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Barnaby's Big Day : We're ready for spring!

Since Porch has been working so much lately, it leaves me with time and idle hands (a terrible combination, I know this).  I follow this amazing blog, Young House Love, about a cute little family who is doing amazing things with their home using a very DIY approach.  I think of all the little jobs I'd like to do around the house & realize we don't own it so I don't want to invest a ton of time or money into a project.

Cue Saturday morning, coffee in hand, gazing out of the patio doors wondering how warm it is out there... last weekend was brutally cold and windy.  The sun seems to be making an appearance.  I poke my head outside and am ever so pleased to discover that it's not cold.  It's quite nice.  My eyes are drawn to the eyesore that is our table and chairs set.  Oh Ikea, with your wonderful furniture... honestly, it's hit and miss over there but I love it.  We got this set when I was living on Milwaukee Ave and we were getting ready to move into our place on Madison.  The table folds down so it can be out of the way or it can open to accommodate more people.  We have four chairs for the set.  When we lived on Madison, we only had 2 chairs because our balcony was thisbig.  Now that we have our huge balcony on Adams, we went out last year and bought two more chairs (another thing I love about Ikea!) for the set. 

This is the part where I confess that we didn't seal it nor did we really "protect" the furniture from our winter weather.  Am kicking myself for that now as I peer out the window and see some pretty drab furniture.  We went to Home Depot a while back with Casey & Nathan and got some stain with the notion of fixing that set right up for spring!  (I also got some seeds so I could jumpstart my garden this year, more on that to come -- urban gardening is such a treat).


In need of some love!!!

It's effective darn it!  And fun to watch!

The stain is Behr Weatherproofing Wood Finish in a color known as Cedar Naturaltone.  I have no idea how this will look on the actual furniture, but given the choices in-store, it was our favorite.  So we snapped up some brushes and headed home.  And put the stain on the floor w/ the brushes by the door... perhaps we were hoping the stain fairy would come, I'm not sure.



Our darling Barnaby Jones is also ready for spring; he's been inside since things got frosty out there.  Barnaby is a palm who enjoys balmy temperatures as well as frequent watering (which I sometimes forget).  As you can guess, Porch named our plant after Barnaby Jones of Frisky Dingo.  I think it's fantastic.



Today feels kind of like a seize the carp kind of day!  Ryan had to go to the office and I am without transportation to avoid the mess of our house.  Yesterday I cleaned both bathrooms and the kitchen.  I clean when I'm upset, and wrecking one's car totally fits the bill.

So several people have been posting on my Facebook status "Looking out the patio door wondering how surprised Ryan would be if he came home and the chairs & table were successfully stained while he was at work. Also wondering what the odds are that I'll mess it up."  Now I kind of have to do this since you'll all be anxiously awaiting the "after" pictures.  They will likely include me, sitting on the newly stained chair (not today obviously) drinking a beer, wishing you were all here to join me! 

So here I am.  Ready to paint. But first?  I'm going to need the perfect painting outfit! 

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