Post-Presentation Stuff (DIY Post #19)

I bought 2 of these fans! :)

Today I bought 2 $25 fans with the $50 we got from Home Depot. They will hopefully help keep us cool in the team room so that we don't die of heat exhaustion in there. Our hope is that it will improve the ventilation. I gave the fans to Connor so that he can set them up in the team room. And our project is officially over! :) This is officially my last DIY post!

Shopping, Shopping, Shopping (DIY Post #13)

Flooring options @ Home Depot

This weekend Makenna was out of town doing stuff, so she left me and Connor to do the shopping for the curtains and other things we needed to finish the room. So first went to Home Depot to give the assistant store manager Christina the newly procured letter from Mr. Herzfeld's secretary. After looking around at more flooring options and baseboards, we decided on which ones we wanted, and went to give her the letter. After waiting for about 15 minutes, we made she came back with 2 $25 coupons for us to use for our project. Unfortunately, that was nowhere near enough to pay for new flooring, so we had to explore different options.

$25 coupons from Home Depot

Next we went to Big Lots to get some curtains and rods for the windows in the team room. We picked out a dark navy blue for the curtains, and some black rods. However, the customer service at Big Lots wasn't that great, so we were glad to get out of there fast. We purchased the curtain stuff, and then proceeded to head home when I realized that we had forgotten to get 2 curtain rods. Neither of us had more time that day, so we decided to meet again today (Memorial Day) to head to Big Lots again, and get another curtain rod. So we went there, and got it, and then we were done for the weekend.

The Race For Approval - Take 2 (DIY Post #12)

the non-profit letter

A little over a week ago, Makenna and I went to see Mr. Herzfeld to ask him for the non-profit letter that Home Depot requires for us to get grants. After about half an hour, we finally got to speak with him, and he said he would do it for us. However, he said that since it's a DIY project, he thought that we should write the letter, and then he would put it on the official letterhead, and sign it. 

So we quickly wrote the letter, with a lot of help from Makenna's grandfather, and sent it to him within two days of our last conversation. However, it had now been a week, and we still didn't have the letter. After both days of STAR testing, we tried to see the principal's secretary, but both the principal and his secretary were never there, until today. 

This morning Makenna and I finally got the chance to talk to the secretary during Mr. Z's class, but she didn't even hear about our email or what we were trying to accomplish. Fortunately she still gave us a standard letter stating that the school is a non-profit organization. But we didn't get the tax exemption number because apparently the school never gives that information out. During lunch I found Mr. Herzfeld, and talked to him about it, and he said he wanted to help us out, but I told him that we already had what we needed, and thanked him for his time. 

Now that we have the letter, we can actually try and get some financial help from the Home Depot employees. This weekend Makenna will be on vacation, so Connor and I will go to Home Depot to try and procure some sponsorships, as well as Big Lots to get some curtains and rods.

Everything Comes With a Price (DIY Post #11)

APs are here! Last week as well as this week were surprisingly really relaxing for me, since I only had to worry about AP testing. I was barely at school due to CIFs for swimming and AP tests last week, but I had loads of time.

This weekend, before the Mother's Day barbecue at my house, Connor and I went to Home Depot to figure out the flooring situation of the team room. We needed to figure out what type of flooring we wanted to get as well as how much it cost. In addition, we also wanted to find out if Home Depot could sponsor us, and at least pay for some of the cost. The staff was really helpful, and one of the employees helped talk us through the ideal flooring for the room. However, it would cost around $300-$350, which was way beyond our minuscule budget.

I asked him about a potential sponsorship, and he was extremely happy I asked. He said that Home Depot is really big on giving back to the community, and that we should talk to the store manager. Since the store manager wasn't there, we talked to the assistant store manager who gave us some options: 1) we ask for a letter from the principal showing our school's non-profit status so that we could get some $25 coupons from the store or 2) fill out a bunch of paperwork and forms online to get a sponsorship from Home Depot [which would take forever]. We decided to keep our options open, and just try and get the letter from Mr. Herzfeld.

So this week our goal will be to secure the letter from Mr. Herzfeld, and try and get a sponsorship from Home Depot while performing our best on our AP tests.

The Process of Purchasing the Paint (DIY Post #7)

Color-Adding Machine

Since I was in Germany for the last 2 weeks, we didn't get a chance to work on the project until this weekend. So yesterday we decided to meet at Home Depot and purchase the paint as well as any other supplies we would need.

Paint Mixer

None of us had purchased paint before, so we spent the first few minutes looking for Glidden's Pool Party Blue - to no avail. So instead of spending more time looking for the color, I decided to ask one of the employees. She said that we would not have been able to find that color, because they had to make it for us. With that, she asked us what color we wanted, and then what type of sheen we wanted the paint to be. We were completely unprepared for that question because we didn't know there were different types of sheen for the paint. The incredibly helpful lady helped us make our decision, and said she would make it right away. 

Self-Checkout

As we were waiting for her to get started on making our paint, we quickly found some spackle that we would have to use to repair the numerous holes in the walls in the team room. Then she began making our paint color. Through numerous machines, the employee transformed a can of white paint to our Pool Party Blue color. The process seemed really cool, and it was interesting to see the different steps required to transform the white paint. The whole time the paint was in the machines, the lady chatted with us about her experiences in the paint department, and before we knew it, the paint was ready. 

Our final challenge was to checkout the paint. We scanned our 3 items at the self-checkout area, and after a few attempts (Connor forgot the pin number to his debit card, so I paid in cash), figured out how to pay what was due. We split the cost 3-way.

Picking the Paint (DIY Post #6)

the paint section at Home Depot

This morning I went to Applebee's to work a fundraiser for the FVHS swim team. As the hostess I got to talk to welcome all of the families to the restaurant, and thank them for their contributions. Soon after, I went to practice, and then the three of us - Makenna, Connor, and I went to lunch at Souplantation.

some of the many different colors
there were to choose from

After a busy morning, we headed over to Home Depot to pick out the paint color for the walls of our team room. When we got there, we realized that there were a ton of different colors to choose from - different shades, different sheens, and many other aspects of paint that we had never even heard of. We decided on a color called "Pool Party Blue," a product of the Glidden Paint Company. However, we didn't purchase anything because we weren't sure if the paint would be approved by the school.

I leave for Germany tomorrow, and I will be there for the next 10 days, so we won't be able to work on the project until I come back. Once all of us are back in town, we will purchase the paint and begin construction on the room.