Around the fort.

I have mentioned a few times that we are knee deep in projects (as soon as one ends, another begins) here at our new house, and today I want to share some of our outdoor completed projects!
When we first looked at the house, we noticed the deck (which had never been treated) was getting really grey and weathered.

June 2011

The house was built in 2009 and since we were the first owners it sat empty for those 2 years. When we decided to put an offer on the house, we knew staining the deck would be our first priority if and when we moved in. It took us weeks to finish it (due to the size and the heat of July and august) but it's finished and looks so much better.

Underneath the deck was a hot mess of weeds and bizare looking insects and it was honestly kind of odd to me why the builder didn't put concrete there. Knowing we would have a hard time growing anything underneath should we attempt to do so, it seemed like an obvious (not to mention maintenance free) solution to have a concrete slab poured. We ended up finding a concrete company who also did decorative concrete as well, so we had a stamped concrete patio poured at the same time. We spend a lot of time outside and knew this would be a worthwhile investment. I happened to be home over the several days that they poured the patio and it was really neat to see the whole process. I will admit though, that as they were pouring the cement into the framework, I was freaking out because it looked nothing like the color of concrete I chose (that I spent hours agonizing over). It was dark. And ugly. And sort of permanent.Here it looked dark red-brown, almost like a terra cotta planter. I wasn't a fan at this point.

I nervously watched from our patio and windows all day, and what I thought was looking less than great morphed into the most beautiful patio. I was a happy girl. I was so amazed at this stamped concrete process- it was pretty neat. (sidenote: everywhere I go now I notice all the stamped concrete around and there's such a wide variety of patterns and colors.)
After the cement was smoothed out, they threw a thick dusting over it and then stamped it with a mold that was somewhat rubbery, moving the molds piece by piece.
The stamping portion was relatively quick- it took about 30-45 minutes to do 400 square feet.
After it cured, it was powerwashed and then sealed. I love it. No, actually I LOVE it. Love the texture, love the color.
Next year we will probably do a little landscaping around it.


At the same time the patio was being poured in the back, we had a retaining wall put in the front. This is a project I seriously contemplated doing myself, but seeing as how I can barely find time to paint our laundry room, I figured I would never find the time to start- much less complete a project like this. Boy am I glad I didn't! I was able to watch the retaining wall go up and it was so much more tedious than I ever though in my mind, even after reading about DIYing it. Getting the concrete in the right consistency to be workable, keeping things level...definitely a learned skill. I feel though that I might be able to attempt a brick and mortar planting bed on a smaller scale ( like in the back of the house where no one could see my imperfections- ha) someday when I don't have a whiny, teething child attached to my hip I have a little more free time.

My goal was to landscape this area before winter hit, but the selection of plants aren't great right now, so I think I may wait until the spring.
So that's whats been going on outdoors! I have some fun stuff going on inside too- I'll be sure to share very soon. As always, thanks for reading!

Sold, baby sold!

We sold our house.

For those who didn't catch it in the title or the first sentence, WE SOLD OUR HOUSE!! =) Let me attempt to recap a bit for anyone who thinks this is coming out of left field:

A few weeks ago I had mentioned on my blog that we were putting our house up for sale the following week. I have NO idea what happened to that blog post- it vanished and is nowhere to be found. The post may have been up for a day or two before it was deleted, but I certainly remember writing it and reading a few of the comments that were left.

Anyway, we listed our house last Friday (May 2oth). Within a few hours my realtor was already calling me to show our house. We had 3 showings over the weekend, and on Monday someone wanted to see the house for a 2nd time and by Tuesday morning there was an offer on the table. ::phew:: Oh, and did I mention that my husband left town (for 4 days) the Friday we listed? That's right, I was single-mommin' it all weekend, taking care of the kids and house, cleaning like crazy and barely stopping to eat. I was exhausted, not surprisingly.

We ended up countering the offer, which was accepted, and by Thursday night we were under contract- 6 days from listed to sold! We close in 30 days (ahhhh!) and while this is all very exciting, we still have to find a new house. We'll likely put an offer in somewhere this week, but at this rate it looks like we're going to have at least a week where we're homeless. Jon's parents have an empty house on the market, so it looks like we'll camp there for a bit.

There. Did you catch all that? We're kind of having a hard time believing it because everything is happening so fast and we didn't expect it. Houses in our neighborhood tend to sit on the market for a long time and I think we assumed ours would too. Even though we had so few showings it was quite tiring having to keep on top of everything with baby and messy toddler in tow, making sure everything was spotless and perfect (or within an hour of being so). Right now, my house is a disaster area and I don't care to do anything about it!

Until next time!

The laundry angels are rejoicing for me.

I heard them singing when we popped into Lowe's Wednesday evening to look at a new washer and dryer set. We had no intent to buy a set right then and there, but every time I opened the washer to look how spacious it was (I could practically fit my old washer inside the new one!) I heard them singing. We bought it right then and there. It probably helped that I told my husband that he would have to take our comforters to the laundromat this time around- and he wasn't having that.
At that point, we hadn't sold our old set yet, so I planned to list them on Craigslist when I got home. I was a little depressed when I looked in the appliance section to find every 5th post selling a washer and dryer set. And most for around $100 bucks! We had already discussed selling ours for $400- and maybe that was a little too ambitious. We started at $350, and didn't get any calls. I re-listed them yesterday for $300 and got one call from a lady who said she would pay $250 for them. I told Jon we should just give in- because we'd be lucky to sell them for that price! He agreed, and delivered them to her for an extra $50, so we actually got $300 out of them. Not too shabby!

The brand new set was delivered yesterday and I think the Lowe's delivery dudes were a little taken back by my excitement and giddyness to see them at my front door step. Can you blame me, though? Look at those beauties! And what's more, they fit almost 3 times the load of my other washer, use far less water and energy, and are super quiet. I've gone into the laundry room a few times thinking the load had stopped, when it was still in fact, spinning away. I love these things! It might be a stretch to say I'll be better at staying on top of our laundry now, but that's my story right now, and I'm sticking to it.