DIY Life

Your front yard doesn't have to be perfectly manicured or professionally landscaped to look good. It is, however, your public face -- of sorts. Plus, your neighbors are forced to look at whatever you put out there!

Be a good neighbor: banish the following items from your front yard.

1. Plastic foliage. I'm talking anything you got from a craft store. Like this, for example. Plastic ivy. Faux dried sunflowers. Silk chrysanthemums. Plastic wreaths. Fake autumn leaves strung into streamers. Shudder.

Plastic flowers are tacky in the garden. They're unnecessary. After all, you have Mother Nature at your disposal! Why choose fake flowers? Finally, they evoke the cemetery. Enough said.

Before I had children, my Dad got some pretty good Father's Day gifts. Home Depot gift certificates and cool tech toys were among his favorites. When our oldest was born, 5 years ago, we started giving framed pictures instead.

As our family has grown, the photos have become more abundant, and the frames cheaper. He loves having pictures of the grandchildren, but I wanted to come up with something a bit more creative this year.

With nearly every visit to my parents' place, Grandpa takes the children up to his garden to check on the plants. My boys love to notice how Grandpa's garden is growing, and to report on the changes since their last visit. My dad loves to garden, and sharing that with his grandkids has become a sort of ritual. This Father's Day, we decided to build on that and make him a stepping stone.

After the jump, I'll tell you how we made this garden stone, and offer some tips for making your own.

A while back, in another feature on concrete, pavers, and stone, I touched on staining and sealing concrete. I recently had another great opportunity to stain and seal a 1300 square foot floor and, because of the advances in technology, it was a lot easier than last time. (If you need to repair the concrete first, take a look at Diane Rixon's great article here.)

Take a peek at the gallery; it will give you a sense of just how easy the process is, and we'll continue.

Back in September of last year, I wrote a comprehensive tutorial for making marble magnets, an easy project in which images are placed under little glass bubbles in a way that really makes them come alive. In that post, I mentioned that the image pebbles could also be used in other projects, like concrete mosaics.

Kathy Cano-Murillo, one of my favorite craft gurus, recently posted the kind of mosaic project I was talking about: Concrete Coasters. The process for making them is similar to making a mosaic tabletop or paving stone, on a smaller scale.

After creating the image marbles, you mix concrete and pour it into coaster molds, then embed the marbles in the molded material and allow it to dry for at least a day. After removing the concrete coaster from its mold, you varnish it to seal it, and add felt padding to the bottom; if you like, you can further decorate the coasters until you end up with something like Kathy's results.

The one thing I would do differently than Kathy? I don't think white glue (also called PVA glue) is the best thing for gluing images to marbles; glass isn't porous, and that kind of glue is most appropriate for porous materials. I recommend using E-6000 glue instead. However, the fact that you're sealing the marbles in concrete probably makes it a moot point.

[via Craft.]

Concrete cracks really detract from your home's appearance. Like piles of leaves clogging your house's gutters, concrete cracks suggest a lack of homeowner love. There's also a safety factor: you could take a tumble on uneven concrete. Consider putting concrete repair on your Spring things-to-do list. For anyone planning to sell a home within the next few months, put this on your must-do list!

Not sure where to start? Never fear. It's actually extremely easy to patch cracks in your driveway, your garden path, or on the pavement outside your home. First, consider when to tackle this job. The best time is Spring or Summer. Don't do it when you're expecting rain or freezing weather.

Newsflash for beginner DIY'ers: these days, you don't fill cracked concrete with more concrete. There are better products on the market that are easier to use. In particular, many patching products now contain latex. This adds flexibility and, therefore, added durability, in extremes of hot and cold weather.

It's Spring and, while wandering about the outside of your home, you are reminded of your very ugly driveway. Perhaps the frost heave got to it, or it's been slowly worsening every year; in any case there's a dictum (look it up, it'll be your word of the day) that covers pretty much all concrete -- there are two types of concrete, that which has cracked, and that which will. Fortunately for you, my friend, I have solutions.

Peruse the gallery to get an idea where I'm heading, and let's proceed.

High winds, snow drifts, flooding, termites, and just plain old Father Time can all be reasons for a sagging or leaning fence. Bad neighbors, big dogs, young kids, and naked sunbathing can be the reason to install a new fence. Both situations will require you to set new fence posts for the successful completion of your goal.

If you don't do it right, not only will your new fence look like Homer Simpson built it, but it will also end up needing to be replaced far sooner than if you had done it right to start with. I will walk you though the correct way to do it. You may be tempted to cut corners or to listen to old uncle Fred and do it the way that sounds easier, but it will all end in tears that way. Trust me.

Concrete and terracotta flowerpots look better as they age. Plastic pots? Hmm. Not so much. Let's face it: although they're light and durable, they lack style. They also look terrible when they get old and faded. Well, member Melody of the wonderful gardening website Dave's Garden has submitted a fantastic how-to article on flowerpot makeovers with spray paint.

Melody recommends Krylon's Fusion® spray paint because it's designed to bond with plastic, which means it resists chipping and peeling as time goes by. She used the Hammered Finish line with beautiful results! I love how this looks, and I'd like to give it a try with one of my own aging and faded plastic pots.

Tip: be patient with your prep work. For the paint to bond with the plastic, it's critical to start with a smooth and completely clean surface. Therefore, allow plenty of time for scrubbing old pots down, washing them thoroughly, and leaving them to dry completely before cracking out the spray cans. I know, it's hard to have prep work patience -- because the spraying is definitely the fun part!

For more easy crafting ideas involving flowerpots and spray paints, check out Francesca's post on decorating flowerpots with your kids and Anna's post on stenciling with spray paint.

To kick off the updates for my circa 1969 family room, I started with a new, built in espresso bar. I started with a new cabinet, added some plumbing, wiring and topped it off with a concrete counter top. The counter cost about $100 in materials and took about two weeks from start to finish. Rather than re-create the book in blog form, I'll walk you through the process and try to share my experience with this entertaining project.

So you have decided to replace some fence posts, or add a walk way, or extend your patio, or dispose of a 1950's style gangster, or do anything else that requires concrete. After you check with your personal trainer, doctor, and have kissed your spine good bye, How exactly do you figure out how much to buy? Do you ask the guy pushing carts at the hardware store? Do you consult a palm reader? Do you just buy a mess of it and then make repeated trips back to the store in a never ending litany of "O.K., 3 more bags, 5 more bags, 12 more bags..."? (Not that that has EVER happened to me...)

Well the answer is surprisingly simple. Much simpler, in fact, than figuring out those dang angles to set your miter saw to to cut crown moldings. I mean come on! What kind of angle is 36.65344579? I can't seem to find that one anywhere on my saw! But I digress into what should be another article. It is even easier than putting together a tricycle at 1am Christmas morning before the kids wake up. The formula is this: Square Footage of the area to be covered x Depth of concrete in inches / 324. This will give you the number of cubic yards of concrete you will need. Now if you are going to have knowledgeable help and are looking at any amount over 1 cubic yard, I recommend you stop here and call in a truck of pre-mixed concrete. You will avoid a bill from your Chiropractor, and it will be a huge time saver. If, on the other hand, you find yourself bereft of suckers, er i mean friends, or are a masochist you will have to journey even deeper into the Land of Math to decide how many bags you will need to purchase.

Green flooring reduces damage to the environment and avoids the toxins that other flooring might expose you to. Building green is increasing in popularity and DIY'ers are among the pioneers in this area.

Here are 6 earth friendly flooring materials. The article Green Floors: Six materials to have underfoot outlines these flooring materials and offers important facts to consider when choosing a flooring product.

Every summer, I look forward to cooking outdoors. Lots of people have propane grills, which make outdoor cooking fast and convenient, but I use a small charcoal model similar to a Weber Kettle Grill. I don't think I'd move up to a propane grill, partly because the food cooked on it can have a "gassy" off-flavor (also possible with charcoal, if you use too much starter). On the other hand, I'd love to have a backyard large enough for a barbeque pit, like the one I remember my late grandparents having.

The Arizona BBQ Association has assembled a page of links that will show you how to build your own backyard smokers and grills. The projects are of two basic types: those based on masonry and those based on metal barrels, which usually require welding. The BBQ Lodge pit project is probably the simplest, but still, the designer had to cut some concrete blocks to shape.

None of these is exactly an "easy" project, but if you get started now, you'll have something to show off on Labor Day Weekend... and some really great meals for the rest of the season!