Just Stain It

Cooler weather turned us outside to build a pergola and paved patio area. Which was put on hold to build an updated boardwalk/dock. which was put on hold to hire someone to build a new seawall. Why can't life be simple? We don't know if we're working inside or outside. But somehow we just keep trudging through with a smile on our face.

So now we've turned our focus back inside. The living room is looking great with the progress we made in my last post. This week I painted the guest bathroom along with the hallway, in a lovely shade of green. All we need to finish is the guest bathroom floor. That will be enough progress to enable us to open our doors to friends and family.

Mi Miguel said, "No." When I asked him if we could go ahead and just tile the bathroom floor even though we can't purchase the tub, commode and sink that we want right now. We've busted our budget with the seawall. If we start tiling, the fixtures in the bathroom have to be considered and removed.

While out running errands today, it occurred to me, why not stain the bathroom floor for now? Why not? We're wanting to stain the master bedroom floor but we have no clue how to do it. Why can't we practice on the guest bathroom? Why can't we? And then when we're ready to buy the new fixtures we can tile over it and learn a new skill in the process. Seriously, how hard can staining concrete be? By the by, Mi Miguel cringes when I say, "How hard can it be?"

I called Mi Miguel and he is all in with this project. All in and all for it. This evening we'll start Youtubing and deciding what method and color we'll be doing. I'm excited because I've been wanting to stain all the floors in this fixer upper but Mi Miguel is pretty adamant about tiling the floors. 

I'm hoping once the intimidation is over with the staining process, he will want to do it for sure in the master bedroom. The minute I saw the concrete in the guest bedroom when we first started ripping up the carpet, I wanted to stain the concrete in that room and every room. While we have no clue how to do this fancy style in the picture above, one can dream. 

Who knows maybe we'll get really good at concrete staining like we did with the herring bone style tiling. One can certainly dream. 

Seawall, Living Room And A Homemade Sofa Table

 

Pergola, poogolla....geez. Who knew it would open up such a seawall can of worms. I'm really excited about the whole backyard project. But, I have to say ever since I've heard the first bid on this seawall reconstruction all I want to do is sit around and do nothing at all. Maybe if I ignore it the whole seawall thing will all just go away. Right? It wasn't just me feeling the air leave my sails, Mi Miguel was feeling a lack of motivation too.

Step away from the pergola project until we can get a handle on it, that's what we'll do. Change our focus to much needed furniture for the living room.  Wow, sticker shock again. For the price, the quality just isn't there. You want how much for that leather blend sofa? It's leather blend not leather!

Feeling frustrated about the house, rather than going after each other like a couple of well trained gladiators, we decided to chill out and look for a gas fireplace until we're capable of getting a handle on the seawall and the furniture situation.

What I'm looking for and what Mi Miguel wants are two different things. This is what I want. A casual gas fireplace with a small shell motif.

Mi Miguel wants this media center gas fireplace. So, we put the fireplace shopping on hold until we can decide on a happy medium. 

Meanwhile over the weekend, as we both sat stubbornly at our home computer, him researching seawalls and me scouring the net for furniture. He found more options for estimates. I found just the thing on one of the many selling sites. (Image from clipart)

Because I hit the local social media selling sites daily, we stumbled across this sofa bed and a matching love seat. It was incredibly low priced. I just saw a similar set in a local furniture and wanted it for the coastal look, but it was way too much. This set was purchased by the owners for $1700, it won't fit in their new condo, we bought it for $275. Now our spirits were starting to feel lifted. 

Mi Miguel didn't want to pay the $300 for the coastal living sofa table I liked so he said he'd make me one. He doesn't make furniture as a rule. I wanted it to be beachy but have the elegant coastal living look about it. He said he could do that. I got my gladiator gear back out because I was pretty sure this was going to go south quickly. Instead, off to Home Depot we went.

Home Depot employees were just putting flawed lumber on a cart marked 70% off when we entered the store. I grabbed a piece that was six feet long and had them cut it in half for us, we grabbed four spindles and we were on our way.  I got on board with Mi Miguel so that he would feel confident in making this table, "You can make it however you want. It doesn't matter to me as long as it's plain and simple."

To keep from micro managing Mi Miguel's project I decided it was high time I started a mural. We had a dull wall that needed to match the furniture and the rug. The pitter patter turquoise color I painted the entire living room and dining room with,wasn't going to sit well with the soft indigo furniture. 

After much painting and a lot of work, the wall is finished. This is a sneak peek, we're not ready for the big reveal yet. Big difference from the pitter patter wall, huh? Mi Miguel loves it and that's all that matters to me. If he's happy, I'm happy.

This is what Mi Miguel came up with for our table. It's perfect for between the wall and sofa. I got up this morning and painted it and washed it over and then rubbed it down.

This is the effect I got from my technique that I used. You can see the difference in the two photos directly above. I made the plain wood have a distressed driftwood look.

This is the finished sofa table. I love it and I've already found a great purpose for it. 

This is eventually what we'll be using the sofa table for, these colorful glass vases. When we get our new window coverings, the sunlight will come in and hit the glass creating a beautiful kaleidoscope effect.

Now about that seawall...

 

Renovations End Of 2015

If you've been following the blog you know that we closed on our house July 2015. As of December 2015 we have two guest bedrooms and the living room and dining room done as far as walls prepped and painted, popcorn effect scraped from ceilings and floors leveled and tiled. All curtains and decor will be done later due to the dust that gets stirred when we reno a new room. This guest bedroom is pretty much finished except for curtains and a few more furniture pieces and wall decor. 

Once we have it the way we want it, I plan on doing a mural on the wall and hanging our spoonbill picture up from our Indiana house. Same picture but I'm going a different route with the mural this time. Rather than a heavy marsh effect, it will be brighter and more light and airy. This will be done in the bedroom in the first photo above.

With cooler temperatures we shifted our interior renovations to outdoor projects. This pergola is our goal.

We chose our pavers before the close of 2015 and marked off the area for the pergola. Right when we started tearing into the boardwalk unearthing a major hidden cost rearing it's ugly head.

 We discovered that the seawall needed to be inspected and possibly replaced by someone other than us. We've had two estimates so far and quickly learned that this will blow our budget for our outdoor costs. 

In the meantime, we said goodbye to 2015 celebrating with wonderful new friends here in Florida. We said hello to 2016 by pruning away at an unruly schefflera plant and other invasive branches and vines that were hiding the front of the house. We also made a purchase that has drastically changed our lives here in the sunshine state.

We've been making do with a super tiny fridge since August. You can see the dorm fridge in the lower right corner. Even though we haven't started renovating the kitchen, we know we want simple appliances with soft edges. After much searching we found this great deal at a local outlet. The fridge is a fraction of the cost of the fancy ones we have always purchased in the past. I like white after having the polished silver and other versions of the chrome look. And guess what, this very inexpensive, easy to move fridge keeps our food every bit as cold as the super expensive ones. Imagine that.

I'm still cooking on the porcelain top range that was installed when the house was originally built in the early 80's. I prefer gas but if I had my druthers between a glass top and a porcelain, I'd go porcelain for sure. The heat definitely radiates and cooks more evenly than the glass top. Unlike the glass top, the porcelain can maintain a simmer temperature. Hopefully we will find a way to make a gas stove work when we get to that phase of our renovations.

Mi Miguel is just thrilled to have home cooked meals once again. We've both missed eating the good stuff that you just can't seem to find in the restaurants. 

We've spent the last six months wondering if moving to Florida was the right thing. Actually, I've spent the last six months soul searching and wondering if this is the right thing for us, for me. Mi Miguel however, sums it all up with this photo of him visiting his grandparent's farm in Indiana as a child. He hated it as a child and after a two year trial run as an adult, he still hates it. He doesn't do cold weather, ever.

This is Mi Miguel as a child living in Florida. He grew up in Florida. He attended all years of school in Florida. He loves hot weather. He loves Florida, always. 

This is me in Indiana. I can be happy anywhere. Once you realize that happiness comes from within you can make the best of just about anyplace you choose to live.  

First Florida Christmas

Yes it's true, we traded in our fake pine Christmas tree for real live palm trees this year. Yet again our house isn't ready for company for the holidays. With our tight budget right now, we weren't able to travel either. So, we decided to make the best of our situation. 

One year ago Christmas we were visiting family in Florida, We were staying at the Hilton hotel. After several days of fun at the beach, warm weather and enjoying family we decided that Mi MIguel needed to be in Florida. He needed to be close to his family. Being precisely one year since we had that great epiphany, we decided to celebrate by going back to the Hilton.

Being residents of Florida this year, when Mi Miguel booked our room he told the receptionist our story. She thought the whole thing was so romantic she made us gold star members and gave us the honeymoon suite. Yep, that's where we spent our one year "Decision To Move Anniversary" at the Clearwater Hilton Hotel Honeymoon Suite with this grand view. 

Once everything with our room got situated, Mi Miguel snapped this photo of me. It's the precise moment (December 24, 2015) that I decided to simply stop caring so much about what other people think of me. I've spent my whole life so afraid of offending others and always feeling like I'm on the defense when I invariably do. There's no happiness in it, so I'm moving on to what matters and leaving behind those that you'll never please no matter how hard you try. It was quite an event for me and for Mi Miguel. He's been trying to tell me for years to just let it all go.  

Another spectacular event occurred on Christmas Eve, a full moon. There won't be another for thirty some odd years. It was incredibly bright and made for a great evening to walk to the same restaurant where we ate a year ago on Christmas Eve.

If it's amazing stone crab you're looking for Cooter's would be the place to go if you're in the Clearwater area. 

Stone Crab, the one meal you'll need a wooden mallet to enjoy.

It's nothing fancy, but it's a fun place and the food is top notch. Love that full moon.

Sitting back relaxing on the beach after a wonderful meal with a nice bottle of champagne. Christmas Eve on the beach...it's awesome.

After a few glasses of bubbly, we walked along the shoreline, capturing this neat view of the ocean mist coming off of the rolling waves.  

Life really is this good in Florida. Nothing like champagne flowing over your shoes and onto the fine white sand.

Yes, given enough champagne I can still do a cartwheel. It's just my way of letting it all go.

Christmas morning we got up early rode the hotel beach bikes. Aren't these beach bikes cool?

Riding along we stumbled across a beach bar. Wanting to cool off and relax, Sharky's was perfect for just that.  

So, we parked the bikes by some shrubbery and sat out on the patio.

Ordering an Arnold Palmer, we found that there is nothing more refreshing than a half lemonade, half iced tea beverage to beat this Florida heat. 

The shrubbery by our bikes is unusual. I have no idea what it is, do you?

With a few hours to spare before our Christmas dinner with Mi Miguel's family, he wanted to go early to St. Petersburg to walk around his old stomping grounds from his youth. We stopped by the Vinoy.

This hotel is so lavish and ornate. We strolled around enjoying the view. Even the entrance is gorgeous.

We were offered a complimentary mimosa so of course we obliged.

We had a wonderful visit with Mi Miguel's family; a nice dinner and then decorating our own little gingerbread man. 

With another Christmas behind us,we'll continue working on our house, we're hoping that 2016 will allow us to let go of even more excess baggage. It's so liberating to free yourself of those people, those things and those thoughts that keep you from doing what makes you happy, healthy and satisfied. Goodbye 2015. Hello 2016!