Do It Yourself: Sun Shades

Does anyone else have a crappy backyard layout?  I'm just being real and calling it for what it is! I can hear at least a couple people shouting, "amen!" A few years back now, we had our house build in Texas while we were still living in Arizona. I still know that it was God's plan and it's so cool to see his handiwork in getting us to Texas but....let's just say we learned a few things along the way.

We had never had a house built. We learned that we will probably never want to do it again to be honest.  However, one of our complaints was that we saw a printed layout of our house before we moved out but I don't believe they ever even showed us how our house would be situated on that lot. (I know! We should have asked. But lesson learned!) We were getting what we thought was a huge lot. We were in a cul de sac lot and were paying extra because of it so we weren't really worried about the size of our yard. We walked on the lot before we signed the papers and it looked huge!! But, needless to say, we have a stupidly shaped yard. They placed our house so far back on our lot that we have a LONG driveway and long front side yards and well....a stupidly shaped backyard.

We walk right outside our back door and we have our neighbors fence smack in our face. Okay, well maybe it's like 9 feet away...but it's really close people!! With it being SO close most of our concern and problem is with toys and balls being thrown into other people's yard and when your neighbors aren't very friendly and their dogs are mean you don't really get anything back. *Sigh.

We also only have a stub of a patio which is like 2 feet by 3 feet wide. We've wanted to add a large concrete patio slab but after counting the cost we ended up building the shades first and making it have the 'feel' of a patio without the huge expense of a patio.

Plus, we've had these shades in our closet for the last 6 years!! I kid you not! My In-laws were shopping at Costco one time and knew we were searching for a good deal and it was the end of Summer in Phoenix and they got 3 on mark down for us. It was a great deal. Surely we'd use them, right? Well, we finally have these 6 years later and I want to show you how we did it.

My husband went to a local lumber yard and bought some 12 foot cedar posts. He paid a pretty penny and you should too because they are going to take a beating with the winds and the last thing you want is a shade breaking off and flapping dangerously around in a fierce storm.

He also rented a one man auger machine, which in reality takes two people really but that's what it's called. Along with that he got some Quikcrete bags to solidify the posts into.

With everything at hand we looked at the size of the shades and we wanted it to float evenly in the middle between the house and fence. It's been awhile since we put these in but I believe it ended up being about 3 fee we added on each corner. We put it at an angle, so it was slightly higher up on the house.  We had a hard time figuring out how far apart to put the beams. We wanted to make sure we put enough room to be able to have length to tighten as the shade got pulled loose from wind and such but we also didn't want it to be too far apart and not have the shades provide adequate coverage. We didn't want three triangle spots of shade but rather as close to a unified shade as possible. We ended up setting the poles roughly 21 feet apart. As you'll see in the pictures it was enough to keep them from overlapping but we might have been able to get them a foot or two closer. But we're happy with how they turned out.

We used painter's tape on the fence to mark where to dig. Ryan and my brother set off to work digging the first hole.  One thing to note here: make sure you know what your rented equipment can do, otherwise you might end up in a big mess.  Enter mess....Ryan and Darren dug down the drill end really quickly into the ground. Now if the auger you rented had a reverse switch that wouldn't be a big deal but...ours didn't. The guys didn't realize that because of our hard clay based ground (which will be great for holding these poles up, but not great for working with it) they dug down so fast they didn't even give it a chance to pull up any dirt. They pretty much just drilled it into clay and there it was stuck...for the next 3 hours it took all of us to dig it out of the ground.  So if you look really closely you'll see the the base of the the farthest post has a very wide concrete bottom.

 

So after learning from their lesson, they jammed out the last two poled in less than 30 minutes. They dug down about 30 inches my husband said, which is as far as this auger let them go pretty much. We probably would have gone down more if possible but with our hard ground it will (and has) held up fine.  Instead of going so fast with the auger they put it in slowly and let the drill slowly pull out the clay as it went down. They had to pull it back up every so often because it wants to go down much faster than it should. So they drilled a little. Stopped. Pulled it back up, just to clean out the drill and then they put it back in to go down a little farther.

Now that you we had our holes they mixed the concrete bags with the water. While I held the post in the right spot using a level, Ryan was able to fill in all around the pole. It was such a deep hole we really didn't even have to prop up the poles from leaning. We kept checking them periodically but they never even tilted, which was awesome!

 

After your posts are set then you need to add the hardware to the top of the posts. My husband just went to the store and got what he needed. He got a cable tensioner with a hook and some eyes that he was able to mount on the posts. He also got a few wire cable clamps (one for each corner of the shade)  I included some pictures so you can see the hardware and how he mounted them on.




Make sure to leave some slack on the rope and just use those small little nuts to tighten up and hold the extra rope. You need enough to hang on and pull so you can tighten the shade later. You can slowly clip off the excess if needed though, just don't cut too short!!

(This is where you can see that little bolt which holds the extra string up so you have slack to pull when you have to tighten later.)

Once you have the hardware on your post then attach your shades onto the top of the beams.

(This is the main central beam which holds the three shades.)

 (Here is how the attachment looks on one of the side beams, with just one shade attached.)

At this point it's kind of a grab the ladder and hold up where the shade would go on the house and mark where it will look the best. We started with the middle shade because that gave us our control. We wanted the other shades to fit as closely to the middle one as possible.

(A view of the attachment to the house.)

 (Another view of how it's attached to the house.)

The shades are angled slightly, so the mounts are raised a little bit higher on the house versus the posts. It makes it have a more open feel than if they were just flat.

After the middle one was set we started with one side shade at a time and pulled the rope to the best spot so there was as little gap as possible between the shades but we also didn't want them to rub. You can see in this photo the final placement of where the ropes were attached to the house.

After everything was adjusted and tightened we snapped a couple more photos.

 

 

Please note that you need to plan to tighten your shade after a couple days of good wind. The shade will loosen a lot after it finally gets pulled tight by the wind. My husband has gotten in a good habit of after a really bad storm he will tighten them back up again or he just plans to do it during the Summer.

We also added some strings of outdoor lights onto the shades. We just strung them up around the shade hardware and ziptied them onto where they wouldn't slip. We used 3 strands and had a bunch extra so we took off the extra bulbs and stapled it to the back of the last post. So you can't see it from the front at all.

Here are some more pictures to enjoy!

 

Well, I hope this has spurred you on to build your own sun shades. We enjoy the fact that it adds a patio feel without having to pay for the whole concrete slab. We recently bought a picnic table and put it underneath and enjoy our lunch outdoors sometimes now.

God Bless!
Heather Joy

Our Texas Playroom Addition

Recently I have been obsessed with something called New Braunfels Mom's Shop 'N Swap. It's like a craigslist for New Braunfels' moms. You can post to sell something and if it's fairly cheap just leave it on your porch and send the address privately to the person requesting to buy. They pick up and leave the money under your door mat.  It works great because being a busy mom I don't have all the time in the world to put together a garage sale, but I can find the time to post a couple items here and there and when they sell just place them on my porch.

I have been obsessed with the Shop 'N Swap because it's a great way for me to find decor and furniture for our house really cheaply. The people on there are looking for a good deal, so the sellers know they need to post it for a good deal or it won't sell. Hence, I get some killer deals on awesome stuff!!

Want to know my latest find?
---Of course you do!

Well, I was browsing one day and came across something that made me smile, something that warmed my heart, something that made me happy to be a Texan.....a roping steer!

Yes, we found a used roping steer for a smoking deal! When I lived in Arizona there was no way you'd find a used roping steer, well at least not in Phoenix. Now though, we have an awesome roping steer set up in our playroom and we are loving it.  Of course this meant I had to shift everything around once again to make room in our playroom for this big beast.

The main reason we got it, besides the fact that it makes my heart happy, is the fact that we have already been blessed with two horses.  So the girls on a normal basis sit side by side on their horses and race each other.  Well, now after we've rearranged the room they can sit side by side and practice roping the steer.

I also plan to put it outside as a fun activity when we host parties. We are always trying to use our house to bless our church family and whoever the Lord wills. Our playroom is set up nicely for the ages of kids we've had in our circle of friends from the church, however this last party we hosted we had a few new families and our age range went up to the teens. So, I thought that if this was set outside with some real lassos then they might have some fun and it's more fun to keep them outside which keeps the parents happy.

Here are a couple more pictures of the roping steer in action:

I used to have the cupcakery where the horses are and on the wall it was the sign for the 'Sweet Sister's Bakery'. Since, we changed it up I created the western show sign below.

Hope you've enjoyed another peek at our ever transforming playroom from here in Texas!

God Bless!
Heather Joy

Mom Sanity-Part 2 (Our Diligence/Chore Charts)

We've been incorporating the tips from 'Managers Of Their Homes' recently and if you missed my first post about the book you should check it out here, because my whole world has changes since I first read this book and now I'd like to follow up with some of the key things we've implemented in the Garcia household.

#1: Chore/Diligence Chart

#2: Dishes Routine

Now, transitioning to and building up to our schedule took a bit of work but its been slow and steady progress and I'm happy to be slowly reaping some of the fruit to my labor.

CHORES:

My first thing to work on was our chore chart, which we are now calling our "diligence chart". God calls us to be diligent in all we do, so I like to think that doing our work is not a chore but an opportunity to work diligently.

I started by making Kara her own diligence chart (age 4) and spent a few days training slowly how to do her chores. She can mostly do them by herself but I wanted to spend the time to make sure she was doing them correctly.

There are a few she does as needed but on her chart are the ones she has to complete on a daily basis.  I require her to complete her morning chores before she can have breakfast or play. Since she only has a few it works out well. Then after breakfast I usually have her do a simple task, like wash off her table or help me with my chores a bit (more chances to start training her to add chores to her chart eventually).

 

Below is my own diligence chart.  The way it gets broken down is by Morning and Evening on the top portion of the sheet and then the Monthly/Quarterly work that needs done on the bottom portion.

During the Morning and Evening on the left side it lists my diligence work to get done everyday. This includes things like: unload the washer, clean kitchen, start laundry, lunch prep, etc. On these things I have included a BB, DB, or AB which stands for Before Breakfast, During Breakfast, or After Breakfast. Then along with my daily chores on the right hand side I include a weekly schedule of diligence work to be done on specific days.  So, for example Monday morning I along with my everyday work need to vacuum upstairs.  Then in the evening on Monday I need to do one of my monthly items listed at the bottom.

I left extra room on the bottom for more monthly, quarterly and yearly chores as I think of them. Once I feel my list is completed I will laminate the list and then check off the monthly stuff so I know what is completed. 

This chart has helped me keep up with and maintain the things that use to overwhelm me. I just have a designated time to do it and it doesn't take as long as what it would if I let it slide for weeks, like in the past.  Plus, a big part of our conviction is having a house centered around hospitality and I've found when I keep up with my diligence work I feel like I can use our house to bless so many more people.  If my house is in constant disarray the last thing I want to do is invite a new couple from church over.

DISHES ROUTINE:

The second thing that made a HUGE impact in our house was my dishes routine. I've always heard that its good to get dishes done before you go to bed but that didn't ever work for me because either I had a whole sink full of caked dishes that needed soaking, or that didn't even all fit in the washer.  Or it's even worse when I went to load the dirty ones only to find out I need to unload the clean ones!  And at 11:30pm at night it's just not worth my time.

In going through this book (Managers Of Their Homes) and reevaluating our dishes as a family, I realized that we are a 3/4 dishes family. Which means they sit in the dishwasher one day and then the next day it gets full midday and I send them through sometime later. But it just caused a pile up because by the time the dishes were done I already had a sink ready to load up. So it's just a cascade effect.

Implementing the dishes routine: setting a specific time to load and unload the dishwasher. 

Since we are a 3/4 dishes family I implemented Ryan to be the one to send the load through at night before bed. The big thing here is that he sends it through whether its full or not! This may sound a bit wasteful but to keep my sanity and household running smoothly I will pay the extra $1. Then I am the designated unloaded at breakfast time, since I just snack at breakfast anyways. This prevents a pile up for the rest of the day. Larger families may need to have a designated time to load/unload twice during the day. 

Doing this has honestly brought such relief to me. I get so frustrated and overwhelmed if my kitchen is in disarray. With the dishes being taken care of I don't get overwhelmed like I used to AND I can now sit down if I want and take a break knowing there's not a sink of dishes waiting to be done like there used to be. 

I will have more of the things we have implemented in another future post, so look for it. Until then, God Bless!

Heather Joy

Playroom Transformation #6: Mailbox

Here's another addition to our playroom transformation: the mailbox. Here's a nice picture.

I had my wonderful husband use his jigsaw and cut a metal mailbox in half.

Then he found a thick piece of wood, placed the cut mailbox onto it, traced it and cut it just a bit smaller so it would slip right in the metal mailbox.

Pre drill the holes into the wood.

Paint the wood piece. I chose pink. I thought it would be fun to see a pop of pink when you open the mailbox. I painted black around the sides in case the mailbox doesn't lay exactly flush to the wall.

Then, let your muscles do the work for you. :)  He pre-drilled holes in the wall.

Then he screwed the wood piece onto the wall.

Next, he drilled screws all around the sides of the mailbox.

Looks pretty great! Now, I just have to eventually add a pole for it to stand on and maybe even a flower bed underneath it.

Happy Crafting and God Bless!

Heather Joy

Playroom Transformation #5: Birdhouse

In a previous tutorial I made a tree decal in our playroom.  Now, I'm going to show you that interactive birdhouse that I did.  So...here goes!

I found a clearance 2 story birdhouse.

 

Put it together, but instead of nailing it completely together I had to cut one side and put on brackets on the side so it could open. Painted it a bright turquoise with a pink inside and hammered in some picture frame holders in the back.

  

 

Then I hung it on the lowest branch on our tree so the kids can play with it.  I found the foam birds in the garden/flower section of Hobby Lobby.  I also found a little nest and soap egg I added later. So, now my girls pretend the birds lay eggs.

Couple more pics just for fun:

 

Happy crafting and God Bless!

Heather Joy

Playroom Transformation #4: Tree Decal

This tree decal was the biggest planned change in our playroom transformation.  It took a lot of time and planning and ironing, but I love love love how it turned out!! (Although, I can't wait for my pink bird to be included on our tree!)

As you can see, our playroom is in a huge transition right now! Everything is getting moved or trashed or stored away. Man, this is a lot of work, but this tree was the biggest project I had planned, at least I think so and it totally changed the room.  Just wait you'll see.

I'm going to attempt to show you pictures from along the way.  I started by just looking at trees online and sketching out how I want the branches and leaves to look.  Next, I picked out the fabric I wanted and a big roll of heat and bond and a roll of freezer paper.

Then I used the freezer paper to cut out a template for the tree, just so I could move stuff around with sticky tac on the wall until I found the size and shape I liked.  Here you can see what it looks like as it was going up:

(You can see my daughter's tree on the left that she was sticking to the wall, ha!)

Don't forget to add a cute little birdie in your tree!

Then you need to iron on all the heat and bond onto the back side of the fabric for green leaves and the brown for the trunk.  Just guess how much you'll need. You can always iron more on later if needed.

Peel off the back side of the heat and bond and now your fabric is all ready to go!

After you've got that ready it's time to start replacing the template with the real fabric.  I tried numbering each branch, so I wouldn't get them confused but I ended up just taking off one at a time and doing it that way. So, you start by marking where the branch goes on the wall (where it connects onto the trunk or branch and at the top, so I know what angle it needs to be at) because you will have to take off the leaves that are above it. 

 

Next, using your freezer paper templates, lay them on the fabric UPSIDE DOWN!!! onto the glossy side of you fabric, pin them down and cut out your shapes.  (I only had one mess up and then I remembered.)

 

After that you just need to iron it on the wall.  I started at the top and worked my way down because I wanted to make sure it connected to the tree. You can see in the picture below I made sure to provide a little excess to go under the branch that will go on top. No floating branches wanted here!

One branch up....a ton to go.

Here's some more pictures along the way:

(above: I combined some of the smaller branches into one piece, instead of dealing with each one individually. You can see here the two smaller branches were not attached before when I was just trying to get my template up there, but now I will cut one branch including these two smaller branches.)

 (The massive trunk was the most challenging piece to do.)

Next, I cut a bunch of different colored leaves.  I made two sizes of leaves only, but I made a variety of the sizes in different colors. I chose 3 different colors. You could choose them to all be the same or add more variety. Whatever you want!

Then just start ironing them on the end of branches and on mid-branch on some.  I made sure to change which leaf was on top and what sizes were next to each other and kept a variety of the colors all around the tree.  Here's the tree getting filled in completely:

I love how this turned out!  Although I still need to add the bird.  I wanted a colorful color but wasn't sure yet what I wanted, so it will come in a bit.  I'll have to add a photo of that later, but in the meantime I hope you enjoy this tutorial and realize that if I could do this you can do this!  It only took 2 1/2 nap times to get this done!  And the girls love it.  Plus, I made an interactive birdhouse in a future tutorial, so the tree will serve a purpose as well as just being plain cute!   :)

Well, here's an after shot of the playroom and compared to before I am quite content, although we have a long ways to go before it's the way I imagine it to be.

Happy crafting and God Bless!

Heather Joy