Prepping for the Presentation (DIY Post #17)

Yesterday Makenna's boyfriend Daniel helped us with the team room. He bought us some more double sided tape for the picture frames (using Adrian's money), and helped us put up the remainder of the picture frames. He also helped us paint the door. We put the couch covers over the sofas, and they look much more presentable. Connor and I also scraped the remainder of the blue paint off of the windows. We also borrowed a vacuum from the janitors, and cleaned up the ground. The end result was surprisingly really good. 

Testimonial video

We finished the team room by the end of 6th period on Wednesday, and a lot of our teammates came into the room shocked. They were stunned by the complete transformation of the team room, and we decided we would record their testimonials for the presentation the next day. The senior boys loved the team room and relaxed on the couches before their senior luau. 

Panoramic view of the completed team room :)

Just earlier, Makenna, Connor and I were all on Google Hangouts so that we could figure out what we were going to do for our presentation. I compiled all of the pictures and videos into iMovie.

We were going to speak while the pictures played in the background. After a bit of fiddling around - deleting some pictures, and figuring out what we actually wanted to say, we are ready for our presentation tomorrow.

Hard Core Work: Day 3 (DIY Post #16)

Picture frames

More picture frames

Picture frames, picture frames, and more picture frames. Our last main task was to get the picture frames up onto the wall. Previously, Makenna had painted all of the frames black, so that they would match the wall color better. We started sticking them up with thick double sided tape, as well as hanging them off of nails to ensure that they would stay on the wall. It was hard, tedious work putting all of that tape on the frames, and then sticking/nailing them to the wall. And by the end of the day, we still hadn't finished putting up all of the pictures, so it looks like we'll have to do some last minute work next week before the presentation.

Hard Core Work: Day 2 (DIY Post #15)

Navy Blue Curtains

the beginnings of the
shelf that holds the
projector up

I visited Caltech today! And when I came back to school, Connor & Makenna as well as a few water polo guys were helping get the curtains up. We got the curtains up, and they looked surprisingly good. Then Makenna had to leave, so Connor and I worked on getting the shelf back up. It took an annoyingly long time, and we were working until like 4 because Connor drilled the wrong screws into the wall - they were too small, so when we tested the shelf, it fell off the wall. The second time, luckily was a lot easier. And we finally got the shelf up. Coach Eric (the water polo coach) was laughing at the attempt. While we were working, the coach got a hammer and fixed the nail in the white board that Connor had messed up. The room is starting to look a lot better now, and our hard work is finally paying off.

Hard Core Construction: Day 1 (DIY Post #14)

I texted my coach to ask him if we could work on the team room during 6th period this week. Unfortunately, he said we couldn't because we need to spend more time with the team. However, we were allowed to work after 6th because the water polo coach Eric stayed after and supervised us.

Our main goal for today was to get the whiteboard back up onto the wall, and it was a good thing that we only had one thing on our list because it took forever. As soon as we finished practice, me, Makenna, and Jaden Todd went to work on putting the white board back up. Unfortunately it would take at least another hour for us to complete the seemingly simple task that we had set before us...

As we struggled to drill the holes in the right spot, water polo practice finished, so a bunch of polo players rushed in, eager to criticize/help. After a lot of time and frustration, we had 3 holes in the wall where the white board was precariously hanging from. Coach Eric came in to watch us, and he was highly amused to see us struggle. Finally, after it seemed like it the task would be impossible to do correctly (the whiteboard looked extremely crooked), he suggested that we "cheat." By cheating, he meant hammering the screws into the wall instead of using a power drill. I got 3 hammers out and me, Connor, and Dalton started hammering the screws into the wall. Dalton's and mine turned out perfectly fine, but Connor's was completely crooked.

However, the board is now on the wall, and definitely does not look as crooked as it used to. Tomorrow I'm going to be at Caltech, so I'm not sure how much work will be left when I come back to school, but we're gonna try and get the curtains up.

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.

Time to Paint! (DIY Post #10)

This week we finally set out to finish what we started last week: painting the room. Before we started painting, we had to move out a few things, including a bike (we had no idea whose it was), and there were still a few more holes that Makenna spackled, and I sanded, but that didn't take too much time. I would definitely say that this was the most fun we've had with this project because it wasn't terribly tiring or boring.

It was my first experience painting anything. I had never done anything like this before at my house, so it was really entertaining and exciting for me. The room looked amazing the paint dried, and all of us looked funny because we were in old clothes with paint all over us. My family and some of my church friends came to see the newly painted walls, and they all loved it. Then we closed everything up and went home.

However, about an hour later, while I was at Banzai Bowls, I realized that we had forgotten to turn off the lights, and put the bike back into the room so I called Connor and asked him if he could go back. I told Makenna about it too, and then she realized that she couldn't find the key that locked the gate. A few hours later I found that Connor hadn't been able to make it back to the team room to turn off the lights and put away the bike. Because of this, Makenna and I decided to go back. We were hoping that the gate was still open, because there were people instructing a kids swimming class when we left, but we had no such luck.

The only alternative was for me to jump the fence, to get on deck and do what I had to do. So I did just that. I jumped the fence. It was much more exhilarating as well as a lot easier than I was expecting. I made it over, and turned off the light, then climbed back over. Then, when I was about halfway back to the car, I realized that I had forgotten to put the bike back in. So I ran back, climbed the fence again, put the bike back into the room, and then climbed over the fence for the last time.

About an hour later, Makenna texted me that she had found the key, and the weekend ended in relief.

Unforeseen Challenges (DIY Post #9)

There were so many holes in the wall!

Yesterday we finally started the actual construction work of our project. Our goal was to get everything off the walls, repair the holes in the walls with spackle, sand the holes, and then paint. However, everything did not go according to plan. We found some time-consuming obstacles blocking our way to our ultimate goal: painting the room.

Connor and Makenna arrived at the pool deck about an hour before I did because I had to go to my club swim practice. When I got there, Connor was still trying to take some things off the walls and Makenna had started spackling the walls, but they were nowhere near done with the pre-painting work.  It had taken Connor half an hour just to take off one small bulletin board because of the strange way it was nailed into the wall. They had discovered that not only were the picture frames nailed into the wall, but they were also taped to the wall. So when I got there, I quickly got to work scraping off the paint, and sanding down the spackle while Makenna continued spackling the walls, and Connor worked on the last particularly stubborn screw that held the whiteboard to the wall.

The stubborn whiteboard that didn't want to come off the
wall. You can see the hole we made at the top - the white
stuff is the spackle we used to fill the hole. 

After working on the same nail for awhile, Connor finally stopped, and took a little break. I decided to go up there and give it a try by using the crowbar and brute force. At that point, we didn't care if we made a big hole in the wall - we just wanted to get that whiteboard off the wall. I pushed on that crowbar with all my might, and suddenly, the whiteboard started jiggling. Makenna kept wiggling the whiteboard, and the screw came out a little more. Then, Makenna switched the orientation of the crowbar, and I used all of my strength to use the crowbar as a lever to propel the screw out of the wall. Finally, after much exertion, the screw came out of the wall, and we emerged victorious and triumphant. But there was now a huge hole in the wall that we would have to spackle. We kept working - patching up holes, unscrewing things from the walls, and sanding down the newly patched up holes, but we realized that there would not be enough time to paint.

After patching up all of the holes we decided to call it a day and paint next week.

Change of Plans (DIY Post #4)

If we're not going to replace the carpet,
we have to at least clean it.

This week my group decided that it wasn't going to be feasible to completely rip out the carpet of our team room. It would take too much time and resources for us to complete by the end of the school year - especially with all of our busy schedules.

Makenna and I decided that it would be better if we just steam cleaned the carpet so that it would be clean and sanitary. We are planning on doing it sometime in the next month - depending on how much time we will need and how much time we will have. We will need to create a schedule with deadlines so that we know what we have to accomplish by the given dates.

This week marked the beginning of our competition period of swim season, so we will have at least one swim meet per week from now until the second week in May. The varsity girls team crushed the Wilson girls by 20 points, and we claimed our first victory of the season. The next few months will be a busy time for all of us - with swimming, school, and AP tests to deal with, so hopefully we will have enough time to work on our DIY project.

Taking Stats (DIY Post #3)

Measuring

The stuffing falling out
of the couches.

The gross carpet

Yesterday, my group began laying out a more organized plan of what we were going to try and accomplish. One of the goals that we set out to do was try and figure out how we can redo the flooring of the team room. As we did some research on different flooring, we found that our options were limited, and began to question whether it was even feasible to rip out and replace the current carpet. It became clear that we were going to have to spend at least a couple hundred dollars on just the flooring. Taking that into consideration, we considered our options - fundraising & donations.

More stuffing oozing out of the couches.

More measuring

One dilapidated couch

However, another problem presented itself. We didn't know how many square feet the team room actually was, so Connor and I measured it today during our annual pentathlon. We found that it was about 16.5' by 15.25'. Based on that, we now know that our team room is 251.625 square feet - even bigger than we expected. Now that we have the measurements, we can figure out whether it's financially feasible to redo the carpeting.

I also took time today to document the way the team room currently looks in the form of pictures so that we could show "before" and "after" pictures of the room. It was the first time I had actually gone into the room and closely looked at all of its flaws. The stuffing falling out of the sofas looked really disgusting - even though it was just stuffing.

DIY Project Intro

The middle room in the shed is our team room.

From now on, this blog will be dedicated to my group's new assignment for the semester: the DIY (do it yourself) project. Mr. Z instructed us to "make something." Makenna DuBois, a fellow swimmer, had the brilliant idea of redoing the school's team room. This idea was exceptional because not only would we be completing our project, but we would make an impact on our school. Over the course of the next few months, we are going to remodel our swim/water polo team room on the pool deck.

Currently the team room is a disgustingly dirty shed, with nails sticking out and stuffing oozing out of the furniture. I never go in there because I have always thought that it was extremely gross and unsanitary. We are going to remedy this, and transform the entire room into a place where the team can relax and enjoy its comforts. Some of our main goals include replacing the filthy towels we use to cover the windows with actual curtains. We are also planning on putting in a better TV and mounting a projector for the coaches' uses.

To start off the process, we have to talk to a few people, to get permission to make the drastic changes, and to make sure that our project is feasible. We have already talked to swim's head coach Mike Nichols, and have his approval for the undertaking. My job is to talk to Mrs. Lawler, the activities director, and make sure we have her approval for the project as well.

I will try to post in this blog weekly to update the status of our project.