Day 1 of Deck Demo

A key part of lake life is enjoying time outside. Most of this time is enjoyed on the boat, on the lake, with some flippy floppies. Other times it's enjoyed on the deck, listening to the water fountain, with some food on the grill.

Trouble is that our deck is pretty small. It fits 1 grill, 1 table, 4 chairs and that's it. Not much room to move around on. So its been in the long term plan to expand and redo the deck. And recently that long term plan got bumped up to the gotta-have-it-now plan.

So today Brian started the demo work! The plan is to extend the deck across the new addition so we can walk out on the deck from our bedroom. Part of the project includes redoing the existing railing as well. Let the teardown begin.

This certainly gives us a better view!

Late last week we also had a patio poured. Now when you walk out the family room door downstairs, you'll have a place to walk onto that isn't a jungle of weeds. The plan is to have a new deck on top it by next week.

Brian's also started installing the new railing. Not without a guest appearance from our saws of course.

Ta dah! Tempured Glass installed in the first panel, this is going to look good once it's finished. Hope summer will keep hanging around to give us some time to fully enjoy it.

Fun in the Kitchen

I finally started cooking. This is a very new chapter in my life. In the past my meals were typicaly of the pizza kind. If I were feeling gourmet I'd throw in a side salad and call it "fancy". But I could no longer avoid the obvious reasons to hunker down and start making some food at home.

For those of you who have even had a 10 minute conversation with me over the past year, you know that the kitchen remodel was a big undertaking. Plus a handful of our wedding gifts were kitchen gadgets that are begging to see the light of day. So it only makes sense that all this new stuff gets used.

More recently though I've given up gluten, dairy, sugar and coffee (gasp!).  That means no more:

Latte's from Starbucks...

...oh how I'll miss those happy pick me ups.  

Pizza from Papa Murphy's, or really any pizza of any kind anywhere...

...it was so convenient and so delicious.

Hot Tomales... 

...pure delight.   

But cooking means you need to have recipes! This is something I was (and still largely am) in dire need of. So I've been hunting for ones that are relatively quick, easy, still might taste good, and that Brian could actually like too.

So far I've lucked out and found a couple good ones. Ones that aren't only good for you, but good tasting.

One of my new faves is the Chicken Raspberry Spinach salad. This even works well as a salad on the go. 

Also liked the Chicken Cucumber-Peach Salsa recipe. It tasted like sitting on a beach in Mexico, who doesn't like that!  

And tonight I'm trying the Cajun Shrimp Mango-Edamame Salad. I have big expectations since it sounds delicious!  

I'm secretly a little bit looking forward to this new phase in my life. I've always loved food, and now I know how to make some it.

Let the Dirty Work Continue

Now that the weather is nice again, we're right back to working on our curb appeal. First up, new driveway. The driveway was falling apart when we originally bought the place. Then after all of the trucks and heavy equipment came through for the remodeling this fall, the driveway was barely there anymore.

So today the crew came out to rip out the old driveway and lay down a new base layer for the new one!

Watching the progress from inside the garage.

 One of our key goals with the new driveway is to expand it across the two entrances from the street. The far side of the driveway was really only dirt, so now we'll be connecting the entrances to not only fit more cars on it but also to help us get in and out of the garage easier.

Now we just need to clean out the garage to fit our cars in there!

New Master Suite

After living out of one multipurpose bedroom for nearly five months, we are excited to have our Master Suite completed. The master bedroom, closet and bath were one of the main reasons we decided to do the addition. And now that we're moved in we're so glad we did!

We were a little restricted to the size of the space since we could only expand out so far. But after reviewing, re-reviewing and reviewing again the many different floorplan options we had, our final layout gives us the most possible functionality.

We have the bed all moved in complete with new bedding!

We installed a patio door for a walkout onto the future deck (another project for another time...). It lets in tons of light and looks out over the lake. The sunrises in the morning are incredible.

The door on the left is into the master bathroom, while the door on the right brings you back into the main hallway near the front entrance.

Curtains! We went a few weeks without curtains since I had a tough time finding ones that I liked to match the bedding. Getting shades of blue and gray to match gets complicated real quick.

When we were desiging the room we decided to vault the ceiling for a more open, master room feel, complete with a new ceiling fan.

Drumroll please..... Walk in Closet!!! This is my first walk in closet and likely one of my favorite rooms in the house. Here's Brian's side.

And here's my side. We designed the shelving online at Home Depot and Brian installed it over a weekend. And it hasn't taken long to put it to good use.

And here's our Master Bathroom. My side is on the right, his is on the left. The vanity and marble top were custom built and installed by our cabinet maker. The tile came from Home Depot and was professionally installed since we started to get anxious to get it done. The rest of it came from Home Depot as well and was installed by Brian during nights and weekends.

Pretty sink!

And finally the amazing, wonderful and peaceful tub. 



Decorating Knockoffs

I've wanted a home to decorate for a long time. Over the last six years I've had seven different addresses. Loved (almost) every place, but moving around so often doesn't lend well to settling in and decorating. So after purchasing and remodeling our home I couldn't wait to get started.

Then I realized I didn't know where to start. Or how to start. And I'm understanding why people pay other people to do it.

Since we're on a budget though, this is something I'm tackling myself. I may live to regret this (likely), but here I go. To prepare, below is a list of some of the things I did to get ready for decorating over the last several months:

• Ordered a Better Homes and Gardens subscription
• Watched a lot of HGTV
• Surfed around to some decorating blogs
• Got overwhelmed
• Poured a glass of wine
• Poured another glass of wine
• Watched a few episodes of Modern Family to avoid decorating

Unfortunately, Modern Family is only about 20 minutes long, so eventually I had to get back to it.

One of the first items on the list was new barstools. We managed to break our existing ones and got tired of eating standing up. So I did a little internet surfing and found some great ones at Pottery Barn. I love the Pottery Barn style and it meshes with the lake house theme I'm "trying" to achieve. Perhaps I had missed my calling and maybe this interior decorating was for me afterall! I can do this!

My confidence increasing, I added three to my cart. Then realized each stool was $129, plus shipping and tax. We're talking over $400 for a couple of stools. Not exactly what I was wanting to do with $400. Confidence fading I started dreaming about the clothes I could get for $400...

Over the years I've leaned that you can have a great wardrobe by purchasing a few designer, quality staple items and accenting with the cheaper, knockoff pieces. The key is knowing what to spend money on and what not to. For example, a designer handbag can instantly upgrade nearly any outfit, and it's with you almost everyday. Here's one I've had my eye on lately:

 And a nice jacket can do the same:

But something trendy like a hat that I'll wear on vacation and out on the lake a few times a year should be cheap and from a place like Target:

And while I was thinking about Target, I checked their website for barstools and could you believe what I found? The same barstools that Pottery Barn has but for a fraction of the price! Plus free shipping and 5% back with the Red Card. Can YOU tell a difference between the two:

Turns out knockoffs aren't just for clothes, but for home items too. And thank goodness! I ordered three of them and was infused with new energy to help me stick with this decorating thing. Turns out that barstools fit into the same knockoff category as white, floppy hats. Can't wait to see what else I can find at value prices. Maybe I should treat myself to that hat...

Basement Family Room is Done!

Our basement family room is done and we're finally able to enjoy a movie, on the couch, with a fire going in the background! We purchased a new couch to fill the space. Since the room is pretty large we were able to get a big, comfy sectional from Macy's. There's still more furniture that the room needs, but for now we're enjoying as is and have already gotten a lot of use out of the new space!

Here's the fireplace we installed to help keep the basement warm in the winter, and boy does it ever heat the place up! It warms up the basement in a matter of minutes which is great because it stays quite a bit cooler down here. We also have our TV in this room. And I have to admit that even though I'm not a big TV person, we might have to get a bigger one...

Right now we have a table and chair in the far coner.

Planning on getting a pub style bar set in the future.

As usual it's fun to take a look back at what we started with! Six months ago the basement family room was dirt.

Then it was cement.

Next the exterior walls were framed. Here's our view!

Then the interior walls were framed and space was made for the fireplace.

Following that it was insulated and then sheetrocked.

 At that point it was up to Brian and I to finish. We installed and painted the trim, doors, and thankfully my parents helped us paint the walls. After sampling nearly 10 different paint colors, I went with Stone Harbor by Benjamin Moore. It's a great smokey blue that reminds me of a misty new england morning - if that's what a new england morning would look like. Never actually seen one, just feels like this would be it. Ha!

After all that was done, we had the carpet installed. 

And once we added the furniture it finally felt like home!

New Basement Storage

Probably one of the least glamorous spaces we included in our addition is the basement storage room. Though sexy it's not, practical it is. And I'm so glad we added it. But those of you who understand my practical nature probably aren't surprised by that comment.

It's located on the south side of the house in the basement. And I'm amazed how much we can fit in it! When you enter the room and look to the left, you'll find the Newcastle kegerator, some shoes, pillows, well, you know how storage rooms work...

And when you look to the right the room wraps all the way underneath the staircase.

Right now this is where I'm keeping some of my most prized possesions: Christmas wrapping paper purchased at discount the day after Christmas. Forget black friday, day after Xmas shopping is when the bargains can be found!