Looks like new again

I have been busy with clients and doing a lot of driving!  Living out in the country definitely has its sacrifices.  But it is worth it.  However, avoiding rush hour is sounding like a better and better idea.

Anyway, while I have been working my sweet hubby has been spray painting away.  When we bought our house the sellers left some old rusted slightly green pool furniture.  We debated throwing it out but then thought ...spray paint!  See the before and after above.  The chair on the right looks brand new and only cost the price of a can of spray paint.  Not only did we save money but we recycled something old and put it to good use.

I have a feeling we may need to start buying spray paint in bulk?

What lies beneath...

We are still working on getting the pool back to its normal state.  The pool guy came yesterday to check in and vacuum the pool but even with all the chemicals we dumped in you still could not see the bottom so that proved to be ineffective.  My husband and I are still wondering what might be lurking below that we cannot see?  We told the pool guy that we discovered a dead bird when we first removed the cover.  He said he had seen much worse: squirrels, cats, dogs and horses.
Yes I did say horses!  He said a horse fell into a homeowners pool and they did not notice until the next morning and the horse had died.  The pool guy said it took about 7 big guys to get the horse out of the pool.  What a sad and heartbreaking story.  I think I would have had a hard time swimming in the pool with that terrible picture in my head.

The pool guy said it could take days, weeks or even a month to get the pool back to its normal state.  But the good news is you can see the third step and it is much clearer now.  It has gone from a scary pond green to a more coastal greenish blue. 

Bathroom progress...

So the handymen left yesterday and this is what the bathroom looks like.
Hopefully they will be back to grout this week and then install new fixtures over the weekend!

But we are making progress...the tile is looking good!
We like the hopscotch pattern and the best part is we did not have to do it ourselves.
It is still hard to believe that the tub is going to fit in that little space.  They always look bigger once
they are installed.

Bathroom demo

No change on the pool from yesterday except that it is a lighter green color.

Today's project is bathroom renovation!  No we are not tackling this ourselves!
Yes my husband and I are handy but this is a total overhaul and so we called some handymen to help.
First step, demo. Well it always gets worse before it gets better, right?  As an organizer I know this so I am not worried.  They have completed ripping up the floor as of right now and just removed the very heavy cast iron tub.  This took 3 big guys to haul that sucker down the steps and out the front door.  They all commented that afterwards they felt like their arms were long like an orangutan.
I told them if they had needed my help it may not have gone so smoothly.  I would not even want to try to carry that thing.

 We are making progress but here are some "before" shots to see the worst of it.  Photos of before demo and photos of halfway through demo.  More to come...
Hopefully by the end of the day it will look a little bit better.  We have all our new stuff from Lowes ready to put in.  We are on a budget so we had to be conservative with spending but hey if its new and clean then I am happy!

From Pond to Pool

I guess as a first time owner of a pool, you could say I really knew nothing about pool maintenance.

But lets just say there is pool maintenance and then there is a pool overhaul!  So the pool has been sitting for a couple of years unused and yes it shows.  Upon first inspection my husband and I peered beneath the cover into the dark murky water and looked at all the trash on top and thought yuck.

 We have watched a lot of horror movies and the pool brought up an image of one of us falling in and then having nightmares for weeks about trying to frantically get out of the scary dark water.

The image of reeses cup wrappers, lots of pollen and leaves and even a dead bird was not appealing to me.  Being the germaphobe that I am I thought lets just drain the pool and start fresh with some nice clean water. 

 However, the pool guy told us to take the cover off and start filling it up to get the level back up.  We turned the garden hose on and waited and waited and let it run all night and 

barely anything.  After many hours of filling it up we finally decided to try to get out some of the leaves.  (well lets just say my husband did).  Still green and murky.

Next came the chemicals and we watched like little kids thinking that the pool would miraculously turn a beautiful clear blue in a matter of minutes.  Not quite.  Here are some photos of what looks like our pond and lets hope tomorrow it starts to resemble a pool...

Here we go again...A fresh start!

Yes I am trying my hand at blogging again!
Please bear with me as I ease into it.  I am going to try to give you a little insight into all my projects
and how I stay organized.  And of course since I just moved to a new house built in 1940 I have
many projects to do.  And my husband's" honey do" list is endless and growing more so by the day.
As much as I like instant results I have to learn to be patient.   I have to keep reminding myself of that.  It is certainly not easy but there are only so many hours in the day...

So a little background about my house.  The house was built in 1940 and is a white colonial style on almost 8 acres with lots of gardens and outbuildings.  It is in good condition but certainly needs some updating- bathrooms, kitchens, light fixtures, appliances and the list goes on!  The other thing I forgot to mention is that it was vacant for a few years so the gardens and pool were slightly neglected.

My husband and I are not farmers and have only been camping a handful of times so we are certainly going to have a learning curve.  Bugs, snakes, other critters that come out at night...
We are working on adjusting and taking everything in stride.