♥The Reyes Family 3+1♥: Projects

I am the queen of home projects. Pinterest has made it so much worse! Part of what made me fall in love with this house, is that everything needed to be painted and the backyard was a dead blank slate, so I knew there would always be a project to do and I'd never get bored. Addison got a swingset from my parents for Christmas, and while Carlos and my dad had used a sod-cutter to take out the grass, and framed it out so the area could eventually be filled in with sand, the project was halted by painting, installing doors, rain, and whatever else came up...especially GOPHERS!!! It was finally starting to annoy me how bad the backyard looked, so we went to Home Depot on Saturday, spent over $100 on plants and soil, and Carlos got to tackle the worst job yet.

We had already cleared out this planter area in the past, but it had gotten really full of weeds, and the dirt was less than ideal. It was almost 95 degrees, and Carlos got to dig out all of the weeds and grass that had moved back into the planter. You can also see all of the new grass that has grown into the swingset area.

Addison ran around in her bathingsuit getting brown while Carlos slaved away.

This is the "after", although it still isn't finished. I chose plants that were drought tolerant, just in case I forget to water them, and plants that will eventually grow much bigger and fill in the planter. The yellow plants will eventually be 4 ft tall x 4 ft wide! The next step is to decide what kind of border we want along the edge. Originally we were going to use the stacking blocks, but I think they will be too high. We found a border made from rocks that link together which we both liked, and I am partial to the "southern gardens" so I am really liking the idea of railroad ties. Now to find a gardener to take out the hideous palm tree so we can plant more plants and get a new tree planted.

On Sunday, my dad and Carlos dug out the new grass that had made it's way back into the swingset area (so much for renting the sod-cutter), and started putting up the swingset. That thing is literally in a million pieces. Everything is put together by hand, including the slide. It will definitely be finished this Sunday, so Addison is very excited. Now to get the 5 million bags of sand that it will take to fill in the area. I wanted rubber bark, but it would've been $900. No thanks. A few hundred dollars on sand seems much more practical.

Addison wanted to rake, which she is obsessed with!

My mom was pulling her around the yard in her wagon. It's a good thing she is finally getting more use out of it. Since we moved in, it was kind of filled with leftover nonsense in the garage, and blocked in by the box from the swingset. Lol!

My inside project this week was the nursery. My dad and Carlos had painted it weeks ago, and so it would match Addison's room, I had them paint the ceiling. One thing that people think, is that painting a ceiling shrinks a room, when in fact, it really doesn't. In this case, the blue was reflecting off of the ceiling and walls, and made it look fluorescent. Literally, it felt like a crazy persons room at night. So, I painted the cutest clouds ever on the ceiling, hoping to tone it down. They looked so great, but it was still TOO much blue. I had seen other turquoise nurseries on Pinterest, and what I found, is that the nurseries with the white ceilings were my favorite, while the nurseries with the painted ceilings were just TOO bright. So, I took it upon myself to paint the ceiling white. Three coats later, and it looked better already. Today, I just finished cutting in around the top with the blue paint, and it looks 100x better. It's hard to get a picture that actually looks like the color, since it isn't quite this blue, but it still looks good! I am just waiting on the dresser which is on backorder forever, and then the room will be fully furnished. Now I just have to add all of the decorative touches, which is my favorite part!