Weekend Update #18

This Weekend We:
-(this one is just I) went to another wonderful wedding shower!
-put away more generous presents :)
-added 2 out of 3 railing sections!
-went to a really fun huge yearly flea market in our town & scored majorly
-finished spraypainting the railings
-spraypainted the mailbox
-spraypainted the metal bands on my free planter
-made some art that will be its own post sometime soon
-messed around with trying to fix the tractor (there is no more frustrating activity in the world, especially when you have a half mowed yard)
-weedwacked around the property
-put together the new grill
-removed the last few fence posts from the side we took down
-filled all the post holes with dirt
-cleaned up, organized, & rearranged because we realized the next time we are at the house it'll be (95% of our stuff) Move-In Day!

I didn't help with this railing process much because I was in a divide-and-conquer mood since the time crunch is getting to me.  So a special thanks to my Mom & Dad for going solo on this project.

Railing assembly:

Railing Installation:

Both front sections are done!  Ah!!!!  (The long side on the left will be a project for another day.)

The railings are set back on the columns so that there is more room on the porch.  It was very hard not to center it on the column due to my Symmetry Issues, but I gave in because I knew we'd appreciate those extra inches.  Also please note that no screws are visible in the railing.  That is because my Dad is awesome and meticulous and goes the extra mile for durability and longevity.

This side of the porch won't have a railing for now because it is small and awkward and we aren't sure what our long term plans will be.  One day when we redo those metal railings (they are rusty and so rickety that even my 3 year old nephew asked me why my railings were wiggly) I think we will do the railing on those little sides and have them connect to the stair railings.  For now our solution to stopping people from falling off will be a large (r than currently pictured) planter. Hopefully before the wedding we will build this simple nice looking DIY large planter box that Corey found, but there's a lot of hopefully before the wedding.... going around so we'll see.  We will however patch the hole in the siding using whatever method we come up for on the left side.

Once the stone is on the column this gap will get even smaller:

Now while the railings were going up I was up to a number of smaller projects.  I am on an oil-rubbed bronze spraypaint rampage and will not be stopped. May I present the mailbox before (except I'd already started spraying, oops):

And after:

At some point I'd like to build a more substantial mailbox, but this will do for now.


The free planter before:

And after I sprayed the metal bands:

And I finished spraying the metal railings that I started last weekend and I got a closer before and after:

So those will be replaced at some point, but for now they look much nicer for a few dollars of spraypaint.

My DIY art project also involved spraypaint, but that'll be its own crafty post at some point.

And here is our best score from the giant flea market:

A cast-iron waffle maker from 1910!  and here's the best part:

It rotates!  And you can use it on the stove or on a campfire. I'm in love.