Saturday Somethin' Somethin'

Happy Saturday! It's a beautiful day here already; I am writing this as I sit in the morning sunshine, sipping my coffee as I wait for the first coat of driveway sealer to dry so I can apply coat number two. Typical Saturday. wink

Today I'm featuring wood bathtubs. Yay or nay? I admit, I  am drawn to them. They look so inviting, and darn comfortable! They are not cheap, that's for sure, but it's not just the price that's got me hesitant to make this leap. I think this is a very specific style, and I am sure it's not for everyone. I can't honestly say whether I think this would help or hinder me in an attempt to sell a home.

No sense taxing the brain unnecessarily. Just enjoy these lovely tubs.

And my personal fav. This beauty: the Helio Tub by William Garvey. Let's just say that the cost of this one would have me taking public transit and eating puffed wheat for many years!

I figure that, if I loved this look, but couldn't take the plunge (pardon the pun) I might just start with something small. How about a sink?

Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful weekend!

Delish - A Side Dish!

I had the yummiest supper tonight. I am stuffed! I tried this new recipe for a simple side dish and I love it! If you like brussel sprouts (there are people besides me who like them, right?) then you'll love this, too!

Brussel Sprouts with Mushrooms

4 cups brussel sprouts, trimmed and halved

1/2 lb mushrooms, halved

5 tbsp butter

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

salt and pepper to taste

fresh lemon juice

Cook brussel sprouts in a pot of lightly salted water for 15 minutes,

strain through colander, removing as much water as possible. Set aside.

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium high heat.

Cook and stir mushrooms until lightly browned.

Toss brussel sprouts with mushrooms, and sprinkle with parsley and lemon juice.

 

New Life for Country Cute Table and Chairs

My parents have had this dining set since the early 80's! For those too young to recall, that was before iPods, DVD's, and uhm, yeh, you could buy a bag of chips for 50 cents! ha ha I grew up at this table. It's in tons of photos from my childhood, each nick and scratch has a story.

It's still very sturdy, and my mom still loves the style of it. But she's so over the finish!

Now that the main floor laminate is in, we decided to breath new life into this set. Dad gave me carte blanche so I decided to have a little fun with it. Mom is a big fan of these spaces from Sarah Richardson so I figured I'd stick with the same colours and embrace the country charm of the set.

I did the table first. It's not rocket science: clean, strip and then sand, sand, sand....and sand some more! I primed and gave a coat of fresh paint on the legs and apron with Krylon Satin White. I stained the top with Minwax Red Chestnut, topped with three coats of Varethane to protect it.

The table is my favourite part of this project. It just turned out so darn cute, I wanted an excuse to keep it for myself!

 

Now for the chairs...oh the chairs. Many a curse word left my lips while working on them. I sanded them down (man those spindles are a pain in the butt, thank goodness for my Dremel!), and cleaned them with TSP (make sure you wear rubber gloves with this product). I primed and then sprayed these with Rustoleum Aqua.

Here's where things went downhill in a hurry. Thankfully, I only tried this method one one chair, so fixing it didn't take as long as it could have if I had gone gung ho on all four. I scuffed the chair up with 100 grit sandpaper and then rubbed a light coat of stain over the entire chair. Epic. Fail. Monstrously epic! Back to the drawing board.

Once I had all four chairs painted (again) I mixed up a light grey glaze to make the colour a little less....bright. I did four parts glaze to one part grey paint. I used a rag to wipe it all over the chairs and left just enough behind to have them look a bit aged. A coat of Varethane to protect them and they are done...finally.

Here's the finished set. They were both really surprised to see it, and mom just loved it!

I am now hunting for rug for this area...wish me luck!

Linking up:

Saturday Somethin' Somethin'

I am bringing you Saturday's feature a day early, because we're headed out to the lake for the weekend and, for the life of me, I can't get the scheduled post option to work on Blogger. Buggers.

This weekend's feature is a bit of a trip down memory lane.

The weather for the past few weeks has been just beautiful and it's got me wishing that my yard was not so hillbilly so I could get out and lounge in the sunshine without first having to wade through 3' tall weeds!

It's got me nostalgic for the days we lived in our condo and had our roof top patio.

The total area of our deck was roughly 700 sq ft. It was really private since none of our neighbours used theirs. When we bought our condo, the roof looked like this:

A few years after we moved in we got to work on this space. Can you tell Mr. Mel is excited about getting this space completed?

And, after much work, it ended up looking like this (click on the photos to enlarge and get a better view):

I really miss my roof deck. It was such a unique and unexpected space. I can't imagine ever having a home that would allow me to have one again so these photos will just have to do.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Happy Anniversary to....Me!

Today marks eight years since Mr.Mel and I said our "I do"s.

I can't believe how fast the past eight years has flown by. I recall nearly every moment of that day. Considering that it's so fresh in my memory, it's hard to reconcile just how much time has passed...2920 days! (not that I'm counting - wink wink)

I look at photos from that day and I realize that, even at 25, I was just a babe. I had so much to learn, we both did. To us, the wedding was just a formality, we wanted to be married and get on with it! Ha ha. We had big plans. We thought we were invincible!

In eight years, we've seen the little ones around us get to be not-so-little, we've travelled, there have been career changes, and we've DIY'd. Oh goodness, have we DIY'd! From our modest little apartment to our current custom built home, it's been a labour of love (and, of course, sweat and tears).

The past eight years have been full of so much fun, I can hardly wait to see what`s next!