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Pool Repair, Part 2

22 Oct

With all of the pool’s guts removed it was time to start research and buying everything that we now needed to replace. 

  • What we had, most secure
  • Easiest to Replace
  • Easiest to install

We did some research on the liner and found out that it was a unibead style liner, which is supposed to be one of the most secure, but not easiest to install or replace. We measured the pool, and kept coming up with odd measurements that included an extra 1/2″ or 3/4″, but after extensive research and getting familiar with how pool sizes run, we finally felt confident enough to order the liner. The size of our pool limited our options for liner designs with Chris initially only showing me two, neither of which I was totally psyched about.  But when he went back to the results, there was a third which I loved and so we ordered it.

Come shopping with me

I don’t know if it was an option or if he thought about it for the liner, but when it came to ordering the floor liner, wall foam, and cove, we compared prices on Amazon, and thank goodness!  We saved at least $200.  And then it was a waiting game, as the website for the liner didn’t actually say when to expect delivery.

So while we waited for those things, Chris did research on how to address the giant rusted out holes in the side of the walls.  He knew we could address the rust itself with a type of spray paint he’d used in the past, but went to YouTube for advice with patching the hole.  Eventually he found that he could use sheet metal with pop rivets. Those things we could get local, so we got to work.

  • Inside’s sprayed
  • And the outside

He sprayed the major rusted areas inside and out of the pool with Rust-oleum’s Rust Reformer in effort to stop the rust from getting any worse.

Got my arm workout!

And then it was time to cut sheet metal and grind the edges to take off any sharp edges that could possibly scratch the liner once it was installed. And then we connected the sheetmetal to the side of the pool wall with pop rivets. And let me tell ya, using that pop rivet gun is no joke!

Now for everything else to show up and then the real work begins.

This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I earn a small commission at no cost to you! When you purchase through the links provided, you will be supporting Brittany Bower and helping to bring new content to the site!

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Still Growing Up – Office Style

19 Oct

I was looking back at old posts last week and was shocked by how much Chris and I have grown up since moving into our house. Is that still a thing even after you’re considered an adult? But I had previously cleaned out what was the Craft Room and put my touch on it, turning the room PINK and deciding to keep a lot of the previous clutter out. And now it has transformed again.

PINK and decluttered (compared to before)

He also decided to buy himself an official drum set (he’d been learning on a set of electronic ones), so I decided to upgrade my desk which transformed the entire room with a u-shape desk, bookcases and file cabinets. And with the white furniture, you can really see how light and bright the room turned out! It’s been nice having a place for my computer and to do crafting, with more organization, and room to display all of my keepsakes, like the flowers and cloche display from our wedding. And even a designated place for my official work, without too much adjustment.

YIKES! Before the first remodel

I mentioned that I started working from home at the end of last year, but that wasn’t even the catalyst for it. After our wedding in April, Chris decided to repurpose half of the rooms in our house. Our previous gym became a music studio/theater room, my previous office took on a storage role (the main thing our house is severely lacking) and the Craft Room became my new office.

My new (grown up) office after the wedding

When I started working from home, we really took a closer look at what that would look like. I had office jobs before, but they usually at least allow for opportunities to get up and go for a walk, usually for meetings – but mine were all online now which meant more sitting and less moving. We invested in what we thought would be a decent chair and a riser for my desk so I would at least have the option to stand.

The flexibility with the riser is nice, and it’s super easy to use since it is motorized. But I didn’t think how it might effect things when I am just sitting, which I’ve done more than I initially thought I would. At my previous job, I ended up developing an issue with my shoulder and figured out that it was because my desk was too high compared to my chair making me type with my shoulders shrugged all day. And the riser was starting to have the same effect since it raised my keyboard another couple of inches off my desk even at its lowest.

My chair was also starting to tilt to one side and it allows me slouch too much. So it’s now time for another change – I’m going to try it without the riser and trying out a new chair! We’ll see how it goes.

And for those keeping track of puppy status, the cords under my desk have now been tidied.

This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I earn a small commission at no cost to you! When you purchase through the links provided, you will be supporting Brittany Bower and helping to bring new content to the site!

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Pool Repair, Part 1

17 Oct

Last month, Chris came into my office and showed me a video – our pool had a major leak! He didn’t know if it was from the liner or if a pipe had busted, so he went diving in the pool to find out.

Right inside from the leak he a found a tear in the liner. So, he grabbed the glue and extra vinyl (we had patched a hole last year), and went to trying to do the repair, but as soon as he touched it, it tore even more. And we realized this was not going to be an easy repair.

We already knew we were on borrowed time with the pool once we found a rusted spot at the far end after dismantling the previous pool deck. We just didn’t know what all would be involved with that repair – or if could even be done – but knew that the liner would have to come off and it might not go back on as easy as it came off. Now would be the time to address it though since the current liner obviously had to be replaced anyways.

So Chris got to draining the pool. It was such a sad sight.

But also eye opening for all of the problems we weren’t aware of. Water pooled in a few areas so he cut the liner to allow it to finish draining disclosing the spots that had washed out. One was around the floor drain, which is what he patched last year. We couldn’t see the bottom of the hole and had no idea how far it would go, leaving us to question how we were going to fix it.

The other spot that washed out was on the inside of where he spotted the leak from the outside and was severe enough that we could clearly see some of the metal framing.

Since we’d already come this far with removing the liner, Chris decided to continue cutting down the edges in sections, revealing tears in the foam wall liner and rust spots behind large sections of it. So it came down too.

Now that basically all of the pool’s trim pieces and guts had been removed, we finally had an idea of what we were up against and it was time to start researching how to do the repairs.

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Projects Undone – The Old Pool Deck

4 Oct

We have now had our house for 5 years, it’s crazy how fast time flies!

We’ve made a lot of changes in that time, some revising what was here already and some adding our own touches. But this summer has focused on finally cleaning up the projects we have undone, making our yard more visually pleasing and safer for the little ones running around (our friend’s kids) and hopefully, our future furry one.

The previous owners had a small deck for the pool steps, similar to the ones we have now, but on the opposite side of the pool. It served its purpose, but was starting to show its age and wasn’t to our liking, We usually get out to the backyard through the French doors in the living room or from our bedroom – on the opposite end of the house. On top of that, while we we do have grass in our back yard, it didn’t grow between the pool and the house due to a lack of sun when we moved in, so we tracked in mud every time we came back in after being in the pool.

The previous pool steps (picture taken from realtor.com)

So Chris did what he does and started tearing it down. Getting the boards off was the easy part. The hard part was dismantling the concrete blocks that had cement poured in the center and then bolted to the ground. We tried sledgehammers but they were no match – they simply bounced off. We talked about getting a back hoe and burying them or renting a jackhammer to break them apart, but thought it would take days and subsequently several hundreds of dollars. So they had been an eye sore for about 4 of the past 5 years.

Finally, during the hottest summer I can ever remember in Florida, my husband did what he does and searched on Amazon for a solution – a jack hammer for about $200 (a rental is about $80/day). Knowing that it would physically hard work and guessing that he’d only be able to stand the heat for 15 minutes a day, this would be a tremendous savings if it worked out. Our only hesitation with it was knowing that it would not be the same quality as the commercial rental.

The packaging is nice with a case to hold everything and make sure the pieces don’t end up scattered across the shed. But the quality of the jack hammer is even more impressive. It’s obviously physically straining, at 54 pounds bouncing back and forth against cement and concrete, but the blocks just started tumbling off, and it was even quiet enough for him to continue while I worked in my office without my those on the phone complaining about any background noise.

XtremepowerUS 61117-XP Jack Hammer w/Chisel & Shovel Bits from Amazon

Now that the old pool deck is FINALLY gone, that side of the yard is cleaning up nicely, although still in need of some work. We got rid of the tree as it was effecting the foundation of our house and now that strip has filled in with some nice grass.

Such an improvement!

This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I earn a small commission at no cost to you! When you purchase through the links provided, you will be supporting Brittany Bower and helping to bring new content to the site!

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4th Birthday

30 Sep

One of the things I looked forward to most when we bought our house was the opportunity to host events and have a place we’re proud to have our friends and family (when they visit) come and hang out at. And I think we’ve been successful in that after three Christmas’s, a rehearsal dinner, a 4th of July party and now two birthdays.

Both birthdays have been for our friend’s daughter, Felicity. Last year’s theme was mermaids and this year’s was dinosaurs. While we reeled in the party plans a little, I still really enjoyed decorating and took the opportunity to try to do better than last year.

But, first things first. If the weather’s nice, it’s always a pool party at our house, which meant the deck steps needed some attention.

We painted them last year before the wedding and we’ve just gotten some much rain this summer that the paint started chipping off and left Felicity covered in specks of blue paint last time she was over. So it’s time for a fresh coat, but first Chris power washed them to get off all of the flakes.

With the pool freshly painted and looking new again, I could now move on to the rest of the decorations.

Balloon garlands have been all the rage over the past few years, and I always think they look so nice and add so much to the décor without having to spend too much. I tried tying the balloons to each other like I’ve seen in some videos, but it just didn’t work out very well last year, although I was happy with what I was able to create.

Mermaid Banner and Balloons from Amazon

This year, I saw this tool I apparently overlooked because I found extra in my party supplies, but it made all of the difference, especially since we decided to put the garland over the door instead of moving our painting to put it above the table.

The directions are easy enough to follow, but don’t advise as to the spacing for the balloons so I originally tried filling every space in a very logical order, but it was just too big for the space and I had no way to attach it to the wall.

So, I rearranged them to be in every other space, simply removing those that were extra and then moving and adding balloons as needed. The spaces in the decorating strip were the perfect size for push pins to hold everything in place

My Version vs. Amazon

I think there’s some improvement.

The birthday girl playing with her new bead jewelry set. We had fun making rings, necklaces, bracelets and headbands.

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Home Renovations: Craft Room, Part 2

13 Jan

This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I earn a small commission at no cost to you! When you purchase through the links provided, you will be supporting Brittany Bower and helping to bring new content to the site!

So, as happens with most renovations (using my own experience along with the stories from just about every home renovation show on HGTV as evidence), mine did not gone quite as planned either. As mentioned before, and was the most important point for me to keep in mind, is that the carpet was staying – I would have loved to replace it, I hate brown! – but as this is not the Dream House, it just didn’t make sense financially considering the excellent condition of the current carpet. I know, we checked! So Chris recommended some sticky stuff that most contractors use – a self-adhesive protective plastic film – that we were able to get from Amazon. However, due to something (not sure exactly what) it would not stay stuck to the carpet, though it obviously works well usually since it has no problem sticking to itself.

Self-adhesive protective plastic film from Amazon

Since this didn’t work out, Chris suggested a tarp instead and that worked much better. With that settled, the next step was to take off the baseboards – these are being replaced (still on the to do list), thank goodness! It wasn’t too difficult, but since I did it myself while Chris was at work, I had to resort to YouTube for how to do it.

The tarp is down, the baseboards are off, and most of the loose paint has been removed.

So while it may have not been necessary, and I was told by more multiple people that I created a lot of unnecessary work for myself, I did skim coat and then sand all of the walls. The previous owners simply painted over a lot of rough areas without cleaning first and it was driving me crazy, some of which was previous wallpaper.

About 3/4 of the way through skim coating

Had I not paid such close attention to the walls, I may have missed this detail. Now, I have piece of mind and know a little more of the house’s history.

The previous wallpaper

Now the fun began – color could finally start being put on the walls!!!  And I gave Chris the sad news (only for him) that the project can’t be purely mine.  I still needed him for a few items….

Once the ceiling was painted, he installed the new fan I picked out.  Next to the wall color, this was the part I was most excited about. The fan portion of the last one had stopped working and the Craft Room gets pretty warm during the day. It also didn’t provide much light so I had to supplement. With new LED light bulbs equivalent to 100 watts each and 5000k for a more natural daylight look, I now have plenty of light without stray cords running down the walls.

A new fan and ceiling light

But, since it is ultimately MY projects and is MY room, I finally fulfilled a life long dream of having a PINK room and could not be happier.  (Inside story to this…at the store I thought it was too light.  Then, I started cutting it in and thought it might be too bright.  Although I was giddy about the prospect of my pink room, this thought still  continued as I covered the walls in the color and when I was finally finished.)

A girl’s dream of a pink room realized!

I have slowly been moving back in and arranging it to work better for me. It may have been extra work, but with smooth walls and fresh paint, I feel much calmer in the room and better prepared to work on my projects.

I’ve moved back in, but not everything moved back in with me 🙂

Note: Although this is a very late post, I did make the deadline of November 2nd to beat the couch delivery! And as happens with many projects, there are a couple of things still left to do. Curtains have finally been hung 🙂 but we still need to cut and install the base molding and replace the outlets and covers.

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Home Renovations: Craft Room, Part 1

24 Oct

This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I earn a small commission at no cost to you! When you purchase through the links provided, you will be supporting Brittany Bower and helping to bring new content to the site!

Hey ya’ll! So I mentioned before that Chris and I have done a few renovations since we bought our house, some of which have worked out and others…not so much. This past week, I embarked on a new one, my craft room.

I had been doing fine with it in its current state for the past few months, but recently it had gotten out of control. Between using the items in storage – scuba, for starters – and acquiring more tools and products for making the wreaths (my brain has been on overload lately with LOTS of ideas, and I have bought more than I’ve had time to put together), I got run out of the room.

I’ve been run out of my own room

So, now it is time to do what I have wanted to do since we moved into this house – redo the room. But, as Chris has told me that this is MY project, it had not been going very quickly – it took me a week just to move everything out.

I’m about half way there

However, I do have a strict deadline of November 2nd to have it completed (our new couch arrives that day, so I will no longer have free reign of the living room). This week, all I have gotten accomplished is the moving of all of the things out of the room.

Now we’re getting somewhere

This week, I will start laying down the carpet protector, because the current carpet is staying, and will begin the actual renovation process. Stay tuned to see how it turns out.

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Room with a Purpose: The Craft Room

1 Oct

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When we first found our house, it looked like it had 3 bedrooms.  This was one of my wish list items, along with 2 bathrooms and at least 1200 square feet.  Upon further research and learning about real estate, we learned that that the third room can’t be classified as a such since you have to go through the second to get to it – it doesn’t have its own access to the rest of the house – so it would instead be considered a bonus room.  This was okay, it just removed the question of which room would be the guest room and which would be the office, no big deal.

The previous owner’s Second Room – now our Office

When we moved in, we started by focusing all of our efforts on the master bedroom and getting it ready which ended up taking 3 months to finish.  In the meantime, we lived in the bonus room.  Once we officially moved into the master bedroom and essentially into the rest of the house, we found homes for the majority of our things and started to realize our own needs.  The master bedroom was the master and the second room became the office as planned, and we stored our items without a designated home, although very disorganized, in the bonus room.  Realizing the cost of setting up a guest room for as much as it would be used (we’ve now been in the house for 2 years and have yet to have overnight company), we realized that dedicating an entire room to this purpose might not be the most practical or financially efficient, so it was now a room without any real purpose.

But, towards the end of last year, it finally started to find one when Chris suggested and highly encouraged me to finally buy a sewing machine (I’d been wanting to learn how to sew my whole life). Once we got it, I obviously needed a place to put it along with everything that goes with it, so Chris and I compromised.  The Florida room would be his room and used for his gym and I would take the old “storage room” to be used for my own purposes, whatever they may end up being. 

Once Covid hit South Florida, Chris was staying at work due to needing to maintain the buildings 24/7 for his entire work week, leaving me without much to do. I am not good with entertaining myself and TV only goes so far, so I started doing jigsaw puzzles again. Thomas Kinkade is my favorite artists, so I did several of his, starting with The Nativity, which I had bought on Amazon around Christmas and never got to, and continued with as many as I could find.

Fast forward a few more months, add an obsession with a podcast and Chris mentioning the idea of making the wreaths and the purpose of the room was clearly defined – it was now the craft room and the storage room…the stuff still has to be stored somewhere. But more changes will be coming, so stay tuned!

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