OUR POOL PATIO GOT A FACE LIFT

We have lived here for four years and have not utilized this space, besides for a storage bin for toys. The first year we moved in our finished basement flooded when the sump pump in the patio decided to stop working and the drain was clogged, that was not fun. Jakob thought it was a swimming pool when we first looked at the house. Whenever we have company or garage sales everybody comments on our odd sunken in patio. Whenever I looked at it, it screams DANGER ZONE for kids. They want to walk around it and give me a heart attack or ride their bikes and cars by the steps. I have had quotes to put a fence around it but never found somebody to do it or the right size fence. Our two older little people are aware of the safety issues but now we have baby Addie to worry about. I think the changes we are making are going to help. 
Here are a few pictures so you can see what the space looks like.

The sliding door comes off our main living room. The white box over to the right is a cover we made to cover our sump pump that now works. The storage box is full of outside toys. We are hoping to make this a space the kids can play and in the evenings a comfy get away to enjoy with the hubby and a glass of wine. 

Look at all those cracks and dirt..

Off to the right is a patio where we have our table and chairs for outside dinners. The left is our garage. As you can see how dangerous this is and how tempting walking around the ledge can be. 

Don't mind my flower bed needs weeded. 

So we have decided to finally utilize the space. Mike headed to Lowe's and found some Restore X 10x thicker then paint. We had to power wash, scrub, and sweep clean. Nothing is done without sweat and maybe even some frustration tears!

10x thicker really means 10x thicker...

We originally wanted Gray then I misread a text message from my mother which influenced us to choose Bedrock. It winded up being just about identical to the color that was on it now. We didn't like it at first but then it grew on us. 

We had no idea the work we were getting into or how much we needed. Each 3 gallon bucket was 75 square feet. Mike had just got out of a technical engineer math class and he still measured wrong and came home with 1 bucket. Well that covered less then 1/4 so back to Lowe's for 3 more... Well you can see where this is going, at the end we used a total of 5 buckets.

On one of our several trips to Lowe's, we did some clearance patio furniture shopping. Some therapy shopping I like to call it!

Here is a picture of my hubby hard at work. This paint should fill in most cracks apparently we had some larger ones and we had to caulk them. 

Second coat... wow look at the difference. 

Finishing up some last touches and waiting for it to dry. 

I would really love to do something with the brick, you can't really tell in the pictures but several bricks are falling out and weeds are growing through. Well the weeds are a easy fix pull them and spray weed kill. Now the bricks falling out is a bigger project we aren't wanting to get into at this time. Maybe someday after all making a home is never ending. Below are some picture's of the finished project. Don't mind Dexter in the window and all the leaves I didn't get a chance to take pictures right away and now it is fall and the leaves all falling.  

Addison enjoying the space already.

Comfy seats for kids.

Love love these seats!

Who's that doggy in the window?

On the left on my garage door you see a Cleveland Browns wreath I made with my friend Steph, GO BROWNS! Ha ha I just noticed the amazon package that would be sippy cups for lazy Addie who won't lift a cup we have to buy the ones with straws.

Aldis $20 bistro table.

Favorite seats again. 

Thanks for reading, on to our next project!

TAKE TIME TO WATCH THE FALLING LEAVES AND MAKE SOME CRAFTS

Fall is my favorite season. I love the smell of the fresh air coming through the open windows, the leaves changing colors, sweaters and jeans, and pumpkin patches. This year our first pumpkin patch we went to was Sissons pumpkin patch, I  highly recommend it.http://www.sissonspumpkinpatch.com/ 

Don't forget Thanksgiving after all I was born on the giving holiday. I am so happy to have an October baby, now we can get birthday pictures every year in the fall. Not only was she our miracle baby she shares a birthday with her "Dada". Here are a couple of her first year pictures.

My mean muggin princess. 

Those letters stayed in place for about 5 seconds. 

These pictures were taken by my sister in law. https://www.facebook.com/AMcGuirePhotog Check out her facebook page. 

Okay one last one, I can't resist!

Look how beautiful the trees are in the background.

On to my fall crafts.. My craft partner is my very good friend Christine. Christine and I used to work together is how we crossed paths and since then we have grown to be real good friends. We decided to make wreaths. I love to look at homes and see their porch decor, especially in the Fall. The Wreaths on doors always seem to stand out to me. I had not yet bought my porch decor; mums, cornstalks, and pumpkins of coarse! So what better to do then make a wreath. Went to Pat Catans with a pinterest idea in mind. First chose some fake flowers, a rose is what I wanted. Next off to the wreaths, who would of thought there was so many to choose from. Addie was getting cranky so that sped up the decision a little bit. We picked out our letters oh and don't forget the burlap, that is the "in" material for crafts right now. After a few hours rearranging our flowers and painting our letters here is the finished project. 

Very proud of these wreaths!

Yesterday we made another project inspired by pinterest, what did we do before it?? http://www.pinterest.com/pin/59039445090388490/ 
Here is the link to the pin that we liked. We then personalized them to our liking as we went. These pumpkins were very cost effective so cost effective we didn't have to buy a thing. The wood was left over from Christine friend who just built a barn, we just had to make him a set. We had all the paint and ribbon from previous projects which between the both of us we have a nice stock of materials and supplies. The stems I found in my dads garage where you can find just about anything you need. Last but not least our curly cues came from grape vines my parents have in their back yard. 

First I will show you Miss. Callie's pumpkin. We can defiantly say pink is this girls favorite color. She gets so excited for craft day. Christine's husband was nice enough to cut a Callie size pumpkin. She is getting old enough that she can really participate, its fun. I am not sure if she was getting ready for spring with this but I will defiantly have it displayed for Easter and Valentines Day. She is smart she was taking care of two holidays with one project, she learned from her Mom.  

I got a little ribbon happy. 

Christine's perfect chevron

There you have it our finished wooden pumpkins. Thanks for reading...

SECOND UPDATE ON OUR LIVING ROOM MAKEOVER

Okay its now August, it has taken much longer then expected for our living room project. But who's keeping track I never stopped working on this room just bought things and made things at my own pace. Its so easy to get trapped in this fast pace world we live in, work, school, sports, keeping a home a float and of coarse my three little people. 

This past weekend my Mom and I headed out to Hartville (http://www.hartvilleoh.com/) for the day. Hartville is a fun little town with a huge Marketplace, several antique shops and boutiques. I was mainly there for one of my favorite furniture/decor stores. Its called Modern Vintage check them

out.. https://www.facebook.com/TRWModernVintage

This is not for my living room but I must brag on this piece I am in love with and it resides in my kitchen. 

. 

Now for my living room we have been working on a coffee table it is completely sanded just need to decide on right paint and color. When I went the Modern Vintage I was looking for a couple tables for down stairs. 

Free somebody was going to throw it away!

The work begins....

Just got one of these for next to couch. 

Going next to recliner. 

Now I thought I was done but when I came back to load up my goods, I saw this table and just had to have it not exactly where I am going to put it. 

Teal! 

Now to find them all a new home. I am hoping to have the coffee table done by September. I also picked up an old wooden chair with a beautiful rose carved in and I reupholstered it. 

Here are two last things I have done for the living room. 

Ten cents at a thrift store, scraped some initials off and added ribbon. 

Amazing what spray paint can do!

Now that I have showed just about everything in my living room :) I will post the finish project soon. Now you know a project is never completely finished because you change your mind, move things, or add things. 

Thanks for reading!

STARTING A NEW PATH IN MY NURSING JOURNEY

A new path in my nursing journey started a few months ago. It was a big jump, well actually a leap from the path I was currently on. I went back to work in January from maternity leave. I was excited at first to be working again and to be back around my nursing pals. Here is a little background on what kind of department I work in. It is a adult telemetry and step down unit. The population we care for is the critically ill or post surgical with acute and chronic disease processes. I have gotten more experience there then I ever thought was possible in a couple years. After being back a month I still felt like something was missing and "self scheduling" turned into whenever they wanted you to work which was causing many conflicts with schedules and events at home. I needed to find a job that will work with Mike and the kids schedules. I absolutely LOVE being a nurse.. I could not ignore my feeling that something was missing, I was starting to feel like "it was just a job." That doesn't work for me I want to enjoy my job and feel like I am making a difference. So I decided its time to explore another field of nursing. One of the perks of being a nurse there are many different departments out there.
So job hunting I went! After a couple job interviews and offers, I still felt like something was missing. I think it was because I was looking at basically the same departments I was already working in. Job hunting can be exhausting not only did I want to find the right place for me, I had to consider, travel time, insurance, benefits, and 401K plans (ugh grown up stuff can stink.) During my job hunt I was praying for guidance and putting it all in Gods hands which of coarse can make a world of difference. 
A friend of mine from nursing school Jody sent me a message giving me her managers email and the rest is history! No no I think I need to elaborate a little more then that. The process started.... off to the first interview with who would be my manager. As I am sitting there nervous answering all those subjective interview scenario questions, I realized my new necklace Mike got me for Christmas that I am 100% positive I put on in the morning was NOT on my neck. Trying to focus but I just couldn't. I had to look for it after backtracking all my steps and couldn't find it, finally I found it in my bra hahaha! After that adventure I was called in for a second interview with the clinical director who was very nice. I was told I would hear in a week well a day later I was offered the job!!! After many prayers and talking it over with Mike I accepted the job as a full time employee. I decided to stay at my current job as pro re nata (PRN) and help out when I can. This was defiantly a good decision I made for our family. I am sure you are wandering where is my new job at? I am a now a hospice nurse at Hospice Of The Western Reserve. I am at the beautiful facility on the lake called Davis Simpson Hospice House. 

First day of orientation

It's OFFICIAL 

This is the view I get to look at every day, these pictures don't due justice.

A Boat

Along the vista walk way

the view from the Chapel 

View from a picnic table I was eating lunch at

Some asked "you want to work with the dying?" Many people do not really understand want hospice is and think dying people are lying there taking there last breathe, there is so much more to the picture. It is a privilege to be able to spend time with people on their last months, weeks, days and maybe minutes. I feel like this is what nursing is all about, after all we all live to die someday some just much sooner then others. It defiantly can be emotionally draining at times the big word is "why" I have to stop and tell myself I am not here to question god we all have a plan in life. I love getting to talk with patients/families and hearing stories, it is amazing to see how just talking and listening can be so therapeutic. I have learned skills here that I didn't know existed in nursing, for example sub-Q fluids or pumps? I have heard staff say only in the "hospice world" I am beginning to believe this.

I absolutely love my new job! It is rewarding in so many ways and I can not say enough positive and nice things about this place, the people, and all the staff members. I look forward to continuing my nursing career here. Thanks for reading!

FLOODED LAUNDRY ROOM TRANSFORMED TO A STORAGE ROOM

expensive crapper..

Here is an update on our old laundry room. In my previous post I mentioned I wanted to turn our old laundry room into a half bath, well those dreams were shattered when I found out it would be over $1500 for a toilet?? That is just the toilet itself, because we needed a special up-flush toilet due to how the plumbing is arranged so we have decided to turn it into a storage and coat closet instead. So our project has been just that a storage room! As much as I wanted a half bathroom this is more realistic and this will help move along my cluttered space above our washer and dryer.

Sore eye

Not organized storage closet

I will now be able to move all my kitchen overflow into this closet and find some cabinets to put above washer and dryer. Here is what the old laundry room turned into a cluttered mess..

Cold air seeping through

This mess has been driving me nuts thank god I could just close the door and not have to see it... All this was below our shelves in my old pantry which is now the new laundry room. So this storage room needs to hold all this and whats above the washer and dry, this is going to be a challenge. Mike and my Dad decided to use plywood instead of dry wall. We had drywall before and the water damaged it and this way if we were to have a pipe burst again it will be easier to repair by removing the plywood and if we find it soon enough it wont be damaged. Not that we anticipating another flood!

Here is it being painted and the other picture shows the plywood for the walls and the ceiling. You can see in the last picture we had to enclose the plumbing that runs up to the washer and dryer when I came home and say that I will admit I was upset I didn't realize it was going to take up so much space and I am pretty sure Mike was annoyed actually I know he was annoyed with my reaction. It took me a few minutes about 20 and I got over it (one of those not seeing eye to eye moments with your husband).

Enclosed plumbing

The hardest part of projects for me is the mess during the projects. Who else organizes during construction?? Hurry up paint DRY so we can install shelves and coat rack! Okay a couple days later the paint is completely dry and trim is up. 

All painted and dry

coat rack/shelves

Coat racks and shelves are up...

When you do a project there is always at least one or two things that you don't think through and here is ours.. 

Light switch dilemma

It doesn't look to bad until have something on the shelve, then we will have fun getting to the switch. We laughed this one off. Yes, we could move the shelve or put a side ways switch up. We have decided to be annoyed by it for now. Now is the fun part ORGANIZING!! I hung the coats that were in the play closet. Now the kids will have more room for toys and I will be able to reach them now. A win win for both. I had the whole closet organized and I realized I still didn't feel organized.

I took everything out and off to the store I went. The storage isle is my favorite isle of the store!

Now that I have all my bins full and organized it was time to label. I bought some nice identa-labels. I went online to upload the free template to type my labels due to my messy hand writing. My computer decided it would not open the download..annoying!

Thank god for the library right up the street. Here is an updated picture of above the washer/dryer. Not real happy with how the pictures of the storage room turned out. It is a small space and hard to get a good picture angle. But I am really happy with how the space turned out and cant believe how much fit.

full view

storage bins

iron and ironing board

fun for our little people

my junk

Our finished storage room! Thanks for reading.  If you ever need any help organizing feel free to ask I really enjoy it!