thrifty little yard tip

Thrifty Tip: Use flour to mark out those flower beds! Talk about a triple threat tool: whether you're going green, really cheap, or just too lazy to go out to the store, flour is the obvious replacement for those expensive aerosol paints. Plus, it provides the perfect contrast color when you're trying to visualize how your yard will look after the hard work is finished.

The flour will wash away easily in the rain and rake away if you need to remark the lines.

What are your favorite thrifty yard tools?

PS Try not to leave large piles or clumps of flour on the ground, your pets might just start eating the dirt!

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The Yard Project (Part 1)

Some of you sure know your tools!

Hers: a rented carpet cleaning machine (totally not a blog-worthy task)

His: a rented tiller to prep the yard for sod (woo-hoo!)

While I was inside taking care of the carpet, Nate prepped our yard for new sod (along with a new path and paver patio). Because of the lot that my home is on, I have a unique side yard with views of a greenbelt and tons of privacy. I really want to play up this feature for the future buyers so deciding to invest in the yard was a no-brainer.  

If you stood back really far and squinted, the yard might not have looked all that bad, but it was 100% weeds in reality. Sod became the obvious solution once we did a little research on growing grass in our region, but to minimize the water usage necessary, we included a good amount of xeriscaping in our plan. Before:

Okay from far away:

Horrible close up:

The tilled yard:

Laying the sod:

 I love the instant gratification! Nate tilled on Tuesday of last week, we prepped the yard Wednesday-Friday after work then on Saturday we did about five hours of work laying it and ta-da:



Stay tuned for the upcoming pathway, patio, and flower bed projects!

PS I have to give props to Nate's problem solving skills. We had no clue how we were going to get the tiller out of the Home Depot truck (because I have the strength of a two-year-old), but he realized we could just back up the truck to a ledge of a nearby park and use it as a ramp. Clever! 

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a match made in diy heaven

I'm kinda lucky to have found Nate. Not only does he:

1. Want to marry me

and

2. Love endurance sports as much as I do

...

but will pick back up with diy project a mere 2 days after completing a 6-hour race.

We both took a couple of vacation days following the Ironman 70.3 race and used one of those days to do projects around the house. Mine was pretty minor, but his was the beginning of a big undertaking.

Can you guess what we've been up to this past week?

PS Thanks for the comments on the half bath yellow question... I think I've found a little fix to my issues with the color. Stay tuned!

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Finished!

1. I'm officially half of an Ironman :). The $300 race was worth every penny and hour of preparation that I put into it over the past six months.

I guess it's easy for me to say this because my day was amazing! Even without a wetsuit, the 72 degree water felt refreshingly perfect. Then although I had to deal with a bit of leg cramping on the 56 mile bike ride, I felt strong until the end. Finally, I ended the day with the best half marathon run I could imagine and finished with a smile on my face (which was more important than any time goal I could have come up with). Woo hoo!

2. I'm putting down the paintbrush (for now) and calling this half bathroom project finished(*ish).

After:

I'm loving the stripes, new light fixture, and black cabinet, but not so sure about my bold choice of yellow mirror. I've always loved black-white-yellow combos, but I'm not sure if it's working here yet (nothing a paintbrush can't fix later!).

What I am sure of is that it's 1,000% better than it was before:

*barf*

*yes, I'm aware of the missing towel and toilet paper holders

So... "YELL-NO" or "YELL-GO-ahead and start painting everything that color because it's that good?"

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A Winner and a Teaser

First, I'd like to congratulate Danielle! Thanks to a little help from Random.org, she turned out to be the lucky winner of the Frog Tape giveaway from last week. Danielle, you should expect an email from me  today.

On tape-related note, I made myself busy on a little project for the half bathroom this morning:

Hmm... I guess you'll just need to come back later this week to see the results in the half-bath reveal ;).

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Frog Tape Giveaway

******************this contest is now closed to new entries*********************

You've gotta love internet magic... one day I'm writing a little review on my Frog Tape project (self-funded) and the next I'm getting an email offering a Frog Tape gift package for the blog!

For your chance to win everything pictured above:

1. Leave a comment below (maybe share the project you'd love the tape for?).

2. Make sure that I have a way to contact you via email (it's fine if your Blogger profile or site lists it)

3. Do the above by Next Tuesday, October 12, at 10 AM Central.

I'll use random.org to pick the winner next week. Good luck!

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Thoughts on Stripes and a Frog Tape Review

Thoughts on stripes:
1. Prepping for the stripes takes longer than you might think: tape around edges... mark with pencil... level tape... double check... repeat... repeat... repeat.
2. It takes sooo much more tape than you might imagine!
3. I wish I could pull tape off of walls for a living; it was so fun to see the stripes finally revealed.
4. There will be a bit of touch up work (which is what I need to work on).

A Frog Tape review*:

Thanks to my underestimation of the amount of Frog Tape that I needed to buy, I found myself out of tape with two stripes to finish :(. I did have blue painter's tape on hand so I thought, "what better time to do a first hand comparison?!"

*I bought this tape on my own.

blue vs. green

I was surprised at how dramatic the difference was. First, the blue tape:

and the Frog Tape: 

Neither was absolutely perfect, but I must say that the Frog Tape leapt away with the win! Even when pulling the tape off of the wall, I could feel the difference in the Frog Tape's texture and hold on the wall.

 I'm still trying to find time to finish the details and the touch-ups, but here's a little preview of the striped walls:



Have you ever attempted stripes on your walls? What do you think of Frog Tape?

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