Upgrading to a big girls room

All of our outdoor projects are on hold because our two girls decided they are big girls now and don't want to sleep in the same bed anymore. Ever since Kaley left her crib, she has always slept in the same bed with her sister Emily. They started out in their nursery with a toddler bed (for Emily) and a crib (for Kaley). As they got older and we also moved to another home, we upgraded them to a big full/queen size bed. They were happy sleeping next to each other for the last 5 years. However, lately Emily has been protesting and asking if she can have her own bed. I have to be honest, I dragged my feet for the longest time because it just feels as if they are getting older and more independent.
    Last week, we finally decided it was time to upgrade their bedroom to separate twin size beds. First step was to repaint their room. It had a bright accent wall with colorful bedding that desperately needed to go.

When we first moved into our current home, I just threw something together for their room as a temporary solution.  I got lazy and comfortable and it never got upgraded until their recent protest. 

Here is the after and breakdown/list of items I used to upgrade their room

The room feels so much bigger with lighter walls. The bright colored accent wall made the room feel smaller. Pictures don't do this room justice because of the bright windows. It's so hard to capture how nice and airy it feels compared to the previous look.

I found some flower wall decorations at Hobby lobby for $35 for two. It was actually $35 each but they were all 50% off. I added old paper butterflies onto the flowers for an interesting detail. In person, the bed and wall decor looks very whimsical.  I bought one blush colored pillow case from target for $5 and cut it in half to make two identical pillows for each bed. 

I scored two beds on offer up for $150. Headboard is solid wood and the detail on it is perfect for the look I'm going for in my girls rooms. 

I have a small collection of frames from our old house so it was always kept on a top shelf in our garage. I repainted them and hung three in the room.  I love looking for decor items around the house. Its free and gets rid of random clutter I have stored.  Two were hung above the black dresser and another one across from the beds with a quote that I had in my girls nursery when they were young.

 

I picked this quote for their nursery, now room because I want them to be close. We have the extra bedroom but we choose to have them sleep together and in the same room. We aren't having any more kids so they will only have each other when they get older so learn to get along.

I scored this dresser on offer up for $30. After two coats of black paint, refinished the handles with spray paint, and a thin coat of poly for extra protection from my rough girls, it's looking good as new. 

To make it look even prettier, I lined it with dollar tree contact paper. 

Heres another before and after just because it looks so much prettier now

 

Cost breakdown: 

new paint and roller set $50 paint color: Irish mist in eggshell

flower wall decor from Hobbylobby $35 for two

Paper butterflies: free (old)

three old black picture frames: free 

dresser $30 + $20 for paint quart exterior black eggshell paint

headboard $150 for two

new mattress $200 for two

bedding: target mint crinkle texture comforter by room essentials $40 for two

bedsheets target $8 each ($16 total) white bed sheets by room essentials microfiber

one blush colored satin pillow case by room essentials from target $5

$538

Heres a before and after one more time. 

 

Happy ending for a sad bbq

Many years ago, my uncle gave us a bbq grill for either my graduation or house warming gift. I think we've had this grill for at least 9 years. First five years it was stored inside the garage but the last four years, it has been moved around in our yard with no cover. For a grill of its age, its holding up phenomenal. We almost never grill because we are lazy to clean it. We have used it only a handful of times so everything works perfect.
    Before fourth of July all of our relatives started buying new grills and it inspired me to get a new grill fix up our old grill. At first, Binh insist on buying a new grill.  I, on the other hand, said nothing is wrong with our old grill, so lets keep it. And honestly, newer grills might not be as well made as our old grill.  I'm not really interested in another simple portable bbq grill. I was really looking into the nicer built-in kinds but there was a small issue with those... they were way way out of my price range. We aren't really grilling type of people either so I didn't want to spend more money on something we don't really care about.
   After looking at a few bbq islands, I spotted this one from poolwarehouse.com and knew "it" was the one for me. Here's the link https://www.poolwarehouse.com/shop/diy-6-grilling-island/  
The one for me was also listed at $6,000+ starting price. Even if they took away one of the zeros, it still would be over my budget.

Long story short, I turned our grill (picture below) into something similar to the above grill. 

    In the previous post, I wrote about creating an area in our yard for the built in bbq grill. After we finished the pavers and pergola, we built a simple box frame on both sides of the grill. I wanted a portable built in bbq. If our grill ever breaks down or we just decide on getting a new grill we can just replace the grill without having to tear down the whole thing.

I decided on porcelain tile instead of stone or stucco because I like the smoother look and feel of tile. Something about having rough stone around my kids scares me. I'm afraid one day they will slip/fall and get all scratched up. I don't know if tile is any better because its just a smoother surface but it makes me feel a tad bit better. Stucco looks too plain for me. And I consider myself pretty good at tiling so it was naturally an easier option.  I finished tiling the bbq in under two hours. I only tiled the front and sides. The back is completely empty. It butts to a block wall so I don't think anyone would care to look behind it. Plus its a little lighter without the extra tiles in case we ever need to relocate the bbq. 

I was able to buy a used piece of granite on offer up for $25. It was a steal. One side was already finished with bullnose shape. My dad and Binh helped me cut the granite to the correct size. I had to bring the left smaller piece to a shop to finish off the edge because my dad didn't have the tools for it. We added plywood to the base and glued down the larger granite piece to the right. FYI: for outdoor use, you're suppose to use granite not quartz. I was shocked when I was told by our fabricator.  I trusted him and granite is cheaper than quartz so it was a win for me. 

Here are some finished day time pictures. I added some temporary dollar tree plastic baskets we had around the house. I'll eventually change them out to something nicer but they will do for now.  Its nice to have extra shelving to store random things you don't want on the countertop.  

Here are pictures of our bbq island at night. It definitely shines at night compared to day time. 

Cost breakdown:

-cement board and wood for framing $60
-porcelain tiles $40 (two boxes with plenty left over)
-vinyl edging $20
-granite $25 + $60 for finisher to complete one piece of granite
-construction glue $15
-mortar and grout- already owned
-black high heat spray paint - already owned (left over from fireplace makeover)
-metal shelf from Lowes $20
-solar lights $30


I think I did pretty good for spending under $300. Buying a new grill would have cost us at least $300 for something half decent and of course it wouldn't be as nice as this one I fixed up. So before you toss out that sad old looking grill consider giving it a makeover instead. Now our old grill sits in our yard shining proudly with all the solar lights glowing around it.

Recap of yard progress

    Our backyard is pretty big, we sit on a quarter acre lot. Its nice but it's like a curse. I feel like I have to put so much money on landscaping and filling up the space. When we first bought the house, the back yard literally had nothing but a pool and lots of grass. For the last four years, I've been scratching my head and trying to find ways to fill up the space and slowly removing all the grass. So far I've managed to finish up about 75% of the yard. I've gotten rid of 50% of the grass and replaced with fruit trees or flowers (hydrangeas) and hardscape. Here are some old pictures of before and after completed sections of the yard.

Side yard: before it was all grass. We added pavers, pergola, replaced side gate, landscape, and a two story playhouse for the kids. 

We expand our house by adding a sunroom with balcony on top. Even after the sunroom, we had plenty of grass left so we added lots of pavers. 

This picture was during construction of the sunroom. Everything in the yard was grass and an empty slate. 

Heres an old picture of the exterior of the sunroom. 

This is area to the side of the sunroom. We added lots of pavers and made a beautiful trellis. My vine was growing so beautiful until.. I forgot to water it. So now I have to start over again. :(

Towards the back of the yard, we added a storage shed and landscaped with left over pavers. 

     Anywho, aside from the progress of our yard, I also wanted to mention a fast and unconventional way to lay pavers. We had lots of dead space to the right of the pool. We started off by digging about 2 inches of dirt and leveling it. Leveling wasn't perfect but it was okay. Then, we laid PLYWOOD on the dirt to level it and laid pavers on top. Yep... you heard me right. We put plywood as the base. When my dad first told me about plywood.. I shook my head and said no way it would work. My dad insist that it would work and I trust my dad 100%. He had just finished a demo project that had a few good pieces of used plywood so it was free. We literally only had to buy the pavers. Total out of pocket cost $130 for 110 sf of pavers and paver edging. I already had left over paver joint sand from previous paver projects. We bought 110 pavers but received a whole pallet which was 140+ pavers. It was a score because now I can use the extra pavers for a walkway.
    I wanted to put this post on the record so in five or ten years, someone come back and see if we either failed terribly and need to redo or it was a success. The purpose of adding plywood is to level the base without having to add gravel/sand etc. The logic is.. when the plywood does rot/mold/breakdown, it would still be buried in the ground and should still be in place. My dad attempted this with a small paver slab on the side of his house many years ago as a temporary solution. According to him, its been about 8-10 years and the pavers are still in place. The plywood is probably broken down but its still holding the pavers in place with no issues. I also wanted to mention, the paver slab isn't touching any framing around my house. It sits away from the house, kinda like a remote island.

Here are some before pictures. The space is big and very empty. 

The plan was to add a bbq grill and later down the line add a fire pit and landscape. 

My dad helped me put up a simple pergola with added shading.
The cost breakdown estimation:
  - pavers $130
  -plastic edging and extra large nails $40 (already had some from previous projects)
  -wood for pergola $100
  - brackets for base and concrete/extras such as screws $50
  -exterior paint $35
  -sail shade from amazon 8x10 size $35

total about $400

We are almost done building the built in bbq. Here are the latest progress of the bbq grill. Stay tuned for the upcoming reveal.