Office Redo

Last year I knew I wanted shelves for the office as this had diddle squat on it for storing all my beloved books, so I went to IKEA and found good shelves. Even though I love my shelves, I have never been happy with all the pumpkin orange colored walls in my house. I wanted to redo this room, but with the shelves, the different walls and insets this was going to be a mega task.

I went in to Sherwin Williams--my fav paint store--- to look at samples when my friendly paint lady told me to hold off and buy my paint in a few weeks during the 40% off sale. Oh how I love her! She also is great with colors, so with this being said I am looking and discussing colors with her while I am in there. Darn it all if someone else walks in and she has to leave me to help them. While she is away I wander towards the pamphlets they display with their color choices for different rooms for the house. AND much to my surprise is a room done in pumpkin orange, coral and turquoise. Not the actual names because those are too difficult to remember, but I fell in love with the choices. They were completely outside my box, but if it meant less work, I was tempted to go outside my box!

So, I did. I did an accent wall. I consulted the sisters and the KS bff and am in love with my new and updated office! I did buy new desks for all three of the boys. They were from IKEA. Instead of driving there I discovered it was a mere $100 to have it all delivered to my door! AWESOME.

The boys and I did learn when it comes to IKEA I cuss like a SAILOR. IKEA is great furniture for the price, but when it comes to their directions, there is MUCH to be desired. It doesn't help matters when I am trying to put the desks together at 2:30 a.m. I was beyond tired.

Photo BOMBED!

I got up the next morning and was working on the desks when Zach walks into the room. He grunts and asks if I'm done yet, to which I reply, almost. And he just walked away shaking his head. He didn't want to be anywhere near me and IKEA furniture. I did get the desks done, but still had a cube shelf to put together. J-Bird wanted to make some money, so I told him I would pay him to help me put together this shelf. We are working on it around 11 at night. He looks at the clock, looks at me and says, "We need to hurry Mom."

"Why?" I ask.

"Because at midnight you start dropping the F-Bomb and cussing....."  Muwhahahaha.

One of our family quotes is "To Infinity & Beyond" Not too many people will get this and that is exactly the point!!!

J-Bird sees Finding Dory and says it is so-so

Well, I was asked to babysit a young boy this summer. His name is the same as my kid. They are good friends in school and enjoy each other's friendship, but I was afraid having the responsibility of another kid full time would not work out so good. So as the compromise I told the mom I would help out. I ended up getting another kid every Monday night-Tuesday night. We didn't want to get up early, so we just had him spend the night and the next whole day with us! It was great. It added variety to our lives and gave the Jedi Knights a break from each other.

As a thank you this family invited us to go see Finding Dory. After hearing rave reviews of it I was kinda disappointed. It was a good flick, but I just don't have kids who enjoy Disney films. I guess I'm an odd ball. I cried during it because I can't ever imagine losing a child, but I'm a softee. God gave me boys for a reason.....sometimes I just wish I had a girl.....

Book Review: Towers Falling

As I listened to the laughter and shouts of joy coming from my two children who were happily watching bombs bursting in mid-air, I realized how innocent and free these 9 & 11 year old boys were. I watched my nine year old place a whirly-bird on the ground, and take off running for his life as he knew the fuse was soon to blow. Once he was a safe distance away, he turned back to watch the final moments of the firework launch into the air to explode in a multitude of lights above his head. I didn't turn to watch the firework, but instead turned to watch his angelic, innocent face and see his eyes reflecting the glow of the night. He could feel my stare upon him as he turned to me and asked, "Mommy are you crying?" I shook my head, wiping away tears, and said this reminds me of the book I am reading of a time you weren't alive to know about. It was a time when bombs burst across our nation and made us realize our freedom comes at a price. He knew I was upset, not an angry kind of upset, but one of pure sadness. He sat down beside me as his brother took his turn blowing something up and asked me again, "Why are you crying about a book?"

Towers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes is a book of truth. It will make the adult readers pause and tell the young reader whose hands this book should belong, exactly the time and place they were the moment they learned that suicidal terrorists flew planes into four US areas: the Pentagon, a random field in Pennsylvania and into two of the largest buildings in New York City: The Twin Towers. Jewell Parker Rhodes won the Coretta Scott King Honor Award for her book Ninth Ward and I hope to see her recognized again for her ability to tell the story of 9/11 through the words of a homeless 10 year old girl, Deja.

Deja, and her family of five, has been evicted from their home and she has to learn to embrace who she is despite her ailing father, a working mother and her two younger siblings. 

On the first day of school she meets Ben, who is also new and has just moved to Brooklyn from Arizona, and Sabeen, a young Muslim student who has lived in NY all of her life. The three children are in the same homeroom with Miss Garcia as their teacher and the unlikely friendship forms: a white boy, a black girl and a Muslim girl. Within the first few days of school, Miss Garcia informs her students they will be working on a class unit learning about the absence of the towers which they could see from their classroom windows 15 years ago. Deja is unaware of this event, and through the friendship of Ben and Sabeen, she soon learns of the devastation and ruin. She has to learn how this effected our nation, but how this event is the reason her father can no longer hold a job or maintain sanity. 

Fifteen years has passed since this event occurred, but to many people, this tragedy will forever be a part of their life. Freedom is given to us in the United States, but present day children do not realize how freedom can be taken away in mere moments. Pass this book on to our youth. Teach them a moment of history through the perspective of one of their 5th grade peers....Deja learns more about herself and her family through our history of 9/11.

Working DIY Waterfall cheap? Wrong....

So, here is the before I ripped it all out waterfall. You can NOT just have pretty rocks sitting on cinder blocks. If you know anything about chemistry and the forces of nature, water must have a barrier, or it becomes a free loving entity. My Father told me to remove all rocks and give the water a flow area. I needed to lift my black liner and stuff it full of dirt or sand to ensure the water had a clear path down AND the path must be protected on both sides by the liner. 

WHAT?!?!

I HAD ALREADY FREAKIN' LANDSCAPED.

Okay, so I moved all the rocks. I removed all the landscaping. (This is what happens when you put a horse before the cart.) I had my children, and dog, help remove all the black foam because it was worthless. I took 3 bags of playground sand--thank goodness I already owned this--and stuffed that black pond liner full! 

I tucked rocks around the liner. The water had NO where to leak out. There was a 100% solid black liner creating a barrier of downward flow to get that water down to the bottom. It is smaller, but more compact in the flow. I then started placing my plants where I wanted them. 

I added a walking path to get to the electrical and the spill way. I learned you need a walking path as things do break down. You will also need to clean out the spillway and pump from time to time. Best to give yourself a place to do this without breaking your knee caps!

Here is the finished project. I added some Target solar powered lights. They were on clearance for $.99. I also found a Lily at Lowes for $9 and a solar powered Owl on sale at a closing K-Mart nearby. 

All in all, my cheap DIY Pond Pinterest WEEKEND project took 7 10 hour days and around $500. Way to go. The good news is I am still happily married. I did 95% of this while hubby was away on a business trip. HA! He may never leave town again....

DIY Waterfall & Pond Project for a Pinterest Mom Part 2?

Notice the bags of rocks--helpful hint: if you find bags of rocks, mulch or sand at Lowes and it is in a bag it is 50% off! Yep. The only way I buy the stuff is if it is on sale! Now, you have to be careful because half of the product may have disappeared, hence the half off, but I make sure to get bags that are 75% or more full and what a discount! CHEAP IS ME!





Here is the bottom of the pond. I threw in some pond rocks. Okay, so I have started the rock of the waterfall at this point. It is going good, but you know that black foam crap I talked about in the last post? Yeah, that stuff is horrible. I mean horrible. You are supposed to blow it into the cracks and it will create a water tight seal. LIAR. L.I.A.R. All it does is blow up and look like crap. Also, you can't create a solid, water tight seal with it. It breaks down and breaks off super easy. One good hail storm or puppy bite and you are done. I read (multiple times) use a little as it grows. Okay, so I put in a little squirt and it grows. It doesn't grow a lot, so I put in a squirt more. I am sealing this rocks in and it is going to be the best pond ever. I'm going to be the next Family Handy WO-man! Famous last words...or thoughts. I turn around to yell at the dog and I swear this black stuff is taking over the world. It is coming out of rocks where I didn't even put the stuff. And OH YEAH, the label says, wear gloves. I don't need NO STINKING gloves. Yep, that stuff is now permanently on my hands. I have black hands. Nasty stuff.

 I sealed the top of the spill way. I tried to stick little rocks on top of the black nasty gunk so it will be covered up. You can see it peeking around the rocks; it is the black stuff. Looking good right. Okay, I have electricity. I have the pump tubing going to the spill way. I have placed my landscaping around. It is time to turn the bad boy on! O.M.GOODNESS. Water starts flowing down and I'm grinning like a fool. It is working!!!!

Then I realize there is water flowing, no pouring, down both sides, of the mountain. Water is a solid force and it is winning. It is pouring through every black place I poured that black crap. I whip out that bottle and start squirting more in to the rocks. I even unplug the water fall, run to Home Depot and buy more of the black crap. I am sealing up the planet with this stuff.

No go Joe. It doesn't work. I call my Dad and brother: the pond experts. I am crying. No, not really, but anger and wanting to hit someone is about my emotional level at this point.

DID I MENTION THE COST OF THE ROCKS? Yep, three mini van trips to EarthFirst, the cheapest most amazing rock place in Southern Indiana, to the cost of $86 the first time, $148 the 2nd time and $25 the last time. WOW. Not to mention the bag of large rocks I bought at Home Depot for $11.86. They look good, though! I also went to Old Pottery and bought two solar powered rocks for $5/piece. The bags of half price rocks cost me around $40 at Lowes.

This Pinterest CHEAP DIY POND/WATERFALL project may just be cause for a divorce.....

I tore the whole DARN thing apart. It was 9:30 at night and I needed a good old fashioned cocktail to get over the anger, the hurt from hauling all the darn rocks and a good night's sleep. I did get it working....more tomorrow....

DIY Waterfall Pond Project by a Pinterest MOM!

 So, I'm making progress on my pond project. I have spent hours reading through Pinterest and I finally realized I needed to turn to YouTube to watch videos. Family Handyman had some good stuff to offer me as well. I also found good advice on Passions for Ponds ! Glad there are resources out there, but as I found when I was doing this, it is more about trial/error and what resources you have--or what resources you are willing to spend your money on. I am CHEAP, squeaky kind of cheap. So, I found most sites were awesome if you have endless money, which I do not.

One of my ponds had a waterfall--I inherited this with my last house. It was a pile of dirt with a pond liner with rocks around it. It leaked and was a mess. I removed it within a month of moving into the house. I knew I needed to find a good way to build a waterfall. I found a picture similar to mine (on the left) on Pinterest, but alas, when I clicked on it I discovered it was only an image. What good is this? HA!

I inherited over 30 cinder blocks with my house on the Knobs. I have used them for my raised garden and still had a lot left. I made a base of six blocks, then stacked three on top of the back to give me stair steps. I even used a level! I put it towards the back because my electrical is going to be dropped at the back of the deck by the drain spout. I also knew I wanted a good drop between the last step and my pond. I wanted to hear the cascade of water. Like I said, a lot of personal preference goes into a pond.

The new Golden Retriever puppy, Kendyl, is a true helper. I have coined her Helper Harry. She is not helpful at all, but is always in my way!

Once the steps were level, I filled them in with dirt and placed carpet scraps on the top. You can buy a high-end underlayment, but like I said when I started writing, I'm cheap. I bought a 8" Spillway as I knew I didn't want a very large waterfall. Actually I wanted a HUGE waterfall, but price changed my mind pretty quick on this decision.

I had been shopping and price checking on items needed to make the pond run. I went to two local pond places, Lowes, Home Depot, Harbor Freight and Amazon for my prices. I have linked them to the cheapest places when I was looking/shopping. I really wanted to support my local places, but I just couldn't justify the almost double prices.

Items for my "SIMPLE DIY WATERFALL"
*Spillway for Waterfall
*Pump to get a good flow
*Pond Liner for waterfall
*Pond liner for pond --garage sale find $10
*tubing to make everything work
*Skimmer for lower maintenance
*Extension cord (already owned)
*Cinder blocks (already owned)
*Dirt used from the hole! (Free! If you don't count the back-breaking work....)

This roughly totaled $190! This is before I even add in the rocks and landscaping....my simple Pinterest project which said I could do it in a weekend and under $200. Pinterest is a LIAR. :)

Now I could have spent less money on a pump from Harbor Freight, but to get the gallons per hour (GPH) I wanted to have a good, fast and LOUD water flow, I had to have a pump which would do 1000 GPH. This made my pump a bit more. Also, I want a lower maintenance pond, so in doing this you need to add a submersible skimmer. This adds on to your price as well, but after 10 years of doing "simple DIY" ponds this is necessary for my peace of mind.

Okay, so now that I have my waterfall liner in place, I cut off the access. I started hauling dirt to build up around it. I needed to bury my tubing from the pump up to the waterfall, but I couldn't do that until I knew the waterfall was working and could cut off the excess of tubing. You get a LOT of tubing for $24.00. So, it is time for the placement of the rocks. Once you get the rocks in place you can use this foam sealant as ALL the articles I read stated you could. I bought a can of this from Amazon. (THIS WAS A FREAKIN' NIGHTMARE. I will add more details about this in the next post. You don't need this black poopy mess of foam......