Day 395: Fun with power tools

Work on the back deck continues, and we're using the big tools now! It's a SCORCHER in Atlanta this weekend, but that never stopped Shannon!

Day 392: Friends with Benefits?

We started work on the deck this week, and Nicky was kind enough to help out after work 2 nights this week, which really helped us out. Thanks Nicky! The man is a machine! This is our first true building project, even if it is just a deck. It's a work-in-progress, just like everything else around here. We're learning as we go!
But it's really coming along so far.

Day 389: Under the Sea

I spied these sweet hooks at the Inman Park Festival and had every intention of circling back to this booth to make a purchase, but we were hot and tired by the end of it and I completely forgot. Lucky for me, the same guy was at the Festival on Ponce today so I snatched up my faves! Aren't they adorable? And they were just $4 a pop. Love 'em! They'll fit perfectly on the sun porch, don't you think?

Day 388: Exterior Paint Done

Lookin' good!

We've gotten much wiser about which jobs to hire out for and which to tackle ourselves, wouldn't you agree? ;)

After taking a stab at scraping paint on all the windows and trim, Shannon quickly decided it would be much quicker to hire painters who could knock it out in a few days. And did they ever! Some of the windows were in rough shape, so they gave them the needed repairs, prepped everything and got it all painted in 3 days.

The house is really starting to look great! Our neighbors on Oakdale were kind enough to share their trim color (which we love), and it was one we were already considering, so that was easy! (BM Dove White OC-17, jic you were wondering - not too yellow but still a nice creamy 'off' white. Love it.)

Day 384: Trimwork & Windows

We're having the exterior trim and all the windows repaired and painted this week! Yippeeee! More photos and the full deets to come soon. Here's a sneak preview in the meantime.

Day 369: Chair Cushions

Voila!

Mom was here this weekend and was kind enough to bring along a sewing machine and her crafting expertise! After some re-assurance of my selected swatches, we went to Forsyth Fabrics to purchase the patterns I'd settled on for the sun porch cushions, rocking chair and pillow covers for the couch. (I'm a little behind on my spring spruce-up, clearly;)

Then it was go-time! Mom got me all set up on the machine (I needed a refresher on threading the bobbin and other such skills since it's been a good five years since I touched a sewing machine - yikes!), and we got right to work. First up were the cushion covers for the wicker chairs on the sun porch. We just eyeballed it, and everything turned out just fine. We finished both covers in about 2 hours (would have been less but again, I needed the lesson). Whew! Don't they look great?

Next up are the pillow covers for the couch. Those are my favorite fabric, so should be really fun.

I should have enough remnants for an additional pillow out of each fabric, but want to come up with something way fun for those. Thoughts?

Day 366: The Year in Review

For your viewing pleasure, a  6 minute review of where we've been the past year!




Youtube removed the soundtrack. Grrr. For full effect, mute the cheesy music they replaced mine with and open this and have playing in background ;)