Thursday, August 28, 2014

Staining Our Deck with Olympic Rescue It

When we bought our house two years ago, we knew that we'd have to stain our deck.  I don't think it was ever stained or sealed and we knew we'd have to do something to it.  The deck isn't old, but it did have some spots that were splintering (or whatever the word is...you know what I mean) and since we didn't think it had ever been stained or sealed, we wanted to try out the Olympic Rescue It resurfacer that we had seen on commercials.  

We headed to Lowe's last Saturday morning and picked up four gallons mixed in the Timberline color.  They have tons of colors you can pick from.  I don't love the color we picked, it is a little too "red" for me, I wish it would have been more of a tan or brown.  Anyway, our deck is not huge, it's roughly 182 square feet not counting the step.  The Olympic Rescue It says you need to do two coats, and one gallon will cover 50 square feet doing two coats, so that's why we picked up four gallons.  They were priced right about $35 per gallon, but we got a $10 rebate on each one, so it was basically $100 for our deck.  We only ended up using just over two gallons, so I guess we have lots of extra for touch ups if we need it!

Here is what our deck looked liked before:



We power washed the deck a few days before so it would be dry, and then we cleaned it off real good Saturday morning.  I used a brush and got in between all the cracks and did the sides, while Kevin used a roller with an extender to roll the top.  The stain is like a very thick paint, but it actually went on really easily.  We had to wait 6 hours before we could put on the second coat.  We did the second coat that evening and then were able to be on it the next morning.

Here's how it turned out:



That photo was taken on my iphone the day after we finished.  These are from last night, the lighting isn't great.






The stain is not smooth, it has a little bit of texture to it.  It's very thick, so it fills in all the cracks.  You definitely can't get a sliver from it any more!  

I took a close up photo so you could kind of see the texture of it:



Even though the color isn't what I hoped it would be, I'm really happy with the way it turned out.  I feel like it finally looks "finished."  I didn't realize how bad our deck needed to be stained until I saw the before and after pics together.

I'm really curious to see how it holds over time.  We get rain, snow, sun, and we are out on it all the time.  I'll keep you all posted if we experience any issues or if we are still loving it later.

Have you ever used a product like this on your deck or patio?

***UPDATE:  After going through one winter, our deck looks AWFUL.  The Olympic Rescue It stain bubbled and chipped all over and we will need to re-do the entire deck.  An entire follow up post will be coming soon, and I will include the link here when it is up.




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Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Liebster Award

I want to thank Melanie from Melanie Gets Married for nominating me for a Liebster Award!  I have been reading Melanie's blog for awhile now and you all have to go check it out!  I love her decorating style and she has done some amazing projects.  Her recent home office reveal has me drooling and wanting to make mine over ASAP.  Thanks again Melanie for nominating me!


If you are new here, this is a great way to get to know a little more about me.  I was nominated and completed this about 1.5 years ago (read it HERE), but I thought it'd be fun to do again.  And make sure you check out the blogs I've nominated below.

The Liebster Award is an award that is passed from blogger to blogger as a "keep it going" award.  It's for bloggers with under 200 followers and is meant to encourage bloggers to keep blogging!  All nominated bloggers answer the questions from the person who gave them the award, and then they get to nominate their favorite blogs (with under 200 followers) and ask them questions.

1) Why did you start blogging?
I started blogging when I was recently engaged and my fiance and I were in the process of buying our first house.  I wanted to keep friends and family (near and far) up to date with wedding and house stuff, and keep a journal for me to look back at.  I loved blogging and decided to keep it going after the house was bought and the wedding was done!

2) What is your favorite project that you have made since blogging, or what is your favorite blog post? Leave a link so we can check it out!
I think my favorite project that I've created was our wedding card box.  I couldn't find any that I loved, so I decided to make my own and I LOVED the way it turned out.  You can read all about it HERE.


3) What is your favorite room in your home?
Right now, my favorite "room" is our backyard/deck area.  I love spending time outside reading in the sun, playing with Admiral (our dog), or just hanging out.  But since that's not really a room, I'd guess I'd say our living room.  It's far from done or even being close to what I want it to be, but it's where we spend most of our time.


4) What is your favorite holiday? Why? Feel free to tell us about some of your traditions for that holiday.
My favorite holiday is Christmas.  I love everything about the holiday season...except maybe all the craziness and stress that comes with it haha.  I love decorating our house for winter/Christmas and spending lots of time with family.


5) If you could live anywhere, where would it be?
Somewhere on a beach. Give a quiet sandy beach and I am one happy girl!  I swear I could sit on the beach and read/sleep all day every day!

6) Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Still happily married to my husband, and probably one or two kids at that point.  I don't know if we will still be in the same house or not....that will be interesting to see.

7)  What is something you would like to learn to do really well?
I would LOVE to learn photography.  I don't need to be a pro, but I really want to be able to take some decent photos, not only for my blog, but just for life.  Especially when we have kids someday, I'd love to be able to capture some decent photos.  I think I need to get myself a DSLR camera first!

8) What are some of your favorite books you've read lately?
I JUST started reading Lone Survivor and although I'm not far in it yet, I know I'm going to like it.  I haven't seen the movie because I wanted to read the book first.

9) What is your favorite thing to spend money on?
I love buying things for our house, which is what I typically spend any extra income on.  However, my closet could really use an update, so right now I'd really love to go on a clothing shopping spree!  I've also really gotten into exercise and fitness, so I'd like to buy some fun new workout clothes too.

10) What are three of your favorite online shopping websites?
Amazon, GroopDealz, and Jane.  Getting the daily deal emails from GroopDealz and Jane is dangerous, but so much fun!

11) What inspires you?
Seeing people overcome challenges.  I have family/friends/acquaintances that I see overcoming things such as cancer, being blind, ALS, etc.  It makes me realize that my "problems" really aren't an issue and it inspires me to be a better person and work harder.  The fact that these people are doing things and living great lives means that I can too.

The blogs I nominate for the Liebster Award are:

Here are my 11 questions for them:
1.  Why did you start blogging?
2.  Where did your blog name come from/what does it mean?
3.  What is one of your favorite blog posts or projects?
4.  What is your favorite movie?
5.  Do you have a favorite TV show/series that you love?
6.  If you never had to work again, and money wasn't an issue, what would you do all day?
7.  If you could pick one celebrity to hang out with for the day, who would it be and why?
8.  What is your favorite holiday or season?
9.  Do you have any pets?
10.  What are your pet peeves?
11.  What is something you are looking forward to in the next year?



Monday, August 25, 2014

What a Weekend!

We had a great weekend!  We were productive, lazy, and had some fun!

FRIDAY:  After work, Kevin and I headed to the Whitecaps game with my parents.  The Whitecaps are a local baseball team (an affiliate of the Detroit Tigers).  It was a hot night, but we had fun and the Whitecaps won, which was even better.

A little cuddle time before heading to the baseball game.


My dad kept "photo bombing" us while my mom was trying to take our picture haha

Finally got one without my Dad photo bombing...which is why I'm laughing.

SATURDAY:  We got up early, headed to Lowes for deck stain, and then got to work staining the deck.  We decided to use the Olympic Rescue It stain....you may have seen it in commercials on TV.  I'll have a whole post about this later this week so you can hear about our experience with it.  I'll show you the pics in that post too.  

I also went for a run on Saturday, completed the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge (you can see it on Instagram), and pulled some weeds.  It was a very productive day.

SUNDAY:  I woke up sore on Sunday from all of the work we did on Saturday.  We went out to lunch and then went to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  TNMT was great!  I really enjoyed it, and all of the little kids in the theater seemed to like too, so I'd definitely recommend seeing it.

Sunday night Kevin and I both had two Fantasy Football drafts.  So we each had our laptops, had pizza delivered for dinner, and enjoyed a lazy night on the couch.  I had a special helper during my drafts :)



How was your weekend? Are you in any Fantasy Football leagues?

Friday, August 22, 2014

Oh Hey Friday!

ONE.  Last night my sister and I went and saw Kevin James perform.  If you remember, I actually got the tickets for Kevin and I for our anniversary, but he recently got a new job and he had a work event last night, so he couldn't go.  My sister and I had a great time.  We hung out and had a couple glasses of wine before the show, and another glass when we got home.  Kevin James put on a great show, and I'd definitely go see him again--really funny!





TWO.  If the weather cooperates, we plan on staining our deck tomorrow...wish us luck!

THREE.  Sunday night I have two drafts for the Fantasy Football leagues I'm in this year....Kevin is in both of them too, so we plan on sitting on the couch with our laptops and ordering pizza for dinner. Sounds like a great Sunday night to me!

True
source

FOUR.  Admiral got a bath and a haircut this week and he looks so handsome!  And he's super soft, which makes me want to cuddle with him 24/7.  I mean, look at that face:



FIVE.  In case you missed it, on Tuesday I showed off what our bedroom looks like with the trim painted.  I think it's a huge difference and I love how much brighter it makes the room.  You can check out all of the pics HERE.





Linking up today with September Farm and The Farmer's Wife for oh hey Friday!



And Momfessionals for Friday Favorites!
Momfessionals

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Master Bedroom Update: Painted Trim

I FINALLY got all of the trim painted white in our bedroom.  It took 4 coats of primer/paint to cover it all (5 coats on the wood paneled wall), but it's done and I LOVE it!  I still have some spots I need to touch up, but you can't really tell in these pictures, so I'm sharing them.  It made the room seem a million times brighter and bigger!

Stenciled Wall Tutorial HERE.
Apparently my camera lens is super dirty...sorry.





And here's a couple of before and afters.  The before pics are from the day we moved in.



Of course, after doing this headboard and trim project, I have a whole list of things I need to do to this room. I haven't "finished" any room in our house, but I have a list for each of them.  Here's what I still want to do in our master bedroom:

- Purchase and hang curtains.
- Get new hardware/pulls for the closet and dressers.
- Refinish/stain the dressers darker to match the closet doors?
- Get white cord covers to try and hide the brown cords from the lamps on the headboard.
- Get a new (prettier) ceiling fan (my husband will disagree-he says it works so it doesn't matter what it looks like haha).
- Add more throw pillows to the bed.
- Get a new (cuter) hamper.
- Re-do the closet.  It's small and only has one bar to hang clothes.  I have ideas to create more hanging and storage space in our closet.

I think that sums it all up...slowly by surely these things will get checked off the list.

What do you think of the white painted trim?  Did I make the right decision to chop off part of the headboard and paint all the dark trim white?

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