More of the Great Outdoors...

Lets play BEFORE and AFTER...

We are focusing on the island of planting there in the middle of the photo.. This is before...

Now what's missing?

I hated that big post with the bug zapper on top...hated it...Like everything else when we moved in the bug zapper didn't actually work...it was just hanging there... I pulled it down and dragged it around the house and plunked it down onto the big pile we have of "trash for Rich, the trash man"...
I also pulled out a lot of dead plants... and while I was cutting grass Rich (not to confused with Trash Man Rich) started working in the back...  The back of the house is just plain ugly...  All of that area underneath the deck and sun porch needs to be enclosed.  Saturday he did some preliminary work and got four post holes dug, concrete poured into them and some post brackets set..  Today he got four posts in...

Three posts are already in...

before....really ugly and those satellite dishes don't help any..  Unfortunately we have to have TV and Internet... and with most of our land in trees, this is the only place to get a good "sky view"..

Stringers ready for next weekend...

Thought I would show you the planting on the left side...Hosta..

And more Hosta along with three Concord Grape plants..

On the inside I did a bit of DIY spray painting.. Our daughter was cleaning out her garage and she had that headboard..It was bronze which is not a color I happen to like, so I used Rustoleum Hammered in Silver...  This is the guest room..and still needs a dust ruffle and proper quilt..and a new lamp..and some artwork might be nice..

Closeup of the paint job..  I love how it turned out.. Not bad for the cost of two cans of spray paint..

 And I also did a little DIY on the refrigerator..  When it was delivered it had a big sticker on the front.  It was supposed to be stuck to the plastic coating, but it wasn't... I couldn't get that sticker off with anything...  Then my sister-in-law came out for Easter and noticed it... 

I used three items...

to get this off... it was worse, but I forgot to take a photo before I started...this is halfway through..

Add Miracle Whip (Mayo would work also) and let sit..

Nice and clean... 

Nancy

starting in the front...

And this is how we started the weekend...  The first post for the front porch...  This is what the front porch looked like before..

Well, it wasn't even a real porch...Just a walkway...and a badly constructed one at that... 

Rich used a gas powered post hole digger and I used the shovel and we dug out seven holes...then he poured the concrete and I held the post til it was partially set and then this was all done by Saturday evening and we cleaned up and went into town to see "Contagion" at the show...  very riveting movie...you will never touch your face again...

Sunday morning we got up and got to work putting in the floor joists.  At the beginning I held the post at one end while Rich nailed the joist hanger.  At some point I said "too bad you don't have another hammer, I could help".  He looked up and said "there's a hammer right inside the door, you start on one side and hit this little piece to set it into place and then put three nails on one side, then go to the other side and put one nail into the toenail and then just finish all the rest of the nails"..  "Um, yea..I can do that" and I did.. I nailed at one end and he nailed the other and it went really fast..... ..and Rich looked up and said "Do you want to take a photo to show how far we got by noon?" I took the photo and then looked at my phone..  Actually it was around 2pm.... 

And this is the way we left it on Sunday afternoon..  Next weekend we will put the top boards on and then it will get RESTORE put on next spring...  The wood needs to weather before using the RESTORE product. 

And in between doing the porch I used a little spray paint to put a final coat on this...

I really love to spray paint.  See the handle?  It was brown plastic and I searched all over for a replacement but it's an odd size so I bought some of this...

and sprayed the handle...and then I got crazy and sprayed something else...but it wasn't dry so I will show you next week..   Who knew spray paint could be so much fun!

Nancy