Its Done

We are so excited to see, our obvious kindred spirit, Marti move into her newly finished Container Home in Missouri. Marti has blogged (the 8747 house)about her process throughout and we have followed her on this roller coaster gaining ideas, watching things evolve and excited for the day she moves in and lives in her container casa.

I have to stay the final result is stunning. Her floors, the ceiling, the laundry room door, her clean lined kitchen and the lovely furniture she has brought in, I want that coffee table. And her views are stunning from that huge window by her dining room. Its been a labor of love but I am sure well worth the journey. We hope she enjoys her beautiful new digs. Congrats Marti!!

Timeless

One of the things that completely enamored me with Fu-Tung Cheng was that his first concrete countertop was done 25 years ago, and just 3 years ago it was feature in Better Homes & Garden Kitchen Edition. How many countertops are THAT timeless.

You always hear when brides are planning their weddings that it should be timeless. You don't want to look back and pinpoint the exact year your wedding took place by the color of your bridesmaids' dresses or the shoulder pads in your dress. The same goes for your home, a timeless approach to key  pieces can save much frustration down the road when you want to cry at that black and purple suede coach and black bear foot rest (ooops!!).

So as much as I love the thought of a white couch (yeh, with 3 dogs!) and other strong colored, fun pieces, I head in the direction of more timeless, natural beauty and I have found a few great ideas lately.

Just Monkeying Around

Oh my, this gives me so many ideas for our dogs, anyone got any undersized kids that might want to learn to ride...something?

Dream House

I am sitting at home working away, well really I am watching out the window at a little cotton tail bunny munching on some flowers while a mini-quail, guinea hen type is scurrying by him. All the puppies are snoozing as we wait for snow, rain or just cloudy yuck.

One of my favorite blogs just posted about this house - I love it, this looks about as remote as I would love to live. I really can't get far enough away from civilization, this might do it though.

Tomato Souce Mayhem

Your having friends over, you clean away and have everything set just so for their arrival. They arrive and you are settling in and catching up, things are going well and you are all getting ready for bed when BOOM!!! An almighty rumbling followed up by a big crash.

We have a pantry cupboard in the kitchen and the top two shelves that are full of cans, jars and boxes of food came crashing down. And of course the things that break - the glass jars of tomato sauce all over the floor.

Fortunately, once our hearts slowed down and we realized that the actual mobile house wasn't falling down around our ears, we jumped on the tomato sauce with dustpans, trash cans, dish soap, vinegar, Oxy Clean and clean water.

 

  

Kyle worked his tail off and with the fast work of Jess and Brian, we caught it in the bud and this is the result the next morning. Nice work guys and thanks...as good as new.

 

The Joy of Recycling

I posted a while back about refinishing the old cast iron tubs and finding a good quality DIY process to bring them back to their heyday. We have two of these old tubs and I have been very excited to actually integrate them into our new home as usable tubs and not just horse water troughs or planters. But we only  have one spare bathroom and two tubs - so what to do with the extra tub......

Drumroll.....I bring you our new couch.

HaHa - this is not really our tub but is sold for the handsome price of  £ 1,850 ($2,900) and is the creation of Reestore (UK/Online)
Now I love a good reuse and recycle as much as the next guy and I love the ingenuity of this piece but it is a little too reminiscent of the uncomfortable little antique sofas my grandmother had at her home, can't say I would want to snuggle up on this puppy and put in a good movie. Kudos for out of the box thinking though!!

Snow Fencing gets a Second Lease on Life

Jetson Green just posted about a fabulous resource - Centennial Woods. They reclaim the snow fence in Wyoming (huge, wooden snow fences for placement in areas where VERY big scow drifts are a regular occurrence) for use in home siding, roofs, furniture, pretty much any application. its gorgeous stuff, all lovely and unique and weathered....check them out.

 

  

 

Eco Cabin for Camp Emerald Bay Scouts

Another brilliant conversion of shipping containers - I love the roofing material, what a way to let light in.

Eco Cabin for Camp Emerald Bay Scouts

Air Fresheners

I am a huge fan of the plug in air fresheners. Living with 3 dogs in an old, yucky house that really needs to be torn down, those little plug in smellies puts a smile on my face when I walk into our otherwise somewhat gloomy and musty house. I am a fan of all those laundry and ocean and post-rain smells and love plugging in a new one even if they are expensive.

The one drawback they have had is that they come in a lot of needless excess packaging, though Bath & Body started selling some loose, but then you always have the empty bulb to dispose of, though they are glass for the most part.

Enter a conversation I had with my friend Lesli last weekend and her news that those things, obviously full of chemicals, but also have hormone altering affects and all these things are being spewed out at puppy nose height or little human height. Ughhhhh, what to do!!

Check out this link to some of the issues.

We did a little brainstorming but neither of us were thrilled with those reed diffusers, both have used them and they don't work, potpourri doesn't work and we both hate clutter and chotchsky. I have candles but you can't leave them unattended and have had now had 2 close calls with candle holders cracking.

So we are on the search for options - eco-friendly, non-toxic, lovely smell...maybe a lavender sachet fixed inside a heating grate or above the sink where steam might help release the smell.

Anyone have any great ideas for what they use at home, have seen anywhere or good resources, please pass them along.

Get A Dog, Don't Work Like One

I just saw this post on Bodie and Fou about this well written and timely book. After the last few months at work - I am going right out and getting a copy. There has to be more to life than how we work in this country. Its just not worth it, its never worth it. What is that saying, you never look back at the end of your life and wished you worked more...the key is to recognize that NOW, not THEN.

BODIE and FOU: Get a dog don't work like one....

Day 6 of the Cell Phone Deliberation

So many earth shattering, miracle working, history making things can happen in less that 6 days. One thing that cannot happen any faster is the ability for Kyle to decide on a cell phone. We bought our house with half as much discussion than what has gone into the analysis, comparison, cost/benefit, review research of a new cell phone and cell phone plan. Its 2 years of his life that he is committing to with a 30-day money back guarantee if he is fact hates the darn thing after all.

Why is this so hard, painful, torture, misery. If it makes an actual telephone call and I can actually hear a live person on the other end, I am happy, the rest is icing..............