Outdoor Perfection

I love my dad.

I love him just because. But I also love him for all of the stuff he manages to fix and improve around my house. Especially woodworking stuff. He's moved my cabinets and added more, fixed my fence, given my stairs a makeover, added a railing to my basement stairs, framed windows he's installed, and recently he made my back yard plans become reality! 

Last week after only minimal nagging on my part, he rolled up with a pick up truck he rented filled with wood and lattice. He laid it all out so that I could paint in in my designated paint and spray paint area!

See these shabby pots? I got them for free and knew that all they needed was a little cleaning and paint to make them new again. 

But, the very next day while I was at work (before I could paint all of the wood) my dad came back and pulled the heavy metal X off of the frame and created my pergola!!! I came home super excited! 

Doesn't it look 1000x's better already? 

When I got home from work I slapped some paint on the pots and left them to dry overnight. 

My next day off I went to Home Depot and stocked up on more flowers. I added some life to those and other areas of my garden. 

Then I set to work on painting this big guy. While I was up there my dad called and said that he was coming over to hang the lattice around the deck. He sawed and hammered while I painted away.

Isn't it amazing?! It makes the whole brown and white thing make sense and ties everything together so well!

It's quite the before and after isn't it?

I still haven't painted the lattice. And I know seeing a deck surrounded in lattice isn't something new or unusual... But it is for my house and I love it! 

Once it's white it'll tie in the lattice on the side of the screened porch:

Had enough yet? 

Ok... one more shot of my amazing yard and father's handiwork 

So now you see why I love my dad :)

I'm Sick of Seeing Red

I love my red house. I love its red door, the red fence, and the red shutters. So much so that I've planted red flowers outside. I even loved the red deck and funky thing over it...

 This was my house the day that I met it. Sigh... The memories! 

But, I have a concrete slab, a wood deck, a brown screened porch, and a red deck. The whole thing was disconnected. I wanted to unify everything. 

The unification started with me painting this deck's railings:

Once they were white I had a plan... 

The red on the deck was chipping and looking worn. I knew I'd either have to color match it, or start with something fresh. I bought Deck Restore in the color chocolate. I'd used this on my front porch last summer. I wanted to see how it held up during the winter before I did a bigger project. It did great! I had 1/2 of last summer's left and ended up needing to buy 2 more boxes (so it took me 5 gallons total) to cover the deck. 

The stuff splashes like crazy. I wrapped the columns with newspaper and taped it around the sides so the brick didn't get covered in it. I put on old scrubs, a tee shirt, and a bandanna and got to work:

This was the before shot of the deck:

The Journey...

Oh Pinterest I love the quotes and graphics you introduce me to!

Mid-week last week my journey became a lot more fun... I finished up at the school and won't be starting with the new top secret retailer until the 16th. I have a little EJ time!

And Zulu time...

We started running again... Ugh!

I got proof that my gardening strategy worked!

The only problem is that somehow only yellow tulips are growing on the left and red on the right!

 I started eating healthier:

I don't like yogurt and tried these guys from Pinterest. Pretty good and a lot like Dippin' Dots for way less calories! 

My daddio had a birthday:

The 3 generations of women in my family proved that genetics run deep enough to influence what color you show up to Easter wearing! 

The Not So Great Outdoors

I feel like the interior of my house is virtually done for now...Therefore I need a new project!

The exterior!

If you're in to hand-drawn sketches you'll love this post! Otherwise, sorry!

This is what I'm currently working with (which is not to scale at all!)

Here's a close up of each of the exits of my house.
This is what I call the red deck off of my screened porch:

Here is my back deck off of my kitchen:

Here is the concrete slab off of my basement door:

Here's some other exterior shots:

See this red metal X over the red deck? It's strange and useless...

And there's a strange space between the porch and the red X:

Here is my drawing with my summer plans. Every summer plan is in yellow... I have a lot!

On the concrete slab I want to add some plants to the space between the concrete and the fence. It's just mud and weeds. I also want to add a few planters. This area gets great light!

I might want to add stepping stones from the kitchen deck to the red deck. I'm not sure if that'll make the whole yard seem smaller though. That's why it's a ?:

I have several plans for the kitchen deck. I have hostas planted already. I plan on planting some other flowers and adding mulch. I also want to add white lattice around the bottom of the deck:

I want to attach a gutter garden to the lattice: 

I have the biggest plans for the red deck:

I want to get rid of the red X and paint the frame white and "build" with the help of my pops a pergola like this:

I also want to add a planter box the same length as the porch next to the red deck:

I also want to buy this 4 piece patio set from Ikea for $99. You can't beat that deal so I plan on painting it white and yellow:

I also want to buy the silver hanging boxes to hang from the fence:

I want to buy 4 of these silver guys from Ikea to hang from the pergola:

I'm also toying with messing with the front of my house. Here it is right now:

Here is a border I'm thinking about adding:

Or like the pretty tulip border on Father of the Bride:

What do you think? I think it'll keep me busy this summer!