Of Nautical Storms and Changes in the tides Pt.2

While we have a very long way to go - an arduous road to organization, we decided to give our upstairs a rest and do some really fun things, such as begin redecorating our living room! This of course is proving to be difficult....

In December, right around Christmastime, my girlfriend realized that there was a leak, which of course was warping our ceiling downstairs. We had to get that fixed, and what you would imagine to be a smooth sailing of recovery became a hellish ride of too many visits from the same people for not getting it right in the first time. Long story short - we've had a hole in our ceiling in our dining room since the beginning of January and it wasn't until yesterday that our leak was fixed. With this in mind, we've pretty much had everything shoved into the living room - which meant that we couldn't possibly take down anything from Christmas or clean anything from the holidays. That was until this past week where my girlfriend and I decided to say "forget it. We're moving everything back into the dining room and decorating" - we had gone shopping at home goods (which, by the way is my mothership now) and target to get some stuff to furnish our very very cold living room. It was all just piled up in our kitchen, because we had no place for it, but after a lot of consideration, we've managed to pull something together

We decided to go with a nautical theme to really brighten up our home. Using pastel and a lot of colours. 

Here's a look at our mantle where we've decided to add a touch of Disney with our Pin collection. 

And we've decided to get rid of all of the ash in our fireplace to decorate it with this beautiful piece here. 

We also even went and added some greenery by decorating Moose's new cat tree in the nautical theme!  This cat tower was $70 at Petsmart - on sale. Then, we went to Beverly's and bought some greenery, which we stapled onto the wood post. We also hot glued some nautical rope onto the post, and then glued some succulents, starfish and shells onto the rope and post itself. The red plant looked kind of like coral and so we tucked those into the greenery. (close up photos below)

So, instead of spending $600~$1000 on a cat tree that kind of sort of looks like a tree, 

We spent a little over $100 to make our own custom tree that goes with our decor. 

 Which, I think Moose is quite fond of... 

We needed to put a cat tree in our living room as a place for Moose to escape to when we have a puppy. 

Feel free to tell me what you think about this. We're thinking of getting rid of one of our bigger couches and replacing it with two armchairs instead. Just to open up the room more. We've got so much to do, and so little time! 

Home redecorating reality check!

Hi all!

So Duck and I decided to begin our redecorating extravaganza yesterday by starting off with our backyard and upstairs patio. The patio needed a bit of a sweep down and a rise.

We've neglected it for so long that it accumulated a lot of spiders, bugs and leaves from the recently removed tree in our backyard. We want to put an outdoor rug with a little sitting area and table. A patch of grass, maybe so that Moose will be able to enjoy the outdoors with us. So we got to work...

Power spraying the backyard sounds easier than it actually is. Especially on such a small area that's overflowing with yucky bugs. After letting Duck have a reign on the patio for about ten or fifteen minutes, we've decided to let the patio dry before we apply bug spray.


 On to the backyard we trekked. We have BIG plans for our backyard: Installing a tile patio with hopefully some lawn for our future puppy and to add some greenery to the area. Perhaps a gazebo and a sectional for our friends to enjoy. In order to begin this whole process however, we had to get rid of the rock/gravel that is currently cozying it up back there.It makes our backyard look like a barren wasteland!

Our backyard, like everything else in our house, has a lot of potential. Not to mention, I'm renting this place from a dear friend of mine, and really want to help her raise the value of this property! It's such a great home, really, and with the right touch, it can be the coziest place! I can admit that we have been quite neglectful what with school and jobs, but I hope now that I have a bit of extra time before my Master's program starts and between looking for a job,  I'll be able to give our home the right kind of TLC that it deserves.


So with all of that motivation in mind, it was full steam ahead. We get to work. In the 90°F heat, we began shoveling gravel into a bag only 1/3 of the way because we lack the proper tools to haul the bags out conveniently.  We start in one of the corners, scraping the top layer away And then, after two or three scoops, all of the sudden, TING. ....W...what was that? Our shovel literally stopped after the first layer. Can't go any further and we feel like we're going to break our shovel. Why can't we get into the soil?

If we had done more research into this, we would have known, but the land that this is built on is adobe. It is rock hard and we can't get through it. Thanks to Duck's dad, who informed us of the state of the land and continued to tell us that our backyard is absolutely inconvenient for us to really do anything besides gravel and tile. Mainly because there is no gate opening and will not be able to get the proper tools into our yard.

sigh. Can't a girl with creative energy and nesting craze get a break around here? What do I have to do to channel this creative energy?

Completely disheartened and slightly irritated, something that happens extremely easily for me these days, we trudged our way back upstairs to reel it in and discuss our options.

1. We could continue with the tile and add nicer gravel where we were going to add grass and have some plants to add colour.
2. We could make our entire back yard tile.
3. Hire a landscaper.

We went with option number three and are awaiting a landscaper to come and look at our backyard and give us an estimate on the cost of fixing it up.

So all in all, our plans to do this all on our own to save some money has gone down the drain. I'm just hoping that my motivation doesn't go down with it.

Thanks for reading!

Much love,

Lily

Let the nesting begin.

First of all, I want to welcome you all and thank you for taking an interest in my blog. I'm a recent college graduate - with a BA in Art History. I'm currently looking for a relatively respectable job to no avail.

I'm planning on going for a Masters this fall, and in the mean time, I've developed a nesting complex. It's quite a bother when this complex has disrupted my sleeping schedule along with others in my household. I currently live with my partner of seven years, Duckie and our cat Moose.

We're a very happy family, but there's something missing in our lives. We've talked it over and decided to bring a puppy into our home.  And after more talking over and convincing done on my part, we've (more I've) decided to get a dalmatian puppy.

As excited as I am to announce this, we've decided to wait until next summer to bring her home. This is going to be my first dog, and I'm planning on doing more research, as well as sitting in on puppy classes and figuring out great places to take the dog for fun activities. I want to be a responsible dog owner and not neglect my dog in any way.

In the mean time, we're also going to be redecorating the house to accommodate the puppy and to make the place more hospitable to invite friends and family. It is going to be a complete makeover, and we're quite excited.

We have a fantastic little condo with a lot of potential, and hope to apply some of our decorating magic to bring the place to life.

I will be writing about our projects and progress on the housework, as well as the process on getting ready for the puppy.

I hope you guys stick around and continue reading! Thanks!

Much love,

Lily.