DIY Paver Patio

Our project this year was to create a new flowerbed, a paver patio, a retaining wall and a fire pit.  Man was it alot of work!!  We started out by visiting our local nursery to find out what kind of stone we wanted.  My husband had a design in mind and we just need to get our heads around what we needed in terms of material and labor.

We ended up getting a kit for a paver circle and a fire pit and then measured how much more square feet of pavers would need.  We watched alot of you tube and asked alot of questions to the professionals.

We decided to use a couple different kinds of paver.  We used Belgard pavers in a couple of different variations....Cambridge Cobble, Holland Stone and the Stonegate retaining wall stones. We were able to get our pavers from Amcor, but if you are not a contractor, you must go to your local distributor to get them.

We took out the grass, compacted the dirt...leveled it and compacted it some more.  We brought in about 12 ton of 3/4 in road base and leveled that...compacted it again, added some sand and then finally laid the pavers and the retaining wall stone.  Once that was done we back filled the space behind the retaining wall, compacted the patio again, cleaned off all of the existing debris...added some polymeric sand.  Make sure you clean off the excess sand and then wet it down.  We let it dry for 24 hrs.  Once that was done we added our fire pit  and then we added a sealant to make the stone look wet and shiny rather than all dried out.  We added weed fabric and plants in the flower beds and put down bark and had curbing put in to tie it all together.

It took us about us about 6 weeks to finish it all!  There were a few missteps and things we didn't expect like a honey bees swarming on a tree we had to pass under while bring all of the road base and sand down, adding retaining wall pieces to help keep the patio level, and even flipping over the sod cutter machine!  But...in the end, it was definitely worth the time it took to build!

Watch the video to see the transformation!!

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Heather

DIY Garage Floor Sealer

So here is another DIY project for you!  Last winter we noticed a leak in the ceiling of our bonus family space in the basement.  It is underneath our suspended garage.  After some investigation we noticed a LARGE crack in the cement.  The water from melting snow on the tires of our vehicles was leaking down into the crack and into the ceiling of our bonus room!!  NOOOOOOO!!!  So we knew we were going to have to fix that this year!  Well...spring and summer came & went.  The kids keep us running and we could never find the time to get it fixed.  So here it was the end of September and we finally started to research and carry out our DIY!  We decided to go with a Rustoleum epoxy product.

Before we could finish our floor we had some prep work to get done!  First we had to either pressure wash, acid wash or grind the existing sealant off.  Since we had a leak already we decided to go the grinding route.  Mostly you want to rough up the concrete enough that the epoxy will stick to it.  We rented a grinder from Home Depot and went to work.  It took us about 12 hours to complete our 3 car garage.  It was a longer process than we had hoped, but we finally accomplished our task.

And it does get DUSTY while you are using the grinder so be sure to use a mask.  There is a place to plug in a shop vac to the grinder and I would definitely do that!!

We filled the cracks with Sika Crack Fix.  It took a couple of tubes to get this sealed.   It works best if you clean out all of the loose cement from the crack and then vacuum up the dust BEFORE you apply the crack fix.  After that, you will need to let it dry for 24 hours.

Once that is dry you will need to mop the entire surface you are going to apply the epoxy to and wait for it to dry.  Next, tape off the edges and then you are ready to start applying the epoxy.  You are going to want to start on all of the outer edges first with a paint brush and then roll the rest with a roller.  We went over each section twice to be sure we got it covered well. 

Once you are satisfied with the coverage of the section you are working on then throw the paint chips down.  This makes the finish stronger and holds together the epoxy better!  We chose a blue, gray, black & white mix.  My husband rolled the epoxy on while I scattered the paint chips.  This part took us about 2 hours to complete.   This is what it looks like close up....

 

It takes 24-48 hours to dry.  You cannot park a vehicle on it for that long.  And the recommended temperature is no lower than 55 degrees.  It got a little cooler than that on the first night we did it so we let it dry for at least 48 hours.  They also recommend no direct sunlight to be on the epoxy while it dries so we closed our garage door!  Overall we are happy with the way it turned out.  Here's hoping it will bring us many years of dry ceilings!!  It was a weekend project, but we are doing ours in sections due to the amount of stuff we have in our garage.  So we did the 2 car side first and we are now tackling the 1 car side.


This is for sure a project you can do yourself and save yourself thousands of dollars, but be prepared to spend some time getting it done!  Happy sealing!!










DIY Fall Wreath

This DIY fall wreath is so simple!  I have used store bought wreaths in the past, but I wanted something new and to change up my décor a bit, so I decided to MAKE a new one!  I knew I wanted something with more earth tones and simplistic...this so super easy and totally doable!


You will need:

• 1 grapevine wreath
• some flower sprigs and/or greenery (its really up to you on how full you want it)
• floral wire cutters
• floral wire (optional)
• 1 burlap bow (or ribbon if you want to tie your own bow)

Everything to make my wreath came from Michaels!  I have some coupons and was able to get 60% off of most of the items. 


Take your grapevine and put it on a flat surface.  Next, poke your sprigs and greenery through the grapevine in the places you want them, bending back the wires to keep the sprigs in place.  You may want to thin out the sprigs, if you do, use your wire cutters to break them apart....if you use other scissors, the chances of you breaking them is VERY high!  I've gone through a couple pairs of them because I was in a hurry and just tried to use them.  If you don't have any, you can bend the wire in a circular motion until you can get it to break off, but that isn't an exact science and they sometimes break in places you didn't intend.  Wire cutters are the way to go!


 Once you have them in place, flip the wreath over and either bend the wires back around the grapevine and poke them back down into the wreath.  Or you can use floral wire to tie them in, but I like to poke them back into the wreath..its easier!


After you have your floral pieces secure, turn your wreath back over and attach the burlap bow.  You can attach it with the floral wire and tuck the ends back into the wreath.  And you're DONE!!


See how easy that was?  Anyone can do it!  It took me about 20 minutes from start to finish!  This type of wreath can work for any occasion.  It's simple and looks great!  So what do you think?  Do you think you could make a wreath like this??  Of course you can!


Happy Wreathing!!

We're finishing our Basement!

The process of buying a house is LONG and frustrating.  We originally put an offer on another house, but when that deal fell through because the square footage was smaller than was originally disclosed, we were left looking for another home.  Our wedding was only 3 months away and we were getting a little stressed about having a neutral spot for everyone to start our new journey together.  We kept looking...and looking...and looking it seemed.  When we found this house, I was drawn to it.  I knew it only had 4 bedrooms which would mean we would have to either share or finish the basement.  I remember looking at it for the first time and something about it just felt like home.  The previous owners had put some work into the main and upper levels, they had reinforced the cement floor in the garage that is over the bonus room, and they had put in a deck and did some landscaping out front.  It seemed so inviting to me.  We looked at it a few times and had some inspections done on it.  I knew this was the house for us...and fortunately so did Rex!  When we put the offer in it already felt like it was ours.  The kids all liked it and were excited about what it could be for us all too!


Our basement was never, ever finished since the time it was built in 1979.  Having 4 kids and only having 4 bedrooms upstairs meant that someone had to share...2 somebodies in fact!  Thank you to Lucy and Cecelia for taking one for our team! 


So yep...we are finishing our basement! .....AND  it's almost done now!!  We are so close after a year of working on it, its almost finished!  We decided to use a contractor and there have been good and bad with that.  Some things have been smooth and some have been extremely frustrating...but that's all part of remodeling right!  If there is ever a next time for this, Rex and I would just use subcontractors to do specific jobs!  We have learned a lot through this process, which is the goal right!!


I know it was challenging to have such close quarters for awhile, but now...everyone gets their own room!  And we get an extra bathroom and a bonus room!!  Not to mention the washer and dryer moved downstairs and we have a mud room for our shoes and things!  Rex was able to put in our laminate floors on his own and now we are just having the last part of the carpet laid.  Soon the kids can all have their own spaces! 


Its been a long time coming, but it was so worth the wait!  I'm excited to have our house complete!


Here's a short video of some of the pictures I took during the process!

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Heather

Dance Tokens

Competitive dance season is in full swing around here!  For each competition 2 dancers are teamed up to bring "good luck" tokens to share with all of the girls on their teams.  This year Kaylie & I thought it would be fun to make hangers to share.  We designed them to have their studio colors, their names and a little bit of bling!!


These were really easy to make!  I just bought a box of wooden hangers from Target, some spray paint, ribbons, vinyl letters and rhinestones.  I taped off the handles with some blue painters tape and sprayed them all blue.  I let them dry for an hour and then put random sprays of black to lightly cover the blue.  I let that dry for an hour.  Then we put on the lettering for the names and finished with a nice coat of clear lacquer.  Next we added the rhinestones and tied bows around the tops.  I think they turned out great!! They are soo easy!  You can do it too!!!! 


Here's a close up view!

Good Luck Small Elite!!!!