The BIG News!

Last week I mentioned some big changes, remember? Well............

We're having a BABY!

 

Yep, the Murphy household will be expanding by one next May. What does this mean for our house? First, it has defintely lit a fire under our butts to finish up the projects we've been working on for the last few years. We understand there is no way that we'll be drywalling or caullking with a newborn. Of course one of our spare bedrooms is becoming a nursery (my room was sacraficed) and we are actually going to switch our guest room around (more on that later). Our first goal is to get our master bedroom and bathroom completely finished by Thanksgiving. That might be pushing it, but Brian is working really hard...and I am supervising :)

The New Retaining Wall

Although this is not exactly DIY, we did work very hard on our new retaining wall and actually did our fair share of physical labor. When we bought our house, we asked the seller for some money towards fixing the retaining wall at the base of the driveway:

Yea. It was scary and dangerous and it was holding up a portion of our house, deck and well, most of the front yard. But as the story always goes, we never really got around to fixing it until four years later. Honestly, it was giving Brian so much anxiety when he thought about what would happen if it fell, that we decided to bite the bullet and get it fixed.

 

Of course we initially thought of doing it ourselves, but between equipment rental and the time that it would take one man to complete the job...we decided to hire a landscaper. The total cost was $2,000 and we were able to save several hundred dollars by offering to take the old timbers to the dump ourselves, which I don't exactly recommend.

That was 4,000 pounds of rotted wood...with giant nails. It was hard, but two trips later we cleared it out and felt good about our savings.

Here are some shots of the retaining wall being built:

And here is the grand finale:

Here is a side-by-side before and after:

 

In the end, sometimes it's better (and safer) to hire the professionals!

Highway Robbery

I was perusing the PB website today for some ideas for our bathroom (more updates on that later) and what do I see?

 

(found here)

 

And how much does it cost? $350.00!! Does anyone remember my project:

 



Okay, so Pottery Barn's version doesn't have Gorilla Glue seeping out from under the rope...but still, $350? For what?