Saturday, October 30, 2010

Presto Changeo Loo!

I was bored with my black and white scheme in my bathroom......I needed a pop of color...maybe all of the apple candles I've been burning for the fall season have been subliminally making me yearn for a rich flash of red in my bathroom!

Anyway, here is the old look--well, semi-old look. Originally, I had a white shower curtain w/ a few black stripes at the bottom of it, but my two cats (who are primarily white) and my golden retriever go in and out of my bathroom--they especially like to linger around me when I get ready for work in the morning--- and the hair just stuck to it and then it was on the black bath rugs too.

I ditched the black bath mats about 6 months ago because of the major cat and dog hair that would accumulate on them in just a few days!!! So, I grabbed a plain white curtain and grey rugs.....they were okay, but a bit boring.























Now, this all started with a random trip to Kohl's and then a stroll through the bathdecor department. I found this shower curtain with white, grey, and black on it--perfect for my bathroom and then a flash of red! Awesome! And, it was on sale! (what's NOT on sale at Kohl's?!?)

The accent rugs are Thomas O'Brien from Target and were on sale too!

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Deck Makeover!

So, my deck was just a deck---no idea how old it was, but man, it looked like if I didn't do a stain/water seal to it this year, one more year of water damage and snow would lead to its ultimate decay and wood rot. It seemed like a pivotal time in my deck's life!


















I hired my dad to make use of my parents' smallish power washer and he went to town on the deck. I could not BELIEVE how gross the deck was! Check out this pic of the railing in progress of being cleaned! (the clean part is on the left!) EW! Kiss mildew & dirt goodbye!!!!

















The deck after power washing:


















Progress pic (stain is a one-step semi transparent w/ water seal built in from Home Depot; 2 gallons at $32 each). Staining the spindles was the most tedious and time-consuming part....


















Application done & stain is drying (you can still see the brush strokes on the wet stain....) 4.5 hours later.....

















Final madeover deck: To be posted!