How to Extend a Downspout the Easy Way

Your local building code my differ but most recommend the water running through the downspouts of your house discharge the water at least six feet away from the house’s foundation. Otherwise, the water can splash back and erode the soil around the downspout where rain water can get in to damage the foundation of your home.

Putting a splash block under each downspout is the easiest way to divert rainwater away from the foundation of your house and fix the problem.  That’s what the builder of my neighborhood did to our houses.

The results are hit and miss because the builder used a one measurement fits all approach and some of our downspouts are too high due to hills in the neighborhood and some of us have soil eroding under their splash blocks like my neighbor’s house shown below.

Pin this tutorial on Pinterest for later and share it with your friends!

Two Easy Ways to Extend an Existing House Downspout

Friday Favorites Linky Party 428

Time to link up and share your fantastic craft and DIY projects, recipes, tutorials, and ideas! I can't wait to see what you have in store for us this week!

How to Grow Basil Plants From Cuttings

Basil is one of my favorite herbs to grow in my self watering container garden.  It is affordable (especially if you grow basil from seeds,) fairly hardy (since I often forget plants need water to live,) and is the easiest (and cheapest) way to cook with the fancy varieties (opal basil, anyone?) I never see for sale in the grocery store. (Disclosure: I am including some affiliate links for your convenience.)

But the thing I really love about growing basil  is if you have one basil plant, you can use it to propagate the clippings to grow more basil plants!

Yes, really!

How to Propagate Basil Plants

Friday Favorites Linky Party 427

Time to link up and share your fantastic craft and DIY projects, recipes, tutorials, and ideas! I can't wait to see what you have in store for us this week!

How to Repair a Ripped Flag

Last summer, I repaired a rip in an outdoor garden swooper flag a new sewing client flies in front of his business to give it a second year of life. (I am including some affiliate links in this post for your convince.)

I didn’t write a tutorial at the time because I didn’t think there was much of an interest in how to machine darn rips and holes in a garden flag. Based on the number of questions I answered after I did the job it turns out I was wrong.

Luckily, I get a second chance to write a flag repair tutorial because the twin outdoor feather banner has a tear and a hole in the same place where flag sleeve (the part where the flag pole runs though) sits on and pulls against the top of the curved metal pole when the wind blows. The client asked if I would repair Flag 2 like I darned the tear and hole in Flag 1 since Flag 1 is still rip, roaring, and ready to fly.

The blob at the top is the client's attempt at repairing the hole in the flag with hot glue.

 Needless to say it didn't work.

How to Machine Darn a Rips, Tears, and Holes in Fabric

Friday Favorites Linky Party 426

Whoo hoo! Memorial Day Weekend is here for my US readers which officially kicks off summer - my favorite season! Which also kicks off my second favorite season - Smacking Stuff with Hammers in the Workshop Season.

In other words, I'm celebrating the long holiday weekend do repairs I couldn't do earlier this month due to the rain.

And now, we party!

Time to link up and share your fantastic craft and DIY projects, recipes, tutorials, and ideas! I can't wait to see what you have in store for us this week!