Our New Bar

Jeff may or may not have turned our backyard into the perfect party house with the installation of our new bar.  It may have been covered with soda bottles, but the party was raging.  He had this great idea that came out of no where and he pulled it off the weekend before Wesley's party.  I don't have a full tutorial for you, but basically...

He built a frame...attached it to the studs in the wall...added the top (a 2 x 8)...sanded and covered in spar urethane (repeated 3 times)...and added extra support using shelving brackets from Ikea.
Here's what it looked like for Wesley's party...and a sneak at some of the party decor. (Hope to post pics soon!) UPDATE: See pics HERE

Here's some pictures of the progression.

And just for fun, this picture of Wesley with the dirtiest face.  He is becoming such a little boy and is so dirty everyday from playing outside.  This day he was extra dirty, so i had to snap a pic :)

A Chalkboard Sandbox Cover

We are back to project posts!  Yay!

Here is the finished sandbox that Jeff built for Wesley using only extra materials that he had lying around the garage.  

        

He created the sandbox by framing out the side of the deck that he left unfinished with plywood and then trimming the sections out with leftover 2x6s.  See more about how he built the deck HERE, HERE, and HERE. We filled the sandbox section with about 20 bags of sandbox sand from home depot.

 It took him forever to decide on what to do with the cover because the only piece of wood big enough had a big whole in it.  You can see the whole in the picture below.  

He decided to just use it instead of buying something new and used another piece of plywood to "patch" up the hole.   Then he added trim pieces he had left over from another project and the "W" he recently cut out on the scroll saw to give the awkward square a little purpose. 

He also added the trim to the front part pf the cover to make it look a bit nicer and more kid-friendly.

He found a little nob to use as the handle.  He put a latch on the wall behind the sandbox, which hooks into the little eye-hook you see next to the nob.

He also happened to have a few hinges on hand. 

After the cover was opened, I knew we needed to do something to the underside of it because it looked pretty ugly.  I've been a little obsessed with chalkboard paint lately so naturally it was my first choice.  And, you guessed it, we happened to have some on hand.  

I love that the chalkboard paint made the hole a little less noticeable and gives Wesley another outdoor activity.  The kids at Wesley's birthday party loved it. And Wesley loves it to.  He's a natural at smashing sand-castles.

First party on the new deck!

We had a few friends over last night for our first party on the new deck.  It was a last minute get-together to celebrate the end of our indoor soccer season (even though it ended like 2 months ago).  It was a simple affair with pizza, salad, soda in our metal planters turned ice tubs, and root beer floats for dessert.  We discovered that Wesley, the boy who will eat nothing, loves pizza and ate an entire slice himself...big boy style.  That's just how he rolls.  We also discovered that the deck is a perfect party place and our farmhouse table worked perfectly!

oh, did you spot the sandbox?  More details to come...

For now, enjoy this video of wesley eating his pizza.

Looking back...at what Jeff built: Front Yard Fence

Jeff was making magic long before I started blogging, so I want to feature something he built back in the day (meaning over a year ago) every so often.  Today I'm sharing one of our first and proudest projects (ignore the grammar there): our front yard fence.  We designed and built it together from scratch and we are still so happy with the results. 

This is what the fence looked like before.  We have a nice big and flat front yard, so it just made sense to keep it fenced in. The original fence looks nice enough in this picture, but in reality sections of it were falling down and it was just really beat up.  Not to mention, it wasn't really our style. 

We wanted something different and modern and had seen a few homes in our old neighborhood that had horizontal fencing.  We decided to go with it, and this is the result.

 Although, Jeff did all the heavy lifting, he did enlist my help in assembling the fence slats.  And I became a pro with the nail gun. {A word about my work attire...I figure if I have to work in the hot sun, I might as well try to get a tan.  Anyone with me on that?} 

 Jeff designed the fence with a cap on top and then drilled little holes in it to put these solar powered lights in the fence.  They are the kind that you are suppose to stick in the ground.  Jeff just broke the stake portion off and stuck the little knob into the pre-drilled hole.  Its definitely MacGyvered (or should I just say MacJeffed? ...I'm laughing at my own bad joke right now), but its been holding up well over the last two years. 

Deck Progress: What We Planted

The deck is pretty much done, yay!  Jeff is so excited.  We just need to put sand in the sandbox and build a cover for it.  Last week, Jeff planted some yummy plants in the deck planters.  Here is the run down:

And Jeff put the herbs he bought in this fun little table he built a while back.

Here is the {almost} finished deck

Planting crops

Last night we made a little family trip to Home Depot to pick up dirt and a few crops for our new raised garden planters.  The planters are so big that we ended up buying 20 bags of garden soil.  Before he filled them up, Jeff built a false bottom in the platers that was about 10 inches off the ground so that it would take less dirt to fill them.  He then lined the sides and bottom with 6mm all purpose plastic to protect the wood.

Here's 15 of the 20 bags.  Jeff had bought 5 earlier to see how much he would need.  I totally doubted that he could fit 15 bags on that cart.  Jeff is surprised that I still ever doubt him.

Here are the crops we got: carrot seeds, yellow bell pepper, zuchini squash, crockneck squash, watermelon, and some herbs: mint, cilantro, adn basil.  The watermelon and herbs arent actually going into these planters.  We have other plans for them that I'll share later.  We were at Lowes the other day and felt they had more variety, so we are going to check out their supply later and possible get some more veggies.

Wesley was a great helper.

Here are the planters all filled up with dirt.  See the plastic peeking through on the sides?

By the time Jeff finshed it was dark outside, so I will show pictures of the final reveal next week when we have the entire deck area completed.

Any suggestions on plants to get?  We are no experts in gardening so any tips you have for us would be great!