Bench Revival

I acquired this bench from my dad.  He built it last year and left it outside sitting without any sealer on it to protect it.  Needless to say, the Michigan weather reaped havoc on it and the finish looked like this:

Yucky, right?  The stain was coming off in most parts, the finish was uneven, etc.  We needed something for our front porch.  Most of the time, we place two patio chairs on the porch, but we wanted something different and since this bench was simply going unused and wasted, I asked my dad if we could have it and if he would drop it off to our house.  He did.  Yay.

Obviously, I wasn't going to display it looking the way it did.  So I had to revamp it.  I sanded it down, restained it and added a coat of polyurethane.  Luckily, the bench will be he protected from the elements sinec our front porch is covered but I still love the shine of the poly.
Here is the end result.  I wasn't able to move it back on the porch until Clint got home since my preggy belly wouldn't allow it.  It was one thing to drag it off by myself but for some reason I couldn't find the motivation to drag it back.  Maybe it was the exhaustion from the days work?  I am so happy with it.  I even made a pillow for each seat. 

I will soon post pics of it with the pillows and some other changes that took place on the porch. 

Two best part about this one---(1)  FREE!  No cost for the bench and my dad brought over the stain and poly.  I had the brushes.  (2)  We now have a comfy spot to rest our behinds and enjoy the front yard.

Birdy! Birdy!

My husband loves feeding the birds.  He finds it necessary especially in the winter when they cannot get what they need because of the abundance of snow covering the ground.  At first I didn't get it, but now after enjoying the benefits of it for the past three years of living together, I love and appreciate it.  Everytime I look outside and see the yard full of birds filling their bellies with bird seed, sunflower seeds and suet, it makes me happy.  Also, I know it makes Jude happy as well.  Whenever one of us sees them in the yard, we run and get each other and yell "birdy! birdy!"  I know that when I look back when I am older and think about those moments, my heart will smile.

Beautiful, right?  What is it that you didn't appreciate initially, but did later?  Leave me a comment and let me know.  I can think of quite a few things!

Bucket of dishsoap and a sponge....?

I can be somewhat of a freak.  When I see something that bothers me I have to get to work.  For example, last week I had to go to the front porch to retrieve a package that arrived.  (textbooks).  We rarely use our front porch as we usually come through the garage.  When I looked up while getting the package I looked up to see this:

The under part of our covered porch was so dirty and there were spiderwebs in the corners.  Yuck!  So this past Tuesday, I rolled up my sleeves and grabbed a ladder, broom, hose and a bucket of warm water with dish soap and a sponge and got scrubbing.  It was a messy job and I was soaked at the end of it but it was so worth it!  Look at the end result! 

Don't mind the beads of water...it was in the process of drip drying.

Looks brand new.

So me being me...I couldn't stop myself.  I started washing the entire front of the house with a sponge.  I know that people driving by must have thought I was crazy.  I know many people who I could've borrowed a power washer from....but I felt so good about the porch that I couldn't help myself. Then, I got the leaf blower out and blew the walkway and porch.

How wonderful!

Garden Bridge---complete!

First things first, my dad constructed the Garden Bridge for me and brought it over Tuesday night. It was SO heavy. It is quite large because I decided I wanted it big enough to drive the riding mower across in case Clint wanted to start using that instead of push mowing that side of the yard. The lumber my dad used was just stuff he had left over from previous projects so it was a little rough in some areas. I decided to sand it by hand to get rid of some discolorations, flaws, etc. I had decided earlier that day that I would put Jude to bed about 45 minutes early so that I would have some day light left to get it sanded and stained. Putting him to sleep went perfectly, as it usually does. I retreated to the garage with the baby monitor to gather my supplies (stain, sanding wedge, rag, paintbrush)...until I realized after searching for about 15 minutes that the paint brushes were not in their usualy place and that Clint must have moved them. Obviously, I couldn't call and ask him where they were, so I called my wonderful father in law who was kind enough to bring one over. I literally had about 10 minutes left to get it stained. It turned out wonderful. I have all the lumber to construct the side rails but am unsure now if I want to put them on because I like the way that it kind of blends into the yard. Maybe I will for a few years until I feel comfortable with Jude not falling over the side since I can always remove them later. We'll see.

Here is a photo of it in the yard now without the side rails.