Making Progress...

I was chatting with my sister yesterday, and we were discussing my "dreaded project", my kitchen table. I was telling her I had painted, no, primed one chair. I spray painted it with Bin spray primer and it transformed the chair! I just needed to sand it a little, spray paint it a colour and finito! That was 10 days ago... it is still sitting in my garage, primed but otherwise untouched.

I am a one day makeover kind of a gal. I like to take on personal home projects that can be completed in a day. That is why I have procrastinated with my table and chairs for the last five years! I know they are a week long project, and that is if the weather cooperates. Which it hasn't...! I am working on a kitchen reno project with a client and she is getting very discouraged with the pace of all the trades people. I totally get it!! I wish I could wave a magic wand and POOF, it would be completed and she could begin using her beautiful new kitchen. I hate to wait. That is why in my own home, I restrict the number of big jobs taken on. Of course, I guess you could consider building a house a big job!!

We are making progress with our lanscaping. The pool deck is now ~65% complete. We still have some more closing in to do, an angle has to be removed from the original deck so you can get around the pool without taking your head off, and the lattice work has to be installed. I am loving it though. It is like our own little private sanctuary and I can't wait to sit, no , lounge by the pool, sipping Diet Coke, hearing the happy noises coming from my kids and... oops, I am daydreaming again. It will definitely be great, but I had better throw in some whining and fighting and the always popular, "I know I just got in the pool and I know I'm soaking, dripping wet, but I just have to go pee!!" I have to be realistic and all!

Last night we actually completed a project that took just one evening!! What a feeling of satisfaction. We needed skirting of sorts around our front porch and since I love stone but can't afford the real thing and the exhorbitant labour costs that go along with it, I found a great vinyl product that looks like stacked stone. I'm sure all you purists out there are rolling your eyes, but if I do say so myself, it looks really good. I like it so much better than lattice and Paul did a great job installing it in just a few hours. He's such a good hubby, he seems to be able to wrap his head around any project and I am a lucky girl. Of course he's lucky, too!!! LOL Here are the before and after shots.

I am so inspired that today, I am heading out to get some flowers and shrubs to plant in the bed in front of my "stone" and I will be happily planting later today. I wonder if Paul would notice if I skipped the peat moss, manure part of it and just did the fun stuff...I'd better not, considering I can probably count that operation as a one day kind of a project!! Happy gardening!

Leave no stone unturned...

On my street, only a few of us "new builds" still have not yet dealt with our driveways. Everyone else around us has a concrete driveway, and although they look nice and clean and structured, I don't think I want one. The sheer cost of having one poured is exhorbitant, and I don't really relish the idea of conforming to the norm just to blend in with the other homes on the street.

I love stone. The more natural and imperfect, the better and I have incorporated it into each of my homes in some way. I love the natural beauty it brings and the fact that not everybody has it. I would love to do a driveway using it, or at least, use those templates that give the impression of stone in concrete. At present, we have crushed rock (a stone of sorts, I guess!) in our driveway until we decide what we want, what we can afford, and what we can do ourselves that will look nice.

My friend, Krissy, has the most talented brother ever. He owns a business in North Carolina called Celtic Masonry ( www.celticmasonry.com ). I checked out his website and the work he and his crew do is amazing!! From outdoor stone or brick patios, to stone walls, outdoor grills, you name it. He (Frankie Dolaher) is a true artist and I wish he was related to me! Masonry is truly a craft for the patient and talented and he does wonderful work. Check out his website and get ready to drool!!

If you are in the deck building mode, I found a great Canadian website (www.gardenstructure.com )to inspire you and your handyman!! I am definitely getting some ideas for our new deck from it and I'm sure you will find inspiration there, too. Get building before summer hits hard and we all feel too hot and lazy to do more than snooze in the sun on our very own patios and decks!!