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.

The Race for Approval (DIY Post #8)

The team room was disgusting
after the swim meet.

After our dual meet against Edison on Tuesday (our varsity girls beat Edison for the first time since 1997), the team room was completely trashed - and served as a push for us to take action, and start construction on it.

Since we bought the paint last weekend, our goal for the next weekend was to paint the team room. However, in order for this to happen, we needed to get the approval of Mrs. Lawler, the aquatics director at our school. I talked to her about the project about a month ago, and she thought that it was an excellent idea, but that we just had to make sure our paint was approved by her.

There was trash everywhere!

Unfortunately we didn't think to contact her after we bought the paint until I remembered Wednesday afternoon. I sent her an email asking what we would need to do to get the paint approved. Through a series of emails, I discovered that we actually needed the approval of the FVHS maintenance guy. However with both Mrs. Lawler's and the maintenance guy's busy schedules, it was unclear whether or not we would be able to get an appointment with both of them together before Saturday.
Because of this, I decided to stop by Mrs. Lawler's room on Friday morning and ask what the name of the maintenance guy was, and where we would be able to find him. We found out his name was Lloyd Chesmore, and we set out to look for him. Since he wasn't where Mrs. Lawler said he would be, we asked our school's activities director - Mr. Fraser where we could find him. He was able to page him on another maintenance guy's walkie-talkie, and we were able to get into contact with him. Mr. Chesmore told us that we didn't need anybody's approval for anything regarding the team room because the swim team paid for them originally. This basically gave us the "all-clear" to do whatever we wanted to the team room this weekend.

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.

Pitching the Project (DIY Post #5)

This week we had to work on presenting our project. While most of the groups presented on Friday, my group is going to have to present on Monday because Makenna, Connor and I were in Santa Barbara on Friday and Saturday for a swim meet. Since our presentation is only supposed to be 2 minutes long, we are planning on mainly improvising everything with some visuals playing in the background.

Originally our plan was to make a video that included our coaches, and quick interviews of our teammates to tell everyone the current terrible state of the team room. However, we did not have any time in Santa Barbara to record it, so we decided that we would just stand up in front of the class and give our presentation.

I was in charge of making the Google Presentation for the project, and I compiled a few pictures of the team room to put into the presentation. Each of us are going to speak about two slides.

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.