Welcome to day two of the Before and After Party!!! Click the button on top to join in and sign the master linky and visit other people!!!
Today we're talking about courage. And/or stupidity. Because aren't they arguably interchangeable? Jumping from high atop a skyscraper -- courageous or stupid? Depends on the outcome, I guess...
See what I mean?
A few weeks ago when I went to an afterschool meeting at Poops' school to talk about the Spring Festival and sign up for projects, (which could have been as easy as crafts or cooking) I found myself doing something pretty dumb.
I mean, realllllly dumb.
When they said they needed someone to make a fountain, one of two HUGE projects, I don't know what happened. I found myself raising my hand. As if I've made a fountain before or something.
REALLY, CHRISTIE. A FOUNTAIN?
Who makes fountains? How on earth do you make a fountain????
Do you even know anyone who's ever made a fountain? No. The answer is no. And for the first parental project of my son's school years, I pick, yes. A fountain.
Anyway, needless to say, I did a lot of Googling on the subject that day. I read and read and read. Eventually I thought to myself, if I can't figure it out, I can go to the "master handyman" himself. The man who could make a fountain out of a pipe and some duct tape like some kind of MacGyver. My dad.
But only in emergency. Because I got myself into this and I was gonna give it a go.
So I discussed with Poops teachers what they had in mind. Every class picks a country for the Spring Festival and Poops' class was doing Holland, the home country of one of his teachers. So they wanted a fountain that looked like a dike, with grass and stuff.
So I went to Lowe's and got some ridiculously heavy plywood. Two ginormous pieces a little over 5 feet tall.
I got some green indoor/outdoor carpeting because the kids were going to make sheep in class out of cottony type stuff and stick the sheep all over the mountainside. This plywood was going to be the mountainside. 
Then I got a pump and some tubing from Home Depot. It's over by the pond stuff in the garden center and I pretty much couldn't go wrong with it. I stood there for a while staring, picking stuff up, reading it to make sure, asking a few garden dudes if it was really true that I only needed that pump and a tube (specifically one that shoots water from 6 feet high because the plywood was just a little shorter than that.) And yes, that was right.
Then I used a staplegun to attach the "grass." I used some hinges and two-by-fours in the back of the plywood to hold the "mountain" up. I forgot to take pictures of that part but it worked awesome!
Then I had to make a hole in the plywood for the hose. So I used the only drillbits we had which were very small and then Dremeled my way into a bigger hole (whilst almost catching the wood on fire because the dremel was going so fast it started smoking.)
At the last minute I found fake tulips on sale at Michaels and added them all over the bottom, put a clear under-the-bed storage box in front of it with some turf glued on the front of it where the water and the pump would go, and VOILA! 
A fountain. A real live fountain! And when I turned on the fountain and found that it actually WORKED I breathed myself a sigh of relief!!! (And the mom of the year award goes to...)
Even though getting it to the classroom was a bit of a challenge because it didn't really fit in the back of the minivan because of its largeness, and there was that tiny issue of it being ridiculously heavy...
But after the kids added the sheep and the little boats the kids painted to float in the water, it turned out like this:
And this:
(That's Poops. Doesn't he look so excited that mom spent a whole day working on this and many days fretting over it? By the way, someone else did the windmill next to my fountain -- these Spring Festivals are apparently a really big deal):
So the fountain thing could've been a disaster, which means it could have been really stupid to volunteer for this. But I'm really really glad I did it, because MAKING YOUR OWN FOUNTAIN IS ACTUALLY EASY! I might make one (not quite like this one) for my new courtyard! I'll let you know...
Anyway, feel free to share your before and afters -- going strong till Saturday April 25! Sign the big master linky and click here to find out what this before and after party is anyway! And grab a button!
Finally, to support me in my walk for babies, click here!
(Patting you on the back)Awesome Fountain!! Can I just say that you all must be over achievers in FL because here in Ohio we don't make Fountains or Windmills like that for school projects. Impressive stuff there (but I'm glad to live in a slacker state...really).
ReplyDeleteYou do get the "Mom of the Year Award" on that one :)
You deserve an award for sure!!! I would never have tackled that project!!!
ReplyDeleteI think you neglected to tell me you accepted this task so when you were done and telling me about it (like I knew you were doing it) I was like, "...what the???" I was thinking tiny fountain.
ReplyDeleteNow, again, I'm seeing this going, "WHAT THE!"
It was THIS big!! That's hilarious!!! It looks great.
(longest comment ever)
Wow - I am way impressed!
ReplyDeleteWay to go, Christie O.! Yep, you get my nomination.
ReplyDeleteWow, what a great fountain! I bet Poops was really impressed as am I. I'd never have raised my hand for just such a huge task!
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