Playing in the dirt with Driftwood/ and Silver Goblets

Recently my husband and I took a little trip to the flea market in Nashville.  There was a vendor that was selling pieces of driftwood at ridiculous prices.  I even found some on sale at Etsy.  This piece was selling for $45.00.

I even found links to them on Pinterest.

One day on one of our little excursions on the lake, we saw a piece of driftwood floating near us.  I put on my life jacket and hung from the side of the boat while my husband held my legs so I wouldn't fall in.  

It was the perfect piece, already hollowed out in the middle too. 

Add a little potting soil.

A few plants from Home Depot.

A little pea gravel that I already had on our pathways. 

On that same trip to Nashville, we went into this cute little gift shop that had a display using unique objects for planters.  

That silver goblet planter was listed at $78.00!  I am not kidding!

I remembered that I had 6 of these goblets still boxed in storage from our move.  I got one of them  and polished it and now I have a silver goblet planter that did not cost me $78.00. 

Making Curb Appeal

We have been working in the yard of our fixer upper for the last 2 months.  It needed a lot of attention.We have spent countless hours in the hot sun digging, planting and spreading mulch and I have to say that we are very pleased with the outcome.  The first thing we needed to do was cut down some trees. There was a huge Mulberry tree next to the driveway that made a mess on the driveway and our cars! 

It really opened up the yard.  We put down  4 pallets of bermuda sod to fill in the patches where the trees were cut. 

Then my husband installed a pump so we can water this huge yard from the lake.

Can you see the white pvc pipe on the right side of the picture? I heard he encountered a snake while working on it too. 

We have planted flowers.

Hostas and lots of mulch!

Pea gravel in the pathways.

My husband then added lights down the driveway.  He made the posts to match the columns on the front of the house. 

The previous owners used the basement patio as storage.  

This is how the columns were originally.

My husband framed them.

Added insulation to the ceiling.

We stained pine boards to add to the ceiling.

Added a couple of ceiling fans.

He added a counter. 

I cleaned, stained and sealed all of the concrete.

We have even managed to entertain a little. That little porch area is very useful. 

I put a supply of suntan lotion by the door.  I am also thinking of painting the door a different  accent color. 

The table top was made by my husband a couple of years ago.  We used it at our previous house to cover the fire pit during the summer months.  You can read about that here:
Summer Firepit

Ya'll we are tired. We have been working on this house since last October.  There are a couple of other projects we have started but it may be fall weather before they are finished.