DIY Life

Everything is expensive nowadays, and let's face it -- a summer vacation just may not be in your budget this year. You don't have to sacrifice family fun just because you can't get away, though; instead, follow my tips for a frugal staycation filled with old favorites and new adventures!

Come on in -- the water's fine!
No staycation would be complete without a day at the beach or pool, and you've got lots of cheap options.

• Got a friend with a pool? Bum a visit, and bring burgers and hot dogs for everyone. You've done your share -- and gotten a free day of swimming.
• Find a state park (here's a list of all U.S. state parks) with a lake and beach. They are usually only about US $5 per car; they often have BBQ pits so you can cook your own meals, and you could even rent a canoe.
• If you live in the mountains, you can probably pull over to the side of the road and frolic in the rocky river for the day, like we do when we visit New Hampshire. That's free, folks!
• Living near the ocean is quite a perk, and can cost anywhere from free to about US $20 per car. If you are coastal, you've got to take advantage!

Taking the concept of home theater to extremes: the gentleman who spent a jaw-dropping $6.8 million on construction of a home theater. Not just any home theater. The ultimate home theater. I mean, this thing has everything. Owner, Jeremy Kipnis, says his creation is "the greatest show on earth."

The theater is a large room, eight feet high at the entrance and sloping up to sixteen feet high. The centerpiece is a massive eighteen foot laboratory grade screen. Equally impressive (or tasteless, depending on your view): a super-powerful audio system with sixteen eighteen-inch subs arrayed around the seating area for totally realistic surround sound.

Naturally, the whole thing can play "ungodly loud," according to Steve from Audio Video Interiors. Yes, it's basically like having your own personal IMAX theater to hang out in.

For more home theater fun and games, check out my earlier post on home theaters, and Jessi's home theater-planning post. Also handy: Anna's post on DIY projection screens.

Looking for something to sew for a Halloween costume? Wondering how well the costume pattern you've chosen is going to work out for you? Look no further!

San Francisco's Greater Bay Area Costumers Guild was started in 1990 by a couple of people who... well, they just really love to create costumes. The group provides members with costuming resources, places to wear costumes in the form of themed special events, and a group of like-minded enthusiasts. The focus seems to be mostly on historically accurate costuming, with some other stuff that's just for fun. Some members sew professionally; for others, it's a serious hobby.

(They're not quite the same thing as cosplay, which usually involves dressing as a specific character or person in a detailed recreation of an existing film, TV, anime, or stage costume; however, you'll see a bit of cosplay here and there on their site.)

One of the GBACG's most interesting projects is The Great Pattern Review. Read more about it, and how it can help you with your Halloween plans, after the break.

Okay, so you have an idea of a home theater, but knowing exactly where to put speakers can be a guessing game. Not anymore. Setting up a home theater is easier than you think. Most people don't want a separate movie room, and for good reason. Most of us are not part of the Motion Picture Academy of Directors and don't need the $600 movie chairs with cup holders (although my husband would argue this). It only takes two great things to make any living room into a great movie room: audio set-up and video quality.

I'm not an audio or visual expert, but I do know what works in my room and my set-up. Every room and personal preference is different, so trust yourself when it comes to making adjustments and modifications for your set up. However, here are the basics for any home theater.

For older homes, it can be a chore to wire up existing bedrooms for cable TV, satellite TV or just about anything else related to punching holes in walls and fishing cables through attics. There has to be an easier way, right? While wireless Internet routers have made it easy to share an Internet connection wirelessly throughout a home, can the same be done for audio and video signals? Sure!

Using products like the Recoton DSC-IR100A and X10 Audio/Video sender, you can transmit that audio and video signal from the TiVo, cable DVR, DVD player or anything else out of the living room and into the bedroom without duplicating equipment like satellite receivers and DVD players. The X10 system can transmit a complete audio and video signal through walls from that living room setup to an existing TV in a kid's room or other bedroom, and the Recoton infrared/RF pair can let you use a regular remote control to work in that separate bedroom to control all that living room equipment through walls and such. Without an "infrared extender," that remote would become useless when it is out of "line of sight" from the main equipment. But, the Recoton unit solves that problem.

Using both of these items is an easy, fairly inexpensive and enjoyable way to get those audio and video signals from the main living or den area and into some other room while saving you time, a backache and the dirty job of attic crawling or wall holes and cable fishing.