Curb Refurb

This weekend really flew by but I feel like I actually accomplished a few things.  I love weekends where we have little to no schedule and we can strike the right balance of fun, rest, and productivity.  Usually, the latter is the hardest.

Saturday, I attempted to invent my own version of ham and potato soup.  Mom gave me the ham bone from last weekend's Easter feast and it made a great soup!  After boiling the ham bone, potatoes, and onions, I cheated a tad and added a pre-packaged soup mix.  It turned out pretty great and the house smelled amazing.

Top: Boiled ham bone!

Bottom: Soup in progress.  It's a little hot outside to be making soup (in the 80s), but we were lucky enough to get some rain this weekend.  With the rain, the soup wasn't as ill timed as I thought it would be.  As a matter of fact, Sunday surprised us with nickle sized hail.  No damage, but it certainly alarmed us.  (Don't worry, the "Noble Steed" [aka the Saab] was safe and sound in the garage.)

Later on Saturday Jordan worked on a new flower bed.  I've been talking about planting some flowers but our house gets too much of the afternoon sun for anything to survive in the Summer.  To fix that problem, Jordan made me a new flower bed where plants will get "partial sun".  This turned out really awesome and he did a beautiful job!

Top Left: Rough design and layout of the new flower bed.

Right: Jordan leveling out the stones and getting everything just right.

Bottom Left: The fresh dirt is dumped in there!

Top Left: It's difficult to see but there IS a plant in the new flower bed (you can see a stalk in the pink frame).  We decided to plant two peony bushes that will have light pink flowers.  I LOVE peonies but they are super expensive in the stores.  Here's to hoping I can keep the plants alive long enough to see some flowers.  I think it might take at least 1 season to "establish" the bush.  What do I know; I'm not Neil Sperry.

Top Right: Finished flower bed!

Bottom Left: Side angle!

Bottom Right: This is a picture of the peony bushes we planted.  This is what they should look like if all goes well. 

Since Jordan and I were both outside, we let Abby hang out with us.  I gave her a towel so she could "nest" and she loved it.  

Top: Abby trying to get the towel just right for herself.

Bottom left and right: Abby watching Jordan intently.  Jordan working his butt off while I take pictures. 

In between Home Depot runs (where we spend all our money it seems), Jordan brought home this orchid for me!  It is a beautiful large orchid plant and was nice to see some actual flowers after planting a root in the ground.

Right about the time the afternoon started heating up, Jordan and I decided to turn on our A/C.  We usually wait well into the Spring before turning it on to save the energy, but this weekend, we decided it was time.  Well, we turned it on and.....nothing.  Listened for the kick of the noise maker and...nothing.  Just room temperature air was coming out of the vents.  So, we paused the activities of the day and Jordan did some trouble shooting.  When Jordan went to Home Depot (again) for a part (I think something was wrong with the flux capacitor?) he ran into a random A/C guy with his young family.  After striking up a conversation and looking over A/C parts, we had the guy come back to the house to help us diagnose.  It wasn't a cheap fix, but we were SO lucky that it could be repaired!  Our A/C unit is pretty old so I just know it's going to kill over soon.  We might as well limp it along until it dies.

Sunday I decided to work on repainting the nightstand.  I mentioned in a previous post that we got this nightstand for $8.00 at a garage sale and Jordan attached legs to it to give it somewhat of an update.  The task of the day was to repaint the whole thing!  You know, just a tiny job that would only take a hour or so.  Wrong.  It took me about 5 hours to get it 95% complete.

Left Top and Bottom: The set up.  I wouldn't want to get any paint on our pretty garage floor.

Right: The paint.  It's difficult to tell in the picture, but these are actually colors, not black.  The left color is a dark blue and the right color is a dark charcoal.  I thought it would be a nice temperature with the expected rain, but it was really humid and hot.   

Top Left: The "before picture"

Top Right: The drawers taped off.  I was thinking I might try my hand at painting two tones on the drawers.  The tape helped a lot.

Bottom Left: Valspar "pop color".

Bottom Right: After I got paint on the drawer, I started to get nervous.  Paint looks so different on furniture than in the can.

Top Left: The drawer in progress.

Top Right: It's upside down but the first coat of the "still water" blue is done.

Bottom Left and Right: Finished drawers!!!  The paint is white but I couldn't wait to snap a picture.  

I'm sorry that I don't have a picture of the finished product but I need to wait for everything to thoroughly dry.  We will assemble and paint the top surface of the nightstand soon.  I'm so excited to see it completely done!

Lastly, we managed to squeeze in a walk for Abby just before the sun went down.  

Top Left: The rabbits are getting more and more bold.  They outright stare at her while they eat grass in the middle of the yard.  Makes Abby crazy.

Here are a few pictures of Abby's new collar accessory.  We found this on sale at either Home Depot or Lowes (again - we seem to live there).  This little thing lights up so she can be seen in the dark!  This will be SO handy at the lake because she likes to wander off to watch the chickens. 

Well, I hope you all are had a great weekend!  Wish me luck so I don't kill our new plants!