in case...

Frank and I (mostly Frank though) recently worked on hanging one of those curved shower curtain rods.  We just hung the curtain we already have for now, until we do the main re-vamp in this bathroom.  What do you think?

After we finish the main level renovations we plan to work on the lower level.  So for now, this bathroom makeover is at a stopping point.  Functionality is much better, so for now that's all we care about. :)