#or the dream where they bought my backyard and expanded into it

[flynnmoore]

Stewart's dreams in the tags but I have this one dream that will literally scene cut in the middle of another dream with no transition, and then go right back into the original dream

and I'm in the basement of my parents place, showing my roommate Toby down my dad's little work room. but it's very old and dilapidated, dark and run down with cobwebs everywhere and the stuff all falling apart. it's such a long hallway, longer than in reality, since it's just one relatively long room like an aisle in a store, but in the dream it just keeps on going and going and going, no matter how far we walk. at the end of the room, there's a table with some boxes and metal bars and tools on it, but at the back of the table, obscured by the boxes, is a skull and a longbone of some sort, not sure which. when I reach it, Toby always notices and asks me about it.

in the dream, it's pretty clear that it's my father's bones, and somehow it's involved in a murder. I didn't kill him, but I'm also somehow involved. and the first time, I told Toby "It doesn't matter, don't ask about it," but every single time since that I've had this dream, I seem to get more and more worked up about it, reminding them that I said not to ask about the longbone and it's none of their concern.

then there's a solid thirty seconds of Toby standing at the table, in almost complete darkness as they look at me, while I'm standing between them and the exit, the lights behind me seemingly unable to illuminate past me. they just stare at me, and neither of us say a thing

and then the dream I was previously having cuts back in and it's like nothing happens

everyone has dreams about being lost at school, late to work, cant find bathroom etc but whats yalls most common Uncommon stress dream. ill always have dreams about having various problems with my fish tank

[hughiecampbelle]

Parting Gift (Sam Wilson Oneshot)

Character/s: Sam

Word Count: 1,411

Tag List: @dontdowhatisayandnobodygetshurt @myriadimagines @lilyswritings @encounterthepast @writerdream22 @brithedemonspawn @megnotfound @ladyeliot @locke-writes @thedarkqueenofavalon @fangirlsarah16 @randomfandomimagine @amirahiddleston @diana-westmoon @valkyrie-2312

A/N: This was supposed to be fluffy, but the closest I can get to that is melancholy lol. The weathers been nice and it got me feeling nostalgic for summer. I hope this gives off that vibe, if that makes sense? Sam just seemed perfect for this and I kinda love this :) It doesn't exactly fit the timeline, but oh well :P There are only Endgame spoilers, none with TFATWS. I can't thank you enough for letting me rest with my health/writing and posting in general. I hope you like it! Feedback is always appreciated 💜💖💜

Summary: You finally got him back 💌

Gif Credit: @biwilson / link 💕

FIC MASTERLISTS 1 -> 3 /WANNA BE ADDED TO THE TAG LIST?

The low hum of the fan stirs in the quiet heat, restless, a lullaby you've grown used to since the season thawed. The snow puddles disappearing from the hot sidewalks, the grass growing green, the layers shedding around you until there is nothing but skin and the cool air that kisses it. It's old and shaky, the blades twisted, the fixture rattling, threatening to fall from the ceiling with every spin. Another chore you simply never got around to fixing, neglected much like the rest of the house. Like you, it was lucky it was still standing. The floors cried and creaked, needing to be replaced, but where was the time? The paint chipped, falling flake by flake, the shelves in need of dusting, the lawn grown too long, things were rusted, ruining, aging. Everything crooked, leaning, too heavy to stand on its own. One in the same, you and it, a reflection of your inner world, your inner turmoil, your grief defying, humanizing, materializing in rusted pipes, in thorny bushes, and weeds sprouting in the cracks of the sidewalks.

It was your dream. An escape. A slice of heaven he plucked from the skies. At least, that's how he'd described it. His hand, warm and calloused, over your eyes, letting your suspicions get the better of you, questioning like a child. What color was the door? How many windows? Was there a backyard? A steadiness in his voice you knew was not as solid as he showed, leading you past the street, past your new neighbors, the shade of the trees making your skin prickle. Up the path, you tried counting your own steps, anything to cheat the system. A leap of faith, you put so nicely. A house he passed by, one that struck him, caught his eye in a way nothing ever had. You? A house? Romanticized by the shoe box apartments the city had to offer, you never pictured any other life. Not out of opposition, but sheer innocence, a passive, thoughtless gesture you'd never recognized until the opportunity came along. Little convincing, it took. Somewhere far away from danger, from life, where you would always be safe together. That was enough. Always would be.

A fixer upper, that's what it was. Someone to care for in their old age, a long forgotten space only one with a heart of gold could fall for. Whether you were speaking of you, or the house, he'd never get the chance to ask. Where he saw the two of you, together, watching the rain pour from outside, comforted by a warm kitchen, a grand bedroom, nooks you could fill with hints of yourselves, you saw a slanted driveway, an unkempt garden, leaky ceilings and no hot water. He had hope. Dripped in honey,band hope, his voice sang through the thin walls, a symphony of ideas, of dreams for what it would one day be, taking you by the hand, leading you through. A maze of projects, big and small, things you'd add to a list of infinite length, your pen running out of ink long before you ever reached the bottom. For now, a coat of paint, a bucket or two for the leaks. He promised you, in the middle of an empty house, that it would one day be your home. You trusted him, because he was so sure of it, unlike anything else before.

You watched him sleep, the two of you facing one another. The sheets long discarded, too warm to even touch. You could follow the rise and fall of his back, the way in which he held the pillow to him, as if scared to let go. Tracing every line of him with your eyes, taking note of every single change, drinking him up every second you had together. The beads of sweat across his hairline. The upturn of his mouth, a whisper of a smile, as if caught in a sweet dream. The lines you see in yourself not yet reflected in him. Untouched by time. Five years could turn into a lifetime with the right kind of loneliness.

Plastic stuck to the furniture, bloated, sweaty, patiently waiting to be unwrapped. You couldn't bear to look at it, any of it, turning away from entire rooms, going only where it was necessary, using what you needed, not ready to face this place alone. It wasn't that first day, where your things, tightened by the city smog and lack of breathing room, were scattered wherever they might fit, left to expand in their new environment. The kitchen table in the living room. Chairs in the hallway. A couch discarded by the window, blocking the natural light. For the time being, he promised. Too many boxes to count, filled to the brim of glasses and mugs, wedding pictures and high school yearbooks, things you thought you needed, and things you knew you did. All of it wrapped in plastic, paper, t-shirts and towels. Whatever you could find to protect it. Sleeping on the floor those first few days, the mattress late, the frame even later, leaning on one another for that kind of comfort. It wasn't that first day, or week, but enough time to settle. The small things weren't yet opened. Two cups, to dishes, an endless waiting game for supplies to be shipped, of time to be found between work days and exhausted nights. He had a plan though, first the inside, then out. Sometimes there weren't enough plans, or lists, or schedules in the world to stop what would come next.

All of this, less than a month before The Blip.

Things hadn't changed since then, not without him. Five years you carved your path into the floorboards, avoiding everything that hurt like a landmine. His cup, his dish, his knife, and fork, and spoon, untouched. You would not look through your wedding album, or seep into the couch you bought together, or pluck the thorn riddled bushes like you pictured. His side of the bed empty, his clothes tucked away where you didn't have to see. All except one shirt taped up, turned away. His cologne fading from the collar, something out of your control, that made you want to scream. Everything these days, it seemed, was out of your control. Others, they moved on eventually. Started dating. Remarried. Found new friends, had more kids, picked up where they left off. Family reached out, teammates too, but you couldn't look at them. The anger, the sadness, all of it overwhelming. It left you drowning in questions no one had the answer to, everyone asking themselves the same thing: Why him, and not them? Why him, and not you? Why did any of this happen in the first place?

Isolating became the cure, and the corruption. The salt in the wound, a familiar sting you grew to expect, even want. A home for two, he promised, only now you were one. How cruel could the universe be? Hour by hour, day by day, you counted, carrying on for when he'd be back, because he would be. Sam, your Sam, too stubborn a man to give up like that. You would have dusted, washed the floors, made the place a little more welcoming if you'd known he'd be back when he did. Everyone came back, reappearing out of thin air, but where they felt frenzy, uncertain in explaining all that's happened, you were at peace, able to breathe again. Time had stopped when he was gone, your life paused. You could feel it, the moment when, the clocks in the house ticking once again inside their boxes.

Now, you lay together, as you had that first night. Not on the floor, not as naive as you were, but together none of the less. The sunlight strains, wanting to light up the room from behind the curtains. Even without it, you find yourself baking, wishing the fan would have a little more power. Sleeping in, you could have laughed. Five years he had, somewhere else, to rest, and yet you let him, not wanting to wake from what you fear might be a nightmare. If you woke up, and he was gone again, you weren't sure what you'd do, how much longer you could stand it. He assured you though, much like he had with this house, everything would work out in the end. That he was here, and he'd never leave you again.

Ever.

[livingcorner]

12+ Ways to Make $1000 a Month from Your Garden (Year Round!)

They say when you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.  Well, I love my garden and given a choice I’d be out there amongst my garden beds day and night.  There’s a big difference between gardening and farming though, and while I love my garden I’m not cut out for the life of a farmer. 

While bringing in a full-time gardening income is a bit tricky, making a side income from your garden is easier than you’d think.

You're reading: 12+ Ways to Make $1000 a Month from Your Garden (Year Round!)

Most people see gardening as a seasonal endeavor, that starts in the spring and ends in the fall, coming and going each year.  Up here in Vermont, our summer growing season is only a sad 100 days or so, and if I confined my efforts to those short months it wouldn’t make for much of a side hustle.  I think it’s important to find a way to earn a consistent side income, so I’m providing options for every month of the year (even in a cold climate like ours).

Beyond that, our land is mostly forested, which means the definition of “garden” is a bit loose.  We grow mushrooms in the shady spots and tap maple trees in season.  We also forage the wild bounty that nature’s garden has provided, meaning that we don’t have to limit our “gardening” to a small tilled section of the yard. 

Even if you’re lacking space in a small suburban lot, expanding outside of the traditional garden into local parks, or taking your garden indoors with salad sprouts, closet mushrooms, and seedling trays will allow you to make use of the space you have year-round.

Here are a few options to earn a substantial side income from your garden every season of the year, with ideas for both city and country folk. 

(Be sure to check local laws and restrictions before you start with anything, as those vary widely from place to place.)

Winter Garden Income

While you’d think winter would be the slow season for backyard garden income, believe it or not, it’s actually the best time for making money from your garden.  You’re generally less busy with planting and weeding, but everyone is stuck inside dreaming of the garden bounty to come.  

Indoor Salad Gardening

January is when everyone’s making new years resolutions to live healthier and eat more salads, but it’s a pretty rough time for gardening in most places.  If right around the end of the year you plan ahead with an indoor salad gardening setup, you’ll be in the perfect position to market microgreens and sprouts when they’re in high demand.

Local farms around here sell winter micro greens CSA’s and unlike summer shares where they net less than a dollar on a head of lettuce, winter greens command high prices.  A small bag of specialty microgreens runs $12 to 15 each.  And I really mean a small bag, maybe 3 cups of at most.

The trick is to grow high-quality, specialty greens that get people excited when the grocery store options are minimal.  The book Year Round Indoor Salad Gardening is a great resource to get started, and covers all you’d need to know to grow your own greens.  At that point, the problem is scaling up and marketing.  

Start a Small Backyard Seed Company

You may think you need to be some kind of multi-national to sell seeds, but in reality, customers are looking toward sustainably grown seed for specialty heirloom varieties these days.  It doesn’t get much more sustainable than a backyard garden, and buying seed locally ensures that you’ll get varieties perfectly suited to a particular growing region.

Choosing the right crops is key to generating a good income selling seeds.  Tomato seed, for example, is very easy to save and a single tomato often has enough seed to supply a dozen seed packets.  The flowers are self-contained, and it actually takes work for plant breeders to hybridize a variety, which means they’ll come true to variety even with many different types grown in the same garden. 

Most importantly, people get really excited about tomatoes.  Ever wonder why 1/3 of any seed catalog seems to be tomato seed?  With all that love for tomatoes, customers are liable to drop $5 for a locally grown packet of seeds for a really great variety.

While tomatoes are really easy, there are many varieties that aren’t much harder.  You need to know a bit about seed saving, not only harvesting and cleaning the seed, but about how pollination and selection works by variety.  Some varieties require a minimum population size to avoid inbreeding in the long term, and all that’s important to know before you get started. 

Seed to Seed is generally recognized as the most encyclopedic book on seed saving, covering just about every variety you can imagine.  It has great breadth to get you started, but not a whole lot of depth.

The Seed Garden is hands down my favorite seed saving book.  It’s well written and covers varieties in great depth.  It’s authored by The Seed Savers Exchange which does great work in the field of preserving heirloom varieties.

The Complete Guide to Seed Saving has a lot of stellar reviews, and it’s the next one I’m going to add to my gardening library.

Even in a small town environment here in Rural Vermont, there are about a dozen local seed companies.  High Mowing Seed started out really small just down the road from us, and now they’re a big national brand.  Milkweed Medicinals sells specialty seed that’s hard to find, and they now sell in all the local coops. 

Find your niche and there’s a great income to be made with homegrown seed.

Selling Cuttings

Even easier than saving seed, selling cuttings is an easy way to make a healthy income from your established plants in the winter months.  There are a number of varieties, like grapes for example, that need to be cut back or pruned in the winter.  Those cuttings are perfect for starting new plants and many gardeners are willing to pay good money for tiny pieces of your established crops.

I just bought 30 elderberry cuttings from Norms Farms at $4 each to propagate at home.  Elderberries grow readily from cuttings, and it’s an economical way for me to get a huge bed of them started.  Elderberry plants from a nursery cost about $30 each, so I’m happy with the transaction and the seller just made $120 off a tiny box of trimmings.

There are a number of plants that grow well from hardwood cuttings, some like black currants, are as simple as snipping off a tip and sticking it into the ground.  Others require a bit more attention and prep work to the cuttings, but they’re still beginner level.

Scion wood, or cuttings from apple trees to be grafted onto rootstock, is similarly lucrative.  All you need is a couple of established apple trees of known varieties and you can harvest cuttings for sale. 

Usually, each cutting is only a few inches long, so shipping them isn’t a big issue.  There’s a marketplace on the seed savers exchange website, and a scion wood cutting sells for about $4 each.

Start by learning a thing or two about plant propagation, first so that you can establish your own cutting beds, and then so you can educate customers on how easy it is to grow plants from cuttings.  Try reading Practical Woody Plant Propagation for Nursery Growers to get you started.

Read more: Why Does My Garden Hose Keep Bursting? | GardenAxis.com

A handful of elderberry cuttings that sell for $4 each.

Growing Mushrooms Indoors

Learning to grow mushrooms is a bit different than most standard garden crops, so this one will take some studying for even seasoned gardeners.  Still, there’s the potential to grow large crops from a small indoor space year-round.

The book Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation describes in detail how to set up a back closet, extra nook or spare bathroom to grow mushrooms with minimal time investment (2 hours a week). 

He has a great breakdown of costs, inputs, and yields…but in summary, you can make about $100 per week from a small setup that takes up a 4’x4′ footprint.  The system scales easily, with minimal extra time investment, meaning you only need slightly more space to increase that to a grand per month.

The best part, they can grow in recycled 5-gallon buckets picked up from restaurants, and they consume waste products like spent coffee grounds, that you can often pick up for free.

If you have access to outdoor space and hardwood logs, growing shiitake mushrooms is also a great place to start for beginners, but outdoors, harvests would be in the warmer months rather than winter.

I don’t know about you, but when I had an office job my co-workers would have loved to buy fresh mushrooms to take home for a fancy Friday night meal.

  Spring Garden Income

Spring is when everyone’s mind is dead set on their own gardens, and it’s a great time to capitalize on the surge in interest in all things green.

Selling Dandelions (and other wild weeds)

While countless suburbanites are spraying their lawns trying to eradicate the dandelions, more savvy gardeners are realizing that one person’s weed is another’s delicacy.  Dandelions are edible root to shoot, and better yet, they’re also highly medicinal. 

Dandelion root tincture sells for about $12 per ounce, and it only takes a root or two per ounce.  The spring greens are highly sought after by local food coops, where they sell for $4-5 per bundle.  Not bad for a pile of weeds.

Beyond dandelions, there’s all manner of early spring green “weeds” that can command high prices if you know how to identify, harvest and process them.  Chickweed is incredibly invasive, but also delicious, and chickweed tincture has plenty of medicinal uses too.  

There’s nothing like making a bit of side income from weeding your garden early in the spring.  You’ve got to do it anyway, might as well make it pay.

Dandelion roots harvested for homemade tincture.

Growing Spring Ephemerals

An ephemeral is a crop that has a very short season, and it may only be around for a few weeks before the plants go dormant (or unharvestable) for a full year.  Ramps, or wild leeks, are a slow-growing ephemeral that’s only around for a few weeks in the spring, but during that time they’re in high demand by both home cooks and fancy chefs.  Knowing where to find a good wild patch is hard, but they’re actually remarkably easy to naturalize in your own backyard.

Growing ramps from seeds just requires the right conditions.  Moist soil, under the shade of deciduous trees.  The more leaf cover the better. 

You’re not growing anything else in that much shade, so growing your own ramps is a great way to earn top dollar from an otherwise unproductive patch of land.  This is a long-term venture though, as leeks are slow-growing, and they’ll require about 5-7 years before your first harvest, but after that, a well-tended and sustainably harvested patch can last indefinitely.

Fiddleheads are another crop that’s generally wild foraged, but it’s remarkably easy to cultivate.  They can actually be pretty invasive, and I spent a long time weeding them out of my garden so I could grow anything else.  I just dug them up and tossed them into a heap, and they kept on growing and spreading from there as if nothing happened. 

Fiddleheads can be really productive, and they sell for about $20 a pound here in Vermont where they’re common.  You might get even better prices somewhere they’re more scarce.

Since they’re productive, fern heads can be pickled to extend their season, so you can market the bumper crop a bit longer.

My daughter holding a harvest of fiddleheads and ramps.

Selling Spring Seedlings

Selling spring veggie seedlings is an obvious choice.  Tomato seeds cost about a tenth of a cent each, but a healthy started plant can easily sell for $5.  Sure, there’s the cost for potting soil and pots, but the profit margin is still huge on seedling sales. 

The trick is, you’re investing your time and energy into starting plants off right, so others don’t have to.  This is one of the most lucrative ways to make money from your garden if you invest in the right equipment and can master the process. 

A greenhouse, even a small backyard model, is essential for producing seedlings early enough in the season.  As for resources to get you started, The New Seed Starter’s Handbook covers everything in detail, including troubleshooting guides if your plants aren’t performing.

Beyond the income from selling seedlings, you’ll also save a boatload by starting your own seeds instead of purchasing starts.  That’s one of those penny saved is a penny earned propositions, and any seedlings you don’t sell can just go right into your own garden.

Take a look at the local market this spring, and see if there are any gaps.  Do all the tomato seedlings sell out quickly, or is the market flooded?  If there’s plenty of other vendors, consider growing something niche like medicinal herbs.

Start a Backyard Nursery

Similar to growing out your own veggie seedlings, starting your own backyard nursery extends the income beyond the busy spring season.  If you’re growing perennials, you don’t have to worry about any unsold plants at the end of the year.  Just tuck them in for the winter and try to sell them next year.

Propagating plants from cuttings is remarkably easy, and all it takes is a bit of time and patience.  Those elderberry cuttings that sold for $4 each (above) as trimmings will sell for $25 to $30 as full-sized potted bushes in a few years.  Just the patience, time and space required to grow out the plants pays back in dividends later. 

This is actually a big part of our retirement plan, and we’re putting in perennials throughout our land to serve as cutting sources later when we open our nursery.  In the meantime, they’re beautiful, and most are edibles like elderberries, so we’re harvesting the fruit for our table while we patiently bide our time to retirement.

Backyard plant nurseries don’t require that much space, as potted plants can be stored fairly close together.

Summer Garden Income

Summer is peak growing season and it’s a great time to earn income from what you’re growing at home.  The big farms and CSA operations have the lettuce market cornered, but backyard gardeners can break into the market by offering really novel crops.  Start by focusing on high-dollar items and unique crops that get people’s attention.

High Dollar Specialty Crops

You’re never going to compete with the 100 acre organic CSA down the road on most generic crops, but those big operations cant grow everything.  They can grow a lot of the staples most families use every day, but backyard gardeners can grow small amounts of truly specialty crops that demand high prices.  Here are a few good options:

Husk Cherries – Also known as ground cherries, these plants produce huge crops of sweet pineapple/strawberry flavored fruit.  They grow on plants similar to tomatoes, and each bright orange fruit is wrapped in a papery husk.  Just one taste and you’ll want more. 

Before we were growing our own, I’d buy them for $5 a pint…now I know that each plant can produce more than a gallon of fruit even with neglect.  If you hand out samples, these will sell themselves.  It also helps if you give people creative ways to use them.

Cucamelons – Also known as mouse melons, these tiny little grape-sized cucumbers taste like a cross between a cucumber and lime.  They’re really wonderful fresh out of hand, and they make great pickles or mixed drinks.  The cuteness factor means that these sell for about $5 per half-pint.

Berry Pick Your Own

To complement our backyard nursery retirement plans, we’re also planning a pick your own operation.  This requires more space than most of the other ideas on this list, but after the initial setup, labor is pretty minimal. 

A while back I calculated the rate of return on a raspberry pick your own, and you’d need about 250-row feet to produce $1000 worth of raspberries.  For us on 30 acres, that’s a drop in the bucket, but that may be more space than you can devote to any one crop.

Strawberries are similar, in that a plant generally yields about a pound of fruit in a season, and requires 1-row foot.  At $4 per pound, you’d need the same amount of row feet as raspberries.  The benefit there is, strawberry rows are much more closely spaced so this may be more practical for some.

  Read more: 37 Garden Border Ideas To Dress Up Your Landscape Edging

Garden Tours, Tea Times & Classes

Though it’s not my cup of tea, garden tours and country tea times are a good option for flower gardeners.  A local nurseryman around here makes a good side income hosting tea time in his home garden, and runs an annual tour of his extensive plantings, along with specialty days for big blooms (like daffodils).  Our gardens are more down-to-earth and “homestead” than they are attractive, but many people’s are just the opposite.

All it takes is a few tables, a decent scone recipe, and a few good teapots, and you’re ready to run a weekly afternoon tea time in the garden.  Add in tours and maybe a few gardening classes and you’ve got yourself a ready source of income from your own beautiful backyard.

Medicinal Herbs

With the increasing demand for more alternative remedies, there’s never been a better time to grow medicine in your backyard.  Locally grown herbs are still hard to find in most areas, but plenty of people are looking for them.

Many medicinal herbs are perennials, which means you plant them once and you can harvest them for years.  And the same compounds that make the plants medicinal also make them resistant to deer and insects, which means less maintenance than garden veggies.  For the most part, they’re perennial, persistent and more importantly…profitable.

There’s a high demand for medicinal tinctures since they’re ready to use, and our local coop has half an aisle dedicated to them.  Tinctures sell for $8 to $12 an ounce, but they only cost about $1 to $2 an ounce, even if you’re buying in the herbs rather than growing them. 

Add in another $1 for the tincture bottle, and you’re still making a pretty sizable profit per bottle.  Choosing crops that are common and in high demand, like echinacea tincture can help you break into the market.

As you’re just getting started, I’d recommend Backyard Medicine as a way to dip your toe into harvesting and making your own herbal remedies, especially from wild crops.  If you’re considering growing herbs for profit I’d highly recommend The Organic Medicinal Herb Farmer: The Ultimate Guide to Producing High-Quality Herbs on a Market Scale.  It’s written by farmers that grow just a few towns over from us, and they’ve inspired a lot of people to take up growing medicine for the market.

The Herbal Academy of New England also has a course designed specifically for herbal entrepreneurs.  The course walks you through the basics of creating your own brand identity, marketing, sourcing herbal ingredients, manufacturing herbal remedies and creating a business plan around herbs and herbal remedies.

Fall Garden Income

The end of the garden season, fall is generally when the crops come in.  In my mind though, it’s one of the more challenging times to make income as a small producer. 

There are a lot of products on the market,  and it’s hard to stand out.  With the holidays right around the corner though, marketing yourself as a niche producer of really unique homegrown gifts can work to your advantage.

Honey & Bee Products

Gardeners need bees and bees need gardeners!  Raising honey bees is a great way to support pollinator communities, but with all the challenges that face hives these days, it’s best to be educated before you start.  There’s a really great book called Natural Beekeeping: Organic Approaches to Modern Apiculture that covers just about everything you need to know to keep your bees healthy naturally.

In a good year, with our short Vermont growing seasons, bees can produce as much as 100lbs of honey for harvest.  The current bulk price at our coop, meaning bring your own container nothing fancy…is $7 per pound.  Pre-packaged just in mason jars, honey goes for $10-12 per pound, and considerably more in specialty gift packaging.

Add in things like bee pollen or propolis for medicinal use, or comb honey, and you have yet more high-dollar items to market.

Honey, especially locally sustainably raised honey is in high demand just about everywhere.  People are realizing that bees are important to our environment, and many will be happy to pay for local honey just knowing that it means supporting someone who is stewarding such an important resource in their neighborhood.

Apples, Cider and Cider Press Rentals

My doctor has a small apple share side hustle that she runs with her sister, selling harvest shares to neighbors in her spare time.  They have a few full-sized apple trees, and each one produces around 100 to 120 pounds of apples per year.  These days, conventionally grown supermarket apples are about $3 per pound…and locally grown apples fetch a premium above that.

She sells shares ahead of time and then divides the harvest as each tree comes to bear.  Distributing them to shareholders every week or two as each variety ripens over the season.

We have other neighbors who sell fresh cider that they press from their trees, at $12 per gallon.  Last year we pressed nearly 80 gallons from our trees, most of which went into hard cider and homemade cider syrup (like maple syrup), but we easily could have sold it instead.  Instead of selling our cider, we have a different strategy for earning our income during apple season. 

We invested in an efficient double-barrel cider press, with the thought that we can rent it out to other small apple producers.  People with one or two trees in their backyard love the novelty of pressing their own cider, and around these parts a press rents for about $50 for the afternoon.  Over the course of the season that can really add up…

Year-Round Garden Income

Beyond different things you can do seasonally to earn a few thousand a couple of months a year, there are things you can do year-round to earn a steady income related to your garden.  

Garden Blogging

I know, making income from blogging seems too good to be true, but writing about diy, gardening, and self-sufficiency is now my full-time job. Within 6 months of starting this blog, I started making an extra $1000 a month.  After 9 months of writing, I was able to quit my day job, and now at 18 months in I bring in more each month than any job I’ve ever had.

The best part?  All I do is write about what we’re already doing here in our daily lives, and I spend my days playing in the garden and out foraging in the woods with my kids.

I was inspired to take the leap into blogging when I read the book Make Money Blogging at Any Level by my blogger friend, Victoria at A Modern Homestead.  She outlines in detail how to earn a substantial income, even from a very small blog.  

She was able to retire her husband and supports her family exclusively with her blog.  If you’re considering blogging as a source of income it’s worth the investment.  It’s $27 for the book, and I made that back in my first week with my blog following her tips.

She also has a much more comprehensive blogging e-course that takes you through everything you need to know to launch your own profitable blog.  It’s a bit more of an investment, but it’s the perfect way for a beginner to learn everything they need to know to launch their blog fast and start earning money.

Garden Micro-Influencer

Making money on Instagram is all the rage these days, and you’d be surprised how many companies are willing to send you free products just for a promise that you’ll post at least 1 picture of it to Instagram with honest feedback.  Once you have even a small following, companies will pay you for your time reviewing it (and you still get to keep it for free…)

Looking for a little inspiration?  You can always follow along on my Instagram for ideas…

Hopefully, this helps inspire you to turn your gardening passion into a meaningful side hustle.  If you have any other ideas, let me know in the comments below.

More Income Inspiration

How to Make a Full-Time Income Off-Grid

8 Ways to Make an Extra $1000 a Month on a Small Homestead

Making Money with Small Scale Maple Sugaring

Related

Source: https://livingcorner.com.au Category: Garden

source https://livingcorner.com.au/12-ways-to-make-1000-a-month-from-your-garden-year-round/

[ftauriellas]

            chicago’s  very  own  auriella  yates  has  been  spotted  on  madison  avenue  driving  a  porsche  718  spyder  ,  welcome  !  your  resemblance  to  jasmine  tookes  is  unreal  .  according  to  tmz  ,  you  just  had  your  twenty - fifth  birthday  bash  .  your  chance  of  surviving  new  york  is  uncertain  because  you’re  guileful  ,  but  being  unadulterated  might  help  you  .  i  think  being  a  virgo  explains  that  .  three  things  that  would  paint  a  better  picture  of  you  would  be  the  lingering  scent  of  her  perfume  on  crisp  white  sheets  ,  the  soft  touch  of  short  satin  dresses  against  her  thighs  ,  and  the  soft  glistening  of  diamonds  during  golden  hour  .

            hi  again  ,  kitty  gorls  !  it’s  jin  showing  up  on  your  dash  for  the  last  time  with  my  sweet  peach  miss  auriella  yates  .  she’s  a  rendition  of  a  hailey  b  .  chara  that  i  have  ,  so  she’s  quite  the  mess  ,  but  as  lovable  as  ever  !  as  you’ve  probably  figured  ,  i  didn’t  have  much  muse  for  guiliana  anymore  so  i  decided  it  was  best  to  let  her  go  and  bring  someone  else  (  also  ,  i’m  really  sorry  about  not  fulfilling  that  starter  call  .  please  don’t  hate  me  🥺  )  .  my  muse  is  soaring  for  auriella  so  be  prepared  for  me  to  slide  into  your  dm’s  for  plotting  up  a  storm  !  that  being  said  ,  here’s  another  long  one  !

basic  information  .

FULL  NAME  :  auriella  kaia  yates  .

NICKNAME(S)  :  auri  ,  mostly  .

BIRTHDATE  +  AGE  :  september  9th  ,  1997  +  22  .

ZODIAC  :  virgo  .

HOMETOWN  :  chicago  ,  il  .

GENDER  :  cis  female  .

NATIONALITY  :  american  .

ETHNICITY  :  african  american  ,  brazilian  ,  west  indian  , barbadian  ,  and  european  .

HEIGHT  :  5′5″  .

LABEL(S)  :  the  harlequin  ,  the  trust  fund  baby  ,  the  vainglorious  ,  the  coquette  ,  and  the  sovereign  .

ROMANTIC  ORIENTATION  :  biromantic  .

SEXUAL  ORIENTATION  :  bisexual  .

LANGUAGE(S)  SPOKEN  :  english  and  learned  basic  french  in  high  school  .

OCCUPATION  :  socialite  ,  makeup  artist  ,  and  businesswoman  .

POSITIVES  :  impulsive  ,  alluring  ,  unadulterated  ,  facetious  ,  and  melodious  .

NEGATIVES  :  complaintive  ,  acquisitive  ,  guileful  ,  starry - eyed  ,  and  bellicose  .

biography  .

            auriella  yates  is  the  sixth  child  of  eight  ,  born  to  simone  and  joshua  yates  in  the  windy  city  of  chicago  ,  illinois  .  she  has  three  older  brothers  (  chance  ,  charles  ,  and  clark  )  ,  two  older  sisters  (  adriana  and  amelia  )  ,  and  a  younger  brother  and  sister  (  calvin  and  aurora  )  .  patrick  and  simone  for  some  reason  found  joy  in  naming  their  sons  with  c  names  and  their  daughters  with  a  names  ,  but  it  works  for  them  nonetheless  .  the  family  could  afford  such  a  grandiose  lifestyle  in  chicago  thanks  to  simone’s  lifestyle  and  wellness  brand  called  honey  &  lemon  (  goop  ,  who  ?  )  that  has  since  expanded  from  a  newsletter  to e - commerce  ,  pop - up  shops  ,  a  magazine  ,  and  a  podcast  .  patrick  ,  on  the  other  hands  ,  is  a  famous  vegetarian  chef  that  has  launched  three  cookbooks  while  also  having  his  own  cooking  series  on  the  food  network  along  with  a  cookware  partnership  at  target  .  together  ,  they  own  a  vegetarian  restaurant  in  downtown  chicago  called  lemongrass  .

            growing  up  ,  since  auriella  had  so  many  siblings  ,  she  never  had  an  uneventful  day  .  their  parents  strongly  believed  in  their  children  playing  outside  instead  of  being  stuck  in  front  of  the  television  all  day  ,  so  they  often  took  advantage  of  their  large  backyard  when  they  lived  in  the  suburbs  of  chicago  .  they  were  the  parents  who  let  their  rowdy  bunch  ruin  their  perfect  grass  because  they  wanted  to  play  in  the  mud  .  their  parents  may  have  afforded  them  luxuries  that  others  didn’t  have  and  while  their  parents  had  been  busy  people  ,  patrick  and  simone  refused  for  their  children  to  be  raised  by  nannies  .  they  were  heavily  involved  with  everything  that  their  children  did  ,  ranging  from  their  pre - school  graduations  to  their  high  school  proms  .

            auriella  had  always  been  a  rather  outgoing  girl  throughout  high  school  ,  and  she  knew  she  was  cute  so  she  started  an  instagram  page  when  she  was  about  thirteen  or  so  .  originally  ,  her  pictures  were  just  cringey  dirty  mirror  pics  and  photos  with  her  friends  ,  but  as  she  explored  the  app  more  and  more  ,  she  discovered  makeup  and  her  love  for  it  !  so  ,  despite  the  terrible  youtube - tutorial  makeup  that  she  tried  to  recreate  ,  auriella  never  gave  up  on  her  ability  to  do  better  .  as  she  moved  through  high  school  ,  her  makeup  skills  got  better  and  better  ,  so  once  she  graduated  ,  auriella  knew  what  she  wanted  to  do  in  life  !

            she  went  on  to  attend  make  up  first  in  chicago  ,  and  obtained  certificates  in  basic  makeup  i  +  ii  ,  media  makeup  ,  and  media: runway  ,  editorial  ,  and  fashion  .  once  she  was  finished  with  her  schooling  ,  auriella  went  on  to  grow  her  brand  and  get  her  name  out  there  .  she  used  instagram  a  majority  of  the  time  ,  and  thanks  to  that  and  word  of  mouth  ,  she  grew  a  significant  following  and  went  on  to  have  a  few  celebrities  under  her  belt  .  thanks  to  the  help  of  her  parents  ,  auriella  decided  that  she  wanted  to  get  into  the  makeup  business  entirely  ,  and  decided  to  stick  her  foot  into  makeup  production  .

            the  brand  originally  only  focused  on  her  favorite  thing  :  eyeshadow  palettes  !  the  palettes  were  originally  rather  small  ,  consisting  of  four  to  six  colors  as  they  perfected  the  formula  .  she  eventually  began  to  receive  rave  reviews  and  decided  that  it  was  time  to  expand  into  everything  else  :  mascaras  ,  lip  products  ,  foundations  ,  blushes  ,  highlighters  and  everything  else  under  the  sun  .  from  there  ,  kaia  beauty  is  now  being  sold  in  sephora  ,  ulta  ,  and  on  kaiabeauty.com  !  she  had  the  second  largest  foundation  drop  (  following  fenty  beauty  because  we  stan  miss  rihanna  in  this  house  )  .  

            that  being  said  ,  running  her  own  business  is  one  that  auriella  is  still  getting  used  to  despite  it  being  two  years  since  the  launch  .  she’s  thankful  for  the  expansion  of  her  brand  and  she’s  still  working  out  of  her  townhouse  because  she  hasn’t  found  the  perfect  space  for  a  headquarters  just  yet  !  it’s  one  of  her  biggest  dreams  at  the  moment  and  she  wants  to  expand  kaia  beauty  into  skincare  but  the  end  of  the  year  .  

personality  .

the  label  she  mostly  identifies  with  would  definitely  be  the  harlequin  .  she  can  be  really  loud  and  playful  at  times  ,  and  she  can  easily  get  called  out  for  not  taking  things  seriously  .  

at  the  same  time  ,  though  ,  she  can  be  pretty  sexual  in  her  speech  .  she  has  no  problem  with  people  looking  at  her  differently  for  doing  so  .  she  really  lets  a  lot  of  things  roll  off  of  her  shoulders  ,  but  she’d  be  a liar  if  she  said  that  some  things  didn’t  get  to  her  .

auriella  can  be  really  full  of  herself  and  simple  compliments  can  typically  leads  to  her  going  on  and  on  about  herself  ,  so  please  feel  free  to  shut  her  up  at  any  given  time  !  much  like  anyone  her  age  ,  she  can  be  found  prowling  around  on  instagram  or  twitter  and  can  never  go  shopping  without  taking  at  least  three  to  seven  mirror  selfies  .

headcanons  .

she  lives  in  a  beautiful  townhouse  on  west  fourth  street   and  she’s  really  proud  to  say  it  because  she  bought  it  with  her  own  money  !  she  likes  to  be  different  so  she  really  hates  range  rovers  and  instead  drives  an  audi  q5  !  sounds  kinda  dumb  since  she  lives  in  nyc  ,  but  she  likes  it  because  it  gives  her  freedom  to  go  where  she  wants  when  she  wants  to  .

she  never  leaves  the  house  without  a  purse  and  never  without  a  pair  of  earrings  on  (  she  thinks  she’s  ugly  without  them  ) .  she’s  obsessed  with  all  things  cartier  and  she  loves  to  accessorize  ,  but  not  to  much  .  she  keeps  scrunchies  in  her  purse  at  all  times  ,  so  if  you  need  one  just  ask  !

when  it  comes  to  her  style  ,  i  draw  a  lot  of  inspiration  from  instagram  if  i’m  being  honest  .  she  wears  a  lot  of  denim  shorts  ,  oversized  tees  ,  cropped  sweaters  ,  bodysuits  ,  chunky  sneakers  ...  honestly  ,  the  whole  nine  yards  .  for  some  examples  click  x  ,  x  ,  x  ,  x  ,  x  ,  and  x  .

she’s  been  vegetarian  since  she  was  a  kid  because  that’s  all  her  dad  ever  cooked  !  sometimes  the  scent  of  meat  makes  her  sick  and  sometimes  she  fakes  it  so  people  will  leave  her  alone  .  she’s  definitely  the  one  who  shows  up  to  the  function  with  her  fake  burgers  ,  but  you  know  she  has  a  bottle  of  vodka  along  with  it  .

finds  joy  in  doing  the  little  things  ?  she’s  not  the  greatest  at  art  but  really  enjoys  buying  a  canvas  and  trying  her  best  to  recreate  or  create  something  !  probably  gets  a  lot  of  art  ideas  from  tik  tok  (  those  kids  are  seriously  talented  )  and  really  likes  to  do  her  makeup  even  when  she  has  no  place  to  go  .  she  loves  laying  on  her  couch  and  doing  nothing  (  and  sometimes  she  might  be  kinda  naked  when  she  does  it  )  .

secret  .

okay  so  ,  auriella’s  secret  is  that  an  ‘  anonymous  ’  source  leaked  her  nudes  to  the  press  ,  but  her  parents  paid  off  publications  from  releasing  them  .  that  was  mostly  done  because  she  was  about  17 / 18  in  those  pictures  but  of  course  they’re  not  age  on  them  so  there’s  that  !  the  source  of  course  wasn’t  that  anonymous  and  it  turned  out  to  be  an  ex  (  which  is  really  gross  so  this  won’t  be  a  wanted  connection  )  ,  but  she’s  not  ashamed  of  them  by  any  means  !

[198wolf]

Home Vegetable Gardening - Planning Could Mean Everything

I am a planner. My preparation is to the point where it drives my family crazy. I want to write down everything and stick to a listing to get tasks done. I guess in the back of my head if I don't write it down I'll forget it, whatever it could be, and never finish whatever I was supposed to finish. 

I am a major advocate for expanding education of home vegetable gardening through reading posts on the topic, purchasing books or getting them out of the community library, listening to podcasts and all that great stuff. With all that information in hand there's however one book, 1 piece of paper, your PDA or iPhone, or whatever you use to do so, that is much more important than all of these and this is your garden plan.

 I believe it's imperative and necessary to maintain a garden program. This can allow you to keep it organized, understand what's planted where, which crops did well in one place so that you know what to do the next season and much more. In case you have been keeping current on your home vegetable gardening education then you are aware of the significance of plant rotation. 

Your garden plan written on your gardening journal can allow you to keep track of what you planted this year so that you don't plant the exact ones the next year. Your backyard journal will also help you when you write down the seeds you've bought, who you bought them from and how well they did. 

If they did good, which most do, then you can write that in. How you organize your ideas is all up to you. You can set it into diary/journal form with a date then an entrance near that date, you can draw images, you may keep it like a target oriented system in which you write down what you're attempting to reach for the upcoming period and then write in if it was a success or failure, etc.

The approach is entirely up to you but a very critical part of home vegetable gardening. Now, what can you use as a diary? Again this is completely your decision. I use a binder with loose leaf paper in it so that I can add to it as time goes by. When I come across something that I believe is important and will help others I will post it on my own blog or blog.

A lot of folks love the digital age and through the assistance of the blackberry's, iPhones, PDAs and other devices they are able to keep their home vegetable gardening journals like that. You may be saying to yourself that you've been home vegetable gardening for several years and have never kept a diary and that you've been very successful at it. 

While all that is true, because my dad an avid home vegetable gardener himself, keeping a journal will make you that much more successful. Your journal will provide you the capability to keep track of things that worked, that did not work, which crops did better in which place and much more. Over time, if you do not write this information down, then you may forget.

Your home vegetable gardening journal will provide you the capability to plan a successful harvest for an upcoming growing season. If you set the time and effort in to keep this diary, you and your family members can reap the benefits for years to come. 

Landscape Designs - Home And Garden Ideas

Landscape designs could be planned out in a number of different ways, and there's no wrong or right way to design your own. It is all about your dreams of the perfect view. You don't need to become a professional landscape designer to find the perfect look. 

Go ahead have a chance and be as creative as you wish with your design, incorporating many ideas to the finished product. With a little planning and plenty of creativity your dreams of a gorgeous landscape can be accomplished. The 1 thing that you would like to remember is to be certain you lay out the design of your landscape prior to breaking ground. 

To save yourself more undesirable work it would be best to draw the design out on paper . Doing this will save time and frustration by ripping out and minding your landscaping ideas. Don't be concerned if you are not an artist, a rough sketch will work. When you're planning your new front or garden the major thing that you would like to do is make certain all the plants, shrubs, or trees you're thinking about utilizing compliment each other. 

You would not want your newly assembled landscape to resemble a major selection of mismatched creations. You also wouldn't need to lower the value of your house when you're finished. The point is to add value to your house, and make it more inviting to your customers. 

An important element to great landscape designs is finding something which grabs everyone's attention, which will become the focal point in your design. You might want something that's extraordinary or maybe something easy, but finally eye catching. A few good examples are an arbor or big planter. A significant part of your landscape is functionality and accessibility. 

Remember your intent for the distance as you're designing that new look. If you're somebody who utilizes that specific area regularly for family gatherings, then you may wish to keep the space open and comfortable for your visitors. If the space you're creating is employed for a peaceful getaway, then your design should comprise less space with more calming features like plants and flowers. 

Another terrific way to bring peacefulness and focus to your area is to include water gardens or ponds. If you're wishing to put in one of those magnificent eye catchers, you need to shop around and get the best thought and products that match your circumstance. 

There are various resources written on this topic, and also lots of professionals and places to help you chose the best product for your design. Bear in mind that there may be more maintenance for this, depending on how you proceed with this. There are a number of other excellent places to find even more great ideas. Browsing in a magazine, books, or on the internet are excellent places to begin. 

You can also look at other landscaped designs that will assist you come up with that perfect design you're trying to find. You might want to take pictures of different designs throughout your community and integrate your favourite looks into a magnificent design. Speak with your neighbors if they have something in their yard that you envy. 

If you're thinking about designing and building the landscape yourself remember to leave yourself time for creativity. You will undoubtedly consider things to add when you're partly through the project. By taking the extra time you may make your house into a place which you may enjoy, and show with additional pride knowing that you made it yourself. The last thing you need to think when you're finished is that you just wish you could have added something else. 

[ericvick]

There's no place BUT home. Do you still like your place?

With schools, gyms, and nonessential workplaces shut down to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, most of us have been spending a lot more quality time in and around our homes the past few weeks. They’ve become our full-time offices, our happy hour bars, our classrooms and playgrounds. Modest backyards are forced to fulfill our need for nature. Our kitchens are doing double or triple duty, playing host to three meals a day for everyone in the household.

And as with any intensifying relationship, the more time you spend in one another’s company, the more you may come to appreciate each other’s quirks… or grow irritated by them. We asked readers whether they’re happy with their homes and past design choices, perhaps grateful for a recent addition, or if confinement has them contemplating a major remodel or move in the near future.

“I’m still in love with my house, but have realized we have way too much stuff,’’ said Jen Osterhout, who blogs at EverydayOldHouse.com. “Toys we don’t use, clothes we don’t wear, unused kitchen gadgets and gizmos collecting dust, old magazines and paperwork lying around.’’ She’s eagerly awaiting the day donation centers reopen.

A more surprising realization, Osterhout added, is how much she loves her neighborhood north of Boston. She’s started developing friendships with neighbors who, before the outbreak, were really just acquaintances. “We smile and wave to each other, stop and talk from our backyards while practicing social distancing, text each other for much-needed support and comic relief,’’ Osterhout said. “This virus has brought our neighborhood together and solidified a sense of community that I believe will continue even after we return to our ‘normal’ lives.’’

As a result, Osterhout and her husband are now rethinking their plans — which had been to purchase a larger home farther outside the city in a few years to accommodate their growing family. “Perhaps undergoing the ‘dreaded’ addition process is worth the price of staying in our neighborhood,’’ she said.

Lexington resident Morra Aarons-Mele also professed a newfound appreciation for her location and community. “Our access to walking trails and nature has never been so valuable,’’ she said. Neighbors, meanwhile, have stayed connected by organizing social-distancing happy hours in a nearby cul-de-sac. And her backyard, where she tends to nine hens and a greenhouse, has provided a welcome refuge — plus a daily supply of fresh eggs.

So Aarons-Mele, who founded Women Online and hosts the Anxious Achiever podcast, has decided to stay put rather than move, and to remodel her mid-century home instead — which she said is in desperate need of an update. “We’d been looking at plans before but dragging our feet,’’ she said. “If I emerge from this with any money or business, a renovation has to happen, stat.’’

Some housebound homeowners aren’t waiting for the pros. Architect Leslie Saul and her husband are using this time to tackle smaller, long-delayed DIY projects and repairs around their Arlington home. “I’m enjoying my ‘new’ light in a guest bath that I should have installed when I bought [the fixture] five years ago,’’ Saul said. She also got around to installing an artsy door knob she discovered sitting in an old box in the basement.

Saul is also embracing her home’s spacious geography, following the morning sun from the dining room to an enclosed porch at midday, and then soaking up afternoon rays on the second floor. As she migrates through the house, she delights in the varied character of each space. “No all-white rooms for me,’’ she said. “I appreciate the change of vibe while I’m in solitary confinement.’’ She’s also second-guessing the idea of downsizing. “I thought that the house was too big for us as empty nesters, but boy, do I appreciate the extra space now!’’ she said.

With a much fuller nest, Ruth DiGiovanni of Taunton can relate. “Being home with a family of five made me realize how grateful I am for two full bathrooms,’’ DiGiovanni said. “It’s also made me realize how badly we need a bigger kitchen. There’s not enough room for three weeks of groceries.’’

Even before the pandemic struck, DiGiovanni and her husband had talked about expanding the kitchen. But their real long-term dream isn’t just a new and bigger kitchen — it’s a home near the ocean in Rhode Island. “We came to the conclusion that if we were to make that kind of investment, it would be better spent on a larger home with a larger yard,’’ she said.

A small kitchen, however, is still preferable to none at all — particularly when you’re stuck at home 24/7.

Danvers homeowners Mike and Holly Irgens had been planning a major remodel of their 1877 Colonial ever since they bought the place eight years ago. In December, their contractor poured the foundation for an addition that would create a larger living room, new bathroom, and deck. The plan was to start the addition first and then break through the exterior wall to connect the new space to the kitchen — which was also slated for a complete overhaul. “It was March 10th when they broke through and demoed our kitchen,’’ Holly said. “And of course, that was the week … everything changed.’’

They had anticipated the challenge of living without a kitchen for a couple of months; they hadn’t planned on being at home 100 percent of that time. “My parents live 10 minutes away, so the plan was to spend a lot of time over there, to have dinner with them or do takeout some nights at our house,’’ Mike said. “[But] we didn’t want to put my parents at any risk.’’

While it means a good portion of their house is totally off-limits, the Irgens are grateful their contractor, Chet Dembowski & Son, has gone through great lengths to continue construction with social distancing precautions in place. When Governor Charlie Baker announced the closure of nonessential businesses on March 23, Holly said Dembowski scrambled to secure the blueboard and other supplies he would need to finish the project.

Mike, who works in human resources at Massachusetts General Hospital, said they consider themselves lucky given everything else going on in the world. But working and schooling from home without a functional kitchen and with tools whirring loudly in the background certainly amplifies the usual stay-at-home inconveniences. Holly, who owns a marketing firm and cofounded Dorchester Brewing Co., has taken to working in the bathroom, where she can sit down at the vanity in relative quiet. “I did actually take a Zoom call, just with my partners at the brewery,’’ she said. “They were like: ‘Where are you? Are you in the bathroom?’’’

Screen-time rules for their two children have gone out the window, Mike added. And aside from home-cooked meals his parents deliver a few times a week, dinners often consist of prepackaged foods they can microwave in their chaotic dining room home base. While they usually try to feed their kids organic foods and plenty of vegetables, Mike said, “Now it’s like, ‘Who wants some Chef Boyardee?’ ’’

Ironically, Mike said, when everything is over — once the pandemic threat has lifted and the home renovation they’ve been planning for so many years is finally complete — his dream is simply to get out of the house. “We’ll have a brand-new kitchen, but I just want to get a baby sitter for the kids and go out to dinner.’’

Jon Gorey blogs about homes at HouseandHammer.com. Send comments to jongorey@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter at @jongorey. Subscribe to our free real estate newsletter at pages.email.bostonglobe.com/AddressSignUp.

[samuelmmarcus]

Beautiful Homes of Instagram: Fall Decor

  Beautiful Homes of Instagram is one of my favorite series here on HomeBunch and it feels even more special when these homes are decorated for a special time of the year, such as Fall.

Ashley from @modernglamhome, beautifully decorated many spaces of her gorgeous home and she’s sharing all of the details with us today. Keep reading to learn a few decorating tricks by this talented homeowner:

   “Hi! I am Ashley, the voice behind Modern Glam a lifestyle blog where I share my love of home decor, fun DIY projects and healthy recipes. My husband and I have been renovating our California bungalow since we moved in 9 years ago. My husband, Nick is a general contractor and I own a women’s clothing store, Flaunt Boutique. We live in the San Francisco bay area with our 2 young kids.

When Luciane asked me to contribute to her inspiring series, Beautiful Home of Instagram, my jaw hit the floor. I’m just your average suburban mom who also loves to create a beautiful home. I love the home decor community on Instagram and I get so much inspiration and many of my design ideas from there.

So, let me show you around my cozy California bungalow home that we purchased 9 years ago. When we first bought our home, it was a blank slate. The previous owner didn’t do any improvements so the house needed some serious TLC, which is perfect for me!”

  Beautiful Homes of Instagram: Fall Decor

There are lots of things that we love about our home, but one of the first things that drew me to this one when we were looking was the front porch.

Fall Decor

Fall decor makes this front porch feel even more magical! I am loving the string lights and the faux candles. What a nice touch!

Outdoor Sconce: Rejuvenation.

Beautiful Lantern Pendants: here, here & here.

Hello, Pumpkin!

I like to use as many natural elements in my fall porch decor as possible. Lots of pumpkins, cornstalks, hay bales and mums were all that I needed to create this fun and festive neutral fall front porch!

Doormats: Wreath Doormat & Black and White Runner.

Siding Paint Color

The exterior paint color is “Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter”.

Hang Chairs

Our hanging chairs are one of our favorite spots to sit and watch the kids play and visit with our neighbors.

Fall Pillows: here, here, here & here.

Round Outdoor Rug: Target – similar here, here & here.

Hanging Chairs: Serena & Lily.

Summer Vibes

This is how Ashley decorates this space for summer: “I added a small table out here for setting drinks on and used an affordable circle rug to ground the space. New pillows and cute beach towels bring this space to life.”

Pillows: Serena & Lily.

Knit Pillows: Target.

Beach Towels: Serena & Lily.

Front Door

Our front door is by Pella and is painted Clark and Kensington’s Mountainside Vista. Although, I admit, I love to change the color of my front door. This is the 3rd color it’s been in 3 years and I’m already contemplating another change!

Meet the Homeowner!

This is the beautiful and talented, Ashley from @modernglamhome. I am sure you guys will love her home as much I do!

Living Room

My personal design rule is to buy all my furniture in neutral shades. Having a neutral foundation makes it’s easy to switch out the accessories for each season.

Pair of Stools: Serena & Lily.

Rattan Chair: Serena & Lily.

  Fireplace

Fireplace tile is Calcutta gold fish scale tile.

Tile: here & here – similar.

Mirror: Anthropologie.

Sweet Dreams

I am loving seeing Ashley’s puppies around the house… They’re adorable!

Side table is from Serena & Lily.

Hats

A quick and easy update I made for summer was creating this hat wall. I pulled all the sunhats out of my closet and hung them on the wall!

Beautiful Blankets: here, here, here, here, here, here & here.

Draperies: here – similar.

Hardware: here – similar.

Paint Color

All of our walls are painted Benjamin Moore’s Cotton Balls. I love the soft white color that has a touch of cream in it. We also painted our ceilings and trim the same color but in different sheens. This makes the room seem larger when all the colors are the same.

My walls are a satin finish, where the trim is semi gloss and the ceiling is flat. This creates a cohesive look that expands the room and makes it seem bigger!

Sofa Sectional: Pottery Barn Big Sur Sectional.

Coffee Table: Serena & Lily.

Chairs: Serena & Lily.

Rug: Serena & Lily.

Inspired by this Room:

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Dining Room

 My style is pretty eclectic. I love to mix different styles and use new, modern and antique pieces in the same space. My dining room is a perfect example of that. We have a rustic farmhouse table made of reclaimed oak with an ornate trestle base. I paired this traditional piece with modern lucite chairs. I love the mix of old and new!

Dining Table: here, here, here & here – similar.

Lighting

Chandelier: Visual Comfort Darlana Linear Chandelier – similar here.

Fall-Inspired

To stick with the modern farmhouse fall table theme, I added some casual yet neutral plaid napkins and a white pumpkin to each place setting.

Dining Chairs: here – similar.

Fall Tablescape

Fall Tablescape: “A mix of bay leaves, olive branches and rosemary stems were all I needed to create this fall centerpiece. Add in a few neutral white pumpkins, some candles and it’s the easiest centerpiece to create!”

Plates: Target.

Mugs: here & here – similar.

Kitchen

One of the first rooms we tackled when we first moved in was our kitchen. We originally painted the cabinets and installed new Calcutta Gold marble countertops. This spring, we underwent another remodel and replaced all the cabinetry, added open shelving and integrated appliances. The new design is more efficient and I love the warmth that the open shelves bring to this space!

Counterstools: McGee & Co. – Others: here, here, here, here & here.

Lighting: Visual Comfort.

Cabinet Paint Color

Our kitchen cabinets are maple with Benjamin Moore’s Simply White paint.

Kitchen Faucet: Delta.

Sink: Kohler.

Backsplash

Backsplash is a 3×6 white subway tile.

Open Shelves

The open shelving in our recently remodeled kitchen are from Ultra Shelf and you can order any size shelf to fit your space.

Hardware: Schoolhouse Edgecliff Pulls.

Metal Basket: McGee & Co.

Mixer: KitchenAid.

White Oak & Subway Tiles

I love the white oak and the warmth that it adds to our kitchen.

Countertop: Calcutta Gold Marble countertop.

Sconces: Visual Comfort – – similar here, here & here.

Wooden Bread Boards: here & here.

Breakfast Room

The breakfast room features a custom banquette and a marble tulip dining table from Design within Reach.

Similar Dining Table: here & here.

Stay Awhile Sign: Etsy.

Dining Chairs

Lucite Chairs: All Modern.

Hardwood Flooring

Another big project that we completed this year was to replace all the hardwood flooring. It’s amazing what a difference it makes in the overall feel and brightness inside your home.

New hardwood floor is California Classics in their Mediterranean Collection – color is called Vittoria – similar here & here.

Master Bedroom

Pink is my favorite color and our bedroom and closet are a true reflection of this love. My husband even loves this color. Pink in the bedroom is very romantic and has a glow at night that is ethereal.

Platform Bed: Pottery Barn.

Pillows

Pillows are from Serena & Lily.

Blush Pink Throw Pillow: Target.

Paint Color

Our bedroom is one of the only rooms that is painted a color other than white. I chose Benjamin Moore’s Gentle Butterfly.

Artwork: Minted.

Decor

Headboard: West Elm.

Acrylic Console Tables: CB2 – similar here.

Mongolian Lamb Stool: West Elm.

Sconces: Savoy House.

Artwork: Minted.

Bedding

Bedding is from Serena & Lily (my favorite bedding!): Duvet Cover & Sheet Set.

Throw: Anthropologie (Discontinued).

African Juju Hat: here – similar.

Basket: World Market – Other Beautiful Baskets: here & here.

Dressing Room

Another favorite room in our home is our walk-in closet. It’s honestly what sold me on our house. We updated the space 5 years ago with built in cabinets, leopard carpeting and beautiful finishes. It’s a true reflection of my personal style.

Our leopard carpet is from a local carpet store.

Hardware: LuxHoldups.

Lighting

I painted the ceiling and walls Calamine by Farrow and Ball. It was the perfect jumping off point for the rest of the room.

Lighting: Arteriors Osgood Pendant.

Master Bathroom

Our master bathroom is done in classic carrera marble. This room took almost a year to complete! That’s the life of living with a contractor for your husband.

The baskets under the sink hide everyday items such a hairbrushes, my hairdryer and curling iron, and extra towels. All of my makeup and toiletries are stored in the nearby linen closet. Because we only have 2 sets of towels and sheets, there is ample room for all the normal bathroom toiletries and beauty products!

Bathroom apothecary console is from Pottery Barn.

Bathroom Faucets: Pottery Barn.

Mirrors: Pottery Barn.

Sconces: Pottery Barn.

Shower Tiles: Carrara Marble.

Spa-like

One of my favorite parts of our bathroom is the large soaking tub. It is the prettiest focal point and serves as a true sanctuary after a long day.

Lighting: Visual Comfort – one of my favorite chandeliers!

Faux Fiddle Lead Tree: World Market – similar here.

Tub: Kingston Brass.

Rug: Kismet Rug – similar here.

Backyard

Since we live in the bay area, California, where the housing prices are insane and lot sizes are minuscule, creating an outdoor living area as an extension of our indoors allows us to expand our living space. And with California weather, we can use these areas 9 months out of the year.

Pillows: Serena & Lily.

Ottoman Coffee Table: Serena & Lily.

Chairs

Rattan Egg Chair: Target’s Opalhouse.

Accent Chairs: Target’s Opalhouse Brittana – also in Loveseat.

Beautiful Outdoor Umbrellas: here & here.

Outdoor Sofa

A long sofa meant for the outdoors is soft and neutral. This allows me to change the colors year to year. I offset the sofa with two oversized chairs and added a small outdoor coffee table in the middle. This allows us to set food or drinks on it.

The sofa we have had for a few years now. It was a great find from the Restoration Hardware outlet. I love that the cushions are a soft gray that make them completely versatile to new color schemes!

Beautiful Outdoor Sofas: here, here, here & here.

Rug: Target.

Gather

Our backyard isn’t big, but we love to spend time out here and gather with friends and family.

Merlot & S’mores

We also recently updated our side yard and have a great space for making s’mores and enjoying a glass of wine or two.

Chairs: Serena & Lily.

Pillows: Serena & Lily.

    Many thanks to Ashley for sharing the details above. Please, make sure to follow her on Instagram to see more!

  Best Sales of the Month:

Thank you for shopping through Home Bunch. I would be happy to assist you if you have any questions or are looking for something in particular. Feel free to contact me and always make sure to check dimensions before ordering. Happy shopping!

  Serena & Lily: Pillow & Throw Sale!

  Wayfair: Up to 75% OFF on Furniture and Decor!!!

  Joss & Main: Up to 70% off Sale!

  Pottery Barn: Bedroom Event Slale plus free shipping. Use code: FREESHIP.

  One Kings Lane: Buy More Save More Sale.

  West Elm: 20% Off your entire purchase + free shipping. Use code: FRIENDS

  Anthropologie: 20% off on Everything + Free Shipping!

  Nordstrom: Sale – Incredible Prices!!!

  Posts of the Week:

Black & White Modern Farmhouse.

Interior Design Ideas: Home Renovation.

Beautiful Homes of Instagram: Modern Farmhouse.

2019 New Year Home Tour.

Beautiful Homes of Instagram: Charlotte, NC.

New-Construction Home Ideas.

Small Lot Modern Farmhouse.

Florida Beach Cottage.

Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen’s Home – Full House Tour.

Dark Cedar Shaker Exterior.

Beautiful Homes of Instagram: Coastal Farmhouse Design.

Neutral Home.

Southern-inspired Modern Farmhouse.

Coastal Farmhouse Home Decor.

Modern Farmhouse with Front Porch.

Lake House Interior Design Ideas.

New England Home.

Florida Beach House Interior Design.

Beautiful Homes of Instagram: Fixer Upper.

Tailored Interiors.Grey Kitchen Paint Colors.

Follow me on Instagram: @HomeBunch

You can follow my pins here: Pinterest/HomeBunch

See more Inspiring Interior Design Ideas in my Archives.

“Dear God,

If I am wrong, right me. If I am lost, guide me. If I start to give-up, keep me going.

Lead me in Light and Love”.

Have a wonderful day, my friends and we’ll talk again tomorrow.”

with Love,

Luciane from HomeBunch.com

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[toretandtasse]

Magosteen and Quince.

As a girl who grew up in a tropical country, there are many kinds of fruits that just grow up in the backyard of our house. That's why this blog is somewhat difficult for me because the fruits that are considered rare and can only find from other country are the fruits that usually grows in the Philippines or fruits that I already ate.

Identify the market you explored, and the reasons why you went there.

- I went to a Chinese store, hoping to find a fruit that I haven’t eaten before but came home disappointed, the Chinese store offer fruits that I already ate and some fruits that are available here in Canada such as apple, banana and oranges. The next place that I visited is Fortinos, where my family usually buy our groceries, I was thinking that maybe I can find fruits that grew here in Canada that I haven’t tried before or fruits that came from other countries, and there I found 2 fruits that I haven’t tried before, Mangosteen and Quince.

(This picture was taken way back 2018. The reason, I Didn't I realize I need to take a picture of the market where I bought the fruits.)

Explain your choice, why you made it and how you went about selecting your fruit.

Looking at the fruit selection, you can see that the section have tons of apple, grapes and different kind of citrus fruits. As I keep looking, I found the Quince first and almost taught it was a pear until I read the name which I am not familiar with. I also saw the mangosteen at the far corner. The reason why I bought mangosteen is, there are many stores in the Philippines where they sell Mangosteen but because it is really expensive, I never tried it before. So I am really curious, is the price really worth it? 

A brief summary of the history, geographical location(s), botanical family, market pricing and seasonality.

Mangosteen is known as the “queen of fruits” is a tropical evergreen tree, they are common in the rainforest areas of Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia. The ideal temperature range for growing and producing fruits is 25–35 °C (77–95 °F)[13] with a relative humidity over 80%. Mangosteen’s tree can take a decade to start fruiting, the fruit can’t withstand any cold temperatures, and even then, its yield is uncertain. Mangosteens are non-climacteric ripeners, meaning that after they’re picked, they never ripen further. That leaves the easily bruised fruit beginning to degrade the moment it leaves the field. European explorers found the fragile mangosteen plant to be difficult to transport. While determined traders were able to present them to England in 1789, they weren’t successfully cultivated for another 50 years.

Quince, (Cydonia oblonga), a small tree or shrub of the rose family (Rosaceae), grown for its edible fruit. Quince is the only member of the genus Cydonia and is native to Iran, Turkey, and possibly Greece and the Crimean Peninsula. The cultivation of quince started 4.000 years ago in Asia and Mediterranean region. Quince thrives both in temperate and semi-tropical areas, but it produces the fruit of best quality in warmer areas. The fruit has a strong aroma and is astringent in the raw state but makes an excellent preserve and is often used to give flavour and sharpness to stewed or baked apples. The flesh takes on a pink colour when cooked, giving an attractive colour to jellies and conserves.

Perform a sensory evaluation (SEE WEEK 3)

Mangosteen has a very pleasing color a very dark purple that resembles star apple or what we call “Caimito” in the Philippines. It was a fruit that we usually eat when we were still young. When looking at the bottom part, there is a flower like thing which I am love because it looks cute. While opening it with my knife, I notice that it has a very thick skin and rubbery. Inside, there are white cotton segments that are very similar to cotton fruit.

- It has a very sweet taste, juicy and soft. I really like how it just melts on your mouth and the sweet taste will spread on every corner of your mouth. The texture is really soft and you don’t even need to bite it. The taste of mangosteen resembles a ripe cotton fruit which I feel very happy because I also miss eating cotton fruit.

Quince have a greenish-yellow color. The shape looks like a pear or guava. When I peel the fruit, I notice that It have a very bad odour, similar to a boiled egg or the smell of a fart. When I tried cutting it in half, It was really hard and feels like there is a big seed inside, but turned out it doesn’t have. The texture resembles a pear or guava, slightly rough to the touch, and when I left it for a couple of minutes, the fruit turned brown just like an apple.

- Because of the smell, I am not really excited to eat the fruit. The fruit doesn’t have a lingering taste of how the quince smell. It tastes like a sour apple with a hint of slight sweetness. The texture is like guava or a very old apple, it is chewy and it made my mouth feel dry.

Discuss: if you were to cook this fruit, what cooking method would you use? Support your answer and provide a recipe.

- If I ever choose between the two, which I really wanted to cook, it will be the mangosteen. I feel like, you can make a jam with both fruits, but I wanted to try making Ice cream with mangosteen.

Recipe

1/2 Kilo of Mangosteen

1/4 cup coconut milk

1 L Whipping cream

1/4 cup honey

2 pcs lemon zest

Method

Cut open the mangosteen and scrap the flesh out of the seeds.

Boil coconut milk, mangosteen and honey together. Set aside to cool.

Blend the mixture on a blender for a smooth consistency.

Mix the mangosteen mixture with the whipping cream and lemon zest and mix it using a stand mixer.

When smooth, place on a container and freeze for 3 hours.

Reflect on what you learned from this experience.

Reflect on what you learned from this experience.

- Whether it is buying food, vegetable or fruit, I always pick foods that are very similar to my comfort food or food that I am already familiar with. I always tend to ignore others which I never tried before.

As a student who is dreaming to become a successful chef someday, foods plays the biggest role on my job. My mother always tell me that as a culinary student, I need to try new things so that in the future, I know what a certain food taste like.

Doing this blog, I came to realize that there are a lot more food that I haven’t tried before and because Im still young, I still have the chance to try it and expand my knowledge about the wonders of different cuisine and fruit that every country may offer.

Reference

Wikipedia. Mangosteen. Retrieve from https://en.wikipedia.org

Food Facts. October 28, 2016. What Are Mangosteens Good For? Retrieve from https://foodfacts.mercola.com/

Softchools.com. Quince Facts. Retrieve from http://www.softschools.com/

Melissa Petruzzello, Assistant Editor. Quince. Retrieve from https://www.britannica.com/

[nightmare-afton-cosplay]

The Sweet Life! See Inside Ricky Martin’s Modern Mansion in Beverly Hills

Taylor Hill/FilmMagic

Singer Ricky Martin has long since traded in la vida loca for a cozy life at home with his artist husband, Jwan Yosef, and their 8-year-old twins, Matteo and Valentino. After years on the road, the family purchased a modern mansion in Beverly Hills, CA, for $13.5 million in 2016.

Recently, the couple opened the doors of their elegant estate, offering a look inside the space that pulls off a nearly impossible feat: a perfect balance between high design and family-friendly warmth.

It’s hardly a shock the camera-ready couple live in an aesthetically impeccable environment.

“We met because of arts,” Martin explains in the home tour captured by Architectural Digest. “I collect, he’s a conceptual painter, and he has impeccable taste.”

The 11,000-square-foot home with seven bedrooms and 8.5 bathrooms is filled with artwork, including paintings, sculptures, and mixed-media pieces. The abundance of art reflects the couple’s passion for beauty. One of Yosef’s installations is prominently featured in the home’s entry.

Ricky Martin talks art.

Architectural Digest/YouTube

Yosef has turned a detached 2,000-square-foot building, originally marketed as a “secluded wellness center,” into his art studio. An unfinished area behind the art studio will one day be converted into a recording studio for Martin.

But not everything is about light and edges. The museum-quality pieces are broken up with simpler elements and even a few sentimental pieces such as the dining table, which was the first table Martin ever purchased 25 years ago.

The table Martin purchased 25 years ago

Architectural Digest/YouTube

“I take her wherever I go,” Martin says of the table. “I love my table.”

Continuing the tour, Martin strolls into the kitchen, which is bathed in light and marble. He explains that “everything happens” around the island, and the kitchen serves as a social hub where his family spends the most time, “cooking, gossiping, and all that good stuff.”

Kitchen

The family room is pristine white with flashes of gold—courtesy of Martin’s Grammy Awards proudly displayed next to the TV. Martin explains his husband encouraged him to show off his many accolades.

Grammys

Architectural Digest/YouTube

The home also features an incredible home theater and a master suite with a huge bathroom and a closet even a seen-it-all superstar like Martin admits is a “dream closet.”

Master bedroom

realtor.com

Martin’s “dream closet”

Architectural Digest/YouTube

He also takes care to point out the blanket he and Yosef keep on their bed. Made by a fan, it’s yet another element that infuses his modern manse with a homey, sentimental touch.

“Wherever you are, thank you very much,” he says, looking into the camera as he thanks the blanket’s knitter. “The kids love it.”

Blanket made by a fan

Architectural Digest/YouTube

Sitting on the terrace, Martin says the couple looked at dozens of homes before they settled on this one.

“When we walked in here, we fell in love with this home immediately,” Martin said. But one feature in particular stood out to them.

Backyard

Architectural Digest/YouTube

“We were also totally sold by that amazing bent tree,” Yosef says, gesturing to the tree forming a natural arch over a path in the backyard. “We just thought, the kids are gonna love this. They’re going to climb and do everything, and that’s really what happened.”

According to Martin, the family’s favorite spot on the whole property is the outdoor seating area underneath that tree, an area he calls “Zen.”

Outdoors

Architectural Digest/YouTube

But the story of this incredible property started long before Martin and Yosef graced the threshold. The original structure was built in 1954 and left virtually untouched until it was bought in 2014 by local architect and builder Josh Borris for $3.5 million.

Borris combined parts of the original four-bedroom, two-bath home with new construction, preserving the home’s Mid-Century Modern aesthetic, while updating and expanding its footprint.

Before: living room

Making of Angelo Drive/YouTube

Before: kitchen

Making if Angelo Drive/YouTube

“Blending the new with the old, we were able to tie everything together,” Borris said about the project.

After: kitchen

Making of Angelo Drive/YouTube

As beautiful as the home was after construction, Martin and Yosef further elevated it with their beautiful furnishings, marrying them with elements of their life they obviously prize above all else, the love of each other and their family.

The result is a remarkable home that’s a perfect fit for the fashionable, international couple.

The post The Sweet Life! See Inside Ricky Martin’s Modern Mansion in Beverly Hills appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

from https://www.realtor.com/news/celebrity-real-estate/inside-ricky-martin-beverly-hills-home/

[garagedoorsbrighton]

How to Dream Big About Outdoor Spaces (But Keep It Real)

A funny thing happened this summer after leveling out the backyard: For the first time since moving into my house, I actually began to picture my dream backyard space. And the truth is, I have a long way to go.

For myself and plenty of other first-time homeowners, it seems to be a little easier to picture the future potential of interior spaces: where the Christmas tree is going to go during the holidays, what hardwoods might look like instead of ugly carpet, etc.. But if you’re anything like me, being able to see a yard’s future potential just doesn’t come to mind as easily. I think it’s mainly because where the interior typically has defined areas and specific functions, the yard often starts as more of a blank slate (or in my case, a mess that has to first be cleaned up before a blank slate is possible). As a result, I wound up constantly second-guessing my outdoor project plans, putting it off, and taking years longer than I probably should have to get started.

If I could go back in time, I would have started on my dream yard a lot sooner. But now that I’ve had the opportunity for some trial and error, I can now see what I was missing all along. The key elements that add the wow factor for a beautiful back yard is actually quite simple: divide and conquer.

5 backyard design ideas — from entertaining to storage — great for your new home.

A Place for Storage

When I first bought my house, I had no idea how important the space in my one-car garage would be. Even though I do an annual clean-out, it’s just not enough space for renovation supplies, outdoor equipment, paint, power tools and lumber. The items I need for the interior upgrades compete for storage space with the equipment to maintain a healthy lawn and garden, leading to one massive mess that I’m constantly stepping over (and bumping my shin into).

related: garage pegboard wall

Through years of organizing the interior spaces, I’ve learned a key lesson in home improvement: make the space around you work for how you live your life. I know that sounds like both strange and obvious advice, but it isn’t until you live in a space for a little while before you realize what your habits are. Many times, new homeowners (including myself) will work toward a design that is totally wrong for them, focusing on how it “should be” and neglecting the reality of their everyday needs. If you have an aunt who has that formal living room that never gets used, you’re plenty familiar with this concept; she’s basically paying for hundreds of square feet of under-utilized space, heating and cooling it, and for what? A nice couch that the family never sits on?!

This same lesson works for outdoor spaces: it’s about how the space gets used today, tomorrow, and a year from now. Have a place for gardening tools, the mower etc. in an easy-to-reach and well-organized location, and the existing space is much more efficient. The garden improves by force of habit  because you’ll be going out there more often, working in your garden more often, etc. Since I have just about used every possible square inch of my garage, my next big project will be building my own outdoor storage shed, ideal for gardening and related equipment. The design of the structure will be custom, but I’m taking heavy inspiration from fellow bloggers like Finding Silver Pennies; rather than just serving as a dumping ground for extra stuff, this shed is more like an extension of the home’s design. I love the idea of adding trim, decorative hardware, and little garden boxes!

photo: Finding Silver Pennies 

Room for Entertaining

When I moved into my house, there was one space that I knew would need an upgrade: the 8×10 slab leading out from my kitchen and into the back yard. Prepare yourself for a hideous photo in 3…2…1…

things nightmares are made of

It is my only true space for placing outdoor furniture at the moment, and even though it got a little bit of a makeover a few years ago, what I really want to do is expand this space for more guests and entertaining (just two seats isn’t going to cut it!).

related: mini backyard makeover

For a while, I thought that I might have to hire help to expand the patio or bust up the concrete, but that might not be necessary. Kelly from View Along the Way came up with a great DIY option for her slab makeover turned wooden deck, which I think is a genius option!

Before: Like mine, it’s not much to look at.

photo: View Along The Way 

After: no more stepping down onto the discolored concrete.

photo: View Along The Way 

By building a new deck (or as an extension) over existing concrete, it also gives me the option to expand the area as a whole. I’ll have to add in some additional supports in expanded areas, but it beats having only 80 square feet of space for furniture. Guests won’t be crowded, and I’ll be more inclined to actually use this area rather than constantly avoiding it.

A Beautiful Garden

It’s hard to plan for a beautiful garden if you have a habit of killing indoor plants. If you too have a black thumb like I once did, take it from me: there is hope! The secret is to pick plants that are either native to the area or to the natural climate you live in, which allows the plants you pick to thrive — even if they are eventually neglected (ahem, guilty!). In the southeastern U.S. where I live, that means plants like hydrangeas, azaleas, and gardenias.

related: hydrangeas

Local nurseries and home improvement stores often carry plenty of options that do well in your surrounding climate (and the less exotic choices are often the most affordable plants, too). I’ve also found that raised garden beds have been the easiest to start with since they help deter weeds and provide plenty of quality soil for growing. They can even help cover over neighbor-neglected fences like the one to the right of my property. There was nothing I could really do about a fence that I didn’t own, but I could try to dress it up from my side!

Before: While I’m glad my neighborhood doesn’t have the added expense of an HOA, it does mean that neighbors have to work out problem areas amongst themselves. With a little creativity, I took a neglected fence and made it into something I liked.

After: By adding some low-maintenance garden beds along one side of my yard, I created a spot that would eventually fill in with a living, flowering hedge.

The plan is to later expand on this concept with the rest of the yard once the new deck and shed are in; these two additions will open the door for creating new gardening spaces next to each structure. I suppose I won’t get to call myself a “black” thumb for much longer!

Nighttime Lighting

I just love the idea of nighttime outdoor entertaining. Cozy seating, plenty of space for evening chatter, and the ambience of delicate lighting make for a breathtaking space! Stefanie from Brooklyn Limestone has a great example of how to separate “zones” in the yard using outdoor lights (below). This small patio area is surrounded by a series of string lights suspended above, which separates it from the hammock and dining area nearby.

photo: Brooklyn Limestone

An Inviting Fire

Once the need-to-have things are in, it will be time to build some furniture and create a fire pit area for people to sit around and enjoy the new yard. There are lots of DIY options out there, and since store-bought kits for fire pits tend to be on the pricey side, I’m planning to use inexpensive concrete blocks, similar to how A Beautiful Mess created their awesome s’mores fire pit.

photo: A Beautiful Mess

After years of working on the interior, one tends to lose a little momentum and inspiration to keep the DIY train moving along. But transitioning my thought process to these exterior improvements has given me a serious boost in energy to continue making changes and hang on to my home improvement mojo (new homeowners: don’t make my same mistake! Start working on your yard as a process long before you think you’ll need to). Now that I know the true potential waiting in my backyard, I can focus on making these dream outdoor zones into a reality. With any luck, this will be the year for lots of outdoor entertaining in a brilliant new space.

This post is sponsored by The National Association of Realtors. All opinions are 100% my own.  For additional posts in this series, check out HouseLogic.com

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from The Ugly Duckling House http://www.uglyducklinghouse.com/how-to-dream-big-about-your-outdoor-space-5-backyard-design-ideas/

[bespokekitchesldn]

How to Dream Big About Outdoor Spaces (But Keep It Real)

A funny thing happened this summer after leveling out the backyard: For the first time since moving into my house, I actually began to picture my dream backyard space. And the truth is, I have a long way to go.

For myself and plenty of other first-time homeowners, it seems to be a little easier to picture the future potential of interior spaces: where the Christmas tree is going to go during the holidays, what hardwoods might look like instead of ugly carpet, etc.. But if you’re anything like me, being able to see a yard’s future potential just doesn’t come to mind as easily. I think it’s mainly because where the interior typically has defined areas and specific functions, the yard often starts as more of a blank slate (or in my case, a mess that has to first be cleaned up before a blank slate is possible). As a result, I wound up constantly second-guessing my outdoor project plans, putting it off, and taking years longer than I probably should have to get started.

If I could go back in time, I would have started on my dream yard a lot sooner. But now that I’ve had the opportunity for some trial and error, I can now see what I was missing all along. The key elements that add the wow factor for a beautiful back yard is actually quite simple: divide and conquer.

5 backyard design ideas — from entertaining to storage — great for your new home.

A Place for Storage

When I first bought my house, I had no idea how important the space in my one-car garage would be. Even though I do an annual clean-out, it’s just not enough space for renovation supplies, outdoor equipment, paint, power tools and lumber. The items I need for the interior upgrades compete for storage space with the equipment to maintain a healthy lawn and garden, leading to one massive mess that I’m constantly stepping over (and bumping my shin into).

related: garage pegboard wall

Through years of organizing the interior spaces, I’ve learned a key lesson in home improvement: make the space around you work for how you live your life. I know that sounds like both strange and obvious advice, but it isn’t until you live in a space for a little while before you realize what your habits are. Many times, new homeowners (including myself) will work toward a design that is totally wrong for them, focusing on how it “should be” and neglecting the reality of their everyday needs. If you have an aunt who has that formal living room that never gets used, you’re plenty familiar with this concept; she’s basically paying for hundreds of square feet of under-utilized space, heating and cooling it, and for what? A nice couch that the family never sits on?!

This same lesson works for outdoor spaces: it’s about how the space gets used today, tomorrow, and a year from now. Have a place for gardening tools, the mower etc. in an easy-to-reach and well-organized location, and the existing space is much more efficient. The garden improves by force of habit  because you’ll be going out there more often, working in your garden more often, etc. Since I have just about used every possible square inch of my garage, my next big project will be building my own outdoor storage shed, ideal for gardening and related equipment. The design of the structure will be custom, but I’m taking heavy inspiration from fellow bloggers like Finding Silver Pennies; rather than just serving as a dumping ground for extra stuff, this shed is more like an extension of the home’s design. I love the idea of adding trim, decorative hardware, and little garden boxes!

photo: Finding Silver Pennies 

Room for Entertaining

When I moved into my house, there was one space that I knew would need an upgrade: the 8×10 slab leading out from my kitchen and into the back yard. Prepare yourself for a hideous photo in 3…2…1…

things nightmares are made of

It is my only true space for placing outdoor furniture at the moment, and even though it got a little bit of a makeover a few years ago, what I really want to do is expand this space for more guests and entertaining (just two seats isn’t going to cut it!).

related: mini backyard makeover

For a while, I thought that I might have to hire help to expand the patio or bust up the concrete, but that might not be necessary. Kelly from View Along the Way came up with a great DIY option for her slab makeover turned wooden deck, which I think is a genius option!

Before: Like mine, it’s not much to look at.

photo: View Along The Way 

After: no more stepping down onto the discolored concrete.

photo: View Along The Way 

By building a new deck (or as an extension) over existing concrete, it also gives me the option to expand the area as a whole. I’ll have to add in some additional supports in expanded areas, but it beats having only 80 square feet of space for furniture. Guests won’t be crowded, and I’ll be more inclined to actually use this area rather than constantly avoiding it.

A Beautiful Garden

It’s hard to plan for a beautiful garden if you have a habit of killing indoor plants. If you too have a black thumb like I once did, take it from me: there is hope! The secret is to pick plants that are either native to the area or to the natural climate you live in, which allows the plants you pick to thrive — even if they are eventually neglected (ahem, guilty!). In the southeastern U.S. where I live, that means plants like hydrangeas, azaleas, and gardenias.

related: hydrangeas

Local nurseries and home improvement stores often carry plenty of options that do well in your surrounding climate (and the less exotic choices are often the most affordable plants, too). I’ve also found that raised garden beds have been the easiest to start with since they help deter weeds and provide plenty of quality soil for growing. They can even help cover over neighbor-neglected fences like the one to the right of my property. There was nothing I could really do about a fence that I didn’t own, but I could try to dress it up from my side!

Before: While I’m glad my neighborhood doesn’t have the added expense of an HOA, it does mean that neighbors have to work out problem areas amongst themselves. With a little creativity, I took a neglected fence and made it into something I liked.

After: By adding some low-maintenance garden beds along one side of my yard, I created a spot that would eventually fill in with a living, flowering hedge.

The plan is to later expand on this concept with the rest of the yard once the new deck and shed are in; these two additions will open the door for creating new gardening spaces next to each structure. I suppose I won’t get to call myself a “black” thumb for much longer!

Nighttime Lighting

I just love the idea of nighttime outdoor entertaining. Cozy seating, plenty of space for evening chatter, and the ambience of delicate lighting make for a breathtaking space! Stefanie from Brooklyn Limestone has a great example of how to separate “zones” in the yard using outdoor lights (below). This small patio area is surrounded by a series of string lights suspended above, which separates it from the hammock and dining area nearby.

photo: Brooklyn Limestone

An Inviting Fire

Once the need-to-have things are in, it will be time to build some furniture and create a fire pit area for people to sit around and enjoy the new yard. There are lots of DIY options out there, and since store-bought kits for fire pits tend to be on the pricey side, I’m planning to use inexpensive concrete blocks, similar to how A Beautiful Mess created their awesome s’mores fire pit.

photo: A Beautiful Mess

After years of working on the interior, one tends to lose a little momentum and inspiration to keep the DIY train moving along. But transitioning my thought process to these exterior improvements has given me a serious boost in energy to continue making changes and hang on to my home improvement mojo (new homeowners: don’t make my same mistake! Start working on your yard as a process long before you think you’ll need to). Now that I know the true potential waiting in my backyard, I can focus on making these dream outdoor zones into a reality. With any luck, this will be the year for lots of outdoor entertaining in a brilliant new space.

This post is sponsored by The National Association of Realtors. All opinions are 100% my own.  For additional posts in this series, check out HouseLogic.com

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[themanuelruello]

3 Home Dairy Myths That Are Holding You Back

It’s kinda like a status symbol.

That bowl of ricotta on my counter that I just made myself? It gives me rockstar status y’all. And I know I’m not the only one. For many folks who dream of homesteading, not much would make them feel like they’ve “arrived” more than successfully creating delicious dairy products at home.

I know for me, home dairy completely captured my imagination at the beginning of our homestead journey. Every time when I realized another dairy item that I could actually make myself, well folks it was like the skies opened and the angels sang. 

Yet so many of you who want to conquer home dairy haven’t started. Why?

3 Common Home Dairy Myths That Are Holding You Back

I think your hesitation towards home dairy may come down to 3 home dairy myths (#1 might be the biggest). So today, y’all we are doing some myth busting.

Myth #1: You have to have a cow.

Thank goodness myth #1 is simply not true. Because I know most of you aren’t exactly in situations where you can keep a dairy animal. You may have a few chickens in your suburban backyard, or maybe you have an acre or two but not enough room for a full-size milk cow. Or, maybe you live in the heart of a metropolitan city and don’t even have a source of homegrown milk. I still got ya’ covered. Trust me. You can make your own dairy products, in your own kitchen, no matter where that kitchen is.

Michelle Visser is going to be the guinea pig of the day to test out this myth. In addition to being a member of The Prairie Homestead team, Michelle is the owner of SoulyRested.com, author of Sweet Maple (aff link), and has recently been featured in Mother Earth News and Whole Foods Magazine.

But a tragedy hit Michelle’s New England homestead last spring. A barn fire meant her family had to rehome their dairy cows. She told me she hasn’t made one stick of homemade butter or one jar of fresh-made yogurt since last March. When I asked her why–and she commented that home dairy wouldn’t be any good without fresh, raw milk–I realized this myth needed to go to the top of my myth-busting list.

Michelle will tell you more about her story–and her recent home dairy success (no cow required!)–in just a minute.

What you need to know if you don’t own a cow or goat

Find raw milk if you can… If you don’t have your own dairy animal, my best recommendation is always going to be getting the milk raw from a local farm or a friend with a dairy animal. (If that’s legal in your state; sadly it used to be illegal in Wyoming.)

Share a cow if possible… If you live in a state where you cannot legally purchase raw milk, you may be able to cow share. A cow share involves a small dairy farm, where you purchase partial ownership in a cow, which naturally comes with rights to some of the milk. Ask around at your local organic food hubs to see if you can find a cow share option.

Use regular store milk if you don’t have raw milk… When our cow is dried up, I purchase our raw milk at our local organic food store–I get Kalona organic milk. It is pasteurized, but it is low-temperature vat pasteurized, so it’s not quite cooked as long as your typical milk, and it’s grass fed. And I love that it still has cream on top! But you can definitely use regular gallons of whole milk from the regular-old grocery store too. (See Michelle’s example below.)

Avoid UHT milk… UHT stands for “ultra heat treated” milk, which means it’s been heated to the point of sterilization. So it turns out that UHT milk acts really weird in home dairy recipes… it’s simply been changed too much to be able to make cheese or yogurt or butter with it.

Myth #2: It’s just about the cheese.

Most folks think that home dairy entails making a big block of cheddar or Parmesan–some sort of hard cheese.

The reality? Many of my home dairy recipes aren’t cheese at all. In fact, I make very little hard cheese.

My favorite home dairy items? Ricotta, yogurt, buttermilk, and butter.

And, when home dairy IS about cheese? Well, there’s a huge added BONUS. It’s not just about the ricotta, but it’s also about the whey. You see, by making delicious soft cheeses yourself, you wind up with lots of whey. You might want to check out my list of 16 Uses of Whey if you don’t know why this makes me happy.

So, in the end, if you think that home dairy equals having a cheese press and a cheese cave, I’m very happy to inform you that you’re wrong. In fact, I challenge you to think about the dairy items you’re purchasing on a regular basis and start researching how to make homemade replacements instead.

To make it super easy for you, I made a handy downloadable with my favorite 4 home dairy recipes all in one place–not to mention a sweet coupon code toward awesome home dairy products from New England Cheesemaking Supply Co., my favorite go-to place for all things home dairy. Just go here to snag my Home Dairy Recipes printable. {NEED LINK}

Myth #3: You have to invest a lot of time.

I think there’s a common thought process out there that if you’re going to be making at-home dairy products, it has to become your new, all-consuming hobby.

Here’s the deal. Home dairy is not complicated. It doesn’t have to be.

Now if you want to take your home dairy passion and turn it into a full-fledge hobby, you absolutely can. But here’s the thing, while we all want to have better food, not all of us want to become artisan bread bakers or cheesemongers who spend 20 hours a week crafting bread and cheddar.

Here’s the good news… There’s a middle ground. You can make your own sourdough breads, and fermented sauerkraut, and canned foods, and your homemade dairy stuff without letting any of it consume your busy calendar.

I’ve always been fascinated by this idea of slow food. Slow food stands in great contrast to the world of fast food, but there’s something about slow food that most folks don’t realize. So read on…

What you need to know about slow food

It’s pretty hands-off… While the slow foods we’re crafting at home take many hours to reach completion, most of that time is hands-off time.

It’s about checking in on things… Even when I have my kitchen in full swing and I’m fermenting, and cheesemaking, and sourdoughing (yeah, that’s not a verb. But it should be don’t ya think?), it’s more about checking in on things in the kitchen once in a while. It’s not about being in there 24-7. Thank goodness. Because I got things to do, y’all, and standing in my kitchen for hours on end isn’t one of them.

It’s much simpler than you think… Homemade dairy is often as simple as taking a jar of milk, stirring in some culture, making sure it’s the right temperature, and leaving it alone. It’s just not a complicated process. You don’t have to babysit it. You could often do home dairy before you leave for work in the morning and finish it when you get home.

So, no, you don’t have to invest a lot of time when you’re making home dairy products. In fact, it might be one of the simplest ways I know to be part of something magical.

Let’s be honest, when I transform white liquid into a glorious chuck of golden yellow butter… well if that doesn’t make me a Dairy David Cooperfield, I don’t know what would.

So how did Michelle do as the guinea pig, working at debunking myth #1? You know, that idea that you have to have a cow if you want to make home dairy products?

Living Proof that these Common Home Dairy Myths are Meant to be Busted

Thanks, Jill, for making me a case study in this whole myth busting effort. I can’t tell you how glad I am that you did!

I haven’t made cheese or yogurt for six months, since we had a barn fire and needed to find a new home for our sweet cows. Boy I miss them & the cheese, ice cream, butter, and yogurt. I just had no idea that any yogurt or cheese I make with store-bought milk could ever be so good! So I never tried.

But I finally did it. My daughters and I were skeptical. But we took the plunge, ordered a few things from New England Cheese Supply Co., picked up a few gallons of whole milk from the store, followed your directions in your Home Dairy Recipes download, and we made both ricotta and yogurt last night. (Maybe tonight we’ll make some butter & buttermilk!)

The results? Both the ricotta and the yogurt were absolutely delicious. With no cow required! Myth busted.

It’s Time for You to Work Some Home Dairy Magic!

So what common myth about home dairy is holding you back?

I encourage you to try this amazing thing called home dairy. Try it this week. Or put it on your bucket list. Make a decision to expand in your homestead repertoire of skills and make home dairy the next step.

It’s really enjoyable.

It’s really easy.

And, seriously, homemade dairy is really delicious. So give it a try.

And for a limited time New England Cheesemaking Supply Co. has put together a special home dairy kit–just for The Prairie Homestead tribe–that will make sure you have everything you need (well, minus the milk) for making every one of my favorite home dairy recipes.

Download my Home Dairy Recipes printable and you’ll find a coupon code for an additional 10% off any and all of your purchases–on the already discounted special kit, or anything at all. 

Heck you might want to try your hand at that idea of hard cheese after all and order their amazing cheese press at 10% off, or maybe you have some folks on your gift-giving list who would like a butter churn, or butter paddles, or a super-fun cheesemaking kit for beginners.

Enjoy it all at 10%. But hurry! Download the printable of recipes and snag that coupon code inside that download before it expires at midnight EST on Wednesday, November 27th.

More resources you’re sure to love:

You may love learning more about slow food–and how it’s much simpler than you think–in my Heritage Cooking Crash Course.

And don’t forget to snag my Home Dairy Recipes right here.

  The post 3 Home Dairy Myths That Are Holding You Back appeared first on The Prairie Homestead.

from Gardening https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2019/11/home-dairy-myths.html via http://www.rssmix.com/

[polkadotsandcoffeethoughts]

It’s funny

The last time I wrote on this was about two years ago after I graduated nursing school and finally passed my nursing boards. 

SO much has changed in just that short (long?) amount of time. It seems forever ago but doesn’t at the same time. 

Just in those two years, I started my first job as a nurse in adolescent psychiatry. It’s difficult to remember the emotions I felt when I first started because it had become such second nature to me over the few years. I met so many awesome people that I was fortunate enough to work with. During this time, I restarted my antidepressant citalopram.

In September/October, I was granted the opportunity for more individual work at the adolescent partial hospitalization program where I was able to create countless therapeutic groups and help teenagers get through the basic stress of life and more. I had much more independence here, but also maintained my spot over on the inpatient unit. In the midst of my career advancement and becoming more and more comfortable (and gradually unhappy and unchallenged), Tony proposed to me in our light yellow cape cod home we had bought that past spring. We were both growing in so many ways, especially together, and we decided to take the next few steps in our lives. We plan to marry this October in a small ceremony and celebration with those special to us.

In the beginning on January, my dad received the call our entire family had been waiting for since I was accepted into nursing school. His doctors had found a liver match from someone who had passed in Dayton, Ohio. Their selfless decision to become an organ donor saved my dad’s life. I was on my way to a thrift store when my dad had called me in tears, scared and happy beyond words, sharing with me that they had a match and that he needed to be at the hospital that evening to begin the process. Packing my things and heading to the hospital with my family is all a blur, but eventually it was time for the procedure. I will never forget what hugging my dad felt like before he went in- I had burned it into my memory in case it was the last we would have. 

During the surgery overnight, we would get periodic calls from the surgeon updating us on the process. This was our main form of communication with how dad was doing, every call we received gave us good news. However, the last call requested us to meet in a separate conference room where we anxiously waited for news. We all thought the worst, something weird had happened, but my Aunt Patty kept saying that she felt everything was okay- and she was completely right. The surgeon met with us in the room sharing with us the details of his procedure, stating my father had surpassed every expectation. The surgery was the shortest one they had completed, his vitals were incredible, on and on. He notoriously became the hospitals “superman”. 

We were able to visit him in the ICU two people at a time. With a new, healthy liver he looked completely different. He looked at himself through his camera on his iPad, and teared up immediately. It was the first time in 25 years he had seen himself with red cheeks. He was able to return home in about a week. Here we are, six months after his transplant and he is thriving. He has gained healthy weight, his skin is full of life, he learned to manage his own pills and take/record his own vitals. He is amazing.

In February, Tony and I decided our love for each other could only grow so much and we expanded our family by four paws. We rescued our sweet but anxious 7 month old baby girl, Sophie. She will be turning one year old next month. 

Since January, my baby Zoe, was declining in health. She essential became a walking skeleton, regardless of how much food she would eat and water she would drink. On April 15th, our family allowed her to pass and she was undoubtedly ready to leave. The vet had to use only one syringe to put her to sleep, typically requiring two for a small dog her size. She is currently resting in my family’s backyard behind the fence. I miss her every day. I miss how she would sit up on her back legs and hit her paws together like she was clapping, I miss her morning snuggles when I didn’t have school or work, I miss her pig snort noises she would make especially when entering a room, I miss her white spot on her chest and on her back paws, I miss how she felt when we would give her a bath, how she would jump on the raft in the summer, how she would greet met through door, kissing her. Her death was an extreme struggle for me (and still is). I can barely type through my tears. 3 months later and it’s hardly any easier coping with losing her. 

Simultaneously during this time, I was struggling with my purpose in my work. I was getting burnt out and overall just felt completely not myself. I reached a point in my career where I was not progressing as a nurse. I was losing my nursing skills, and felt more like a teacher than anything (side note: absolutely NOTHING wrong with this career, it is hard work and I honestly don’t know how people can do it, but I had spent 5 years dedicating my life to nursing), rounding up behavioral kids and putting out fires left, right, and center. I felt that I was doing a million jobs at once. I felt that many people did not want to put in the effort for anything, and I was become frustrated. I was becoming a very unhappy and questioning person. 

I turned to my physician for a possible medicine change after safely decreasing myself off citalopram. We decided on effexor, and I began my 37.5 mg dose. I was exhausted. I would take at least one nap per day and fall asleep every night around 8:30 or 9 (early!). I had difficulty with word retrieval, felt very numb and zoned out (several people actually had brought that to my attention). I didn’t like feeling this way either but continued taking the medicine. 

During this time, I had joked with my twin sister that I may join her at the main hospital. A huge part of me was serious, but I didn’t want to admit that I was unhappy where I was in my nursing career to my family as becoming a mental health nurse was my dream for years. I eventually asked if I could shadow Tara a few nights on her floor on the neurology unit. In the time I shadowed, I fell in love. I was able to utilize my nursing skills and knowledge I worked so hard gaining. I created a pros and cons list for the new job I was considering, I talked it through with Tony and my family and they all said the same thing- “I think you know what choice to make”. I decided to apply and I was hired on in May. 

It was bittersweet leaving the adolescent psychiatry unit. I had learned so much during my 3 years there (nursing student, MHS, and then RN). I created so many special bonds with amazing people, and I wish nothing but the absolute best for them. As for my medication, I weaned off effexor and began focusing on supplements/natural remedies. I currently take 5 HTP, NAC, and vitamins- and I feel great. I’m neurotic, I’m anxious.. but that is me. That is who got me through nursing school, who Tony fell in love with, who I was at my most happy points in my life.

So, that has been my life the past few years since my last post. 

[ggdbonlineshop-blog]

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[adaanwhititaker]

DARK HOUSE

Chapter One

The car breaks. Its engine makes a loud bang, then sputters as metal rips into metal. The noise reminds me of my father’s deathbed cough. I let off the gas and the motor shuts down. I coast in neutral, ease the car onto the narrow dirt shoulder and stop.  

“Damn it to hell.”  

I’d been speeding, pushing my old car through the shadows by Becker Lake, the place where the rich hide their weekend houses. The road is always smooth, each crack and pothole immediately patched and filled. A dark, burnt oil smell emanates from the car’s hood, poisoning the clean scent of woods. My running shoes crunch through gravel as I walk. A glow of house lights shines through the trees and, when I find a driveway, I head toward the light.

It’s a big white colonial; no curtains or security bars. I see her clearly through the kitchen window, a slender woman with dark blonde hair. She’s pulling a tray of cookies from the oven. She senses me, I guess, because she turns and peers through the glass. A quizzical look crosses her features. I wave and offer a smile. She meets me at the door.

“You’re the guy who drives the Mustang, right?”

“Yeah,” I say. “It just broke down on me, too.”

She holds the door open. The smell of baked cookies wafts out to welcome me. My stomach churns for one as I step inside. Cookies are everywhere; plates of them cover the counters and the kitchen table. I glance through the doorway and see a huge mound piled on top the dinning room table.

“I like to bake,” she says and her hand slips to my arm, touches me above my elbow. All at once I see my life with this girl, laughing in this kitchen, long strolls through the trees together, holding hands and kissing at the water’s edge…  It’s a lifetime in of one feminine touch. She smiles. It radiates. My knees buckle a little.

“So what do you do, Mustang guy?”

“I’m a writer,” I say. “I’m finishing my next novel now.” I like the smooth tone of my voice. I sound sure of myself, even cocky. I catch the look of my arms then, firm and muscular. My stomach, I see, has no bulge. I run one hand through my hair and find it long and, most likely, a boyish mess.

I’m dreaming. My mind seizes that thought; I am dreaming.

Then a man’s yell tears through the stillness outside. “Ou taah aaaah merr,” he says. “Ou et aahh aaaa merr ow!”

The woman just smiles at me, unalarmed.

“My ex,” she says. “He lost one leg in the war and every bit of his common sense went with it. Don’t worry about him. ”

Immediately, I envision a one-legged man, limping through the woods on a robotic prosthetic, spying on her from behind an oak tree. The image of a crazy-eyed stalker angered me. Someone had to protect a girl like her from a man like that.

“Pay no attention to him.”

The room begins to ripple, as if the walls are turning to liquid. Two children enter from the dinning room; a boy in shorts, dark haired like me, and a girl in a summer dress, a child version of the mother.

“My babies,” she says. “Do you have kids?”

“Someday I will,” I say.

The whole room shudders.

“Next time plan to stay awhile.”

I woke up in my clothes, long sleeves still buttoned tight around my wrists. The oppressive darkness of my apartment surrounded me. I slid off my couch, limped stiff-legged to the balcony and smoked a cigarette. September’s wet air sent shivers crawling down my spine. The dream’s images, shards of my past stacked into nonsense, stuck in my head.

The Mustang – the first car I’d ever owned. I’d worked two jobs to buy that relic; ticket ripper at the Marion Theater and burger flipper at Hardee’s. My dad made me earn every dollar. “A boy’s first car should be all his own,” he’d said. We’d called it, “Ryan’s Red Wreck.”

Becker Lake – the last place I’d spent quality time with my dad. We hadn’t owned a house there. Poor people only rented. I remembered the boat oars in his meaty hands as he propelled us across the water’s flat surface. I saw the permanent engine oil under his nails as he uncoiled the anchor. By then I’d hated the constant grime on him. “I sure would love to own a house on a lake like this,” he’d said and coughed into one fist, the lung cancer already bristling in his chest.

It was a good dream, I decided, especially the girl. The doctor told me that the medication could trigger vivid dreaming. I’d been expecting nightmares, though. If this was all it could do to me I didn’t mind at all. I slammed the balcony door, stripped to my boxers and left the clothes on the floor. My stomach sagged over my drawers, a growing ball of soft fat. The girl from my dream wouldn’t look twice at me in this life. I pictured her, the curves of her hips, her luxurious hair…

A lone candle’s tiny flame sends lightning around her bedroom. We claw at each other, two bodies merging under white sheets. The flashes of light blind me. In the total darkness I hear her moan. Then, in a low and breathless whisper, she adds, “Ah, baby.” It almost makes me cry, the way she calls me baby.

She slides off of me. My vision returns. I eye her alabaster body, then roll onto my side and pull her close so I can keep her a little longer.

“I’m falling for you hard,” I say.

The words sound loud, like thunder.  

She turns to me and smiles. Again, it radiates.

Then I hear him screaming again, the man in the woods. His guttural yells penetrate the walls like a sudden blast of winter. “Ou taah aaaah merr. Ou et aahh aaaa merr ow!”  

“He’s really nuts-o tonight,” she says and chuckles.

“We have to do something about him,” I tell her.

Her soft lips fall to mine and in that kiss a single moment stretches to what feels like decades.

Chapter Two

“Nice kicks.” Larry entered my cube with a customer’s file, stepping over my gym bag and running shoes. “Are they new?”

“I bought them last year,” I said.

“I read somewhere that they pack more technology into a pair of modern running shoes than they did the first astronaut suits. It’s the same synthetic materials.” He picked up one of the red-and-black shoes. “That’s why they’re so lightweight.”

I took my phone headset off my head and fiddled with it. “Interesting.”

“These are new. You put any miles on them at all?”

“Did you need something?”

“Yeah, actually, I have to talk to you about this quote because you completely screwed it up. It’s a mess.”

The whole time he lectured me I thought about fishing with my dad, the way the boat rocked underneath us, the feel of wet air on my arms, the cold against my seat and my father’s peaceful gaze between coughing jags. When Larry shut up I nodded. “Okay.”

“…So you really have to double-check your work before you click submit.”

“Got it.”

By the end of the day my head throbbed and I skipped running. I drove home in the dark, glad it was Friday. Inside my apartment, I dropped the shoes next to my front door. Their soles were black as roofing tar. Not one speck of street dust or mud had tainted them since I bought them with a credit card. How pathetic.

I washed my face in the bathroom. Then I opened a small brown bottle, shook out one pale blue pill and swallowed it with tap water. I hoped it sent me back to Becker Lake. Then I huddled upon my couch.

My writing room is small and crammed with books. I spend the morning at my desk, drinking green tea and writing. Framed covers of my previous works adorn the walls, seven novels, all of them have a gold bestseller seal in the lower right corner.

I’m dreaming again.

And in this dream I’m a bestselling novelist – awesome.

I think about having a cigarette, but dream-me doesn’t have any ashtrays around. This life holds too much to live for, I guess. I leave the office, pad through the old house in my socks, admiring old wood molding and paneling. The house fits me like a broken-in pair of jeans. I find the master bedroom. A picture of me and the girl lays on the nightstand. It must be her handwriting on the back, Ryan and Miranda, it says.

I don a sweatshirt, cinch up my red and black shoes and head outside. The screen door bangs shut behind me and I break into a jog. I start breathing deep, but I keep my wind. My chest expands; my lungs feel plump and full of oxygen. I run along the waters edge, then cut through a patch of forest and onto the asphalt road. I walk to cool down, then stroll to her house. She’s sitting on the porch below the street address numbers, 667.

“I was hoping you’d come by today.”

I hurry up the steps. Her playful grin makes my heart accelerate more than the run did. She stands up and I wrap my arms around her.

I woke up numb. A haze of morning light filled the living room. For a moment I thought I’d slept through the alarm, then I realized it was Saturday. I got off the couch, stiff muscles resisting movement. I headed for the bathroom and something caught my eye. It was not movement, but the realization that something had changed. My running shoes; they were exactly where I’d left them, but they were no longer new. The red-and-black material had faded. The soles had worn down and turned grey. I poked at one with my foot, felt cold against my toes. Then I knelt down. A slow current of electricity vibrated inside me. I snatched them off the floor. The shoes were damp. The waffle shaped tread was heavy with brown sand.

Chapter Three

On Saturday afternoon, I take the little girl fishing. Our wooden rowboat creaks and sways on gentle waves. She sits across from me, her clever fingers baiting a hook. “Good job.” She beams back at me, eyes bright. She’s my favorite, I know, but I remind myself that I mustn’t neglect the boy. He loves baseball and, on Sunday, we toss a sweat-stained ball back and forth in the backyard. I throw it high, making him run to get under it. Each throw pops into his glove, the sound of a good catch. He hurls it back, laughing, pleased with himself. I’m delighted with his laugh. He’s my favorite, too, I guess. Miranda joins me.

“Thanks for spending time with them,” she says. “They really think you’re something.”

“What about you?”

“Oh, I guess they’re right,” she says.

That evening, after dinner, the four of us pile onto the couch and watch a kid-movie, something with animated creatures I’d never heard of. The girl likes it. The boy makes fun of it. A plate of Snickerdoodle cookies two feet high sits on the coffee table. We stuff ourselves with them, devouring the uneven circles and licking cinnamon sugar off our fingers. My mouth goes dry. Then, as the kids are dozing off on the floor, the screaming begins.

“Ou taah aaaah merr.”

The kids – my kids – lift their heads and look at us, teary eyed. Miranda scoops them up, one on each knee. I stand. Then I pace back and forth.

“Ou taah aaaah merr. Ou et aahh aaaa merr ow!”

“He’s close to the house.”

“No,” she says. “He never comes out of the trees.”

The window shatters. The crash of breaking glass makes us duck. Miranda clutches the kids close to her as shards hurl past her. Sharp pieces land on the couch, her shoulders, in her hair. I start moving.

“Don’t.”

It’s too late. I’m already at the door, pushing through it, charging into the woods. The air is colder than it should be this time of year. I see my breath and start to shake. The forest is still, quiet. I hear branches break and I trot toward the sound.

“Hey,” I yell. “Come out. Now. I want a word with you.”

I find him, a shadow figure, taller than me, broad shouldered, hobbling away from the house.

“Come here.” I chase after him. “I want to talk to you.”

He dodges through trees, lumbering on his good leg, leading me in a zigzag pattern. He’s trying to get me lost, get me turned around so he can conk me on the head. I burst onto the shore. The lake is in front of me, a vast shadow of black water. On the beach is a message. He’d carved it in the sand.

L E A V E

A tall wave rises up and crests about ten feet out. It crashes over the letters. The surprise wave washes over the word and rushes all the way to my feet, splashing over my shoes and soaking me up to my ankles. When it pulls back the message is gone. The cold settles into my flesh and, all at once, the whole word shudders. The trees shake so hard they blur and the water rises into tidal waves.

“No, I don’t want to wake up… I don’t want to leave her. I don’t want to leave this life…”

“Are you coming to work?”

I stood in my living room, the phone in one hand and a filthy, worn out running shoe in the other. It was heavy with lake water, like it’d been drenched.

“Of course I am – on Monday.”

A foul, locker-room odor had filled the room.

“It’s Wednesday,” Larry said.

“What?”

“It’s Wednesday afternoon,” he said. “Look, if you miss four days in a row it’s considered job abandonment.”

“I’m sick,” I said. “I got really sick.”

“Will you be in tomorrow?”

“Yes,” I said. “I will definitely be in tomorrow.”

After a long silence he said, “Okay.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, but he’d already hung up.

I held the shoe for a long time. The odor, I realized, was my own. It was days and nights of boiling sleep. I went to the bathroom, turned on the tap water, and popped the lid off the pill bottle. I shook three capsules into my palm and gulped them down with lukewarm water. The pills took hold with a deadening sensation, an anesthetic against my soul. Everything went heavy. Still, I trembled myself to sleep.

Chapter Four

“Wish you’d tell me what’s on your mind.”

We’re in her bed; the now familiar shadows pulsing with warmth. She’s resting her head on my chest. Her hair smells clean as the first day of summer.  

“If I sleep forever I’ll die.”  

The bed squeaks as she shifts positions.

“You ain’t sleeping, baby.”

If I’m not asleep than both of me exist and here at Becker Lake I’m as real as the sand and mud stuck to my shoes. I am not an image in my own longing, but flesh and bone. I live – happy.

I shake my head, clearing the sudden sensation of waking up off of me.

“Stay forever, okay? It won’t hurt for very long.”

“What won’t?”

After a silence she tells me. “The poison.”

I can sense her biting her lower lip, a look of pleading straining her features.  

“The kids adore you.”

I never wanted children, but now that I’ve taught a tomboy girl how to fish and played catch with an exuberant boy I do. I don’t care that they’re not my own. I don’t care that their biological father stalks the woods outside the lake house. I will deal with him. I just love these children and – .

“And I love you.”

I will protect them; each of them. Nothing bad will happen to us, not to my family.

I woke up groggy, my bed empty, and closed my eyes to –

Slide close to Miranda and inhale the warm smell of her –

And eventually relented, blinking against the first rays of morning piercing my bedroom window.

I was starving.

Later, at work, I opened a browser and searched for “667 Becker Lake, Becker Lake, Minnesota.” The search came back with three-and-a-half million sites. I clicked on the first – fishing tips.

“Whoa, what happened to you?”

Larry stood at my cubicle, eyebrows raised with suspicion. He stared at my arms. They were cut from the branches I’d run through when I sprinted through the woods. Each arm was a tangle of deep red lines edged with white infection.

“Do you need something?” A fever burned in my head, pushing a sweat as thick as oil out of my pores. I felt it dripping through my hair.

“The forms for your sick days.”

“I’ll leave them on your desk.”

“And I have to write you up for not calling in.”

“No problem.”

He left. I put my phone on Do Not Disturb, sending every call to voicemail. I kept clicking links and that afternoon I found it: Becker Lake Man Charged with Wife’s Murder. I read the article twice. It gave no gruesome details, only short facts; woman found dead, man arrested. It said nothing about her sweet nature or that she was a good mom. It didn’t say she loved to bake, only that she was found dead in the early evening hours.

“He kills her. If I’m not there, he murders her.”

More sweat poured out of me. My skin went cold. Nausea rose inside me. A thumping dizziness made me rest my head into my palms, exhausted. I closed my eyes.

She meets me at the door. No girl’s ever been so happy to see me before. She is so beautiful it’s hard to inhale, like my lungs are too busy looking at her to do their job. The woods are quiet this afternoon. No birds, no cars on the nearby two-lane, not one sound. She hugs me tight. I lean down, kiss her head.

“Come inside,” she says and leads me into the kitchen. Cookies, great mounds of them, are piled everywhere.

She’s set one aside for me. It’s a large circle on a red napkin and silver tray. She hands it to me. “Snickerdoodle’s your favorite, ain’t it?”  

“Should I eat it now?”

“Plenty of time for that later,” she says. “Right now you should come upstairs with me because the little ones are at school.”  

Chapter Five

I scanned my apartment, my small, dark house. The cookie waited on my kitchen counter, between a coffee stain and the sink. I took it to the couch. For a time, I thought about my mom and wished I had more memories of her. I had so many of my father. I hoped I still had them in the next life. I got a glass of tap water and swallowed the rest of the blue pills. I felt a slow, creeping paralysis infecting my muscles as the chemicals took hold. I inhaled long and slow, steadying myself. Then I bit into the cookie.

My tongue tingled. I chewed fast and swallowed. The inside of my mouth began burning. I fought back a retch and stuffed more Snicker Doodle into my mouth. I chewed. I swallowed. Chewed and swallowed and the pain erupted below my heart, a long piercing like being stabbed from the inside. It emerged hard and definite as the woods near Becker Lake come into focus.

The smell of trees and black earth, of water in the air and wild things with matted fur and sharp teeth. I’d never noticed that dangerous scent before. I sat on a grey boulder, the clearing in front of me illuminated by moonlight. A man stands in front of me and his presence startles me. I stand up too fast, lose my balance and crash to the ground. Dead pine needles dig into my palms. I try to cry out and cannot. Blinking, dazed, I turn to peer up at the man. He looks down at me. His eyes are full of sadness. I don’t understand. He points to his mouth then feigns eating a cookie. I nod. Yes, yes. I ate her cookie. He opens his mouth. He has no tongue. A stump of tissue, fish belly white, raises near the back of his mouth.

“Ah old uu taah aaaah merr.”

I know what he’s saying; I told you stay away from her.

I’m not dreaming now.

My mind seizes this realization, this time with dread.

I am not dreaming.

I get to my feet and I run. I’ve spent so many hours running through these woods that I get my sense of direction right away, but this time I’m easily winded. I’m panting by the time I find the road. I pass my red Mustang, still sitting on the shoulder, emanating that thick, burnt oil smell. Miranda’s house lights must be off because no glow guides me. I find the road, though and I charge to it.

The white colonial is a decrepit shell of weathered wood. The remnants of white paint curl off in long peels. All the grass has died and the dirt surrounding the house is as grey as concrete. I hear my children’s laughter, but there is no longer joy in it. Now, it’s high pitched, malicious. The front door opens a few inches. I sense someone – something – peering out. It’s not my beautiful girl…

“You came.” Its voice was full of mud. “Welcome home.

[andrewdburton]

My $3500 Tiny House, Explained

Meet “Timothy”, the new tinyhouse-style conference room at MMM HQ.

One of the nicest new trends of recent years is really the revival and rebranding of something very old: the smaller dwelling.

Over the last few months, I have built just such a structure, and it has turned out to be a rather cool experience. In fact, I’m typing this article for you from within its productive new confines.

Technically, it’s just a fancy shed. But it is functioning as a freestanding office building, a sanctuary, and would even make a pretty fine little dwelling for one person, if you were to squeeze in the necessary plumbing. It’s a joyful place to spend time, and yet it only took a moderate amount of work and less than $3500 of cash to create it.

The experience has been so satisfying and empowering, that it has  reminded me how much we rich folk are overdoing the whole housing thing.

The latest and most distant Las Vegas Suburbs – still expanding (actual screenshot from Google Maps)

For decades, we have been cranking up household size and amenities in response to increasing productivity and wealth. In the 1940s, the typical US household had four people sharing 1000 square feet, or the equivalent of one large garage bay of space per person. Nowadays, new homes average around 2600 square feet and house only three people, which means each person floats around in almost triple the space. We have also started placing these dwellings in bigger expanses of blank grass and/or asphalt, which separate us further from the people and places we like to visit.

The funny part of all this is that we prioritize size over quality. Houses are sold by the square foot and the bedroom and the bathroom, rather than the more important things like how much daylight the windows let in or how well the spaces all fit together. And we settle for the shittiest of locations, buying houses so far from amenities that we depend on a 4000 pound motorized wheelchair just to go pick up a few salad ingredients.

Meanwhile, smaller houses and mobile and manufactured homes have continued to exist, but they have sprouted an undesireable stigma: those things are only for poor people, so if you can afford it you should get yourself a large, detached house.

My Tinyhouse Dreaming

Ever since my teenage years, I have dreamed of casual, communal living. 1992 still ranks as possibly the Best Summer Of My Life, because my brother and I lived a leisurely existence in the utopian garden-and-forest expanse of our Mom’s half acre backyard complete with swimming pool, fire pit, and pop-up tent trailer.

We lived at the center of small, historic town, with very little for teenagers to do in the summer besides find a way to get beer, and find somewhere to drink it so we could play cards and make jokes and if we were really lucky, find romance. And in these conditions, Mum’s backyard came to the rescue of our whole social group.

People would show up in the morning and just linger and come and go all day, swimming in the pool, grilling up lunches and dinners, playing cards at night or watching movies in the impromptu movie theater I had set up in the old detached garage. There were last-minute multi-person sleepovers every weekend. Leftover spicy bratwurst for breakfast cooked over an open fire in the morning. The fond memories from this early-nineties teen utopia live on in all of us*. So naturally, I have wanted to find ways to recreate that carefree feeling ever since.

According to people who actually study this stuff, the key to a really happy community and warmer friendships seems to be unplanned social interactions: you need to run into people unexpectedly every day, and then do fun stuff with them. To facilitate this, you need to live close enough together that you encounter one another when out for your morning stroll. Smaller, cheaper housing is the key to this, as well as a key to spending a lot less money on isolating yourself from potential new friends.

Weecasa resort (image credit Weecasa)

Need a few real-life examples? Right next to me in Lyons, Colorado, someone (I wish it were me!) thought up the idea of creating a resort out of tinyhouses called WeeCasa. Consuming less space than just the parking lot of a normal hotel, they have a beautiful and now highly popular enclave where the srooms rent for $150-$200+ per night.

Two friends of mine just bought a pair of adjoining renovated cabooses (cabeese?) in a Wisconsin beach town, with plans to create the same thing: a combination of a pleasant and walkable lifestyle with fewer material strings attached, and a stream of rental income when they’re not there.

Another friend built her own tiny house on a flat trailer platform, and has since gone on to live in a beautiful downtown neighborhood, both car-free and mortgage-free except for a small parking fee paid for stationing it in her friend’s back driveway. The monetary impact of making such a bold housing move for even a few years of your youth, is big enough to put you ahead for a lifetime.

Even my neighbourhood of “old-town Longmont” has recently inflated to the point of tiny starter home selling for $500k, for the same reason: people really want walkable, sociable places to live and house size is less important than location. While I’m in favor of this philosophy, I’m not in favor of anyone having to spend $500,000 for a shitty, uninsulated, unrenovated house. So we need a greater supply of smaller, closer dwellings to meet this higher demand.

But that’s all big picture stuff. The real story of this article is a small one – a single 120 square foot structure in the back of one of my own properties right here in downtown Longmont, CO. So let’s get down to it.

The Tinyhouse Conference Room

An interior view of our new workspace.

Nearing its one year anniversary, the “MMM-HQ” coworking space has been a lot of fun to run so far. It has been a mixture of quiet workdays, heavy workouts, evening events, and occasional classes and markets. (We have about 55 members and are looking for a few more, so if you happen to live in Longmont click the link above.)

But with only one big room as our indoor space, some members have felt the pinch of needing a quiet place to do longer conference calls or client meetings.  So the plan has always been to build a couple of new spaces, and at last I have one of them mostly finished. And I made a point of documenting the whole process so I could share any ideas and lessons learned with you.

What goes into a Tinyhouse?

As with any big construction project, I started with a spreadsheet of steps and materials.

Here’s the complete list of steps and materials. You can click for viewing or download an .ods version for tweaking.

To save time, I tried to think ahead and get everything in one order **- most lumber shops will do free or cheap delivery on large orders like this.  Of course, I ended up only partially successful and had to go back for missed objects, but I added those to my spreadsheet so your order can be more complete than mine.

At this point, it was just a matter of putting it all together, an effort which took me about 120 hours (three standard weeks) of work, spread out very casually over the past three months. Most of the work is standard house framing stuff, but just for fun we can step through it in rapidfire style right here.

The Super Simple Insulated Floor

Normally when building a small house, you’d dig a hole and pour a reinforced slab of concrete, as I did for the larger and fancier studio building at my main house. But in this case, the goal was fast, cheap and simple. So I just raked out a level patch of crushed gravel, compacted it with my rusty homemade welded compactor tool (“La Cruz”), and then started laying out pressure treated 2×6 lumber.

Here’s the 12×10 floor platform. Note the little support rails which allowed me to tightly fit in the foil-coated foam insulation between the joists. Most joints are done with simple 3.25″ galvanized framing nails, but I added Simpson corner brackets on the insides of the outermost joists for more strength.

Framing

Once I had those floor joists super square and level (hammering in stone shims under corners and joists as needed), I added a layer of standard 3/4″ OSB subfloor and nailed it down judiciously with the framing nailer to ensure a very rigid base. Then started to make the walls.

I used the floor as a convenient work platform for building the four walls. I built them flat and even added the 1/2″ exterior sheathing in advance, then tilted them up with the help of a friend or two. This method makes for heavier lifting but higher quality, because you get a perfectly straight and square wall almost guaranteed. Plus, it saves time because sheathing is a fussier job to do on an already-installed wall.

Once all four walls were set up and locked in place, I created the roof frame, which is really just a rather large wall. I did this on the ground, but had to compromise and skip the pre-sheathing step even though it would yield better quality, because we needed to keep it light enough to lift. If I had really strong friends or a telescoping forklift like real framing companies have, doing it all on the ground would have been a big win.

Framing and roofing.

A Metal Roof (of course)

I wanted a relatively flat-looking roof, so I cut wedge-shaped 2x4s and nailed them to the tops of the roof rafters before adding sheathing. This results in a slope of only 2%, but with a careful underlayment job and the seamless nature of metal roof sheets when compared to shingles, I have found it is nicely watertight. If in doubt, you can add more slope or use a rubber EPDM roof. The other advantages of metal: longer lifespan, lighter weight, and better protection from summer heat.

Insulation and Siding

Various wall layers revealed, insulation, lights, super frugal wood floor!

On top of those handy pre-sheathed walls,  I added 1″ foil-covered foamboard, then some stained cedar fenceboards to create the reddish exterior you see in these pictures. Although the cedar gets quite a few compliments, it was an experiment I wouldn’t repeat: the boards expand and contract in changing weather and leave visible gaps at times. Next time, I’ll use more wavy metal siding, or something prefinished with an interlocking tongue and groove profile.

Electrical was done exactly the same way you’d wire up a normal house, with outlets and switches in AC Romex-style wiring. But on a tinyhouse like this, you might choose to have it all terminate at a male outdoor receptacle on an exterior wall like an RV or camp trailer, so you can run the whole thing from a good extension cord.

Insulation was just basic batts in this case, but you can use spray foam for even better performance.  I drywalled everything using standard 1/2″ “lightrock” wallboard, hoping to keep the structure weight down in general, in case this thing ever needs to be moved with a forklift.

For lighting, I used these LED lights I found at Amazon at $4.20 per fixture.

The bare drywall stage – one of so much promise.

The Final Touches – Interior Trim, Furniture and Climate Control

At this stage in the construction story, I had something that looked like any other ready-to-finish example of modern house construction, and it was such a happy and familiar feeling. It’s a blank canvas but also a very solid one upon which you can create anything – an office, a bedroom, music studio, living room. Or if you’ve got the pipes for it, a kitchen or even a bathroom with a fancy shower.

Normally by this stage in building a house, you’ve spent at least $100 per square foot, so you can imagine the pleasantly Mustachian feeling I got when I arrived here at about $22.

So to keep the frugal trend going with the floor, I decided to try just smooth sanding the raw OSB with a good belt sander and clearcoating it with this really tough floor urethane. It came out looking pleasant, and is very durable and mud/gravel resistant. But I found the sanding was a slow process – throwing in a basic but attractive engineered wood floor at under $2 per square foot is probably a better idea next time at only slightly higher cost, unless you are building a big enough space to justify renting a real floor sander.

I made my own trim and window jambs by buying three 4×8 sheets of 3/4″ MDF and slicing them up on the table saw. Like the floor, this adds a bit of labor, but the benefit is you can get nice beefy trim in whatever dimensions you like (and even throw in some matching custom shelving and built-in cabinetry!) and save a couple hundred dollars per room.

The portable air conditioner occupies only one shelf.

For furniture, I picked out a mixture of stuff I already had, an Ikea desk frame from Craigslist, and a nifty chairside table from a local big box store.

Finally, I added some simple but effective climate control by just throwing a low cost portable AC from amazon up on the shelf (it vents through a 6″ hole I cut to the exterior). In the winter, I’ll just stash that little air conditioner somewhere and replace it with a silent oil-filled electric radiator for heat.

By plugging either of these machines into a wifi-controlled electrical outlet, I can even control the heating and cooling from anywhere using an app on my phone, as I already do for the various patio lights and ventilation fans I have in my life.

So do YOU want a Tiny House?

The real point of this article is just to share the idea that small structures can be very useful for many things. They are quicker and cheaper than creating a traditional house or building an addition onto one. They may allow you to have a guest house or home office or even an AirBnb rental in space that was formerly just a water-sucking part of your back lawn. Many cities allow you to place small things like this in your yard without requiring a building permit. And if you have the skills to build these things, you can even create an instantly profitable business cranking them out to satisfy the strong demand.

As for me, I’m hooked – later this year I’ll build a second one of these things here at MMM-HQ. And perhaps I’ll even get a chance to help someone build yet another in a tropical seaside location this winter, as part of my ongoing “Carpentourism” habit.

Happy downsizing!

—

*except my Mum, who still regrets letting so many teenagers run free and attract the ire of the older neighbors and occasionally the police department. Sorry Mom..  but also, thank you so much!

** I also took advantage of the large chunk of spending for a tiny bit of “travel hacking“, picking up an Amex Platinum card that gives me about $1000 of cash/travel credits only if I can spend $5000 within the first three months. For travel hackers, timing the acquisition of a new rewards card to coincide with a chunk of planned spending can be a useful way to squeeze the travel budget into an existing renovation budget.

    from Finance http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2018/06/30/tinyhouse/ via http://www.rssmix.com/