A Garden Project

This was the front of our house yesterday.

I was looking through a home improvement magazine once, and I found a “how to” for a fountain. I thought it was cool, but, not much else.

I believe the last Christmas that my grandma was alive, and bought Christmas presents, she gave my sons a small bench. It was really cute, and it’s come with us through three moves now. But, my kids really are too big for it. It’s been repaired a couple times, and for quite sometime it just sat in the weeds in front of the house, decaying. This weekend, Aussie and I pulled all the weeds and trimmed back the trees. I decided, since I don’t have my kids this week, I was going to do a project, and I was going to make a fountain.

First, the bench needed taken care of. My dad had sprayed it with red stain years ago to try to protect it, but, he wasn’t careful and sprayed the metal as well. But, even that stain had faded, and the wood had aged. I didn’t get an original before pic, but, I’ll post where I started.

If you know me at all, you will know, I almost NEVER tape things off to paint, I’ll just be careful.(And it never works that way) But this was special.

Yesterday, it rained all morning, and threatened rain all evening. But, I painted anyway. Thinking I could move the bench if needed. Eventually I did move it to in front of the front door, where it would be covered. I removed the tape..

I am so glad I kept that old table cloth! See how aged the wood looks?

Then I decided to start staining the wood. I was really pleased with the color combo.

Now it just has to dry.

This morning, I was looking forward to sleeping in. Instead I woke up an hour before I normally do, and couldn’t get back to sleep. So, I got up, and I went out to dig a hole. It was then I realized, I wasn’t digging a hole, I was chiseling out a circle in the ground with whatever sharp objects I could find. An hour later, there was a hole.

Now, comes time for the kitchen things…the thing holding the water is a $1 mixing bowl from Target. The thing holding the rocks above the water is a baker’s cooling rack. I bought the pump at Lowe’s. It said use either 3/8″ or 1/2″ tubing. I picked 3/8″ and it floated right out. So, I wrapped duct tape around it and made it fit.

I hauled the bench back out to the front of the house, and brought out the watering can. I set it all up. And now, the finished product…

Ok, not quite the finished project. I need to hide the tubing and the cord better. And, I’m thinking maybe a smaller watering can, what do you think? And I am contemplating a small stepping stone leading to it. An “in memory of” kinda thing, for both my grandma and the baby I lost several years ago. I always wished I could have done something for him…maybe this…using the bench my grandma gave us. What do you think?