Warm Toes and Somewhere for the Flushes to Go

The forms set for several days and were removed, leaving us with bea-u-ti-ful concrete walls!  The plumbers laid some pipe (ha ha) and then we were ready for some insulation in the floor. 

I am amazed that they know where to put things! 

Pretty sure this is the floor drain in what will become our mechanical room.

And the ever-important sump pump.  

The two lines that jut off to the right run over to the bathroom.

The basement floor was insulated with foam then the water lines were laid for the in-floor radiant heat. 

By this point, we'd already realized this house-building process would include a lot of changes, edits, adjustments...call them what you will...they would be plentiful.  :)
Although we'd mentioned our long-term plan to finish additional square footage in the basement, they hadn't run the tubing in the future space (the dirt section at the bottom of the picture below).  

We also learned that any suck edit, change, adjustment causes delays in the schedule.  So, instead of pouring the following day, the tubing guys had to return and add more orange stuff.  

The following Monday, a huge Mack truck arrived with a huge pump and dumped a huge amount of concrete.  Huge.    

After the floor was finished and smoothed, they poured the stoop and the garage floors. 

Pouring the stoop.

If I were to do it over, I would've left the stoop hollow and utilized the space for more storage.  It would've cost us another door and we probably don't need more space...but being as I'm so obsessed with space utilization, it'll forever bug me that we 'wasted' this space. 

I'll get over it.  I hope.  ;)

Let the Pouring Begin.

I enjoy learning about how things work and how things fit together. And I've been learning a lot! After Bob finished the excavation, he dug around the perimeter of the walk-out basement.  In the photo below, they've set some forms in preparation for the concrete footers.  Footers provide a foundation for the walls. 

The footers have been poured and they've delivered stacks of forms for the walls.

The sections that are poured within the perimeter will be a foundation for interior walls.

The forms are all set up for the exterior walls. Including the radius wall that I am in love with.

And filled with concrete. This wall, next to my handsome hubby and beautiful daughter, had to be removed and replaced. Ack!

Next up...plumbing and radiant heating tubes in the basement floor!

Day One. The Dig.

The beginning. It was a Thursday. A dream, nine years in the making, was beginning.  

This is Bob. It is his job to excavate home sites. He does this every day. No big whoop, to him.  But to us, this was his most important day of work. Because it is ours!

After school, Maeve and I went to check out the progress. We popped a squat on the neighbor's lawn and watched. Here's her reaction to the hole.

Lots of progress since morning! Bob was able to get half of the basement dug before he ran out of daylight.  

By the end of the following day, Bob was almost done! In this photo, below, he is packing the dirt by going back and forth, over and over and over. I brought Bob his first-ever cup of Starbucks coffee! I don't know about you, but to me, Starbucks is the ultimate way to say, Thank You!  ;)

In my next post...pouring the footers and setting the forms for the basement walls. 

We're Building a House!

I've put the Etsy shop on vacation and have begun to pack up the house to get it ready to sell...we've begun the house. I'm planning to document it here and hope you'll weigh in with your thoughts along the way!

Let me introduce you to our lot. We purchased it on September 19, 2010. It's about two miles from our current home. We love her. She's two parcels. A building lot of about .40 acres and an outlot of about 1.53 acres for a total of just under two acres. Love.

This pic was taken the month we purchased, September 2010.

In the Fall.  A house has since been built on the other side of the trees to the left.

Winter.

 Isn't she pretty?  This has been our dream for more than a decade.

"We're really doin' it, aren't we, buddy!"

Make a Ruffly Table Skirt for under $10

How to make your own ruffly table skirt for under $10!  I've had several inquiries from this post asking how I made this table skirt, so here's a quick tutorial!

I made this to use on a table for my daughter's rainbow birthday party, hence the height of the ruffles.  At the last minute, we changed plans and set this up here (covering a living room cabinet) to house the favor bags.  It worked out.


And as a bonus, because this is made completely of plastic, it's weather-ready for outdoor events and easily wiped down (or hosed down in the back yard!).  You could even hang it up in the shower for it's original purpose after the party was over...hmmm...why not? 


On to the tutorial.  


Your supply list:

1. 54"x102" plastic table covers in your color scheme ($.97 at Walmart) for the ruffles
2. One white vinyl shower curtain (mine was 70"x72" - bought at Walmart for $2.38) or you can use a flat bed sheet, an existing table cloth, or a curtain panel.  My first thought was to use a white plastic table cover, but I'm afraid it's too thin and will tear and bunch up when sewing on the ruffles.
3. Sewing machine + thread
4. Scissors + ruler

First, make a plan.

  

Width of ruffled section

My supply list calls for a shower curtain that is only 70" wide.  If your table is wider, you'll need to adjust by sewing two curtains together to achieve your desired length. 

Height of ruffled section

If you're covering a standard height table, plan to make the ruffly part about 28" to 30" to just hit the floor.  If you're covering a counter height table, plan for about 36".  Best bet?  Measure your table.  

Take your table measurement and divide that by the number of ruffly layers you desire.  So for me, I took 30" (table height) divided by 6 (colored ruffle sections) to get 5".  

Now, add a couple inches for overlap and error (5" + 2" = 7") and you have your measurement to cut your strips.

Measure and mark your shower curtain where you intend to sew (every 5" in my example) from the bottom, up.  I didn't do this step and you can see my ruffles start heading uphill on the right.  Don't do as I did...  :)    

Cutting the strips

I cut my strips on the long edge of the plastic table covers, so they were 7" x 102".  Cut three strips for each ruffle. So, for my 6 ruffles, I cut 18 strips.  Each ruffle will require about 2.5 strips to cover the 70" width of the shower curtain.  


Making the strips ruffly

Enter sewing machine.  Set your stitch length to the longest possible.  Adjust tension to achieve the ruffle you like.  Run each strip through your machine with about a half inch seam allowance.  I noticed each strip ruffled up a bit differently, but don't be alarmed, you won't notice once it's all assembled.

Assembling the skirt  


Start from the bottom and work your way up.  So for me, that was the purple ruffle. It is not difficult to sew it up, rather it is a bit unwieldy.  Make sure you have plenty of room around and behind your machine.  You'll need it.  As you add more ruffles, you'll have to roll up the excess to help guide it through your machine.  Take your time and adjust as you go along.   

  
Then hang it up and admire your work.  You can really see my uphill to the right in this pic.  Take the extra 5 minutes and mark some lines on your shower curtain to avoid this rookie mistake.  ;)

A cheap, but very high-impact, party decoration for less than $10.  And I had plenty of strips left over to make a coordinating poof to decorate the front door!


Let me know if you have any questions!



linking here.

Rainbow Party Favor Bags and Bracelets

These are so simple, they don't need a tutorial, but I wanted to share some details with you so you can make your own Rainbow Party!

Simple favor bags.  

This could be done with any color scheme, but I thought it looked like a rainbow coming out of the bag so it was perfect like this!  

Get these spools of ribbon at your local craft store for cheap!  These were from Michael's and were 3/$1.00 on sale.  I think they are normally only $.50 each.  So, my 6 colors were $2.  Can't beat that.  I already had these little handled bags, but any bag would work.  Try brown or white lunch sacks!


Use a couple inches of scotch tape, line your ribbons on the tape in the order you want, then just tape it to the inside edge of the bag.  Easy. 

Rainbow Personalized Bracelet Favors.
The bracelets were simple, too.  I purchased letter beads and multi-colored beads at our local Hobby Lobby during a 50% off sale. I already had the 'Stretch Magic bead and jewelry cord' and a needle with a large enough hole to string the elastic.  The elastic cord I had was 5mm.  Pretty sure I saw similar stuff at Wal-Mart.    

String on your beads, adding the names, or a word that goes with your party theme.  Even Ethan (almost 9 year old brother) got in on the action making himself one in purple and yellow with the word, "Vikings" (after his love for the Minnesota Vikings) and a yellow one with a Pokemon character name.  (are your kids into Pokemon?)

I sized the bracelets using Maeve's wrist as a guide.  You just don't want it to be tight.  Otherwise, these are pretty forgiving.  Knot the elastic several times over and then clip the ends about a 1/16" from your knot.  I gave it a tug before clipping the ends, just to be sure it wouldn't come undone.  

See the whole party here.  And a pinata tutorial here.

Pretty Piñata on the Cheap

I'm cheap frugal.  

I will do almost anything to avoid paying full price for anything.  

And after seeing Becky of Infarrantly Creative's tutorial for a paper bag pinata, there's no way I was spending $15+ on one (that didn't match the rainbow theme, no less)!

Here's how mine came together.

  

I must give credit to Dana of MADE, because she showed me the magic that happens to crepe paper streamers when you feed them through your sewing machine!  

Now that you have ruffled your streamers, let's build!

I used a paper sack that had a handle on top so I could hang the pinata (from the swingset!).  It wasn't part of the plan, but as it turns out, the stripes on the DSW sack were very helpful in keeping my layers straight.  Bonus!

Plug in your hot glue gun. 


Start at the bottom (not on the top, like I did in the pic below -- oops!).  

You could leave it as is, or if you have extra ruffles, glue them to the bottom for added color!

Easily hung from the rings on the swing set and ready for a good smashing!  It made for a pretty sturdy pinata, given all the thread and hot glue.  I recommend candy that can't be pulverized...a pretty shower of Smarties powder sprinkled out of the pinata as it was whacked!

Disclaimer:  Buying yourself an incredibly cute pair of flats at DSW will drastically increase the cost of this project.  :)


linking here and here.