Naomi, Sage – Author at Plaster & Disaster

The internet is full of blogs full of pretty pictures: pristine lofted workspaces, delicately decorated parties, perfect homes, and hairstyles that have at least 15 steps in them. The internet is a beautiful place!

But that’s not why you read this particular blog, is it? We know you can find much prettier pictures elsewhere, so we figure that you choose to spend your precious time reading Plaster & Disaster because you like seeing the disaster parts. And we appreciate that about you! Thus, even when we do show you pretty pictures, we’re committed to showing you the “ugly truth” that is happening behind them.

That’s how our “truth behind the photo” series was born, which shows the ridiculous backdrops, messes we moved out of the way, awkward poses, and makeshift set-ups which are behind our prettiest pictures. (See past posts: 1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6)

And what’s prettier than the 4th of July crafts we did a few weeks ago? Those things were literally only created to be in very bloggery photographs (and to see if you guys could tell which one was the spoof and which were real).

Like the way inequity lurks behind so much of what we celebrate in this country, there is also an ugly truth lurking behind each of these photos.

Take the pool noodle firecrackers to start. They sure look cheery hanging in the colorful room!

Well, the truth is that they were a pain in the butt to hang. They kept slipping around and falling over lopsided. It was only more difficult because we didn’t want to hang them in any sort of permanent way (the horror!) so we used painters tape to stick them to the beam in Naomi’s ceiling.

Not how you’d really decorate for a party!

You can also see that, because we knew we’d only be taking photos in one direction, Naomi didn’t bother cleaning the clutter out of her living room.

The pineapples were the surprise star of the day, proving themselves to be remarkably satisfying and easy to spray paint, and also incredibly photogenic:

Despite this being the easiest project ever, you bet that we found a way to complicate it! You see, we didn’t want to wait for the pineapples to dry completely because we wanted to get this photographed and be done with it. So that led to us loading still wet pineapples very carefully onto a board, and walking them the long way from Naomi’s back yard into the house:

They’re much heavier and wobblier than they look. We can only imagine what the neighbors thought as we carefully traversed two sets of stairs and wove our way around many obstacles. Very. Slowly.

And then there’s our patriotic rice candle holders, looking so bright against a white background. Whose beautiful white loft crafting space is this, you wonder?

No one’s. It’s just Sage holding up a board painted white in the middle of Naomi’s dining room.

Finally, the biggest blogger trick that we played was in the creation of our patriotic door mat.

This was by far the most complicated of the 4th of July projects we did. There were like 4 whole steps. So it’s no wonder that by the end of it we were a little fatigued with crafting and wanted to cut corners in the way we attached the bandanna fringe.

And by cut corners, we mean…

… not attach it at all! It really only had to be assembled to be in one photograph so we decided not to waste our precious tape, staples, or time attaching it. We just stuffed the edges under the mat and took the picture.

So, as you can see, our beautiful day of crafting wasn’t so beautiful after all! Thanks for liking us, anyway.

Outdoor improvement continues! As you may recall, one item on our list of projects for this summer is to build screening to cover some of the eyesores hanging out in close proximity to our new deck:

My plan has been to build screening around all three of these that matches the style of the trellis I built on the shed:

Finally I got to work! Like for the trellis, my main building materials were 8′ 2″x3″ studs and 6′ pressure-treated fence pickets that I found on sale at Lowes for $1.25 each.

I started with the AC surround. My first task was to build the corner supports at all four corners using 2″x3″ studs. Like with the trellis, I stained them first (Minwax Espresso) as I knew it would be hard to get into all the nooks and crannies once the slats were on. Then I simply cut them to length to be as tall as the AC unit, and attached them in each corner. For the corners along the wall, that meant drilling them into the siding, and adding blocks at the bottom to bridge the gap between the foundation and the support:

I didn’t actually drill the bottoms into the foundation, they’re essentially just resting there because I knew that the slats would provide stability side-to-side. This doesn’t need to be a fortress or withstand a lot of pressure.

The supports on the front corners I drilled right into the deck, but since the deck has a slight overhang, first I added blocks to create a surface flush with the edge and then I drilled the posts in.

With all four posts in place, I was ready to start adding slats. Just like with the trellis, I used my miter saw to cut each one to length, and then placed them piece-by-piece using a scrap piece to space them evenly. On the first side (the side closest to the crawl space), I used screws (rather than nails) to attach them because I wanted to make it easy to remove them if the AC needs to be serviced.

After installing the first side, I stained the backs of the pieces because I knew that once I put up the other two sides it would be basically impossible to get in there. I plan on staining the deck a dark wood tone, and so went with a very dark stain — Minwax’s “Ebony” — to achieve an almost-black tone for the surround that I think will complement nicely. The pickets soak up the stain very quickly, so I just needed one coat with a foam brush to get full coverage.

Next up I tackled the other side. This time I stained the back of each piece before installing it, as this side is a little closer to the AC and I wouldn’t have been able to reach all the way back in once the slats were up.

I worked with them while they were still wet so I did get stain all over me, but I survived. Fun fact: olive oil acts just like paint thinner/turpentine — just slather your hands/arms with olive oil to lift the stain, and then wash up with soap and water.

For this side and the front, I used my nail gun rather than screws — this was much faster, and I don’t plan on needing to be able to remove the whole surround unless we replace the AC unit, in which case we’ll reconsider its placement anyway.

I did have to be careful because even though I was starting from the ground on this side (rather than the top of the deck), I still wanted the boards to line up with those on the front and other side so I needed to consider what spacing off the ground would result in the boards landing in just the right spot relative to the other sides:

Next I did the front of the surround the exact same way, staining the backs before installing.

In the process, I made quite the mess.

Lastly I stained the whole outside.

Success, AC gone!

Next I tackled the screening along the concrete foundation. For this, I used 2″x3″ studs as short posts, which I attached to the deck using brackets.

I made five of them, spaced evenly across the back of the deck. Then it was as simple as cutting the pickets to length and nailing them in place, three high in each section.

And lastly, I built screening to cover the crawl space doors and AC wiring. I plan on building a planter box that will sit in front of the crawlspace in the nook created by the AC surround, which I will to put on wheels to that I can move it if we do need to get in to service the AC. Thus I want to attach the screening behind it to the planter box, because if we’re growing vining plants up the trellis, I don’t want to have to kill them if I need to slide the planter box out of the way — I want the whole thing to move as a unit.

I haven’t quite gotten to building the planter box yet, but I built the screen in the meantime. Basically first I just built a frame out of 2″x3″ studs:

And then nailed on pickets cut to length.

The reason for having the left-most post inset a little (ie not on the very end) is that the AC wiring juts out further from the house in the back corner, so the post would bump into that and the whole thing would need to sit further out from the wall. This way there’s a bit more clearance for the wires and the whole thing can slide further back once it’s mounted to the planter.

Here’s everything in place:

I did get lazy and didn’t finish staining everything — I figured I could do that all at once when I build the planter (hopefully soon). But in the meantime you get the idea! Also I plan to paint the gray power box above the AC tan, so it will blend into the house more. I think once the deck is stained, the whole thing will tie together nicely. It definitely helps hide some of the less attractive elements around our deck.

I couldn’t even bother to move that pile of rocks and bricks out of the photo…nice, Sage, real nice.

The one other difference in these photos is the downspout on the left edge of the deck. As you can see from the before photo (where the bottom of the spout is just lying on the ground), it didn’t really work anymore with the deck in place. Rather than just getting a shorter spout and having the gutters drain right onto our deck, I got a flexible spout (which I found on Amazon for $9 — affiliate link – read our policies) that I could then direct off of the deck.