With summery weather now here to say *crosses fingers* I’ve been busy doing ALL the outdoor projects.
The previous owners of our house LOVED statues. So much so that they built little rock mounds for them. There are two in the backyard. I removed one and planted grass seed. Depending on how the grass grows (if it grows) I’ll remove the other rock mound. If not, I’ll figure out a plan B.
I also built a stand for our little grill. It’s not my best work (warped boards) but it’ll do for now. In our “forever home” we want to build a nice stone BBQ and pizza oven station. So until then, we have this super fancy stand.
*Toby says hi*
Our garden is coming along nicely! I am in the process of replanting the summer squash and zucchini so hopefully they’ll expand nicely once out of the pots.
It’s not an “outdoor project” but I did make it outside so it counts. My desk was getting super crowded and cluttered so I decided to make an expander out of 2×4’s and leftover pallet pieces. It’s given me a good 3-ish feet of extra desk space so I’ve been able to regain my sanity.
With the major house projects done I’ve been keeping busy by creating some storage pieces for our kitchen.
Our stove is a stand-alone so I created a small shelf to sit next to it to serve as both a shelf and to hide the giant stove outlet in the floor. I also made a shelf for above the stove. And I ordered a paper towel holder from Amazon to replace the cheap plastic one the previous owners had.
The total cost of all three came to about $19.
Shelf above stove: The board is from a FREE pallet Melissa got from work. I sanded it and stained it using stain we already had. The brackets we bought at Menards for $1.99/each. After buying some mounting hardware, the total cost came to around $5.
Shelf next to stove: The top boards are from the same pallet as the above stove shelf. We had some leftover 2×4’s as well. Total cost of this project was free.
Paper towel holder: $12.99 +tax on Amazon.
I made a new pantry shelf to replace the metal IKEA one we had (it’s now in the garage holding tools). It was too small and the aesthetic didn’t fit the rest of our kitchen. This new shelf is by far my favourite piece I made (so far).
Total cost for this project was around $22.
Well, technically $66 since Melissa bought me a fun toy from Lowe’s. A new Black + Decker Mouse Sander! Prior to this sander we had a vintage 1960’s style sander which, did do a decent job but, was old and the sandpaper didn’t stay on very well.
The only part I bought were the boards which I got from Lowe’s. I stained them using the same stain as the other pieces. The back of the shelf was a piece of old paneling from our kitchen wall demo that I cut and painted using the same paint as the upper part of our kitchen focal wall. Screws and nails we already had as well.
I much prefer shallow shelves vs deep shelves. I’m an “out of sight out of mind” brained person. So I love that everything on this shelf I can see. I no longer have to move other jars around or place things on the floor to pull out a jar. Plus, it’s super cute and I can better showcase all of the jars which is part of my design style.
I don’t like to let things go to waste, even scrap wood. So I decided to create a cute little painting using the leftover piece of pallet board. In our next house it will hang with our wooden map but since we don’t want to put any unnecessary holes in our brand new walls, it sits above the stove.
Our garden and my flowers are coming along nicely. We added a few more plants as well; some more tomatoes, summer squash, and zucchini.
The boys have adapted to all the major house changes quite well.
Since the new kitchen floor is slippier than the old linoleum they’ve learned the hard way not to run super fast through the kitchen!
Now that our major home projects are complete we are just relaxing and enjoying our hard work.
If I begin feeling stir-crazy again while Melissa is at work I may paint the guest room. I also plan on repainting all of the big trim pieces throughout the house, paint the small area between the bedrooms, and possibly build some more things. But we shall see!
Summer is on its way, thankfully, so we are excited about warmer days ahead!
Last week Melissa and I picked up two FREE pallets from a local store. On Tuesday I disassembled the pallets and on Thursday I created this:
It’s not pretty but it’ll do the job! The most time consuming part was disassembling the pallets (I used two of them) and removing all the rusted nails. Just that took me about 2-3 hours. Assembling the compost itself took maybe 20 minutes. The supports were left long so more boards can be added later if needed.
Melissa and I are trying to produce as little garbage as possible. Between recycling, repurposing, and, now, composting, very little of what comes into our home goes to the landfills.
On Sunday Melissa and I made a raised bed together using some leftover wood we had in our garage from a previous project:
It’s just a small raised bed. We plan on doing a combination of raised bed and containers to make our garden this year. In the beds we plan on growing mostly root vegetables (carrots, onions, etc) and some herbs. In the containers we are going to grow tomatoes, asparagus (we planted it last year and it’ll take a few years until it’s ready), and beans (with a trellis).
This is the garden at Melissa’s house. She has a pretty decent sized backyard but, since we are planning on moving soon after we get married (fingers crossed) we didn’t want to build a permanent garden so, we decided to experiment with some pots and planters. Some plants have done well and others…well…not so great. But, it’s been a learning experience!
After months of waiting, we finally got ONE decent carrot…and some more deformed ones. We planted too many seeds and didn’t thin them out enough. We know better for next year.
Tomatoes and peppers. Our tomato plants fell victim to heavy rains in the beginning of the season which resulted in some Tomato Leaf Mold. We attempted to treat it but, as you can see, some of our attempts were futile.
Asparagus is our favourite vegetable and we’ve been wanting to try to grow our own. Asparagus takes 2-3 years before it can be harvested. Since we won’t be living in this house much longer, we decided to start this batch in a pot so we can transplant it later at our Forever Home. It seems to be doing quite well!
Here are our White Half-Runner Beans (Melissa’s Grandma says they’re the best). They can either be grown as a bush or as a vine. We figured vining them would make harvesting them easier. We had some issues with the trellis. Next year we’ll use twine and only make vertical lines vs a grid.
We are trying to use less chemical based products and are slowly switching over to natural products. We have started by making our own bug spray, sunscreen, and some topical ointments. We also buy natural detergent, body soap, and deodorants. We also use vinegar as our main cleaner and have added peppermint to help keep out spiders and other pests. Our long-term goal is to use entirely natural products for everything, making our own items when possible. Therefore, an herb garden is a must! Here is our lavender, which is thriving!
Our sad little lettuce plant. Through this process we have been taking notes on what has worked and what hasn’t worked. We also have the added issue of being gone so much and/or being busy. Since we don’t live together yet, we have been splitting our time between our houses, which are 1hr 20min away from each other. So, unfortunately, some of our less heartier plants have suffered. Hopefully next years garden will be much better.
Our second favourite veg, butternut squash! This plant has grown immensely in such a short time! Hopefully it yields a lot of squash for us!
Sweet potatoes! Not doing super great but we are hoping we’ll get a few good potatoes. Next year, hopefully, we’ll have a new house that’s a bit more permanent than this one so we can build some nice raised beds and potato boxes to help our 2020 harvest.
Basil! Another one of our herbs that has thrived! We’ve already used it quite a bit in some tasty recipes!
Here are some cute pics of the boys from the last few days:
Moping because Mumsy and Rusty went home.
Toby is patiently waiting for Mumsy and Rusty (this is at Jessi’s apartment).
We took advantage of the beautiful spring day and did some planting. Our dream is to own a little house on a big piece of land with a big garden and some animals. But, until then, we’ll settle for our potted garden.
Jessi doesn’t have a yard at her apartment so she created a tiny potted garden on her balcony.
Teeny tiny succulents. Thanks, Target, for these adorable $3 planters.
An Awfully Big Adventure 