Busy, Busy!

Matt and I have been working hard out at the new house and we're making a lot of progress, but I like to post my projects once they are totally finished and everything seems to be in an in-between state right now (hence the scarcity of posts lately). But rest assured, exciting things are coming soon - the yard is almost chicken-worthy, and by mid- to late-July, our bathroom and one bedroom should be done, and I'll post photos then, I promise.

In the meantime, here's a peek at a design board I've been working on for our bedroom.


The beige and orangey colors in the background are the wall colors and the burgundy-red at the bottom is the floor. We want to use a very colorful bedspread that we got in Guatemala in April, but it doesn't totally go with the wall and floor colors perfectly well, so I was playing around with a quilt and some pillows to try to tie it all together. It's colorful, I know, and that's something that's kind of been hard for me to roll with in the past, but after this recent amazing trip we took to Guatemala, I decided that one of my goals with our new house was going to be to embrace color the way the Guatemalan people do. Everything there was so beautiful! And I want to be reminded of the amazing places and people there when I look around my new home.

Free Stuff

A remodeling project inevitably produces a lot of waste. I hate that. If anyone has a use for either of these items, please get in touch and help us save them from the landfill.

Wood sliding closet doors, painted white, fits about a 48" opening.

Hollow core wood door, good shape, 30" wide

Fence!

Phase one of our huge fencing project is complete. I guess there's nothing too green about a wood fence, but it's necessary for keeping our animals safe (plus I think I need to get over feeling like I have to apologize if not every single post here is 'green'-related; the unfortunate truth is that I can't always find an eco-friendly option, but I'm trying my best).

(That whole stretch to the left is done now; I forgot to take a picture after it was finished.)

I think phase one (the wood fence) was about 250 linear feet; phase two is a wire fence (close to another 25o feet, I'm afraid) that will separate two chicken yards from the human/dog yard, and phase three is another (much shorter) stretch of wood fence on the upper corner of the property.

On June 14th, our chicken barn is being built on-site (not by us; whew!); after that point, we'll execute phase two of the fence and the property will officially be chicken-worthy. Here are a few pics of our feathered friends, who are blissfully oblivious of all the work taking place on their behalf...

Surprise Flowers

Our land has approximately zero landscaping, except for some lovely mature fruit trees (several varieties of apples, pears, apricots, plums, cherries, walnuts...) and these beauties, which Matt almost tore out because he thought they were weeds (before they were blooming) - does anyone know what they are?

Demolition

Just for fun...

Disinfecting without nasty chemicals

Yesterday I worked for a while disinfecting and sanitizing the kitchen cabinets. We do plan to pretty much gut this kitchen and start from scratch (anyone know of any 'green' cabinetry options?), but that's not going to happen for about a year, so for the short-term future, I'll be operating out of this fairly dated, but reasonably functional, older kitchen.


Before we begin moving any of our things into the kitchen or bathroom, I wanted to get them as clean and de-germed as possible, but I didn't want to use harsh chemicals or waste-generating disposable wipes. Luckily, it's possible to disinfect kitchen and bathroom surfaces extremely effectively using two common, non-harmul household items - vinegar and hydrogen peroxide!

I started the process by using the shop vac to suck any loose debris out of all the cabinets, then followed up with a good heavy spraying of vinegar, then hydrogen peroxide. Learn more about disinfecting with vinegar and hydrogen peroxide here.

Address Numbers

I'm not sure how much of a 'green' issue this is, but I do prefer whenever possible to buy from an independent artisan rather than a nameless big-box retailer, so I'm going to go ahead and blog about it here. :-)

Our new place doesn't have an address marker, so I've been on a quest to find the perfect numbers. I would have really liked to find a DIY project to make something myself (and I still might do that; we'll see), but I couldn't find any decent DIY inspiration online on the subject, so I've turned to Etsy. I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorites. (All of the photos are the artists' own, not mine.)

Oval Birds on a Branch by AtlasSigns, $143.00
(We would just get our address numbers below the birds.)

Here are a few more by AtlasSigns - I especially like the leaf and the pear.

Custom Hand Painted House Number Tile by carmenstiles, $90.00
(I think I'd like this one better if each number was an individual tile; I'd really love to find some hand painted Guatemalan tiles to incorporate somehow - it would tie in nicely with some of the Guatemalan decor that we're going to use inside the house...)

Custom Mosaic House Numbers by jenniestephensart, $75.00
(She has lots more examples of her work on her website - beautiful!)

And if you're looking for a budget option, this cute little House Number Sign by HandCarvedSigns is just $25.00.

So what do you think? Which is your favorite and why? I'm leaning towards the first one (of course the most expensive...) Also, definitely let me know if you know of any fun (but still attractive!) DIY projects for address numbers.