Laundry Shelf

I am all about organization!!!  I also hate it when things fall behind the washer or dryer...because then I have to pull them away from the wall.  Which means I will end up vacuuming and mopping behind them...  Now, it is a good idea to clean behind the washer and dryer, but I try to plan these things for a day when I am off work, or do not have ten places to be!  :)  So, I saw on Pinterest the idea to put a shelf over the back of the washer and dryer.  I loved it!!  Now, I'm sure you will notice that my washer and dryer do not match...but, they came with the house, and I will not complain about appliances I did not have to buy!  So, I asked my sweet Mountain Man husband to dig through his extra wood, and we found a board that would work.  So, I found some stain that was close to my cabinets and I stained it - so easy!! Then, we pulled out the washer and dryer (and I swept and mopped) and we hung the shelf!!  It is definitely one of my favorite additions to our laundry 'hall'!  It took a total of about 3 days - I was only able to work on this after work.  Day one I did one coat of stain, Day 2 I did a second coat of stain, and Day 3 we hung the shelf!!  It is wonderful!  )We did make a small cut out so that we could still get to the outlet just behind the washer!)

 

Have you made any additions to your laundry room?  What would you change if you could?

The Fire Pit...

For awhile now we have been wanting to put a fire pit in our backyard. When Stephen bought the house a few years ago, he bought it from a lady that had quite a variety of 'un-killable' plants in the yard... There was a circular garden in the exact center of the backyard, and we could not do anything to kill those plants!! So, my very own personal Mountain Man (I swear, he could be on that show...if we lived in the mountains) dug up all the plants! After that, we had a nice hole in the yard...so, what better time to construct a fire pit!  



 

 

 

Since I am the OCD person in the house, I got the job of placing each stone and being sure it was level...this was honestly the most time consuming part of the job...and honestly, it might could have been done faster, but, I had to make it perfect! :)

 

 

 

Since our back yard is slanted, we had to do a little extra digging on one side so that the fire pit itself would not be slanted!

 

There's my Mountian Man, waiting patiently for me to tell him where to dig, or when I need another stone!  He even smiled and said I was allowed to use his picture! Isn't he the greatest!! :)

 

And of course, since the truck got put in the back yard, and the doors were open, Cooper thought it was an invitation to go for a ride.  He literally stayed sitting in the truck the whole time we were working (the doors were open).   I guess he was the supervisor! 

 

 

We had enough stones to make two and half rounds (about 18 blocks per round).  So, we had to run back to Lowes to get a few more stones (and since Cooper was already in the truck he got to go for a ride!). ***Special note - these garden stones have gone up in price!  The first time I bought a load they were between $1.15-$1.30 each.  When we went back to get 10 more...they had gone up to $1.91 each...apparently Lowe's figured people would be making fire pits and there would be a demand.***

 

I'm not sure if you can tell, but we put a couple bags of sand in the bottom.  If you buy a fire pit kit (about $200 at Lowe's - we made this, larger, pit for about $75-$80) it will come with sand for the bottom...the guy told me why and I believe it had something to do with rain and mud, but I don't guarantee that. 

 

 

And , here is the fire master Mountain Man hiself! I cannot tell you how many evenings will now be spent in the back yard!!  WE are both so excited about this project!  It was not overly expensive, it was not difficult to assemble, and it is a wonderful addition to our yard!