And bustin’ open a can of doin’.
Finally got the low gravity water timer programmed on the rain barrel just in time for travel.
We ended up deep in DIY territory when we bought an old adobe home in Phoenix. Since the economy was good, contractors weren’t very interested in coming out to do repair work. None would replace the mission tile roofing (original and on three different stories including one circular “turret”.) Doing our own roofing was the only project that I really disliked - I’m afraid of heights and until you’ve done it you have no idea how hard it is to get 100 lb roll of roofing layer up a ladder and muscle it around on a steep, uneven roof; I’m 5’3" and didn’t weigh a whole lot more than the rolls of roofing we were working with. Tiling was fun, I learned how to sweat copper plumbing, do the ducting for HVAC on our addition.
We’ve been on a DIY hiatus regarding our house now (no longer in that great adobe) since we’ll probably be tearing down and rebuilding.
The last few months I’ve been having fun finding and restoring vintage cast iron pans. It started last year when my sister got a new gas range and wanted some cast iron so I found her some, restored it and gave it to her for Christmas.
When it cools off a little - October or so - there are some mods I want to do on my boat, but it’s too hot to want to do much more than basic maintenance right now.
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My main DIY area is in sewing. I"ve been sewing since 8th grade. Now, I especially enjoy upcycling textiles.I have made lots of pillows from shirts. At the moment, I’m sewing a tshirt blanket for a client. I really enjoy taking something that isn’t being used and turning it into something that will be used and enjoyed.
@Bookreader, I hear you! My problem is that I spend my time sewing family heirlooms…for other people. Need to make some for us!
@CountingDown - so the cobbler’s children have no shoes? lol. I sew for clients and also for my family.I esp have been enjoying sewing dresses for my granddaughter. 
What kinds of things are you sewing?
@bookreader, I make Judaic fabric art (prayer shawls, kippot, chuppot, challah covers, holiday table runners, etc.), am currently making two full-length capes for S1 because he does cosplay and LARPs, and make Raggedy Ann/Andy dolls for friends/colleagues’ new little ones. My big project is making quilts for a women’s shelter. A good friend and I run the project, get fabric donations and run quilting bees every quarter. In between the group events, I assemble and quilt what we’ve completed. Used to make most of my clothes, costumes, wedding gowns, curtains, etc. I also embroider, usually as part of one of my other projects.
No grandkids here any time soon, though the nieces and nephews are cranking up in that regard. They will all get quilts. Have a laundry basket filled with tshirts that will someday become quilts. I’ve cut them into roughly 15" blocks already so I can reduce how much storage space they take, but the blocks are big enough that I can still back and trim to the size I want.
So, yes, in our house, the children are barefoot and the lawyer has no will!
My two sons are back home from college for the summer, and I put them to work on repairing a broken fence post. My second son was complaining of back-ache after an hour of digging to uproot a 3-foot cement. While they were in high school, they were so busy preparing for college entrance that I pretty much left them alone and did all such works by myself. It was a pleasure finally being able to teach them how to fix things around the house, things that they just don’t learn in college.
My daughter knows how to change a tire and replace the brake pads…
We have successfully put together all 11 pieces of ikea furniture in 2 days for our second home apartment. Our D’s were sure that we would become frustrated. But, they have not seen us put together baby beds, swing sets, etc before. That was hard. This was easy. We are amazed at how well constructed the pieces are.
I think this also may count as a canine DIY project? Our dog learned how to get on and off a city bus with us, get on and off an elevator, and how not to bark (mostly) at upstairs and downstairs and sideways neighbor noises. Our first home is rural and this apartment is urban.
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My water fountain has been progressing VERY slowly. I see I first mentioned it over three weeks ago, and I’m just finishing it now. I went in blind, without fully considering all the issues: running electricity, the number of material connections that needed to be made and waterproofed (wood to vinyl to rubber to aluminum the necessity of providing access for the inevitable pump replacement without having to disassemble too much of the structure, etc., etc.
I work on it in 30 to 60 minute segments every day or two, with trips to the hardware store in between.
Yesterday I (hopefully) completed the waterproofing of all the reservoirs and installed the three spillways. I let everything dry overnight. Later today I’ll make the final connections, fill it with water, plug it in, and see what happens.
Hopefully I’ll have good news to report later today.
My dog learned to entertain himself when I got bored throwing a tennis ball for him. He brought it to the top of the road to roll it down and chase after.
Speaking of IKEA furniture, when my D got her first apt, I pit her dresser with 6 drawers together. My heart sank when I saw how many screws were provided. The bag of screws was as big as a smaller grocery bag. I still shudder at the thought.
Good to hear of your water fountain progress @sherpa. Hope it works to your expectation.
I have been very busy with gardening, so not much involvements in DIY projects. Just about to establish another 16’ x 8’ raised garden bed in the backyard.
The only little “DIY” thing I did recently… I got fed up with my Hitachi gas weed trimmer for having to replace its fuel hose line that cracks each season, so I finally decided to just throw it away and got myself a new 40V-4Ah lithium-ion battery run trimmer by Ryobi. Love the fact that it’s as strong as the gas-run trimmers, less noisy, a bit lighter, but most of all, no more mixing the fuel and cost effective in the long run. One problem, though: it doesn’t have a shoulder strap.
I own several golf bags, and the worn out Titleist bag that I just put in the garbage bin had the shoulder strap with a very comfy pad, so I took the bag out of the garbage bin, salvaged the shoulder strap, and mod’ed it to attach to the Ryobi trimmer. I have a very large yard, and this shoulder strap really made the work easier.
I’m still juggling the logistics of 3 diy projects.
The first is our living room fireplace. I stripped the entire surround (floor to ceiling) to reveal the fir behind the paint. Dh did the sanding while I complained about the dust. We’d ordered some Pratt and Larson tile months ago (back in February) and they finished it sometime in April. Our installer dropped off the face of the earth, so I’ve had tile but no installer for months. I finally tracked down another one (that part of the project is definitely NOT diy!) and it’ll be installed in late July. Then I can clear coat the surround and have the insert folks come back and finish off the front of the insert.
The second project is our master bedroom. I’ve tried to keep dh on task as much as possible. Neither of us are exactly young so working on the project in the evenings is just not going to happen. Weekends are it! The framing is done and he has been plugging away at the electrical (hopefully signed off this week!) so we can start insulating next week. I’m thrilled with the led lights for the ceiling (they mimic recessed lights). I’m hopeful that we’ll have the drywall in sometime after the 4th. I think we will hire an electrician to hook up the new circuits at the box. And we don’t do drywall, so those are two trades we use either partly or completely. We had to install a 4x10” beam in the ceiling for the 17’ length of the room and that was a stopping point for us for a good month as we pondered how best to slip that in (it was HEAVY!!) Yes, two engineers can do calcs and ponder for a month, and the installation took like 20 minutes.
The 3rd project is a temporary kitchen island. It’s in pieces in the basement- I’ve taken it as far as I can without dh’s help. I’m still doing weekly PT for my knee, so I’m a bit hobbled and don’t want to drop the thing by trying to move forward on it alone. It’d take like an hour or two but I don’t want to divert him from the bedroom project. Once I’m in the bedroom priming and painting (things he doesn’t do), I’ll convince him to finish it up for me. For now, he gets a constant reminder every time he walks into the kitchen and hits his head on the pans hanging from the pan rack ?
I’ll hold off on the 4th project until after the first of the year - I’m doing all the built-ins for our new walk-in closet. I’ll be making drawers for the first time too. ?
I enjoy DIY home projects and craft projects, but some more than others. Today’s project was thanks to H, who tried to walk through the patio screen door last week (much to his surprise!), and succeeded in ripping it top to bottom. Oh well, that screen lasted for 17 years. The DIY projects recently have been all in the yard - digging, planting, hauling and spreading mulch, etc. Next up, raising/supporting/filling/fixing the sunken patio steps.
I just finished painting the rest of my kitchen cabinet doors. Then I patched some drywall inside a couple of the cabinets and the pantry where the plumber accessed to divert a water line from a slab leak. Drywall is definitely not my thing, but luckily all the places are well hidden. I just mainly wanted to get all the cracks sealed so creatures that live in the wall can’t get into my cabinets. I painted the patched spots last night and tonight I rested.
Next up is sanding and painting the cabinet boxes. These are all uppers so no crawling around on the floor. The prep is not fun and makes such a mess, but I love to paint. Next up will be replacing the kitchen floor. Planning on wood-look tile, but pretty sure I’m going to hire it done. My brother is a tile setter and he might lend me his helper who works cheap. My brother does NOT work cheap, not even for family. haha
I ran into another delay with the fountain. I had it up and going, and everything looked good, but then the pump began to intermittently stop working, sometimes tripping the breaker…
Good thing I planned ahead. As I wrote upthread:
But I had no idea the pump would need to be replaced on day one.
Late today I picked up a better pump and should have better news tomorrow.
I replaced the pump and it’s “mission accomplished”. It looks great and the cascading water produces a pleasant sound. Now it’s time to build a new mailbox enclosure.
They are just jealous.
My mother gets mad but she just doesn’t understand fabric like I do. You have to have it for a while and get to love it before it tells you what it should be.
I made a whole pile of baby blankets (self binding, flannel 36x36") and suddenly they are all gone. Friends are having grandchildren and nieces and nephews and everyone needs a blanket.
Two years ago everyone got pillowcases for Christmas and last year fleece blankets. They may get another one this year because I keep finding fleece at the thrift store. I think someone closed a shop or business and just donated all the fleece to the thrift store. It is now stacked neatly in my sewing room. Linus Project might be getting some blankets too.
I need to make a bunch of baby quilts and have them on hand. Everyone’s becoming grandparents, and my nieces nephews are getting broody. In the meantime, I have 27 twin-size quilt tops for the women’s shelter that need longarming.
I’m sorting out some of our donated fabric to pass along to another quilting group because I have more fabric than I will ever, ever get through.