Backyard Makeover

16,000 woodworking plans inside...(2 days left) 

I just discovered this and suggest you see this immediately... 

BHC 14 INEXPENSIVE TREE STAND PDF Plans build your own tree stand Woodworking Download.

Click Here To Download

This Spring, on somewhat of a whim, Brent and I decided that this would be the summer that we'd tackle the backyard.  We had a raised brick patio off the house that had been settling pretty badly for the past few years and we knew the time would come that it was going to have to come out.

 In our neighborhood homes are very close together.  With our raised patio, we felt like we were on a stage every time we ate dinner outside since our patio sat almost above the fence line.

Here is a side shot of our patio.  You can see how the bricks are settling.

 This back corner of our yard was a small patio we built shortly after purchasing our house.  This is where we had our fire pit set up for late night summer s'more sessions.  As the years went on, we found we were using it less and less.  I think because it was so far away from the house, it was becoming a chore to haul all of our things all the way back there.

 This is the view from the north side of our house looking back into the yard.  With the raised patio right in the center, it blocked the view of the yard.

 Here's the view from our patio doors off the house.  Notice how the bricks have settled towards the front.  We already fixed that about two summers ago, but without a place for the water to run off, it causes the bricks to settle unevenly.

 These stone stairs down to the yard we also settling and becoming unsafe and unstable.

 And the last caveat of having a brick patio right next to the patio doors...ants.  Lots and lots of ants.

Before starting anything, I drew out our yard on graph paper to determine our plan.  Since we were essentially going to be tearing up a large portion of the yard, we created an order of events to complete everything by Labor Day.  Our goal was to dismantle the existing raised patio and reuse as much of the material as possible.  The walls of the patio would be used to build two large raised garden beds at the back corner of the yard where we get the most sunlight.  The brick pavers of the existing patio would be reused as a new ground level patio.

To give you an idea of what had to do this summer, here's a list!

1. Remove old patio from the back corner of the yard.

     *We sold the paver stones on Craigslist

     *The retaining wall stones were moved over near the shed to edge in the garden beds surrounding      the workshop.

2. Take down the walls of the raised patio and build raised garden beds out of them.

     *I can't accurately describe how difficult this process was.  Each 15 lb stone had block adhesive on      it, which meant using a chipping hammer to remove all of the block adhesive before we could take      it to the raised garden beds to glue back down.  After the beds were built, we still had close to 500      block left, which we gave away for free on Craigslist.  This entire process of taking down the patio      walls, building the garden beds and getting rid of the rest took close to a month.  Probably some of      the most exhausting work I've ever done.

3. With the patio walls gone, we took up all of the existing brick patio pavers that made up the floor of the existing raised patio. 

     *This step wouldn't have been too bad but there was polymeric sand on each brick that needed to        be chipped off.  And I don't mean a simple scrape.  I mean chipped, like with a hammer and chisel.      Close to 1500 bricks by our calculations.  This was an important step though because every brick        we could reuse would save us close to .70 cents (that's the cost to buy a new one).  We set up              pallets in three locations around the patio that we would stack the clean bricks on.  This way, when     we were ready to lay the new patio, the bricks would be close by.

4.  Now that the bricks were out of the way, we set to work removing approximately 13 tons of sand.  With wheelbarrows and shovels.  Worst weekend of my life.  Luckily we had our parents and one brave neighbor to help us.

5.  Under the sand, was about 5 tons of black dirt that had to come out.  We used some of it to fill in our raised garden beds, some to level out some areas of our yard and the rest got dumped.

6.  At this point, we prepped our sand base, packed it and laid the brick pavers back down at ground level.  We got to use our paver patio bricks from the old patio but we knew there wouldn't be enough, so we had to purchase about 1000 more bricks and we sprinkled those in with the old so you can't tell which are old and which are new.

7.  The deck was built when the patio pavers were done.

8.  Patio lights were hung.

9.  And finally, this weekend, we built the fence around the garden.

Inside the garden area, we left about 2 foot wide pathways around the perimeter of the beds.

The lights on top of the posts are solar lights.  Fencing and gate was all custom built by Brent.

In the Spring, we will put down a thick layer of mulch on the garden pathways.

For the deck, we used Cedar Toned Green Treat from Home Depot.  Real cedar is incredibly expensive, so this was a nice alternative.  After a year we can stain it if we wish.

Exterior wall sconces flanking the patio doors are from Lowe's.

The stones for the small retaining wall are from Lowe's.

 This is just a $20 screen door from our home improvement store, painted with Benjamin Moore Wythe Blue.

 Brent built this custom railing as well.  Caps are solar lights from the home improvement store.

 I picked up the World Market Adirondack chairs from Craigslist and painted them with Benjamin Moore Tequila Lime.

 We made this little stepping stone path at the bottom of the deck stairs to make it easy to cut through the garden.

 For the deck, we picture framed the edge to give it a more finished look.  We also used the Kreg Jig Deck Jig so most of the screws on the deck are hidden.  Took quite a bit of time to do this, but well worth it in the end!

 It was important to me that the edge of the deck be finished as well.  Brent used cedar fence pickets to cover the edge.

For the patio lights, we set metal conduit poles into concrete poured into plastic flower pots (then covered in dirt once dry).  1/16 galvanized wire was pulled from the poles to the house and then the string lights, from Costco, were zip tied to the tension wire.

It's been a long, exhausting summer.  But each day, we are so overjoyed that this is our yard and we got to create it.  We've already had plenty of evenings on the patio with friends and family around the fire and are looking forward to next Spring when we get to plant our garden.

And now if you'll pardon me, I've got some Netflix shows to catch up on followed by a nice, long nap.

A New Exterior House Color!!

16,000 woodworking plans inside...(2 days left) 

I just discovered this and suggest you see this immediately... 

BHC 14 INEXPENSIVE TREE STAND PDF Plans build your own tree stand Woodworking Download.

Click Here To Download

Each year for the past 3 years, I've scraped and painted one side of the house, slowly making my way around the entire thing.  It usually only takes a weekend to scrape and paint one side so it doesn't turn into a big commitment.  But each year that I go and buy another gallon of the same light yellow/cream paint, I dream about changing the house color.  Reality soon sets in though that completely changing the color of the house would be too much work and too much expense.

That is until the beginning of this summer when a friend of ours needed some help painting her house.  She went from a light colored house to a rich, dark color - and I fell in love.  It was only a matter of days until I had convinced Brent to let me do a little experimenting.  

I was having a problem with our roof color and figuring out what color of paint would look best with it.  The roof is called Burnt Sienna, which is sort of brown and sort of reddish.  But when I looked closer at the shingles, I could see some dark spots, almost a navy or charcoal.  So I started messing around on Benjamin Moore's website to plug in different paint colors.  Benjamin Moore Hale Navy was the absolute winner.  Anything with too much gray or brown just didn't look right with the shingles.

I was still a bit nervous about taking the plunge so we bought a test pot and painted a swatch on the back of the house to look at it for a few weeks.  Even with a such a big test spot, I still couldn't pull the trigger so my neighbor friend suggested that I paint the entire front of the house first - that way if I didn't like it from the front, I wouldn't have painted the entire house already.

I liked that idea, so Brent and I spent a few hours on a Saturday evening and a few more the next morning painting the front.  Luckily, our house is small so it only took us about 4-6 hours total to paint the front, including the trim.  And we love it!!

We are most surprised to see the texture of the siding come out.  When the house was the lighter color, it was painted in a flat finish - which made it impossible to clean off muddy puppy paw prints and other smudges.  For the navy, we went with a satin finish which is why you can see more of the texture.  For the trim, we used Benjamin Moore Steam, which is a little bit softer than a bright white. 

Before we started painting, I was nervous about what our white gutter downspouts would look like on the front of the house, since before they blended in with the lighter paint.  But after painting with the BM Hale Navy and putting the downspouts back up, I think they look fine.

I love how our window trim and green plants pop out against the new house color.  But now our poor neighbors have to live with this view until our schedule clears out and we can paint the rest of the house!

And then there's this lovely view - oh man - we feel so trashy having a multi-colored house but I'm hoping that next weekend I can get the sides painted!

And for a final side by side - here's the before and after!  I am still undecided about the front door color and what, if anything, we'll do there.  Shutter options are still being weighed as well - but we'll worry about those once all the painting is done. 

And for your Pinning pleasure, here are all of the colors listed in one place.

Tour Through Blogland

16,000 woodworking plans inside...(2 days left) 

I just discovered this and suggest you see this immediately... 

BHC 14 INEXPENSIVE TREE STAND PDF Plans build your own tree stand Woodworking Download.

Click Here To Download

Just recently, I was invited to participate in a fun little deal called the "Tour Through Blogland". The tour is a way to introduce readers to new and upcoming blogs. Heather from The Heathered Nest invited me to join and we have a funny connection - as we were both featured in the same article in USA Today Home magazine a few months ago. She started her blog shortly after appearing in that magazine...and good thing she did because you are going to love what she's been working on over at her house!

Here are some of my favorite projects from The Heathered Nest, click on the photos for direct links.

A barn-wood ceiling in their spare bedroom!

And their daughter's bedroom is going to melt your heart.

Please pay Heather a visit on her blog to see what else she's been working on!

So onto our home tour, I suppose...

We bought our house about 5 1/2 years ago, two weeks before our son was born.  Moving is always a great time (heavy sarcasm), especially when you're nine months pregnant with a toddler in tow.  But these last 5 years have been amazing and in large part because of this home.  We live in a beautiful neighborhood with tree lined streets and quaint little homes where you can always find a neighbor outside that's happy to stop and chat.

But the one downfall, ok, one of the major downfalls, of living in an older home is only getting a one car garage.  And our kitchen is located right behind the garage, so removing the garage and building a two car garage in the backyard is unfortunately not ever going to be an option for us.  But because we have a lot of tools and then all of the other stuff that comes along with owning a home - like a lawn mower, wheelbarrow, shovels, rakes, bicycles, etc...our garage filled up fast.  Which left us no where to work on the ever ending stream of woodworking projects that always seem to be on our "to-do list".  So we put this little workshop in our backyard to free up space in the garage.  You can read all about how we built it here.

Moving inside, this is our living room just inside the front door.  We gets lots of afternoon sun here, making it a great place to curl up in that gray chair in the corner with a book.  When we moved into this home, we had a full size sofa and a love seat, but after fighting with the layout for several years, I finally sold them on Craigslist and we slowly accumulated the furniture you see in here now.  The chairs are all from World Market but bought in sets, probably about 6 or 8 months apart.  Because of the size and layout of the living room, we found that having the four separate chairs makes the room feel lighter and it gives us more versatility if we feel like moving things around.  And as an added bonus, this living room doubles as Brent's yoga studio in the late afternoons, so it's much easier for him to move two small chairs than it is to move a sofa.

Next to the living room is our dining room.  Since we don't have an eat in kitchen, we actually use this room at least twice a day for meals, plus homework, plus blog writing, plus craft doing, plus coloring...you get the point.  

And I'm still surprised every day, to find that the majority of people that visit our blog is via Pinterest and specifically from this image.  It's our tiny galley style kitchen that we made over with only $200. Recently, we got super lucky and were gifted with some hardwood flooring that matches the the hardwoods in our living/dining area, so we'll be able to use that to lay in our kitchen at some point. See ya later, fake blue ceramic tile!

And lastly, this is our remodeled basement family room.  This is where we spend the majority of our time, playing games, watching movies, wrestling and dancing.

As a conclusion to the tour, I'm supposed to answer a few questions.

1.  What am I working on?

No big renovations are underway at this point.  The Kruses have switched back into "save" mode.     With a weekend family getaway approaching, Christmas shopping and an unplanned surgical procedure for our son in the near future (and a high deductible health insurance plan), we are stockpiling cash like crazy.  That means all large projects are on hold until we get through the next few months.  But I've got a one of a kind holiday project that the kids and I are working on and a little something for my sister in the works.  Both of which I'm excited to share sometime shortly down the road.  After the first of the year, we are hoping to start planning either a new covered deck or the attic remodel - we just haven't decided which one is more important on our priority list.

2.  How does my work differ from others of it's genre?

There are many wonderful blogs out there, full of creative people that craft amazing things, but I knew Brent and I had some things to share with the blogosphere.  Although we had no idea when we met, we now know we are perfect compliments to each other - in one regard anyway.  We make a great DIY team.  If Brent were in charge of furnishing our home, we would have one chair, several gigantic televisions, no kitchen table and definitely no extra "pretty" pillows on the beds or sofas.  That leaves me in charge of making our house a home, but unfortunately, I don't like shopping.  Actually, it's not the shopping I dislike, it's the spending.  So what's the cheapest way to dress our home?  Have Brent build it!  Brent can take any picture I draw for him and turn it into a beautiful piece of furniture, picture frame, workshop - whatever it happens to be that popped into my brain.  I may be the voice behind the blog, but all I'm doing in showcasing Brent's God given talents.  So that's what makes us a different DIY blog - you get Heidi AND Brent.  You might not hear his voice, but you'll get good, solid plans for building furniture and completing projects the right way.  Because he is borderline professional and he knows his way around a workshop.

3.  Why do I write/create the way that I do?

Growing up in a family that was submersed in construction and constant remodeling projects, DIY has been in my blood for a long time.  Even though Brent and I have been remodeling our homes for almost ten years now, with some much needed guidance from my dad, I never thought it was anything special because it came easily to us, mostly.  But the older we've gotten, we began noticing that what we were doing with our weekends (tearing out walls) was NOT what most of our friends were doing, NOR would they ever ENJOY doing.  So we started documenting the things that we build and create on this blog because I knew some of the things we were doing were unique, but more importantly, I knew we could TEACH others to do the same things.  With clear, step by step instructions and clear photos, anyone could do what we do.

Enough about me because I'm excited to introduce you to Mary over at Lemon Grove Avenue! She and her husband, Jay, recently made a big move from Michigan to North Carolina where they are currently renovating their adorable home.

I bumped into Mary's blog while searching Pinterest one evening for attic renovation inspiration photos.  They were in the middle of a remodel on the second story of their home back in Michigan and it was eerily similar to our second story of our home.  Here's how their master bedroom remodel turned out!

And as an added bonus, they are having their first baby - which means Mary will inevitably create a beautiful nursery!  I can't wait to see what comes up with next, so I follow along with Mary's blog, Lemon Grove Avenue, on Facebook and Instagram.  Now go check out her newly remodeled kitchen!