The New Deck and Outdoor Kitchen

In 2005 we decided to take the big leap of faith by knocking down the rickety old backyard deck and put in a bigger and better one. This was a big undertaking. Most of the demolition was taken on by our son Daniel, who took pleasure in smashing up the old deck. He was almost 13 at the time and I was surprised at his strength and Randy was thrilled by his strength. He now had a son who could help with heavy lifting.

The old deck was in bad shape. Apparently there were potted plants place on it without the deck actually being treated. It was rotting, splintered and you never dared to lean on the rail or you may go over the deck. Plus it was tiny, almost as if it were an afterthought. –Let’s just throw up a deck, without considering the function. This needed to change. We needed to expand it beyond the bay window, and under the kitchen, let’s pour a slab of concrete and put in a spa. This should flatten the entertaining space and make the yard much more functional. Only I didn’t want any more hand rails. That to me was something that would require upkeep. –Painting! Instead let’s put in cabinets and a counter top to span where the railing would go. Yes. Randy has agreed.

Do you see how short the deck is? Under the bay window is a big hole.

We bought composite decking at Lowes and had them deliver all the necessary materials to our home. Now this is where I wish I had taken more pictures. I cannot seem to find any. If I come across some later I will insert them. But here are the results.

We had some left over counter top and we stared at it for a few years trying to figure out what to do with it. When Randy was turning 50 I wanted to have a big party for him so I decided we needed to make a Kitchen Island out of the leftover piece of granite. We went to Ikea and purchased a stainless steel kitchen island without a top. Our granite fit perfectly.

You can see the kitchen island here. This is actually for McKenna's 3rd Birthday party. We used it for extra seating.

We also purchased an automatic remote controlled Sunsetter awning for above the deck for those hot sunny days. It’s nice to be able to retract it on cooler days when your want to feel the warmth of the sun.

We added an extra portable awning for this party with another table and some more seating. You can also see where we placed the spa at the bottom of the picture. It sits lower than the deck for easy access.

Papa is helping McKenna with her ballet leg. She wants to be an Auburn Mermaid just like her mommy.

This kitchen is perfect for big get-togethers. There is so much counter space and the grill has 2 burners and an oven. Later we purchased a smoke vault for smoking large quantities of meat to add to our outdoor kitchen. Slowly we have added some furniture and made it an extension of our home.

It also has drastically changed the view from the inside of our house, especially the bay window, where before the deck stopped short of the bay window and you looked down at a giant hole.

Sunflowers Everywhere! –an epidemic of the good kind.

Last year I planted Sunflowers in my garden so that the birds would be attracted to the seeds, rather than the cherries on the trees. It worked a bit, however buying mylar balloons and tying them onto the branches works just as well, if not better. -The bright, shiny wavy, reflective balloons scare them away from the Cherry trees. Uh-oh I am just a few sentences into my blog and I am already digressing! The sunflowers were beautiful and the birds were very happy.

Birds are very smart creatures. They don’t eat every seed that they pick from the flower. They bury the seeds as well. This ensures they will have something to eat next spring-fall, and when you live in California, something for the birds to eat throughout the year. My neighbor informed me last year that she had Sunflowers in her back yard and she did not plant them. Then I saw some pop up in parts of my yard where I know I didn’t plant any.

One of the Many Sunflowers that are Popping Randomly

I have this super steep hill that doesn’t like to grow anything, except weeds! This year as I was making my weed rounds around the yard I noticed a grove of sunflowers sprouting up on that stubborn hill. Amazing. If I want to have anything grow on that hill, I guess I will just have to ask the birds to plant them. They have the magic touch.

A Small Grove of Sunflowers Planted by the Birds

This stately Sunflower stands over 8 feet tall and is just beginning to bud.
I call it the Ambassador to my garden.

I expect by next year Sunflowers will be filling this entire neighborhood. That’s not a bad thing at all.

~Susie

Isabella & Max Rooms: Street of Dreams Portland Style - House 1

Isabella & Max Rooms: Street of Dreams Portland Style - House 1

Even the Motor Home Gets a Facelift

It may not be luxurious but we have wonderful memories created. 

So we just get done with all the hard work of residing and painting our house when Sister-in-Law Christy comes for a visit. There’s always trouble when she visits, but in a good way. When she comes we usually end up at our favorite fabric store and this time they had 60 percent off many of the fabrics!!. This is a good mission because the curtains in the motor home are getting crispy, cracking and fading from the sun. 

Look closely at the small rips along the bottom.

I figured I could go and look for something from that era (1999) and not spend a lot of money. -Not so fast! We get there and I am focused on my mission of finding a print that coordinates with the rest of the motor home which is Rose, Eggplant, green and various shades of beige and tan. I was trying to be good, but they had new arrivals of some beautiful outdoor fabrics and I just kept gravitating toward all those pretty patterns. After all they were outdoor fabrics so really they would be very durable and fade resistant and stain resistant and easy to clean….. –I was singing the praises of quality outdoor fabric in  my head.

I mean can ya blame a girl for getting excited about all these choices?

I called Randy and asked pretty please can we redo all the fabrics in the motor home?. Being the awesome man that he is, he didn't deny me, and had faith that we could make it look really great.

I decided on a black and white theme with 3 different patterns, a houndstooth, a modern retro take of mid century and a large flower print reminiscent of a Hawaiian pattern. -Small pops of red would finish it off.

The bottom three in this picture are the 3 fabrics we decided on

.

The trick is, I have never reupholstered a chair in my life nor have I made big cushions that make up the upper bunk mattress. We bit the bullet and paid to have those done. We decided on the modern fabric with the houndstooth for the skirt on the chair, then I made a pretty houndstooth pillow and embellished it with a blingy button. For the upper bunk cushions, we decided that the large flower print would look good.

Before.....

After! Notice the pillow I made?
And now to the Upper Bunk...

Before.....

After! I love the large print complimented by the houndstooth curtains.

Meanwhile I got to work taking down the crispy curtains, the dusty metal blinds and the nasty, full of dust coming apart at the seams padded valances, along with the worn out dinette cushions. I counted 8 windows that needed new roman shades and valances. –I got this!

I shopped for all the supplies needed and got to work first on the curtains that wrapped around the upper bunk in the houndstooth. –Holy smokes this was a lot of work and I was beginning to re-think why I started it in the first place, but I kept drudging on.

This wrapped around the upper bunk on 3 sides.

Now onto the Roman Shades. I have done Roman Shades before so I knew I could do this but I had to do 5 windows in all. It took days, but it looked fantastic when done, plus no more noisy metal blinds when driving. -That's a plus.

I chose to make the valance and the Roman shade the same pattern to mimic a padded headboard. When the Roman shade is up, you get a beautiful view of your surroundings.

 Randy helped me with the padded valances because it required 2 people to staple them down nice and even.

These are the padded valances. I pulled them apart and removed the staples and used the old fabric for the pattern for the new valances.

Now onto the dinette cushions. I managed them just fine.

It's kind of blurry but I wanted to show the valance with the dinette cushions.

The dinette coordinates with the little chair, while the valance ties together with the upper bunk cushions. The gray rug helps with dirty feet upon entering.

I found this picture of the Napa Wine Train and just had to have it. Our motorhome practically knows its way to Napa/Sonoma.

Whenever I was at a store I always kept in mind that we need new bedding to match. I managed to get the bedding for 40 dollars. I love a good bargain. 

I can't believe how well this bargain bedding goes with the rest of the decor!

Two more sets of Roman shades and valances finish off the room.

I took this picture at the beach and just had to frame it for the bedroom.

I love the new look! And many people are surprised to see how nice it looks considering its age.
Thanks for looking at my blog!
Susie

More Front Yard Fix-Ups and Edible Gardens!

March 25, 2013

Once again, spring has sprung and we are starting on a new project. We’re going to skip re-siding the back of the house this year because we decided it would be a great idea to grow all of our own vegetables. We also have 3 citrus trees that we purchased 2 years ago and put in large pots. Well they’re starting to outgrow their pots and we need to get them in the ground, but everything at our house tends to slope so first we have to build a retaining wall.

Last Saturday, super early in the morning, a big truck arrived and dropped off some very heavy things for us to haul down the hill in front of our yard. –Keystone for the retaining wall, some gravel for the base of the wall, and some wood for our raised garden beds. This ought to be a good workout.

As you can see, the citrus trees desperately need to be freed from their containers.

Why did we choose Keystone when there are so many different, cool types of stone work to choose from? Simple. -We have existing keystone on the driveway side of the house and cohesion is extremely important to me and you’ll see why when you scroll down.

Using like materials and repeating it throughout the exterior is the best formula for a successful landscape/home improvement. Now that I’m looking at the pictures, this side could use some good weeding and some more flowers too.

Here we are working our way up the yard with the keystone.

It’s hard to tell but the yard really slopes downhill and we have to raise the wall as it slopes upward.

My fine looking and hard working husband, Randy!

That dead patch of grass behind him is where the raised beds will go.

The hill needs more digging then we first thought. Good thing we have this handy tool or we’d be digging for days!

A close up of why we need this handy tool.

Little by little…

Now you can see the curves. John Gidding of “Curb Appeal the Block” recommends curvy pathways and walls to add interest. He’s right!

Randy is building 6 raised garden beds altogether.

When the last Keystone was laid and the last garden bed built, a dump truck came and dumped 14 yards of garden soil for behind the wall and the garden boxes!!!

We have some hard work ahead of us. It took us 2 days to move that dirt.

A friend said that this pic makes it look like grave plots!

Now onto transplanting many, many plants and seeds. This took quite some time.

I transplanted 202 strawberry plants!

The Citrus Trees are much happier as well as the other transplanted plants.

We had to remove an old bush and root ball to make room for another citrus here.

Patience paid off as new plants began to sprout.

And sprout...

And sprout...

We are overwhelmed and blessed!

Some tips for you if you’re thinking of growing your own food.

~Don’t forget to lay down some Mole Wire to keep those pests out.

~Make sure you have a handle on ants before you plant. Ants herd Aphids and Aphids will suck the flavor right out of your food. You can YouTube “Ants herding Aphids” if you’re curious as to how they do it.

~Auto drip lines are best for your garden so you can enjoy a get-away without worrying about your garden.

~Good Soil is key!

~Research Companion Planting. Some plants don’t play well with others in the garden.