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Home Improvement: Stained Glass Window Project

| Rene'

My husband and I picked up three old stained glass windows at The Tobacco Barn on our honeymoon a few weeks ago.

I wanted a unique way to hang them in our sun room.

And thankfully my husband is good at taking my ideas and making them happen.

This weekend we finally finished the project.

Here is what we did.

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Super cheap hardware from Home Depot, 50 cents per pack plus 14 cents for the over-sized washers.

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Toggle bolts, clothesline hooks and rings, and over-sized washers.

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Spray painted hardware.

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Hardware all assembled.

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We laid the windows out on craft paper to determine the layout.

Then Joe traced around the windows and taped the kraft paper to the wall for easy placement.

He is a smart one:)

The dog continued to beg throughout the process. He does not like when the attention is shifted away from him. Spoiled.

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Pre-drilled the holes for the rings.

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This is his arm, not mine. I don’t have hairy arms, in case you were wondering.

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Making sure the hooks are level. He said, “Hmmm close enough.”

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Yay, it worked.

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Completed project.

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I love that we purchased the windows on our honeymoon.

And every time I look at them it will remind me of our trip.

Yay for a handy husband.

Update: I shifted the room around.

kitchen-fixture-191

Our Honeymoon

| Rene'

Well we made it.

Our wedding day was perfect in every way.

But once we were hitched, we were ready to relax.

We (by we I mean me) had decided on a little cabin northwest of Asheville, NC.

Low key.

Simple.

I didn’t have to get on a plane.

Relatively inexpensive.

And close to home.

It was all I had hoped for.

We had a blast basically doing nothing for five whole days.

 Watched movies, took naps, ate at nice restaurants in Asheville, shopped some and just enjoyed each other’s’ company.

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from The Farm- A gathering place website
From The Farm- A gathering place website

Check out all their accommodations here, The Farm- Asheville, NC.

On our way home we stopped by my husband’s favorite fishing place in NC and snapped this picture.

We tried out the timer on my camera.
North Mills, NC

I Heart Waste Management’s Bagster

| Rene'

So we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel….hardwoodflooringwise (hey I made a new word).

Now we just have to get married next Saturday.

But the big project is almost over. (insert sarcastic tone)

Demolition of existing the flooring and then laying 1200 sq ft of hardwood flooring is a lot of work, especially when working a lot of overtime and planning a wedding all at the same time.

Joe said the other day that the nice thing about this project is that it will make all the other home improvement projects seem tiny in comparison:)

But this post is not about overworking ourselves. Its about home improvement  project garbage.

We had not such a great experience at the landfill a few months ago so we opted to use another option, drum roll please…….

What can I say? I love getting rid of stuff:)

Instead, we opted for the product called The Bagster. ($29.95 @ Home Depot, Lowes or Amazon)

I love love love this product.

We filled our 2nd and 3rd Bagsters this weekend.

I called to confirm that it was okay to put a sofa in the bag. They said, “Sure, as long as it fits in the bag.”

So we filled our bags with almost 1200 sq feet of old carpet, an old 7ft sofa, vinyl flooring, bathroom fixtures and lots of other odds and ends (even old shingles that the regular landfill won’t take).

I paid for the pick up over the phone.

Both bags will be conveniently picked up this week between Monday and Wednesday.

And I don’t even have to be there when the truck comes to pick up the bags.

I mean seriously, can it get any easier than that?

If you are planning a home improvement or clean out project, this is the product to use when you are ready to get rid of stuff.

Common Sense note: We also took several trips to Goodwill. Nothing went in the bags that was worthy of donating.

Love Language and Transparency

| Rene'

From the same office that we both work in, this sweet man goes out to buy breakfast every morning.

He has done this for all five years I have worked with him.

And every morning he returns with two bottles of water.

One for him and one for me.

He checks the caps on the bottles to see which is cleaner.

Opens the cleaner one for me and then goes about his business for the day.

Sometimes the humblest of actions speak the loudest.

The reason I blogged about water at work today is because last night I had a huge pity party about how this flooring project is not going to get done in time

(in my time frame anyway). Because life is all about me, right?

Mostly the pity party involved visions of me living out boxes and furniture chaos for the first few months of marriage because the house could not be put back together until the hardwood was finished. Hardwood that could have been laid months ago.

And I was so rebuked this morning when this sweet man, placed a clean water bottle on my desk and said, ” I know you are stressed about the floors, but I promised you three years ago that it would be done before we get married; and it will get done.”

Painting Project Part 2- A woman’s prerogative and color inspiration

| Rene'

You can read about my original plan and why I want to get the whole project done this week here.

I got a good start on the painting on Monday night but of course, I changed my mind six times as to my work plan and colors.

The funny thing was Joe wanted nothing to do with picking the colors.

He said, “If I don’t like them, I will just learn to live with them.”

But let me tell you how sweet he was….He went with me to get all the paint on Saturday before he left on his trip. Bought a special ladder that he didn’t think I would fall off off and an ergonomic paint brush for my small chubby hands because he said he didn’t want my hands to get tired.

 After we got back from buying the paint I noticed that I had subconsciously picked the colors from one of my favorite rugs.

Funny how things work out.

I took this picture, turned on the ceiling fan and then went to bed.

Here is the first room complete (and still drying in this picture). Cut-in and rolled twice. 4 1/2 hours after work on Monday night. Done. Yay!

This guest room will loosely be based on this inspiration board I started a few months ago.

On to the next room!