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Driveway Love {Our New Stamped Concrete Driveway}

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Our narrow asphalt driveway {and the HUGE juniper covering three feet of it} became extremely inconvenient when Baby came along.  There was barely enough room to park both our cars anyway, but we got by, cautiously opening the car door and inching our way out, using our best contortionist skills so as not to damage each others vehicles.  Add a baby, infant car seat, and a stroller to the mix and you don't have a pretty picture.  I ended up parking half my car on the grass {and by "grass" I mean assortment of dried weeds}in order to give us some room to move around.

Our house was in desperate need of a new driveway.  We considered pavers....until we got a quote that shot our aspirations to Hell!  Pavers require some serious dollar bills.  So, we "chose" concrete instead.  And to give it a little pizazz, we went with a stamped border and pathways.

We knew we wanted it widened about three feet on both sides, and we knew we wanted the path to the back yard gate widened enough to roll out the garbage and recycle bins {I know, a lot to ask, right?}, and that's about it.  As far as aesthetics of a driveway go, we were pretty clueless, but with the help our our neighbor {WWBD}, and the expertise of the man who did our driveway, we ended up with something we absolutely LOVE!

Preparing the ground

Form setting and rebar

Good thing Rowan supervised the cement pour
Goofing around
Stamping
DONE!
Oops, don't forget the baby feet!
And our name.
It was amazing to watch these guys do their work!  We had to water the drying cement twice a day and stay off of it for two weeks.  And we just got the stamped portion sealed today, to make it look pretty {and protect it}.

WooHoo!  We find ourselves checking it out multiple times a day.  I'd say it's a very satisfying improvement.  an't wait to use it!

New Dual-Paned Windows for the House

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Working on the house has slowed down a LOT since Rowan was born, but we're getting things done here and there.

We've been thinking about new windows for a while.  Our old windows were the originals, and while. I liked them for their character, but they were terribly inefficient.  With winter upon us, and a little one to keep warm, we bit the bullet and got ALL windows replaced.


The new windows are double-pained vinyl with a UV barrire.  Ideally, I would've liked to have some more time and money to put larger windows in. However, retrofit windows go in super quickly and easily, AND we didn't need a permit!



Ultimately, we think this update was a great decision.  The new windows look nice, and hopefully, our heating bill won't be as outrageous this month.





Eff You, Blue Paint!

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OH, I am SOOOO frustrated with the paint we are picking for our kitchen/dining areas.

First of all, it took me a long time to decide what colors I liked on the swatch.  Then, it took me a long time to get some real samples to try out. Then, it took me a long time to acutally take the plunge with the real deal.

I chose a dark grey/blue color for the kitchen, behind the oven and fridge.  I started painting away, and fell in LOVE with the color!  Wow.  I was so proud of myself for taking a chance and getting it right!

I did three coats on the whole area and it looked fantastic.  A few hours later, I went to go do some touch-ups.  To my shock and horror, the touch-ups turned out a totally lighter color! WTF!! I must not have mixed the dang paint well enough.  Okay, this might seem like an easy fix, just go get a new can of paint and mix it well, right? WRONG! Because I like the DARK color!  I don't like the color as much if it's all the way mixed.

 Crap. 

Trying to match a mystery wall color doesn't work very well.  We bought a butt-load of new "add a touch of this" samples but none of them are right. 

Today, Rogér mixed two of the sample colors together, and it's surprisingly close.  I think we're going to have to live with it.

Moral of the story:  Mix your paint THOROUGHLY!  Even if you hate the fully mixed color, at least you don't fall in love with a color you can't match.

-Sarah

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