Home Improvement

Making the process of cleaning and staining a wood deck easier.

It took some time, but earlier this summer I did finish staining all the wood around the exterior of my house, which included – the lake gazebo, dock and then the two decks on the house.

I finally took the photos to show how the decks on the lake side of the house look now that they have all been freshly stained. You can also see the products that I used to get the big job done without too much effort… in time to enjoy all for the summer.

I started the project back in the spring on the dock using a semi-transparent stain. It was pretty easy to apply and a million times better than the failed deck stain that I used at my previous home 6 years ago.

After the dock was done, I moved to the

Summer is one of my favorite seasons of the year to decorate my home. This year I went with a slightly different color scheme to flow with the outdoor colors that surround my house.

One year ago this month, the hardwood floors in my living room and kitchen were refinished with Bona by a Bona Certified Craftsman.

You probably remember the post, because the transformation to the floors was amazing.

Little did I know at the time, just how much that the previous orange-toned floor finish was holding me back from decorating the two rooms in the style I dreamed of.

The previous floor finish was in good shape, but looked orange. The only time of the year that it coordinated with anything in the room was in the fall.

The new Bona Grey stain for the floor that looks almost like a driftwood color on my hardwood was

Learn how to easily cover a popcorn ceiling using classic Armstrong® WoodHaven Ceiling Planks with Easy Up® tracks and clips. No need to scrape the ceiling first! The pre-finished planks can be installed right over popcorn ceilings.

Disclosure: I partnered with Armstrong Ceilings to cover up the popcorn ceilings in two rooms in my house. All words, photos, ideas and opinions are my own.

The guest room times two update project that I have been mentioning in a few posts is completed. 🙂

I know you are wondering what we have been up to that required us to remove all the furniture in the rooms as we worked in each.

We chose to do the two rooms at the same time since both are visible when you are standing in the foyer. I wanted both to look the same. It is hard to show in a photo, but if

Today I am turning the tables here on the blog.

I am sharing something vintage, but brand shiny new for my kitchen. Adding this item wasn’t an idea I came up with though. It was inspired by one of you… a reader.

A few months ago, Shari R. wrote to me about something she uses in her kitchen. She wrote:

“I can’t remember if I ever shared this with you when you first did the countertop makeover …
Your “wood” cutting board insert to the left of your cooktop looks like the Vance Industries Surface Saver I had/have in my previous and current homes. If you are interested in replacing the wood-look section with something that blends in more with your countertop, you might be able to get a replacement insert.”

Say what? The original tempered glass cutting board in my kitchen before I made it over

If you’re looking to spruce up the exterior of your home or even the interior, have you considered making a wood slat wall to create a point of interest where there is none? You may be asking yourself, what is a slat wall? Read on to find out.

Back in the spring when I posted about getting the exterior of my house painted in the Glidden paint color Khaki Bronze. I left you with what else I had planned to do to the front of my house with this Photoshopped image.

We had thought about removing the brick steps and having new ones made, but it was too costly. It will be a future update.

One of the projects was to add interest to the flat front exterior of the house without having to spend a lot of time or money doing a major renovation. I decided to add a

Last week I shared that I was in the process of choosing a color to have the hardwood floor in my kitchen and living room refinished. You can read about it in this post – How I Chose the Color to Stain the Hardwood Floor.  This is Part 2 of getting the floors refinished.

The wood floor in the two rooms has a unique layout pattern that I wanted to accent with a new color and matte finish.

Having a wood floor refinished usually means you have to deal with the smell of polyurethane drying and a dusty mess to clean up after the floor has been sanded.  That was the case when I had the hardwood floors refinished in my previous house.

This time around, refinishing the wood floor at the lake house was a totally different process made possible by the folks at Bona.

They not only have