I'll just start with a quote. "You think you can do these things, but you just can't!" -Finding Nemo, 2003 As is the case with me and drywall. Well, it's not that I can't, but it is that I don't know how to do it. Not yet. Not at all. If you remember, a few months back, we were getting our house assessed about how energy efficient our house has become after all our renos. It was the morning of, and of course, there were so many tiny things that I hadn't done yet, but thought should be done before the assessment. The major thing they were testing for was air tightness. I wasn't there for the original assessment pre- renovation, so I didn't get to ask how certain things would affect the ratings. Things like the drywall seams... Since I hadn't asked, I figured it was probably a huge deal, and now that it was the day of the post assessment, I totally just slathered those seams with drywall mud, sans drywall tape. I did that with the first door too, however, it got covered by the trim. This time, our drywall patching was not getting covered by the trim. The door originally had a sidelight, so there was no getting away with a crappy drywall job this time. I don't know if you picked up on this, but I said a few months back. Ya... After Adam lovingly pointing out that I did it very wrong, I felt pretty unmotivated to fix it. It was going to be a killer to sand. I slathered that mud on really, really, really thick. But I finally got at her. The sanding part at least. I am definitely going to use the following instructions with the drywall joint tape and hope for the best. If at first you don't succeed, learn how to do it right, I guess. That patch of wall will be finished soon, I can feel it! The tools of the trade!
Any drywall horror stories to make me feel better? Please!?
Happy Drywalling! Jena xo
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As busy as we keep ourselves with work and house projects, we need some "us time" too. We started looking for a bike seat for Keenan at the beginning of summer and found this awesome front seater at Canadian Tire. Best purchase. Ever since we got the baby bike seat, we've been pretty good about using it. The dog loves it because he actually gets to run, and we love that because he could be mistaken for a moderate energy dog. Bicycle Match Co. Pillow by Koko Company from: Burke Decor LLC Bespoke Doormat by Danica Studio (Default) - $38.00 from: Burke Decor LLC It's so fun hanging out with my little family. I sure love them, and enjoying the times we have, whatever we are doing! What's your favorite family activity?
Happy family time! Jena xo Long weekends are the governments' gift to mankind. I really appreciate them, especially August Long, as that is always right near my birthday, so I am pretty much guaranteed a good time. This long weekend was no exception to the norm. Family reunion time! While it wasn't my side of the family getting together (we had our get together this summer too), it was Adam's side, which means a lot more family than I've got. We're talking triple digits, where I am barely hitting double digits when it comes to our family census. Which means crazier and louder and lots to do! We were a little worried about the motor home getting us there, but Adam tuned her up really good, and we made it there without a problem. I grew up camping in tents, which I can appreciate then, but now that I've grown accustomed to RV camping, I can also say I really appreciate that. It is so nice to have everything you need right there, from pots and a stove to your rain gear and a roof, if you happen to need it! We got lucky and only had a few raindrops, even though the weather was calling for thunder showers. It was the water balloons you had to watch out for! I know that I've said this before, but I really love family. Coming from such a small family myself into this extra large family, I have to say, it's quadrupling the fun! From a horse shoe tournament, which my sister-in-law totally won, and a thrilling round of bean bag tossing, which I happened to do oddly well at and won, to pot luck dinners and pancake breakfasts. Not to mention the talented entertainment. Wow. This family's got talent! Look out reality TV for this real life episode!
They even had tapes of previous generations rocking out. Hopefully no tapes of this year though, because the last night I know I was definitely belting out the tunes. No need to hear that in the years to come! Eeek! Although we were singing some pretty good tunes... The hall where the reunion was held was pretty awesome, too. The main room was called: The Antler Room. With all the deer running around the area, you can see why! The cousins at one point were on a search for deer, only for the deer to come right up to us. Get the look!Medium Elk Wall Mount design by Twos Company from: Burke Decor LLC I hope y'all have an awesome family like I do
Ok, so one of the first things we did to our house when we bought it was build a fence. We had been loving our entire pregnancy at Adam's parents (bless them for putting up with us!) and so the least we could do for our dog was to give him a yard to run around in. I'll admit, it did happen after the little dude was born... Priorities suddenly diverted from the dog. Sorry, Bo. At least he had a little girlfriend next door. Thankfully, we had practise building one other fence before, but this time we decided for a bit of a different design. Instead of doing the typical vertical fencing, we chose to do our fencing horizontally. This meant more vertical support, aka more posts, which meant more holes to be dug. Our posts were spaced 4' apart, which is definitely overkill for a vertical fence, but for a horizontal fence it was perfect. This is to prevent the boards from bowing. It also provided us with a perfect amount of vertical posts for solar lights. Nice ambiance, let me tell you!
We also topped the fence off with a diagonal capping piece to allow the snow to slide off instead of piling on top of the fence. Snow is a pretty integral factor in the design of the fence. Why, you ask? This was the last fence we built. It was five feet tall. Thus, the snow cap. And the increase in height. It is now just under six feet, and it's been good so far, but we did have a pretty mild winter with only about 4-5 feet of snow on the ground. (We do live in a ski town, might I add)
The one tricky part we had with the angled cap was the corner where the two angles meet at the corner post. It was the only thing that was off, and I'll admit, I was so relieved to have the fence up, I just said good enough and we will plant a tree in the corner to hide it. Oops. Normally Adam and I are pretty anal about that kind of thing but we can't all be perfect... It does look fine from the road, so consider yourself lucky that I let you in on our little secret! Hopefully the cool little 1x2 feature at eye level distracts you.
To finish off our gate, I really wanted to make it an interesting feature, so about a year later, we finally finished it off with the left over wood we had. I would have probably preferred it to be a thicker piece of wood; a 1x8 or 10 instead of the 1x6 might be more of the right proportion for the fence, but we used what we had, and I think it still turned out nicely.
Gates are tricky when building. All I can stress is bracing and levelness. I wasn't in charge or the fence design, so I don't have much I can tell you in terms of how-to. We started with a 2x4 frame, and it went from there. So, there you have it: our fence building in a nutshell! I know its not the norm when it comes to fences, but I love it. Sometimes, you just have to go against the flow and do what you want. So that's what we did. Oh, and P.S. if you are building a fence with pressure treated wood, make sure you use coated screws specifically for decks and fences. Otherwise you will be replacing EVERY SINGLE SCREW. Yup. They rust almost immediately. It's not fun. I thought the black 2-1/2" screws were the coated ones. Those are drywall ones. The kind of greenish ones are the ones to use. Don't make my mistake! Seriously. Happy fencing! Jena xo As you know, it was my birthday a few days ago. I just wanted to share something cool that happened, which you can call karma or luck or whatever. I have sponsored a child since I was nine years old, and the time has come for her to graduate from the Compassion project. At the end of their time with the project, you are given the opportunity to give above and beyond what you've given monthly to support them. Well, I wish I could give her a good chunk of money, but as a stay at home mom, I don't make much money (sadly), so I decided on an amount that is a bit of a stretch for me, but I could do it. It might mean the kitchen countertops that I really want are on hold for a bit longer, but what do you do? Priorities! My sponsor girl is from Haiti, and as we all know, Haiti is still a mess. I don't feel right sending her off into the world without giving her one last gift. In our world, we give gifts of money all the time, but very rarely do the receivers go out a buy goats and clothes for the family. In her world, that is what she would do with her money. I mean, the only scenario where gifts and goats could remotely be related would be the instance of going to a goat farm for your birthday or something. That's a stretch though! Strangely enough, I did have a goat photo on my phone... You never know when you might blog about goats! I digress... So, anyways, I had decided this amount I wanted to give, and even made a payment on my credit card of that exact amount. Then, I went and got the mail, and had a card waiting there for me from a special person with a cheque for... Guess how much? That exact amount. Is that cool or what? At first, I didn't even want to write about this experience because I'm not trying at all to say something like, "I'm so generous, look at me!" It just presented an opportunity to talk about sponsoring a child, so I had to write about it. Someone is looking down saying, "I told you so. You could do it." There are more times than I can count where things like that happen. It's making me start to really understand that someone has their hand in my life guiding me along the way. And that what goes around, comes around. ... for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Cor. 9:7) I happen to be a Compassion Advocate too, so if you would like any information about sponsoring a child, please contact me. I'd be more than happy to set a child up with a sponsor. It makes a difference; I can tell the difference it's made in my sponsor child from 17 years ago. Now she is a happy, grown woman ready to take on the world, despite everything she has gone through. Now, we have a beautiful, new sponsor girl, also from Haiti. Happy giving. Jena xo |
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