NEW Outdoor Drapes!

We have new outdoor drapes!

Before I get to that, do you remember our budget friendly DIY outdoor drape project from a couple summers ago? They were cheap, quick and easy….but that’s about it. One summer of use, and they became stiff, riddled with mildew, and a haven for spiders. Awesome right? NOT! (FYI, I’m totally trying to bring back “NOT” as a hip thing to say. You with me?)

We took them down, washed and bleached them, only to have them shrink 12″ and still be covered with mildew. All in all, not one of my best DIY’s. I certainly got what I paid for. Aka about $50 (and most of that was spent on the curtain “rod”.) Continue reading “NEW Outdoor Drapes!”

Ode to Odin

I’ve come to realize that one of the biggest reasons people follow me on Instagram is for pics of our dog, Odin.

They don’t like my selfies (shocking) or my food and party pics. They barely tolerate my home decor.

BUT upload a pic of Odin, and the smiley faces and hearts start rolling in.

YOU ONLY LIKE ME FOR MY DOG.

Fair enough. He really is much cuter than I am.

So today I bring you all your fave Instagrams of Odin, in one place. An ode to Odin.

Which is your fave pic? Leave a comment and let us know!

Pergola

Our weekend pergola build is finished! AND it only took us a month.

Well technically it took us two afternoons, they just happened to be a month apart. Why did a weekend project turn into a month long ordeal? Life. Weather. Summer. Family. Motorcycles. Friends. Birthdays. Fun. Oh and new tools. Life took over as a priority, and work came to a standstill on the backyard. But this weekend, we were back in action.This is how it went down. In the first stage we built up the existing corner posts (they needed to be extended a few feet taller). The ones beside the house needed to be notched to fit over the rim board on the house, and everything was attached with brackets and deck screws. Then up went the outside beams of the pergola.

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That went well-ish, but after the last beam (the big front one) went up, it pulled the rest slightly out of square.  Ugh. So we started off yesterday making everything as square and level as possible considering the unsquare and unlevel deck we were building off. I just want to point out, we did not build the deck. It was here when we bought the house. Building a nice square and level pergola off a crooked deck is an exercise in patience.

Knowing this, we took a bit of a U turn in on how we were going to do the cross beams. I wanted to notch out the beams so that they all fit together in a basket weave. That would involve pretty accurate measurements and cuts, and if we were a hair off, nothing would fit. El Granto sat me down and had a little talk about biting off more than I could chew, the inability to get more lumber should I wreck it all, and how were we going to raise the beams up and install it. All very valid and reasonable points.

But… I didn’t want to use ugly joist hangers, and I needed the joints to be strong. (I am not to confidant with toe nailing, it never seems to tighten up the joint enough for me.) We brainstormed a bit, and broke out the Kreg jig. That thing tightens up butt joints like nobody’s business. (El Granto’s note: hee hee tight butts)

El Granto drilling some pocket holes in the ends of our joists
Yes, it took a bit longer, but those butt joints are nice and strong. Did you spy one of our new tools in the pic? Yeah dude, we upped our drill game a bit. At Christmas El Granto bought me a Milwaukee Drill and an Impact Driver. We loved them so much, that this summer we added a few new Milwaukee tools to the arsenal. That’s our badass new hammer drill in the photo above. We had all three drills going for pergola install. The hammer drill was on pocket hole duty (yes a bit overboard, but he made short work of the holes) the drill and impact driver were stationed on the ladders so we could each drive in the screws on our ends of the joists. Can I just say how amazing it is not to have to change from a drill bit to a driver for… Every. Damn. Piece?

After all the joists were cut and pocket holed, up on the ladders we went and installed. No pics of this part, cause well, we were both up on ladders holding beams over our heads, but here is what it looked like when all was said and done.

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We also added a few more boards to our privacy screen. It was a bit low, and meant that if you looked over from our neighbours house you could see right into our bedroom. Frankly I think they were sick and tired of being blinded by my nakedness, so we upped the height of the screen.  It also did double duty of covering up the brackets on the posts. We added another board to the opposite side of the deck to make things look a little more polished as well.

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So whats next? Sewing! We laid out and measured for the Sunbrella fabric shade canopy, and I can get started sewing it this week. I am also thinking of taking down the twinkle lights in the backyard (it looks a bit too busy now, those solar lanterns also have to go.)

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Already the shade structure is making the upstairs deck seem more cozy. Cant wait for the shade canopy! What do you think about the backyard twinkle lights, should they go?

The Man Behind the Name: El Granto

When selecting a title for a blog post I like to score it on the Morgan Freeman scale. What’s that you ask? It’s how good the title sounds when read aloud in my mock Morgan Freeman voice. You know, the movie voice of God? Some post titles just can’t possibly score well. “DIY Concrete Table” for instance sounds rubbish in Morgan Freeman’s voice. However “The Man Behind the Name” gets a score of “epic” on a scale of 1-10. Note, this theory also works well using Dumbledores voice and Iron Man. The Stark sarcasm adds a little je ne sais quoi.

Back to the namesake of this post. The one and only El Granto. You might have wondered in the past why he uses this name? Is it a nom de plume, a pseudonym? Just a way of staying anonymous on the web? None of the above.
While not his given name, El Granto has been an oft used nickname for the last 8 years or so. Let me paint the scene for you.

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Grant wasn’t such a popular name in Canada, and his whole life he stood forlorn at the gift store checkout, unable to find anything on the souvenir racks with his name on it. No key chains from Disney, beach towels from Florida, or Christmas tree ornament from Santa’s Village. No tourist souvenirs held his name. The odd man out, the lone wolf without his name on a souvenir tchotchke. Every other kid had them! Even BORT got souvenirs with his name on it!

It was a young Grant’s birthday. He was a mid twenty something ready to blow some candles out on his cake and hit the town with his buds for some beers. We were underpaid, overtaxed young-uns living in our first apartment in the city. We had convinced Grant’s childhood friend Chris to move in down the street with his then girlfriend. This meant we perpetually had friends to party with who lived stumbling distance from home. Much fun was had with such close pals, and on the fine evening of Grant’s birthday, Chris came bearing gifts.

Chris handed Grant his birthday gift with a “Happy Birthday Buddy” and a big grin on his face. Grant opened the box and pulled out a t-shirt, and broke out into a string of words I won’t put in print. The shirt was white, and had some writing on it, but I couldn’t see it clearly as Grant was too busy fawning over it. Finally he turned it around, and shared it with the room. It was an illustration of a fat man, dressed as a Mexican wrestler. Complete with man boobs and a cape. Beside this Adonis was written “El Granto”.

It was Grants dream come true. His name (albeit with a Latin flare) emblazoned on a t-shirt, complete with a fat man in spandex pants. Had Chris gotten this t-shirt custom made? If he did, I may have a word with him about encouraging (not bashing) El Granto’s self image.

EL GRANTO!

Alas no, Chris had been strolling through the mall when he spied this work of art in a clothing store. An expensive gift for a bud, but Chris knew he needed to purchase this once in a lifetime find for his friend. The shirt was designed by an illustrator for Volcom (a snow & skateboard company and one of Grant’s favorite brands). Once Grant set his eyes on this magnificent shirt, his world was eternally changed. He was now forever to be known not as Grant, but EL GRANTO! Maybe his Mum and his bosses would still refer to him as his birth name, but to the rest of the world a new hero is born.

Or…after wearing the shirt, the nickname stuck, and he started using it for his online presence.

El Granto only wears the shirt sporadically and on special occasions as to not wear it out (it has already suffered a hole but this does not discourage him.) He does however don it religiously every year on his birthday. Wouldn’t you?