A couple of weeks ago, I spotted this side table at my Goodwill. The finish was in poor condition, but I loved the pedestal center leg. That's the key when shopping for furniture that you plan on painting and updating. Look for good lines or some kind of charming detail. In this case, I liked the curves.
The best part was this(click to enlarge)...
Yeah, that's the price. It says $4.99
How could I say no?
I don't have a place to put it, and it might be too short for the rest of my furniture, but I could always sell it, like I did with this antique vanity bench, and this bedside table.
I wasn't sure what color to do, but I was getting a bit tired of painting things antique white. I've been seeing quite a bit of light blue furniture, and I found out that Lowes sells little sample cans of paint in ANY color for $2.99. That's a great deal when you only have a little project. The bummer part is that it only comes in Satin. For furniture, I always use Semi-gloss paint, but satin is just enough sheen to work. Especially if you plan on distressing it, you don't really want very shiny furniture. If I end up selling it, it's ready to go. If I end up keeping it, there's no guarantee it will stay this color, since I don't know what my colors will end up being when we move to our new place. But, I'm always looking for an excuse to paint something!!
This one surpasses my hatred of cheap paper towels(I will buy name brand until the day I die). I guess because this one is so easy and requires no more time or money to do it.
I am not a stickler for etiquette, generally, but some things just get on my nerves. Case in point: addressing formal letters. Anytime you send a formal letter, please please use the person's full name! Especially for wedding invitations. I made darn sure I was addressing mine the right way for the more uncommonly titled guests(like doctors or military officers). It's a sign of respect. For example, my husband's name is Matthew Kelly, but he goes by Matt. If you want to call him by his first AND last name, it's Matthew Kelly. I cannot tell you how many times we've received invites addressed to Mr. & Mrs. Matt Kelly. His momma didn't name him Matt Kelly.
(It's also poor etiquette to use "&" on formal invitations, but we'll let that one slide.)
I think this also applies to ANY time you are using someone's first and last name together, not just on a formal invitation, Take my brother, Wesley Hare. He started going by Wes in High School. But the family still calls him Wesley. My mom can't stand it when someone writes or says his name as Wes Hare.
Ugh.
That just sounds terrible.
Kinda like Less Hair. Not good.
It's Wes OR Wesley Hare.
No intermixing!
Wes and Matt are nicknames!
Do you think when The Rock and his wife get mail it's addressed to Mr. & Mrs. The Rock??
NO!! It's Mr. & Mrs. Dwayne Johnson.
Do you know why?
Because that's - his - name!
Wow! I think you're getting it.
Anytime you add on someone's last name, it automatically becomes formal. So use the real name. The only exception is if the nickname is very different from the real name and no one, not even their mama, calls them the real name. Not just a "chop off the end" nickname. But even for wedding invites or legal forms, stick with the full name.
Now that the weather has decided to warm up, we "got to" spend our whole Saturday at the land working. The temperature was very nice and the sun even went behind the clouds to cool us off a bit. The task we are working on now is filling all the cells of the cinder blocks with concrete. This just makes sure the wall is strong enough to withstand the compaction of the sand and/or gravel that fills our foundation. The greater the height of the wall, the more force gets applied to it from the fill. Thus, it needs to be very strong, especially on the back wall(more info on the what and why we are filling it in a previous post).
Because we are not made of money, and because it cost a lot of money to have a concrete truck come out and mix and pour concrete all in a matter of minutes(into said blocks), we are mixing ours by hand and pouring it by hand(this takes several, nonconsecutive days).
The system we worked out requires 3 workers. One to mix concrete constantly(Matt's dad, Mike), one to pour concrete constantly(Me and Matt's mom taking shifts), and one to work the concrete to get the air pockets out and run the wheel barrow back and forth getting refills(Matt because he's the only one who can walk around on the wall like it's nothing and also push the wheelbarrow full of concrete without spilling). Of course, you can do this with as few as 1 worker, but 3 works well.
The back wall is made of 12 inch cinder block(as apposed to 8 in standard). Those cells are twice as big as the cells on the side walls. Each one takes 1.5 batches of concrete to fill. That is a lot of mixing and a lot of scooping.
Here me on the wall. I couldn't get myself the stand. Every time I tried I would start to feel dizzy. It's not that high, but there is nothing soft to land on if I were to fall and nothing level to jump on if I had to jump. You can't tell from this photo but there is a tiny ditch next to the block and on the other side of the wall there is some low scaffolding and another ditch. I did not feel safe up there.
The back wall is 2.5 cells from completion. We would have stayed to finish, but Matt had to get home to cut the grass before dark because we were having family over for Easter.
There was a little lizard living in one of the cells. I was worried we would dump concrete on him, so I kept trying to "chase him" with my hand, further away from where we were working. Then he ran down into a cell. I sure hope he got out before the concrete came down on him.
If you've been reading my blog, I'm sure by now you are so sick of seeing a concrete wall. Let me tell you something. If YOU are sick of seeing nothing but a concrete wall, how do you think WE feel? I am so over this stage. The next construction update better be the fill and concrete slab. See you then.
