Lots, Lots, Lots to catch up on.

Let's see, let's see... where to begin....

May have to break this down into... oh, 10 posts. 

So much to discuss. 

First off I am FINALLY wrapping up the year long clean out!!

Still managed to have quite a few things to gather for a local children's consignment sale and take 2 more boxes to good will. 

I am just facing facts, I know I dont need it... I dont. 

Went through old pictures last night while waiting on hubby to get home. 

Threw away over 100... kept one pile to buy a photo album for. 

Whew that was a task, now to decide what pictures to print of each of my kids and start some photo books of our favorite memories. 

Its sad but I only have a handful of printed pictures of my baby girl!! 

She is 4!!!!!

Too sad.

First up of many spring decisions is what type of fence to do??

Source: southernliving.com via Jenny Beth on Pinterest

I kinda left yall hanging on the whole story but long story short our city super stinks (i say sucks under my breath)

It's pretty sad when you get excited about a fresh roll of chainlink ;/.

They said the last fence was installed around 1954 when the neighborhood was established.

At least all the old posts are gone now :)

And after putting up and taking down 5 fences the city had the state take down the fence they installed and sent out a crew and put up the proper size one and brought 3 truck loads of dirt to fill in the sink hole.

Basically to prevent us from temporarily having our fence problem again we will back off our property line a whopping 3 feet.

(this is the 6 foot fence they put up the second time, then someone from the city came out and told the state to take it down, basically the city wouldnt do anything so I called the State and was put in contact with the Building Engineer for the State of Tennessee and he himself came down and said this is unacceptable and a hazard to myself, my children, and my dogs, this sweet man FIANLLY got the ball rolling and made the city do something.)

At this point I dont care how many feet. 

Just so glad this nasty debris, dead tree and ugly fence we put up to protect us from this dilapodated fence is now all gone...

Whatever it takes to get me out of this place!!!

(last time on the market people asked for an allowance to install a fence, it needs to be done but we put making the rest pretty above the fence, I digress.)

Here is what I have pinned on pinterest and have been eyeing. 

Since we won't be here forever we may not spend the $ and do these designs. Just dreaming while we plan.

Source: my-backyard-projects.com via Jenny Beth on Pinterest

Love this but quite a big high end for my starter home neighborhood.

Source: annedeckerarchitects.com via Jenny Beth on Pinterest

Source: meaghancurryphotography.com via Jenny Beth on Pinterest

This would be for the gate into the backyard.

Source: southernliving.com via Jenny Beth on Pinterest

What kind of fence would you do?

The deal of the century.

Okay sooo... I have a bargain hunting obsession. 

First was my double jogger.

Then the baby bjorn bouncer! 

Remember This post? 

Then the childrens shoenhut baby grand piano (it stays at my parents).

So now i go in stores with no agenda and what I find I find... Well I found this set of patio chairs at my recent visit to Essex!

They are from Walmart and retailed for 599.99. Not what I originally envisioned for our screened in porch but promising.

I was pleasantly surprised to find a decent style at Walmart!! I never go in there!

The box said half off.

I shook my head in disbelief when I realized this was a box of SIX chairs for $31.00!!!!!!! 

Yes thirty one!!!! 

I ran to the register with the price tag in hand to snag this thing! That means I got the chairs for about 2.50 a chair and the cushions per chair for about 2.50!!

Shocker!!

It was brand new and I was soo proud of this deal! 

Now to find a table.... Hmmm. I will post an actual picture once we get the swivel mechanism on the "end" chairs. 

These suckers are Heavy!

Have you guys found any "out of this world" deals lately?? 

 Would love to hear about them!

Screened in Porch sort of "Reveal"

This was hands down the biggest undertaking in this house. 

We removed a coy pond, a hot tub, 5 trees, a deck, installed a ceiling, rewired the electrical, installed new stairs, did some landscaping, and finally styled the space.

Whew!!

It was tiring back breaking work and sadly we have never finished the painting part. 

Super sad, but glad to finally be doing a round up of the project.

Here are the links to the before:

Here, here, here, and here.
Before:

During:

(after removing and filling in the pond with 4 loads of dirt)

And the Almost Completed After:

Here is a picture during the process, we were swinging the baby after finishing filling in the floor.

Here you can see here how we back up to the interstate.

And this is the walkway around the side of the guesthouse to the "very" back yard.
And the "very" back yard. A double cement wall to buffer the sound of I-240.
Really, the sound of rush hour traffic isn't bad at all. Promise.

And the whole "guesthouse"

Here is the door to the guest house.

painted BM antigua

Here is the exterior of the porch.

No, the painting of the ceiling or the exterior trim was not completed. 

That was supposed to happen last summer when I was very very sick in my early pregnancy.

Trust me I tried to paint on a slanted ladder but my husband wouldn't allow me to. haha

Here is my crafting/painting table live in action. haha

This table was so graciously given to me by a friend of a friend. 

My sweet friend ashlea got this for me (from Nikki, thanks again!!) while a local Bath and Bodyworks was being remodeled. They had placed several of these tables in the DUMPSTER!!! can you believe that????

Last look, before.

And After.

May not be perfect but it is a Heck of alot better than the before!!

I would say after "completing" this project the screening was the easiest, followed by replacing the floor.

And the rewiring the electrical was the hardest/most frustrating!

Thanks for staying with me through this 3 year renovation!

If it weren't so hot I would spend some more time out here under these awesome fans! 

home improvement

this is all of the rotted fence we took down and replaced with chicken wire

this is all the tree limb and riff raff we removed

ahhh now a tranquil view of our drainage ditch. haha