Saturday, December 18, 2010

We're 'Home Alone' & Sledding Down Our Staircase!

Yep, this is crazy and not very 'grown up' of us, but we HAD to do it! Plus, we need a little fun since we have been stressing over the Mini Bathroom, Spare Room Redo, and Christmas shopping. Alex and I were 6 years old when the first Home Alone movie came out and like every kid, we just LOVED it!  What kid didn't want to be as cool and clever as little Kevin McCallister outsmarting robbers and setting up a house full of traps? Most importantly, what kid didn't want to sled down their staircase and out the front door?  What a great idea!
A while back I blogged about how much I loved the Father of the Bride House because of the traditional layout and center staircase at the entry. The McCallister house from Home Alone has the same characteristics.  You can see a really detailed view and some behind the scenes facts on Hooked on Houses (fun fact- they made that whole house red and green colors in every room to give it an overdone Christmas feel?).

I really think the reason I wanted an older colonial style house is because of all those movies I watched growing up...  Grand center staircase at the entry, detailed woodwork, classic light fixtures, doors, windows... just so warm and charming! Our staircase is of course not as large and grand, but still has a similar look and feel.
So, 20 years later (did you know it was the 20th anniversary for Home Alone?) Alex and I are making that childhood dream real! A few days ago, one of Alex's coworkers mentioned how cool it would be to have a house where you could sled out the front door like in Home Alone. Alex said, "I have a house like that" and the idea was planted! Once he mentioned it to me I told him that it was an awesome idea (much to Alex's surprise) but yes, just a little crazy!

To do this without completely destroying our hardwood floors and stairs (we have put a TON of work into our little house), we may have gone a little overboard with our protective set up to protect for Operation Home Alone: House Sledding.  Just like in the movie, there is about 12 feet of level ground from the end of the stairs to the front door, therefore we had to use snow (yes snow inside = crazy) to create a slick surface to make it out the front door. Realistically, Kevin never would have made it out of the front door once he hit that rug and wood floors at the bottom of his stairs, gotta love the magic of Hollywood! 

For the first step, Alex grabbed spare wood from the garage to create a frame for the sheet plastic where we would put down snow. We'd later wrap the sheet plastic around these to create a bowl effect, with the goal of keeping all of the snow contained. The pups were very curious about this whole process :-)
Then he started securing the sheet plastic with trusty blue tape and a couple of staples into the wood boards. We also put layer of blue tape at the edge of each stair to protect them from the bottom of the sled.  Our sled was plastic as well, not metal like the movie, but they also had a runner down the stairs and a much larger budget (sadly, a special effects crew wasn't in our budget).

Then the snow came in (our poor dogs were very confused)!  I was freaking out a lot little, but stood by with several rag towels to sop up any melting snow that hit the floor.Once we had a good amount inside, Alex packed it down and smoothed it out with a shovel.

Then it was time to sled down the stairs!  Here is my little 'Kevin McCallister', Alex was REALLY excited to do the first test run.
Next, it was my turn!  Sorry for the camera flip at the end (Alex would never make it on a Hollywood movie set), but you'll get the gist of it.

Then I got one of Alex from outside. I wonder if our neighbors saw what was going on? 
We both took two trips down and then called it quits since it was pretty cold and we were still a little nervous about the snow in the house.  Fortunately it didn't take too long to clean everything up, and then we got to watch our little videos, which were hilarious!  I hope you enjoy them!

I realize this was crazy, but honestly I think that might be one of the best memories we will have in this house (thankfully a contrast from all the DIY work or the 2011 Tornado experience). We both agreed that this was a stunt that our parents would have never allowed, but one that we will never forget! I also have to give my hubby a shout out for setting this up AND for always being a 'kid' with me, I'm very thankful for that!

*** UPDATE!  Our little adventure has been featured on Hooked on Houses!  Check it out!

50 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh, this is so hilarious! Hi Carla, it's Felicia, Betsy's friend. I love your house and seeing all the updates you guys do to it!

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  2. I LOVE THIS!! You guys made my day with these videos. Looks like so much fun, and you were so creative to figure how to get it to work. I'm impressed! :-)

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  3. This is AMAZING. I just watched this movie with my boyfriend a couple weeks ago. I forgot how hilarious the movie is, and how beautiful that house is. I wish I could try it!
    I also love the name of your blog. I often describe myself as "heels by day, drills by night".

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  4. You are the most awesome couple EVER!!!

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  5. OMG! That's hilarious and looks like so much fun :)

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  6. My eleven year old son and I enjoyed this so much. Unfortunately, our stairs do not line up with our door, otherwise we would have... Enjoy your holidays and thanks for sharing a laugh and much JOY!!!!!

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  7. I'm loving the comments everyone! Glad you are having fun watching the goofy videos! I still can't believe we did this!

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  8. That was so awesome! You have no idea how jealous we are! I'm not sure I could convince Katrina to do something like that but she agrees that it looks like a ton of fun! I'm glad you're making such fun memories in your house :)

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  9. Awesome!!! Russ and I both love it! (Unfortunately there's a wall and turn at the bottom of our stairs...not an option). What fun - necessary with all of the DIY and yes! A great memory. So funny. Thanks for sharing! ;)

    Roeshel

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  10. My son is going to love this. He is such a fan of Home Alone right now. He is eight!

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  11. Merry Christmas Alex & Carla Marie!

    I gave you a "SHOUT OUT" on my blog today! Thanks for sharing your Magic!

    Unbelievable = B E L I E V E, with the two of you! *L*

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  12. That is hilarious!! I can totally see my hubby doing this, and our stairs (pretty much) line right up to our front door. Only problem is, we live in Charlotte, NC and when it does snow we can barely build a snowman. So glad ya'll are having fun and not taking life to seriously :) Hope you guys have a Merry Chrismas!

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  13. Aw! This is precious! (Home Alone just happens to be one of my and my 7 yr. old's favorites...Wishin' I had those stairs!)

    Merry Christmas,
    Jami

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  14. I'm mentioning this post on my blog today. Everyone needs to see this--I think it's so fun! :-)

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  15. I can't help but show this to my fiance...who will now be checking to make sure stairs line up properly with doors at open houses so he can attempt this himself.

    Merry Christmas!

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  16. You two are too much fun. Had to click over to here when I saw Julia's post about you - so glad I did.

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  17. I watched this with my 6 year old - we both LOVED it!! Y'all are so fun! Thanks for posting!!

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  18. BEST EVER! That's the way to enjoy your house!

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  19. AWESOME ! You're my newest favorite bloggers - what a fun, fun, fun adventure !!!!!!!

    thanks for sharing, I'm off to peruse the whole blog now !
    gena
    www.thehouseonlavenderhill.blogspot.com

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  20. That is the best DIY I have ever seen. Ever.

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  21. I just found your blog from Julia's "Hooked on Houses" and I was laughing my butt off.
    This so very much reminds me of my childhood - long before the film existed - when I exactly did that in our parents home - on the carpet though through the whole staircase with a wooden sled - the result - a spanking of course!!!!
    And there was another opportunity: a very long wooden staircase on the way to my school with more than 60 steps. In winter time when we had a lot of snow I took this staircase of course to slide it down with a sled - happy memoeries...no-one spanked me for this...

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  22. If I had snow I would definitely try this!

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  23. I'm guessing your neighbors would have joined in the fun if they'd known! You guys ROCK!

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  24. This is SOOOO cool! I love doing stuff that I wouldn't have been allowed to do when I was little - just like this!!

    Those videos have put a big smile on my face!!!

    Sarahx

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  25. You guys are awesome! That looks SO fun! The only thing I've done that even comes close to that is going down the stairs in a sleeping bag.

    As a Minnesota native, I love reading blogs from my homeland. I now live in SoDak, but my bro and sister-in-law still live in Mpls. HOLLA!

    Merry Christmas!

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  26. OMG I love it! Hilarious!! I'm your newest fan and follower! ;)

    ~Allison @ House of Hepworths

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  27. I found your blog through Hooked On Houses and I have to tell you that I had one helluva good laugh over your *rides*. You two are the same age as my children, so it made it even funnier. Thanks so much for the much needed humor! You two totally ROCK!

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  28. I. Loved. It!! It's great when grownups can be kids again; I'm proud of you! May you have a very blessed Christmas.

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  29. Thanks for the much needed giggle. My inner child loved this!

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  30. Oh, that is just so much fun! I love what ya'll did &how much fun you had. what a fun idea & I'm glad it worked perfectly. Merry Christmas!

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  31. Oh, how I envy you for that! I would so try it. If I had a staircase or a house.

    I blogged about you guys on my German Blog.
    Here is the link:

    http://pistazienundzuckerwatte.blogspot.com/2010/12/verruckt.html

    Greetings and merry christmas from Germany

    Yvonne

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  32. Not sure I would have the guts to do this, even if I had a house with stairs, but I think it is so cool that you 2 pulled this off!

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  33. oh my this is soooo funny!! I bet children AND adults want to try this (I know I do!) :-)

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  34. Oh what fun!! haha...that's awesome! Good on you for letting your inner child come out to play! WISH WE HAD SNOW IN THIS PART OF THE WORLD!! Love your blog, all the renovating before and after shots are inspiring...renovating on a budget, we can all use ideas on that, right?
    Thanks for sharing...found you thru a link on "dreams on 34th street"s blog... :)
    from jessie, nelson, new zealand

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  35. This is so funny. This is something my brothers and I would have done when we were kids if we had this kind of house. What a fun memory.

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  36. I love this post SO much! When my kids were young they used to ride a plastic sled down our stairs into a big pile of sleeping bags! Our door didn't line up, so they needed a soft landing place!

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  37. Ok, that is all sorts of awesomeness! We have stairs that lead to our front door..hmmm

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  38. So funny! this is 2012 in Feb and no snow here so we had fun watching you slide down your staircase and onto the snow and out the door! How fun!!! I have always enjoyed doing silly stuff like that with the kids but only ever so often so it's really a big surprise and they have a fun memory to look back on. One of my neices favorite memories is being at my house one summer and me clearing out our huge tiled downstairs den and then getting a bringing in a water hose through the doors and spraying a mist all over the floor and then adding soap, they slipped and slid all over the place and had so much fun , they couldn't beleive I was letting them do this in the house. I told them they were helping me mop the floors. They were happy to help me dry the floors with towels when we were through and ice cream followed. It's nice to know there are other unconventional crazy fun people out there. Thanks for sharing with us.
    J.

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  39. This is my favorite movie, and I was 5 when it came out! I am so impressed with you two, this looks like it was SO MUCH FUN!! Thanks for sharing your adventure!! ~Andrea (http://amommynous.tumblr.com)

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  40. Have you ever noticed in old movies the traditional one's never go out of style, even the furnishing, I guess that's why I also have and love it and antiques.

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  41. Love it! Thank goodness no one got hurt! (I'm a mom, that's the first thing I thought of!)

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  42. So much fun!!! I love how you guys are kids at heart. :)

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