As I shared on my last post, I’ve just agreed to build a ramp for a kid’s birthday party. I don’t know what possessed me to do this, but here I am. It’s go time, no take-backsies.

After getting the call and agreeing to making the three items for this monster truck-themed birthday, the first step was running to my local hardware store and figuring out prices of materials because as I mentioned in the intro blog for this order, I’ve never done anything remotely like this before, so I have no idea what I’m getting myself into cost-wise (or other). I drew a rough sketch of what I wanted the ramp to look like, and looked around for materials that fit the bill. I ended up guesstimating I’d spend about $70-80 on materials, so I ran the quote and dimensions of the ramp by the customer, and with her green light bought everything I thought I’d need to bring this to life.

Have you ever underestimated the cost of materials? Rookie mistake. I do it almost always. I ended up spending about $2 under what I had quoted for this ramp… which would upset a normal person, but the quote had been agreed upon and the order was in motion, so what’s the point of getting mad at myself? No energy can be wasted on this, so I just called it “marketing budget” and swiped that card. Then, don’t ask me how, I managed to get the stuff on the roof of my car all by myself, and even though I almost lost a hand holding it down on the way due to high winds, I made it home in one piece. 

The following morning, I started to paint the pieces while my friend came over to help (huge shoutout to Sandy for being so patient and awesome and supportive and giving up her entire Saturday to ensure I got my orders done in time without losing my mind, or a limb).

Without further ado, please enjoy this #CraftingWithKathy episode for a behind the scenes look at the progress of the ramp.

And this was our result of a hard day’s work!

If you watched the video, you could hear my hesitation when we first got started, and my excitement at the end of the day when it dawned on me that I’d actually be able to pull this off. The rest of the work to be done is cosmetic, but the infrastructure (which is the hard, heavy lifting) is DONE! I can’t believe it. Stay tuned for the final result!

PS – I was able to return a few of the items I originally purchased… but then also had to buy a few more, so I’m not even sure at this point if I made any profit at all, but this project is my pride and joy and the satisfaction of having finished it is like nothing else!