Shop Update

Hi again! I'm here to share part of our shop with you today. The Hubs did the majority of the prep work but I did help...I swear, I DID! First The Hubs laid down insulation on the dirt "floor" (aka the ground inside the shop), leaving spaces in between the sheets for concrete to flow into. I think I heard him say that it helps the concrete dry faster??? Maybe, sorta, oh who knows...but that's what he did. Then he laid this metal "lattice" looking stuff down on top of the insulation. This is to act like the rebar that is normally used in concrete work; I believe its a form of sorts. 

Our pex (that red tubing below) came from New York city! And with free shipping it cost substantially less than going with a local manufacturer/distributor.

The Hubs laid this out in a 'loop' sort of design. Let me tell you though, I tried to help at one point to keep this stuff from rolling on itself and it is near impossible. It resembles the tubing we used for the sprinkler system-what a pain! But it is totally worth it. This is for the radiant floor heating and I even believe it can be used in regular plumbing in a house (ie-the bathroom) in place of copper.

Above is a picture of the manifold. It is where all the tubes of red pex comes in and out and this bad boy is then connected to the water heater.

Ha! there is the 'loop' sort of blueprint that The Hubs created. He is so amazing! What a guy, I tell ya'. Not for his artistic abilities, although he has them even though they aren't showcased here, but because he gets things done. You need something done, he is all over it!

Next up is the part that I helped with. See those fun lil' zip ties on the pex?

See them now?!?! Yah, every foot we had to tie the pex to the rebar so that the pex wouldn't rise up through the concrete. You see the pex had air running through it for the pouring of the concrete and seeing how air is lighter than concrete (I know, shocker!) it would rise and create issues in the future if we accidentally hit it with something. I say this because I was the BIG WHINER curious person asking why I had to do this dreadful job.  

Now the fun part...the part where The Hubs and I sit back and let the professionals do their work. Below is the picture of the first concrete truck at sometime around 8am on a Saturday.

Lots of hoses are needed for this job.

And as a side note: these hoses are HEAVY! The folks that work with them day in and day out must have massive muscles. I tried to pick up one section and I almost threw my back out. Kidding...kind of. : )

Just pictures of the concrete being poured into the pump so that it can flow through the hose into our shop.

And here comes the 2nd concrete truck; it was only about 8:20 at this point. These guys move fast!

They started pumping the concrete into the shop. I believe there was four guys for just this job. Its the dirtiest job from what I can tell.

Look at the spiffy garb that they get to wear though! I need a pair of those awesome boots for truckin' out in the pasture or on those nasty spring days when everything in sight is ooey-gooey mud. The best part about these boots is that you can wear your regular shoes inside of them. Awesome! What a time saver!

Aww, the lovely concrete floor. It looks like glass. And it really didn't take as long as I thought it would to pour it and get it looking like this. Maybe just a little over an hour. The majority of the work is when 3 of the 4 crewmen had to get on all fours and sand the son-of-a-gun. Hours of back breaking work! Blech! No thanks!

The shop door comes on Friday; so stinkin' excited I could pee my pants. Not really...that is a joke. But you know what a shop door means, dontcha?!? It means I get to move crap out of the house and into this space...thus meaning I get to FINALLY start work on my home office.

A side table tray

Oh my gosh...well hello! School is out for Summer quarter and having been so busy with my studies that I have had absolutely no time to do anything else. I'm not even exaggerating here; The Hubs cleans the house, cooks the meals and pretty much never sees me. Since I've been so busy the plan was to just relax, watch some of my shows that are on the DVR and eat bon-bons. Not the case, I have so much nervous energy in anticipation of my grades coming out that I needed a release.

Our side table that The Hubs built has kind of become another dreaded "catch all" place. The remotes, batteries, keys, hats, ipods, newpapers and books manage to land there. To combat this issue I needed a tray to corral everything. I had a tray for Christmas that I use on occasion for holding crackers and dip, that sort of thing.

As you can tell from the plastic that I am planning on painting it. I wanted the coveted Heirloom White but it was almost gone and I didn't want to spend the time doing my hair so I could run into town and grab another can from Home Depot. I know what you are thinking...seriously, it's Home Depot who cares if your hair is done. Trust me when I tell you this IT WAS AWFUL! It looked like what I learned in Biology about Codominance. You know where not one allele (gene) is dominant over the other but the traits do not blend. I had patches of curly, patches of straight and patches of wavy all on the top of my head. I was a hot mess!

I decided that I would use what I had and it came down to metallic brown or celery green. Being that it is summer and The Hubs complains about the entire house "being brown" I choose celery green. It is really a fantastic color.

Originally the tray was on the plastic and being that it was HOT yesterday it was drying fast and I noticed that the plastic was sticking to my tray. I acted quickly and put the tray on wood instead. I gave the tray 3 coats of spray paint. Oh before I forget, I did do a little light sanding, not that it helped in one particular spot. I will show you that in a bit.

Here is the spot, right on the stinkin' handle for all to see! I mean, come on...couldn't it be on the bottom...where.no.one.will.see?!?! No joke, I sanded that handle another 3 times and spray painted another 3 times but nada.  

Here is a closer look...see the red? UGH!

 

The red was here to stay. I thought this was going to be a bust until I remembered I had some hemp or jute or rope of some sort and could wrap the handle. I started by hot glueing the end to the inside of the handle then I wrapped the rope around a few times and then hot glued it in place. I repeated until I had the desired amount on the handle. The same technique was used for the other handle. 

Woohoo! I love it! It is so summery!

 I doubt it will stay like this for long. I'm thinking it needs something on the bottom to prevent scuffing and scratches. Maybe some lovely white tile. That would be durable enough to take a beating. For now I am going to enjoy the color and the bit of summer I brought into our home.

Oh see...no more red! Just celery green deliciousness and rope. Booyah! : )

Enjoy the rest of your summer! I will be back later this week with an update on the shop. You remember right, the shop we did last year? Well we have concrete AND next Friday we will have a door! YAY!

It's a Boy!

No we are not preggers...but my brother and his wife are. This will be the first baby in my immediate family and I am just over the moon excited. I went a bit overboard originally with all the crafty ideas swimming around in my head but after some time passed I decided to make a sign for the little tike's nursery.

My brother and SIL have decided on a Precious Moments/Noah's Ark theme and would you believe that not one place locally, that I could find, carried any scrapbook paper in this line?!?! Oh well, moving right along to Plan B. About two years ago I bought a couple of cheap signs from the Dollar Store and was going to turn them into something...well two years later I am finally doing just that with one. HA!

I grabbed the sign, a plastic drop cloth and Heirloom White spray paint (I heart you). This color is so creamy...just like melted vanilla ice-cream. Delish! Tip: remove the wire hanger before you paint unless you plan on using it.

Two coats later and it looks like this, well on the backside it does. You see those fun little ghosts and windows in the above picture, well they don't cover well unless you have primer and well...I didn't. So I flipped the bugger over and painted the backside. Voila-crisis averted!

Once it was dry then it is time to apply scrapbook paper. I decided to use strong spray adhesive. I never have used this before and well I am waaay too impatient to read directions. Long story short, if you use this stuff make sure you read the directions carefully and be certain to work swiftly and precisely. I didn't and there a a few snafu's but I was cookin' up a fix for those. Next time however, I will use my trusty Modge Podge. By the way, I am just dieing over this paper!! The apple green and blue combo is fan-freakin-tastic!

I angled my paper so it was a "diamond" shape over the sign. You can play with this however it suites you. Then rub it on your sign and make sure it is smooth and air bubble free. The spray adhesive takes about 30 min to dry so I played around with my Silhouette. This baby ROCKS!!

I made vinyl lettering with the bambino's name, in chocolate brown, and placed it on the scrapbook paper.

It still needed something extra and besides there were those few blunders that needed fixin'. So I found some extra buttons (get it...babies are as cute as buttons-ha!) and hot glued them on. The brown button and the large white button in the opposite corner also have a couple pieces of green tulle under them for added texture.

To emphasize the tulle and bring the whole project into a more cohesive look, I decided to use more green tulle for the hanger.

I love it and I sure hope the new parents-to-be will be thrilled with it also.