Welcome to My Birthing Month! Take Two!

Oiy...in my first "welcome to my birthing month" post I said I wasn't even entertaining the idea of going later than May for my due date because I live in Florida and it's too hot.

Well, Kalia has other plans, so I'm just along for the ride.  I've tried every sane old wives tale in the book, and she's just not ready to get here yet.  Plain and simple.  I actually went for a 4 mile walk on Sunday with Chris and Kodi, and as I was dragging my tired body up my driveway, one of the neighbors told me I should keep going so that I could walk Kalia out of me (to be fair, she had no idea that I was coming in from going that far).  Yes, I'm sure if I managed to walk for an entire week, she'd show up eventually!

But...without a doubt, she'll be here this month.  Very soon too...and that's all that matters!  One of my nieces birthday is June 17th, and she said it would be so cool if Kalia and her could share a birthday.  I told her that would not be cool at all!  She'll be turning 8, and she agreed with me that she was just ready for Kalia to get here now too.

This past weekend, Chris and I finally headed to the plant nursery to fill our empty planters.  We also ran to Lowe's, Marshall's, went out to lunch, ran to Wal-greens, and finally ended at Publix before heading home.  It's funny how differently you look at places when you're 40 weeks pregnant.  I notice where the bathrooms are first, and then second where a good place to lean against or something to sit on while we're deciding what to purchase.

Anywho, I thought I'd show you guys our pretty new plants today while I'm waiting for Kalia to get here.

We spent a few hours out here on Sunday and Monday, and I'm really loving the pop of color these plants add to the pool deck.  We were supposed to get rain on Monday / Tuesday, so that's why our hammock is missing...but I took a nap in that for a little bit on Sunday too...before getting up and heading on our 4 mile walk.  Sigh...restless exhaustion at it's finest!

Anyone else experience the 'over-anxious' neighbors or random people you run into at the stores telling you what to do to get your baby to come out any faster?  I feel like I should make a maternity shirt that says "what NOT to say to a 40 week pregnant woman" and put a list of things on it for people to read and think about before saying something.  I'm so anxious as it is already!!  Oh well, everyone means well by it...I know, I know!  40 week pregnant hormones + patience just don't go so well together these days!

I still have another room we gave a face-lift to to show you guys too, so stay tuned for that one!

Hope everyone's having a great week so far...Happy Wednesday!

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Pool Deck Additions

Our pool deck area is slowly, but surely becoming one of my favorite spots in our home. It might have something to do with the fact that I can't get cool enough no matter what I try with this ever-growing body, so the pool feels awesome... maybe combined with my new found love of floating around in the pool to take pressure off of this big 'ol body I'm rocking these days, or it just might be that our pool deck is awesome.  It's probably a combo of the two.

We looked around for new pool deck furniture and decided that wasn't in the budget right now.  Realistically, we can make half of what we want, and we can just be patient and wait until that time comes.  There are a handful of things that we did go ahead and purchase for out there though that make it so much nicer.

I showed you the finished redone pool deck back in April.  One of the things that's driven me bonkers about this outside area is the placement of the fan with relation to our table.

I guess only the person sitting on the end really needs to be cooled by the fan the way we had it setup previously.  Easy solution though, right?  Just move the table underneath the fan!  Yes, it takes me awhile to figure things out sometimes...I'm a little slow.

It leaves a bit of an empty area between the big table and the chairs we have in front of our bedroom doors, but I have a vision for what I want to go there.  I actually have something I'm going to work on to put as filler for now (assuming I don't go into labor prior to getting around to it!  stay tuned!), but my end vision for that area is for Chris and I to build a little kids table and put it in there so Kalia + future kiddos + future little friends have their very own table to sit at.  We go back and forth on whether or not to just build a couch for out here, but I think the table is more practical for us.

Oh, do you see my little pop of color that I added to our sitting area?

I just cut a few flowers from the trees in the back and put it in a vase.  This deck desperately needs more color, but this was the only thing I could do for free for right now.

Allright, back to the big table area.  If you look to your right from there, you'll see what used to be our outdoor kitchen area.  It still needs a ton ton of work, but I've got a design in my head that I've got to draw out and then we'll get to fixing it up.  In the meantime though, it got updated with a new deckbox.

Oh yeah, and we're using our sink plumbing as a towel rack.  Hey...it works!  We keep one towel out here all of the time to dry Kodi off with.  He has his own towels, and that dog loves him some towel time.

The deckbox is great because it's sturdy enough to sit on, and it hides some of our ugly holes that previously existed here from ripping out our old outdoor kitchen area.  Chris was so excited to get that deck box this past weekend because he had big plans on what he was going to fill it up with.

Hmmm...I don't know that I would call that full...but if the hubs is happy, I'm happy.  Actually, you can't see the tubes of the pool cleaner in here because they're lined up against the inside, but that was Chris's objective.  To get a big box to put Howie (the pool cleaner) in along with some other pool deck stuff.  Big boxes to store junk...right up my ally!

My plans for this area include a sink, but do not include a grill, so this box is hiding our need to stucco up the wall, which is perfect.  It might stay like that for awhile!

Continuing to the right from here is our grill and hose area.

For the longest time, we just had a hose that we threw against the wall here.  Well, I threw it, and Chris would try to ravel it up nicely.  We both absolutely love our 'hose pot'.

We got it from Restoration Hardware.  It looks like a cool planter out there, ties in with the blues and grays we've got going on, and completely hides the hose unless you're right on top of it.  On top of all of that, it's pretty easy to keep the hose organized and pretty looking in there...if it wasn't easy, I wouldn't use it.  I'm all about the easy factor!  And of course we love our grill cover...Go Gator's!  There's actually a really pretty looking Weber grill underneath there too, but with the Florida afternoon rains and humidity, the only way to keep it looking pretty is to add a cover.  No biggie...we love showing our Gator Pride!!

Continuing to the right from there, we come to our latest and greatest addition.

Our brand new hammock.  I might be so enamored with this because of the whole pregnancy thing, but this bad boy is the most comfortable thing ever.

I call it our boat.  We spent Sunday setting this bad boy up, and moving him around.  Initially we thought we'd want it in front of our bedroom area where the two chairs are, and it fit there, but it seemed kind of cramped. By the time we got it all setup and in position, it was almost dark, so we ate dinner, and then went out here and looked at the stars for at least an hour before coming into bed.  I think I want this thing to be my new bed.  I can lay on my back without feeling like it's going to break.

Oh, and Chris's deck box did get a little fuller.  When we're not using this, we just unclip the hammock and put that portion into the box.  Which really leaves us looking like we have a boat out here.

I added the empty planters back out there even though they're...well, empty.  We've got to either make or buy some of the elevated wheeled caster things to set these on so that when we water whatever plants are inside of them, we don't leave dirt just puddled up underneath the planters.  We've also got to get some plants to go in here...all in due time though!

Oh, and because everything is in the details, another one of my favorite elements out here is this guy :

My Dad and T. Mom got him for me for my birthday a few years back, and he just makes me smile.  He's the turtle equivalent of Kodi.  He looks beyond happy that he's about to jump into the pool.

See?  The smiles are similar!  Kodi's just happy that it's pool weather again.  If it's going to be 90+ degrees while I'm 9+ months pregnant, I'm beyond happy that we have this pool area.  Picture that smile on my face.  Or don't...that might be creepy...

So what do you think of our additions so far to the pool area?  Anyone else getting outside and soaking up some rays?  Is it Friday yet?!  I'm ready to head back out here!

Hope everyone's having a great week so far!

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Finally! Finished Pool Deck

I'm so happy to say that our pool deck area is finally finished!!!  You know, for now...  It's done enough that we could finally put all of our furniture back on it this week, and it's at a point where it's checked off our "to-do" list before Kalia gets here.  Yes, I said it was almost finished back in October...I know.  Some things just take awhile!

Since October, we had a pool screen guy come and replace the entire screen.  Because of first trimester woes, planning a baby shower, our babymoon, and working on Kalia's nursery, finishing up the pool deck got put on the back burner for quite some time.

This past weekend though, Chris and I put two coats of sealer on the deck.  Thank goodness too because it was a wet wet week!  I tried to get decent pictures of the pool deck all week, but this is what the back of my back yard looked like this morning from the all week pouring down rains that we got :

Last weekend was beautiful though.  Here's Chris pouring the sealer into our round-up sprayer :

Because I'll start my 8 month of pregnancy on Monday, Chris is really weary about me lifting too much.  So, we came up with a good game plan to seal the pool deck.

Chris carried around the back pack and pumped while I sprayed.  Chris back rolled the areas that I sprayed to make sure that we got a nice even coat.

I know, my husbands work clothes are H.O.T!

Yes, that meant that I couldn't get any further away than about 2 feet from Chris.  It was quite comical, but quite efficient.

We weren't so lucky with the second coat.  The sprayer broke, and we were too anxious to get the job done to make a trip down to any home improvement stores before finishing.  We just put the sealer in a paint tray and Chris rolled the deck that way while I scooted around on my rear and painted all of the edges with a paint brush.  Not exactly fun, but hey...it worked!

Besides Florida rain leading to mold / mildew issues, another big reason we insisted on sealing the pool deck is so that when Kodi decides to walk on it looking like this :

We can just spray off the dirt and not worry about staining the pavers.  And because I'm clumsy...but we can just blame that on Kodi.

Lets go back and show you where we started :

And here's where we are today :

One of my favorite features of this house is that the sliders to the living room open all the way up.  It's great for entertaining!

We painted the pool deck ledge, the house, and the trim.

As well as the pool deck ceiling.

We painted the outside area of the house too and the trim, and then spray painted the outside lights blue to tie in with the inside blue ceiling.

It's so much more relaxing and fun outside now!  Pretty in pink pool deck is GONE!  Woo Hoo!

We actually removed the old 1x2's at the bottom of the screen and had the paver guys install the pavers all of the way to the edge of the existing pool deck.  Then when the screen guys came, we had them install the 1x2's over top of the pavers to give it a new pool look.  It was a lot more work (getting up the 1x2's), but it was most definitely worth it!

Even Kodi approves of the 1x2's being on top of the pavers!

The thing I've missed most about not using our pool deck for the past 4ish months...

Sitting right here with Chris on the weekend mornings and drinking our coffee before getting our day started.  This weekend, this habit will resume!

Tip for anyone going through the whole pool / screen remodel...don't let the contractors take your old aluminum.  We took our old 1x2's from the bottom of the screen enclosure and made an extra $50.

Oh, and wanna know what else was going on this week?!

We got a complete new AC system installed...so next winter, we'll have heat!!  Woo Hoo!!

We want to repaint the patio furniture, and eventually add some cushions or something to brighten it up out there, but like I said...it's good enough for now!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!  TGIF!

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Pool Deck : Finally *almost* Finished!!!

I was so excited to come home from California to find the pool paver guys gone, and an awesome looking pool deck!!  I was actually more excited to see Chris and Kodi first, but the pool deck came second (or is it third??).

The reason why I write that it's *almost* finished is because we're still working on a few finalizing touches.  Because the pavers are set in with sand, we're still working on getting all of the sand to go down between the pavers.  Chris has rinsed off the deck a few times, so a few more good sweeps and maybe one final rinse should get the job done.  We're also going to re-screen the entire pool deck area, so we're busy getting quotes for the upper portion, and seeing how much they'd charge to do the lower half as well.  While we're big DIY'ers, the though of either climbing up the screen enclosure to balance on the screen beams or investing in scaffolding to climb across the pool just seems...well, a bit unsafe instead of just adventurous.

Enough with the words already, I know!  Here are some before and after's of the pool deck project that we started waaay back in July.

Before : Outdoor Kitchen Area : Taken July 2010

After

We still need to come up with a good design for the outdoor kitchen area, but the awful laminate counters being gone with the fresh coat of paint on both the ceiling and the wall, along with our beautiful new pavers is already such an improvement!

The side of the house where the pool equipment is actually went through multiple steps of a makeover from the very beginning.  This before picture was taken in April of 2010, before we dug up and added the rock garden.

This area went from the above to the image below...a much needed improvement, but the pink pool deck was a definite damper.

And here's where that area looks like today:

Here's a before of the entire exterior house area here:

After : Newly painted lights, house, trim, and pavers!

Before : View from kitchen area

After :

I'll end on a few extra pictures of just the pool deck.  It's amazing the difference it makes out there.  We couldn't be happier with our contractor, paver color choice, and the overall new pool deck in general.  Good riddance pretty in pink!!!

It's hard to get a picture without Kodi in it.  He's my shadow.  Hey...at least he's cute!!

We're so impressed and amazed at the quality of the coping work the guy did, so I'll end on a picture of that.

Hope you guys enjoyed all of the pictures!

Thanks to all of you who wished me well and congratulated me on my run.  The last 5 months have been hard both physically, mentally, and emotionally, but raising funds for such an important cause was so well worth it.  If you haven't heard of Team in Training, I really encourage you to check out your local chapter. Your life will be more fulfilled because of it ... I promise!  To read more about my effort, click here.

Happy Monday!

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I'm linking to the parties in my sidebar...go see what everyone else is transforming!