Disaster Strikes

And it's always when you least expect it, isn't it?

On Saturday I was washing dishes at the sink in the kitchen while Tom was studying in the living room.

And I felt a few drops of water drip onto my toes.

Thinking I had gotten overzealous in my dish-washing endeavour, I searched the countertop area surrounding the sink looking for the culprit puddle of water that I was sure would be there.

But there wasn't one. That countertop was dry as a bone.

Panic mounting and my heart in my throat, I opened the cabinet doors under the sink...

Water. Was. EVERYWHERE!

It came gushing out the moment I opened the doors like a giant waterfall with plastic bags and cleaning supplies floating in it like little toy boats.

Not. Good.

As Tom later told me, all he heard me saying at this point in time during the crisis was "Oh honey, oh honey, oh honey!" Apparently I was so overwhelmed I could not get a coherent sentence out for the life of me.

Tom asked, "What?! What's wrong?!"

All I yelled was, "Water!!!!"

Without another word I shut off the faucet and sprinted down to the basement to grab an armful of our "rag" towels to soak up the area of our kitchen currently acting as a lake when Tom walked into the kitchen and finally realized what was going on. Nothing like only being able to spit out one-word answers during a crisis, huh?

When I got back upstairs armed with a boatload (pun intended) of towels Tom had taken out the remaining items left inside the cabinet and was inspecting the plumbing.

The  brand new plumbing we had just installed about a year ago. Crikey.

This is a photo of the old plumbing before we replaced it..

Turns out there was a piece of pipe that we didn't replace and was really too short, and while it worked just fine to begin with, over the course of a year the daily use and shaking of the garbage disposal slowly loosened the pipe fittings and it slowly worked it's way out of the pipe it was connected to, creating a gap and ending with - you guessed it - a lovely waterfall in our kitchen. Which, looking back, we recalled finding that exact same piece of pipe with the same problem - loose and about to fall out, back when we removed the sink and plumbing to DIY our granite tile countertops. You'd have thought that would've clued us in, huh?

 

 The current plumbing (please excuse the bad lighting and nasty cabinet interior. Gross.

So instead of doing the planned studying/random DIY project combo this past Saturday, we spent the day at the hardware store and working under the sink to correct the problem. Because while we really do enjoy waterfalls, we don't quite enjoy them in our kitchen, thankyouverymuch.

And since the problem was our own fault to begin with (by not replacing a piece that should've been replaced), we have nobody to blame but ourselves.

So we let this serve as a true-life lesson: that while we do tackle everything as professionally and correctly as possible, the fact remains that we're not professionals, just amateur DIYers with a passion for remodeling and learning.

And that not everything has a happy ending round these parts.

Although we are certainly crossing our fingers that this time around the plumbing stays put and we do have a true happy ending in this case!

Anyone else detest plumbing? Do you have any DIY disasters to share? Surely we're not the only ones!

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How to Easily Save Money on Holidays

What with all the Valentiney ooey-gooeyness floating around last week, you might be left wondering how we celebrated the holiday.

{via}

Due to Tom being on his medical school rotations, he was scheduled to work the night shift all last week. As a result, I spent the "Day of Love" alone at home, and didn't even get to see him once all week. Wop-wop.

So what did we do?

It may be a little nontraditional and odd, but we postponed the holiday, which we've totally done in the past and loved every second of it. If a holiday falls on a weekday and it's just not going to work out, we'll put off celebrating it until a more opportune time - like the weekend.

What are the upsides of postponing a holiday?

More time. If everyone celebrating the holidays agrees to postpone it, then you've instantly got more time all-around to make sure you're adequately prepared for the upcoming celebration.

Better schedule. If the holidays falls on a bad scheduling day for you (like if your significant other is slated to work on Valentin's Day), you can schedule to celebrate the holidays during a better time for all participants. This also works well if you celebrate a holiday with several different groups of people - for us, we split up Christmas between two different states - Nebraska (Tom's family) and Florida (my family), and we trade-off year-to-year which family we spend the actual holiday with, and the other will agree to "move" the holiday to before/after the actual date.

Out of towners. If celebrating the holidays with guests who are coming from out-of-town, it may be prudent to postpone the holiday until a better time for them. Traveling is time consuming and expensive, and sometimes the cheapest flights are right on the day of the holiday or sometime after it, which can save your guests (and even you) some serious dough.

Our DIY personalized eye chart art

Cheaper gifts. No matter how you cut it, postponing a holiday is just cheaper. Why? Once the holiday has passed, many stores will put the holiday-themed gifts on sale, where you can make like a bandit for much less. Christmas ornaments for cents on the dollar, and Valentine's flowers and chocolates for c.h.e.a.p. Or, if you're like us, you can always take a little more time to whip up something meaningful for that special person.

Less crowded. Ever try to go out to dinner around a holiday, only to find that every restaurant has over an hour wait? It's not fun. By postponing a holiday you can avoid the rush and crowds and still enjoy your dinner.

Simple reasons, but all very valid upsides to postponing a holiday, whether it was forced or not. And these reasons all totally make me feel at least a little better about spending Valentine's week without seeing Tom -  because we'll be saving money this holiday! (at least that's what I keep telling myself, anyways).

What about you? Did you celebrate Valentine's Day on the actual day, or did you celebrate on a different date? Have you ever postponed a holiday? 

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Real Life Lessons: Outdoor Weddings

One of our readers asked me if I had any tips and tricks or advice for an outdoor wedding, as that is exactly what we had for our June 1st, 2008 wedding. While this is outside the usual DIY-project-amateur-adventure-craziness that we like to write about on our blog, considering that our wedding eventually lead to our house, and henceforth our current status as a DIY Crazy Couple (not to mention the fact that much of our wedding was a DIY effort as well), I figured that a Real Life Lessons series would, actually, be up-to-scratch for the incredibly high expectations of a This Fresh Fossil blog post series.

Yes, I'm joking.

But, nevertheless, read on for some of our tips and tricks for planning an outdoor wedding, DIY to save money, but most importantly having fun and making memories on your wedding day.

Outdoor Weddings

While outdoor weddings are incredibly beautiful and chock-full of ambiance (a large thanks to mother nature for that perk) they also have a few big downsides that you don't have to worry about with an indoor wedding.

The location. Where to have your big day is a huge decision, possibly the biggest one you'll make during all your planning. If you're looking for an outdoor venue, the beautiful choices that mother nature provides are endless. You could seal-the-deal on a mountaintop, beachside, on the ocean, underwater (not a joke!), in the forest, in the desert, or even in a garden. The options are limitless.

What's not limitless? Your budget.

If you're on a shoestring budget, like we were for our own wedding, one of the best options is to find a free venue. And no, you can't get married in a public park or on the beach for free. I know because we tried. It's sad, I know. So what's really F-R-E-E in terms of venue? A beautiful backyard.

If you already own a house, consider upping your landscaping and hiring some people to treat your grass to create and personalize your own personal wedding venue. You can even rent things for the big day like gazebos and such. If you don't own a nice sized backyard, consider asking family or friends if you could use theirs for the big day. I know if I was asked I wouldn't turn someone down. Think of the memories that would be made there! The best part? You could have the perfect wedding venue for your I-Do's for a couple hundred dollars versus a couple thousand dollars, personalized exactly the way you want it.

However, if you can't find anyone with a scenic backyard large enough for all your guests, consider finding a backyard that you can rent. For us, that meant finding a garden that was meant for weddings. After a bit of research and searching, we found the perfect garden that was picturesque and romantic and quiet - right in the middle of the busy city. The best part? We didn't have to worry about hardly any decorations, thanks to the beautiful display from mother nature.

The weather. Summer weddings are popular, especially in a spot like Orlando, Florida, where ours was. Thankfully, we knew already (due to me growing up there the first 18 years of my life) that June was the beginning of what I have officially dubbed "Monsoon Season", where it rains and thunders and the sky gets pitch black for 30 minutes at 3ish every single day like clockwork, and then it's over. Like sunny-blue-skies-and-birds-chirping-did-that-really-just-happen-holy-cow-over. Seriously.

Always have a backup building indoors that you can quickly move to if it rains, or watch the weather channel like a hawk (which I'm sure you'd be doing anyways if your wedding is outdoors). For us, since we already knew that there was a 99.99% chance of a crazy thunderstorm in the middle of our daytime wedding, we planned for a storm and had a backup building in place for the monsoon when it inevitably came rolling through. Of course, this is a always good idea anyway because you usually have to book your venue months in advance and so you'll have no idea what the weather report is.

But sometimes things work out in your favor. For us? It didn't rain one drop, a sure sign that someone was watching out for us, because that NEVER happens in Orlando during the summer. Never. The only downside? It was really hot and humid.

Prepare for every type of weather. Luckily, we knew that things would be sweaty-sticky-humid-I-can-barely-breathe ahead of time, so we warned guests on our invitations and wedding website that it would be hot so they should dress appropriately. I also bought sweat-proof makeup and selected bridesmaids dresses to accommodate the stuffy weather (I, and the groom and groomsmen, however, weren't so lucky!). We also took care of our guests and made things as comfortable as possible for them.

Don't forget your guests. They have feelings, too. And if you make things as comfortable for them as possible, they'll be very grateful. If it's going to be hot and outdoors, offer things such as hats, fans, bottled water and lemonade to help cool them off. Keep some umbrellas handy if there's a chance of rain. Having a beach wedding? Stash some spunky sunglasses and cheap sandals to keep the sun out of their eyes and their feet from blistering. We had fresh lemonade in pitchers (which doubled as decor, since the theme was lemons and sunflowers) and even an-easily-DIY-hand-fan, with our wedding program on it, to keep guests cool and comfortable (or as comfy as they could be, anyways!). What else did we do for them? We sprayed for bugs.

Bugs live outdoors, too. They're not called pests for nothing. Unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of bugs. And I'm sure most of your guests won't be, either. I was horrified to realize that bugs were jumping on me - literally crawling on me! - during our dress rehearsal. Thankfully, my amazing Aunt-Acting-As-Wedding-Planner was all over this, and asked the garden owner if they could spray the night before the big day while my amazing Aunt played Brave Bug Banisher only a couple of hours before the big event during the decor setup. And you know what? There wasn't a single bug the whole time.

I hope this has helped you with questions or concerns about having an outdoor wedding and dealing with the elements from mother nature, along with a few suggestions as to save some money (because weddings are expensive!) while keeping you and your guests comfortable. Stay tuned for more tips and tricks related to weddings, like how to save money with DIY!

If you have any questions, suggestions or comments, feel free to contact me or leave a comment below. Thanks for reading!

{Photography by Nancy Jacobsen Photography, nancyjacobsen@excite.com. Post-processing by yours truly.}

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