Today I’m sharing a fun project I just completed and I hope you’ll jump in on this one with me, because this is a competition. Yes! A friendly little fun competition! I’m competing with another blog friend, Chelsea with Two-Twenty One, who also did a stencil project and we will be going head to head for votes.
So, I hope I can count on all of YOU to vote for me. PLEASE take the time to vote for me. The competition will end on October 30 and you can vote every day. If you vote, you will be eligible to win a FLEX pressure washer (and one attachment) for yourself as well. The winner of the competition between myself and Chelsea, will win a $1,000 Lowes gift card, so I’d love to win that!! (with your help!)
When you vote on that Troybilt Facebook page, once you click Submit, it will pop up a message that says “voting period has ended”. Not to worry, that just means you have voted that day and can’t vote again until the next day (once a day). Please vote as often as you can! I’ll be reminding you too!
Let’s take a look and see how this all came about. Troybilt contacted me awhile ago and asked if I’d like to join this competition and use their new Troybilt FLEX pressure washer machine to complete this fun stencil project. She sent me samples of what they were talking about with the stencils and I thought it looked really fun.
Besides, I have a really dirty sidewalk that could use some artwork on it, so why not?!
Here’s that really dirty sidewalk now! It definitely needs some love. The sidewalk and my driveway are areas I haven’t gotten to yet, but pressure washing was always on the list. I’m glad I didn’t clean my sidewalk yet, because this stencil project is pretty cool and I love how it turned out.
Troybilt delivered this fancy red FLEX pressure washing system, which is a gas powered base unit and the pressure washer attachments connects with a snap. This machine also has other attachments, like a mower, leaf blower, snow thrower, and chipper/shredder. I’ll definitely share more about the FLEX in another post.
For this project, I got to pick out several stencils, so I chose these leaves to play around with.
The main stencil I wanted to use on my sidewalk is the cobblestone pattern. These stencils are heavy plastic and perfect for a project like this.
Here’s a little video I did showing how easy it is to do this.
I did a couple of test runs with the stencil and decided to leave a border on each side, since the stencil had to be moved side to side to make the pattern work. This was moving it once from right to left and since the pattern doesn’t completely match up, you can see a line, but when it was all done, it looks really cool!
I moved back and forth on the sidewalk, lining up the stencil as best as I could and then shooting it with the pressure washer. The FLEX works great and is really fast. I’ll do another post later and tell you more about the machine, but it definitely does the cleaning job well. I can’t wait to tackle the whole driveway with it.
I placed my feet on either side of the stencil to keep it from moving and moved the wand back and forth and watched the dirt fly. You can see by my legs that I have dirty water all over me. This is definitely a messy job!
Once completed, I have a cobblestone effect on my sidewalk. I decided to add some cute leaves to the end of the sidewalk too.
And tada, here’s the whole sidewalk. Done! I think it looks very cute and cottage-like and I plan to keep it for awhile. If I get tired of it down the road I’ll just pressure wash the whole thing, but for now I think it’s really cute and a conversation starter.
Amazing how dirty that sidewalk was!
Once I finished and looked at the whole thing, I was very pleased with the results.
My sidewalk is not in perfect shape as you can see, but this at least gives it a little character.
I tried out the more leafs outside the garage door and this took no time at all.
It really was fun making these shapes on my sidewalk, but I’ll be pressure washing all of this to make it nice and white again soon!
In the meantime, I hope you’ll help me out and vote for my project on the Troybilt page! This is just a friendly little competition and whoever gets the most votes will win, so I hope you’ll help a girl out. I’ll be posting reminders the rest of this month and it would be nice to win that $1,000 gift card from Lowes!
You can click this Troybilt link to vote for me!!
Thanks so much for your vote!!
Note: This post is sponsored by Troybilt. I’ve been compensated and sent a free FLEX pressure washer to use at my home, but all ideas and creativity is my own.
Pam Clark says
I just tried to vote and it said the voting period had ended.
Ann says
I just voted and it seemed to work for me.
This is such a fun idea. Does Troybuilt make the stencils also?
Renea says
I got voting has ended …..twice. 🙁 will try again.
Rhoda says
Ann, she told me these stencils were made just for us, so I’m not sure where they came from.
Mary Ann says
Didn’t work for me either…..tried a couple of times
Chris O. says
I also got the message that the voting period has ended.
Kay says
Help! Will not let me vote, got the “voting ended” prompt.
Jan Siar says
I did as well and am wondering if it is just telling us that the vote was registered and we can’t vote again til tomorrow.
Mary says
Rhoda, just got the same message, voting period has ended…could you look into this please, I really like what you did with the troybuilt and want you to win! Amazing the difference it made, I would love to win one of these machines.
Pam C says
Darn. Missed the voting period!
Rhoda says
Hi, ladies, I’ll ask and see what that means, but I have a feeling it did register and that means, you can’t vote again until tomorrow. I bet it worked, but I will doublecheck. I tried it too and got that as well.
Rhoda says
I did confirm and yes, it just means you voted that day and can’t vote again until the next day. Thanks and please vote as often as you can from now until Oct. 30th!
Jean from Georgia says
I have a Troy pressure washer and, even though at age 72, I should not be climbing ladders and pressure washing, I do and have a project going on this week. Today I plan to pressure wash my white garage doors and paint them a wood tone. You will love this machine. Hope you win!!
VintageBeachgirl says
Same results as others with the voting.
I love what you did with your sidewalk, wow that was a lot of work!
It’s artistic, cleverly done and I feel sure you will win the competition if those are the criteria! Best of luck!!
I’m going to look for some stencils I can use for my sidewalk……(I didn’t see where you said you got yours but will look again). It will take me longer bc my pressure washer is not the Troy Bilt you used but I have a much shorter sidewalk, Yayyy!!
I have to say that this is the first time I’ve seen having something dirty and neglected as an advantage, clever of Troy Bilt to come up with the idea!! How fun!!
Rhoda says
Yep, I was really happy I had never touched my sidewalk when I got that email! Perfect place to do it.
Gilda says
WHY do people all of a sudden start their sentences with ‘So,”????? have you noticed this? Even when speaking! I find it curiously annoying…
Rhoda says
Well, maybe because it causes folks to pay attention to what is being said. It’s a filler word and yes, I do use it.
Tricia says
I just voted without problems. Love that stencil pattern you used, Rhoda. Looks great! Troybilt products are built to last. My dad had a Troybilt rototiller 50 years ago and it lasted at least 35 years. I’m buying one next spring to use at my new home.
Sarah says
I voted without a problem, Good Luck!!!
VintageBeachgirl says
Just spoke to a rep at Troybilt about purchasing the stencils; she reports that the computer glitch should be fixed by tomorrow and hopefully the stencils will also be available on the site at that time.
Rhoda says
Thanks for that! My rep assures me that the votes are being counted. The message means, you’ve voted for today and can’t vote again until tomorrow. I’m so glad they are getting the stencils available, I was hoping they would!
Genna Lyle says
Love this and would love to do this to my sidewalk also! Am interested in where to get the stencils. One question I have is I wonder how long this will last before you have to redo and how will you redo?
Rhoda says
Genna, since it takes a dirty sidewalk to do this, once it starts getting dirty again, there would be no way to redo it and have it work. I’ll leave mine for a long while and once I get tired of it or it looks bad, I’ll just pressure the whole sidewalk fresh and clean again.
Rhoda says
Thank you all for voting! I’m way ahead already so keep it up! If I win the Lowes $1000 gift card, I’m going to treat myself to a new washer and dryer and can give away the Craigslist set I bought when I moved in here.
Carole says
This is so pretty I love this. I have a area that I need these stencils for. I hope I can find some. This made your sidewalk look so nice I like the boarder you left on each side . Very pretty
KittyLuvr says
I plan to purchase a power washer for my business and this is just what I am looking for. I love the stencil idea and plan to purchase those as soon as they are up on the website! Thanks for the info! voting now!
Sandy says
Wow! What a fun competition. You’ve got my vote! Didn’t realize you were stenciling with a powerwash machine! I love the stencil you used.