Category Archives: Glendalough

We finally found some porch furniture that we liked. A couple weekends ago, Chuck took multiple trip to the store to pick the pieces up and then put them all together. I couldn’t be happier with how it looks!

We got a loveseat, two chairs, a chaise lounge, end table and eating table. I got a few pillows and a couple little lanterns for the table. All we have left to purchase is a rug. We just haven’t found on that we like yet. I also bought a little wind chime to have out back. I have it hanging on a plant stand right now. I haven’t found the perfect spot for it yet, but I love having it out there.

Chuck is still deciding how he wants to screen in the porch and the porch will need to be stained at some point. But we spend a lot of time out there already. Maddie loves it out there, too! We are looking forward to getting lots of use out of the porch this summer!

I set my camera on the counter the other day and when I came back, I saw that this was on the screen. I decided to take the picture. After I looked at it on a screen larger than my camera, I thought it was kind of pretty with the reflection of the tree in the granite and the “love” in the background. Just a random photo I thought I would share.

I realized I never did an update on the finished porch project. Or many updates at all of the porch. I looked through my old posts and the last entry I found on the porch was in JULY. How terrible is that?

Well, we got the roof finished, the porch finished, the deck finished….it turned out great!

First, one of the biggest parts of the whole project was replacing a big window with a sliding door. I was most impressed by this process. We had some helpers and got the old window out and the door in all in one day. It was impressive. Chuck did the finishing work over the next couple days, but man, what a difference. I love how it turned out. And man, is it huge!

Here are a few finished pictures I took the other day. Yes, the end of December and NO SNOW!

And currently, the porch is housing some ladders and the grill. The grill’s real home is on the deck portion. But it was snowing when we wanted to grill, so we moved it into the porch. Not really the furniture look we are going for, though.

Over the Winter, we are going to have someone build the screens for us. Then we need to do some staining of the wood. It’s best to let it weather for a while before staining it (so I am told). So other than that, it is all done. It is so nice to have it done and be able to walk on it out the new door, and have a deck with fancy stairs. I love it! Chuck did a fabulous job. We were so thankful to have help from family and friends during the whole process. So thank you to all of you!

HERE are all the photos I took during the project. I’ll have to add some in the Spring when we get it stained and get the screens put in. Oh yeah…and get some furniture!

Chuck is a builder. He can build anything! He is currently building us a porch/deck in the back yard. Here is a rendering of what it will look like when it’s done.

The porch will be screened in and the grill will be on the deck. We will also replace the window in the porch with a sliding door at some point. It is looking amazing so far! Chuck did a fabulous job laying all the deck boards.

We have had a bit of help from my brother, my dad, Chuck’s sister and her husband. I am sure I will be calling on people to help again when we get to the roof part!

HERE is a link to the gallery of photos I have been taking throughout the process. I’ll be adding more as I take more.

Chuck has been working so hard and I am so thankful he is so handy. Have you done any home renovations/remodeling lately? Do you like to do things yourself or hire out your projects?

UPDATE: When I came home today, Chuck and my dad, with the help of our neighbor, had made a ton of progress! Check it out!

That is the start of the roof! It’s going to look AMAZING when it’s all done!

A while back, I posted about a little garden I was planting. I started with some seeds. You can read about it HERE.

Then Chuck cut out grass in an area of our yard and made way for my garden. We decided to make it a nice shape in case I hated gardening, the area could be turned into landscaping.

I planted my seeds and hoped that some of them would take.

They did.

Then, what felt like over night, my garden looked like this:

From left to right: onions, green peppers, cherry tomatoes, hot peppers, carrots, cilantro, (behind the tree) spinach and a raspberry plant, yukon gold potatoes (there are LOTS), then on the far right, rosemary and garlic.

Onions and green peppers…they are just starting to flower.

Cherry tomatoes…I fear I am going to have a TON of tomatoes.

The hot peppers I planted were a mixture. I am not sure what I am going to get when they grow.

Carrots. I pulled one because I thought it was going to be huge, but it was just tiny, so I put it back in the ground.

Cilantro. I didn’t know cilantro would flower after a while. I have to pick some of the ones that haven’t flowered yet and make myself some cilantro-lime rice like they make at Chipotle.

Spinach. I have never grown this before. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. But it turns out I needed to pull some of the leaves earlier than now, because most of them are sprouted and there aren’t many green leaves left. A lesson learned for next year.

Raspberry plant. I was hoping that this would do something. Turns out that it never did anything. I just have a stick in the ground.

Potatoes. I planted one bag of potatoes I got from the garden store. I had no idea one bag would make so many plants. But I have potatoes popping up out of the ground.

Rosemary.

Garlic.

So, I am quite proud of myself. I’ll do another update when I actually pull some of them when they are ripe!

I think I might like this gardening thing!

We now have our new dining room furniture in our dining room all set up. I love the way it looks and I am looking forward to meals on it over the holidays (because really, who uses their dining room other than during the holidays or for big family gatherings?).

I love the bench and I love that we got two different types of chairs. I think it looks really cool. I got two different ones because I couldn’t decide which one I liked more and Chuck and I liked different chairs. Problem solved!

So there you have it. The new dining room furniture. I would still like to do something on the wall opposite the buffet, but I don’t know what that is yet. And I am planning to get rid of what I have displayed on the shelf over the buffet. And I would like to paint this room someday, too. Who knew that getting new furniture would spark so many other changes in the dining room!

Today we are headed for lunch with all the people from our baby class. This should be interesting….8 couples, 8 babies….our apologies to Old Chicago and all the customers hoping for a nice, quiet Sunday meal!