Fire place in an existing retaining wall

Well, after  sitting and starring at my retaining wall for two years and thinking a fireplace would like super nice....I decided to get to work. It was time! I put the Jedi Knights to work and while my Prince Charming couldn't help, he was at least able to cheer us all on and take a picture!

I truly think Lava rock is from the devil. I had to remove the Spirea bush, two evergreen bushes and a ton of lava rock before I was even able to get to the dirt. I decided to remove the first layer of retaining wall; I have to dig about 8" of dirt out. I have made the area 8" deep, six feet across and four feet back. ISH. I believe this is a new term of measurement. "ISH" I have researched cement rocks and what to use. I am going to use cheap ol' cinder blocks for the 3 walls of my structure. I'm going to create a base of Fire Proof Rocks from Lowes as the base. I will take more pictures tomorrow. This weekends goal was to get the hole dug. It is now done. Tomorrow we go rock/boulder shopping. The boys are less than thrilled, but too bad. They will enjoy the S'mores once it is done.

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......

All you can eat Salad Bar!

I posted several weeks ago about my amazing raised garden at the end of my property. I had mentioned my neighbor told me I was making a deer garden. I had only ever heard about BEER gardens, but this weekend I got to see first hand what a DEER GARDEN looks like. 

EVERY ONE OF MY APPLES IS GONE. Really? Okay, the twins are super cute, but dang it! So, thanks to my subscription to Country Gardens my Mom gave me I was able to dig into my last issue and find an article about how to RID YOURSELF OF DEER. 

Plants DEER won't eat!

Mama deer heard me open my back door.
Sure didn't stop the twin from eating my tree!

Front Garden is done.

Before

After

Well, I'm pretty stoked about the front garden. I ordered a TON of stuff from Brecks Nursery. It is all buried in the above picture. I dug out most of the lava rock and buried lots of perennials and then I covered it all again with rock. I have to keep water on it because we went from 60s to upper 80s in a week. Whoever stated Kansas is the only place with crazy weather lied. This place changes from day to day too! 

I have learned with years it is much better to do a project correctly the first time than to cuss and redo it. Inevitably, you never come back and fix the half-assed way you did the project the first time, but you spend a LOT of time cussing about how you should have done it AND cussing about how it needs to be redone. Thanks to living with a perfectionist and working for three months with my Dad, I have learned the importance of doing it correctly the first time.

I actually went and bought paver sand. (Yeah, these projects of mine---when done correctly and not half-assed--get expensive and fast!) I bought pavers, more perennials, a pump for the fountain, LED lights for the fountain and LOTS of Diet Dew to keep me hydrated. 

Work, work and more work

I asked the person who measures for a living, oh my Prince Charming, how he thought I should try and level the land for the awesome new bench purchased at Kirklands. (Man, I love that store!) He was patient and kind with me. I could see the fear behind his eyes as he just knew the pavers would be uneven and we would trip on them due to my lack of perfection. (Pshhh, whatever....) I pulled back all lava rock, all weed barrier and tilled the ground. I then leveled it with my hoe, pounded it down with a makeshift 2x4 device, filled it in with paver sand, leveled it again with a long 2x4, got out a level, and FINALLY started laying down the pavers. OMG. It was also 84 degrees out side. Sheesh.

I'm so tickled about how it turned out. Unfortunately, there is TONS underneath the rocks to sprout soon. I even put ground cover in between all pavers. The fountain was fixed with cement glue and is working like a charm. It is nice to sit on my bench with my Dew and listen to the water trickling with the lights glowing! It is just plain beautiful. AND it is completely level. No stones are uneven. Check me out! Three years from now it will be maintenance free and beautiful. I gotta keep watering for now as it is hot for the next few days.

Kentucky Derby Day!

Well, I didn't make a hat and I didn't buy fancy tickets, but I am going to a party today! It is big time in this town. The boys and I are going down to the end of the cul-de-sac for an HOA party. It will be nice to meet my neighbors. (I think....) It is a Mexican themed food party, so Portland Sister gave me her fruit salsa recipe, so I will make that.

First thing this morning I got up to work on my Terra Cotta Pot fountain. The pump arrived yesterday and I put it in, siliconed it up and to NO AVAIL. I think I need to Dremel my spouts a bit more. I did finish up the Light House Terra Cotta pot. It looks pretty good!

I liked how when the camera actually took the photo (I have the world's worst smart phone) Gabby was plopping her big daireee-airee down next to it. She now groans every time she lays down. It is like all the air just goes right out of here. Poor little ol' lady. She is still doing okay though. She will be 12 this October! WOW.

Here is the Terra Cotta Pot Fountain in progress. Now to just figure it all out. I guess that is why most of the population doesn't do DIY or just says SCREW IT and buys the stuff.

And last, but not least, is the boys enjoying their free time. Heaven forbid they come outside and help me. I can't say as I blame them when I am cussing at terra cotta pots! They do still love MC. More than anything they watch YouTube videos on how to better themselves at MC or Five Nights at Freddys. This is our latest phase.

Obe Wan & J-Bird chillin' in front of their screens! 

Knocking off the Pinterest Project To-Do List!

I have discovered if something doesn't have a home, than it needs to find one or go to the Goodwill. Due to my repurposing mindset lately I am having a hard time letting anything go. I can always find something to do with it, right? HA. I'm also finding Goodwill is a place to return EVEN if you did give something away to them chances are you can find it again at the Goodwill! (Garage sale season is right around the corner too!)

I wanted to create two lamps for J-Birds room and I wanted to figure out something for the master bath to hang my towels on. As of today I am merely hanging the towel over the shower door. SO not cool.

So, in working on my to-do list I have finished some things up and want to share!

Goodwill Lamp ($2.00) and a Darth Vader/Anakin doll of Josh's inspired this:

 I was impressed and so was J-Bird! He lit up like a Christmas tree in April. It was cool to see his reaction. As I was drawing on the face he told me I need Dad's help. I had to cave in to the request as Prince Charming has a talent for drawing and I do not. Luckily, Prince Charming was home and was able to sketch Darth for me. I painted it on and it was a great team effort!


The other project was towel racks. I bought some wood things at the Good will for a total of $4.00. I had a Hobby Lobby shelf that was going in the trash, so I stole the hooks and the hangers off of it. With a little help from some vinyl used on my Silhouette Cameo, I made these little gems for my master bath. I hung the "hers" lower by accident, but it works as I am a foot shorter than Prince Charming.

My last item on the Pinterest list was a Terra Cotta Pot light house and fountain. The fountain is coming along and the Lighthouse was not accurate enough for Prince Charming, so I had to repaint the top and will have pictures by Saturday. I should also have my Terra Cotta Pot Fountain complete as I am waiting for Amazon to ship me my fountain pump. Amazon is SO much cheaper than the rest of the world! I hate to always support the "BIG BOX" company, but when it comes straight to your door and is 1/4 of the cost, why wouldn't I?

So, that is me today. How are you?

Pinterest Project List is longer than the days....

So, I have around 3-5 Pinterest projects in the works. Prince Charming got home Friday around 5 p.m. and was not leaving again until Sunday 5 a.m. He kinda made a comment about how many projects I had started around the house....WHAT?!?! Unfinished projects? It kinda runs in my family. Nana cuts out patterns to sew, and they are still in a pile. Papa Jeff starts a million things and often times never finishes them. I come by it naturally....

So, after admitting (ONLY TO MYSELF) he was kinda right. I decided to hunker down and get some things finished. On the list:

• Terra Cotta Fountain
• Terra Cotta Light House
• Fountain for front garden--level the paver with sand
• Table for Scrapbooking Room
• Make towel hooks for master bathroom
• Pea Gravel for garden
• Plant seeds in raised garden/transfer kitchen garden to real garden
• Make shelves for garage
• Make shelves for basement
• Create R2D2 lamp & Darth Vader lamp
• Finish the Star Wars Room makeover
• Put new IN license plate on car---oh what a sad day!

So, to get things started I knew I had some projects that required paint. You must do this first so it can dry while you are doing other things. I requested the help of the Jedi Knights, only to be denied by Obe Wan. Go Figure! J-Bird was ALL over it. As we are painting he even proclaimed, "I'm just like Vincent Van Gogh, but I have both ears." WHAT?!?! I exclaimed. Where did you learn that? He states matter-of-factly, at school mom. Our Art teacher is WAY better than Rose Hill. (The RH teacher is now retired and this is a blessing for all his students who learned nothing....)

What we did while he was home:

• Learned how to use a Dremel tool to create my Terra Cotta pot
• Forget the plant and 3 saucers in the cart at Home Depot cause I was too busy unloading the pavers and sand -- have to go back to Home Depot and admit I forgot my stuff in the cart--this was DURING our date night and he did make a few snide comments about my memory
• Go on a Date to Red Yeti Brewery 
• Build shelves for the garage
• Finish Scrapbook table that was commandeered for the garage! 
  

After Christmas Jackpot!

Since I was in a rental house with NOTHING to do but clean and Pinterest AND it was mere days after Christmas, I decided to best use my time by crafting. My Portland Sister had made an amazing bulb wreath for her mantel and I was very green with envy--and maybe because it was Christmas time and I AM part Elf, but I digress, I knew I didn't have the money to spend on full priced ornaments, only a DINK from Portland can do that, so I patiently waited and went CRAZY on after Christmas sales. I believe I went a little too crazy. I ended up making 6, yes S-I-X, bulb wreaths. I will keep one and try to sale the others at Windy Knoll Tree Farm this next Christmas season!

I kept making these bad boys! I even went and bought more and more bulbs. Ryan started to think I had a problem!