Patio Expansion

Hi everyone! Today, I would like to share a project, our patio expansion project.
The builder put in a rather small patio, which is not big enough for our family, so we are literally….bursting at the seams! 
We have lots of projects going on right now. Our lot is just under 5 acres. When we purchased this house, our lot was pretty much being taken over by Blackberry bushes. We have cleared a good 3 acres of our property and are now trying to develop the land and grade it. It’s a huge undertaking and the more you clear, the more you have to maintain, it’s a tricky balance.
So, please excuse the dirt piles in the distance, lol! Hydroseeding is up next, too!
See, this patio barely fits our patio sets. We need lots of seating.
The patio installation begins in 3 weeks, and to save money, the concrete company told us if we could scrape the grass (with our tractor) and dig down about 5-6 inches that would mean huge savings for us since doing that it so labor intensive.
We mapped out the size of the patio we want and began digging with the tractor.
Here is the other side of the patio, it’s going to be HUGE!  The other outline you see is where I am going to have a raised flower bed.
Many people think you need to pull the grass up before you lay the dirt down, but it’s not necessary. The grass will die under the darkness of dirt. Occasionally, the grass will  grow through, if it does, just hit it with some weed spay….it will die!
Using yard marking spray paint to map out your ideas is a great way to get a visual of the space and surroundings. 
It’s fun seeing a plan come together.
Stay tuned….more to come on this project. 
Thanks for stopping by! xoxo, Liz

Rented Our Home

Happy Wednesday, Ladies! I’m so excited to share that we finally rented our home.
 Right before I stopped blogging, we had just put in a brand new deck, and unfortunately, I never really shared any photos of the final transformation.  I created this cozy, private sitting area. We really enjoyed the outdoor fireplace last fall….cozy, cozy, cozy! Oh, and did I mention comfortable?
The other side of the deck was for eating and taking in the beautiful sunsets. I’m sharing these for the people who emailed me wanting to see the deck photos. 😉
I loved having a large clock above the fireplace. It was like having a bit of the indoors outside.
A mantle whether it is inside or out should be decorated, don’t you think? 😉
At night we would light this candle.
Ok, now onto our rental news….we put the house up for rent at the end of December. I did not stage the house and we had very little bites. I decided it was time to spruce up the house with a few staging items to see if it would make the house more warm and inviting. Well, it did the trick. We now have it rented.
I did not bring in any furniture in, only accessories.
 I hung towels in the bathroom and added topiaries and nice hand soap.
 I used burlap ribbon and tied it around the towels.
 In the pantry, I added these cute little plants and placed a big cake platter on one of the shelves.
I made up this cute arrangement and placed it down in the theater. It is filled with popcorn, kettle corn, red vines, and root beer.  I will leave it for the renters as a little “welcome” gift! 😉
When anyone comes to the front door, it should be pretty and welcoming. So I got out my cleaning product of choice – Pledge Furniture Polish With Orange Oil, and I sprayed it onto the exterior wood right next to the front door. You can see how dull the wood looked prior to spraying the oil on. I rubbed the oil in really good over the wood with a small towel and it soaked right into the wood and revitalized it. Ba-BAM!
BEFORE
 AND AFTER
I even sprayed the front door….so much better! Love that product! 
I placed a wax warmer in the kitchen with a wonderful scent and it made the house smell heavenly. All these “little” things add up and just make the house look and feel more like, well, home! This is how it looked before staging, just cold and uninviting.
 These are all the items I brought over to stage with.
 So, if any of you are in the process of trying to rent your home and have already moved out, leave a few items behind and just accessorize. It really makes the house feel more inviting.
If I could have a “D R E A M *  J O B” it would be to stage peoples homes. I love to accessorize, it would be a dream come true, maybe one day! 🙂 Thanks for visiting! XO, Liz
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Linking up with:
Treasure Hunt Thursday
Anything Blue Friday