This was a picture I took when I first toured the house, before buying it. See how much it overwhelms the room?
Our kitchen/living/dining/entryway remodel is practically complete! As we’ve been wrapping up little finishing projects one large, ugly problem has surfaced. Our fireplace is right in the middle of our remodeled space and we haven’t touched it, so there it sits all its dated brick and brass glory. Ugh.
I haven’t posted in a while. And that because I really really hate sanding spackle. More on that later… Great news is that our kitchen is finally functional (what! A dishwasher?)! We’ve got stuff in the cabinets and can use the appliances. Yay! BUT (there’s always a but), it’s still not done.
As we started keeping track of our camping trips through Camping Reviews, I realized that there was a lot of other paper stuff we were carrying around to each camping trip. Paperwork and camping don’t really get along that well (unless it’s a fire starter). To solve this problem, I put together a little binder to keep everything protected and together. Isn’t it cute?
I think I have a very common problem when it comes to camping (at least I hope it’s common!). Since it is a seasonal activity, when summer rolls around I can never remember where we went the previous year. Plus, remembering what site we stayed at and the ins-and-outs of the campground? Umm… Not a chance!
To solve this problem, we started reviewing our campsites during each trip. It started out as notes in a small notepad, and now has turned into a campground review printable. After each trip, I try to scan the sheet into Evernote (although it doesn’t always happen). Then, when we plan our camping trips in the years to come, all we have to do is search our reviews in Evernote for the campground we want to go to!
Continue reading
Last summer we used our tent trailer a lot. It was wonderful to get out a camping so much, and since it was our first summer with the trailer it was also nice to figure out little tweaks, or hacks, we wanted to make. Immediately, I knew exactly the first thing I wanted to do. The cushions for our dinette would NOT stay in place! I was constantly having to pick them off the floor (and sometimes us up off the floor too).
* Action shot of me falling off the bench *
We’re finally starting to see the end of the tunnel on our kitchen remodel. Well, really at this point it’s more like a half-house remodel! At the last update, we had just finished framing walls and installing utilities. Next we installed insulation, sheetrock, mud & taped, textured, and prepped the floor. All of that was a little bit of an adventure, but then we get to the stuff that really starts to bring it together – floors, paint & lower cabinets! Below are pictures, with a more detailed explanation each step of the way.
Getting away for a long weekend is always a great break from the grind. Being a little bit nutty when it comes to packing (I usually start two weeks before a trip, no matter how long it is) I’ve developed a printable packing list template to keep my organizational/list making craziness under control. Now I only have to start packing a week in advance!
Along with cleaning out my brush, cleaning make-up brushes is one thing I should probably be doing more often. It’s a simple process, and doesn’t take very long (when I remember to do it!)
One of the last food projects I took on before the kitchen demolition was to make tomato sauce from scratch. My tomato plants decided to explode in November, partly because of weird fall weather we had. So, i had a TON of tomatoes and with no way we could eat them all. The best part, is that I froze the extra sauce (there was a lot!) so we have some deliciousness while we have no kitchen. The sauce part of the recipe is inspired by my Dad’s tomato sauce recipe, which was my FAVORITE as a kid (and still is). Yum!
Camping season is here (or almost here)! We took our first trip this past weekend. It was cold. But in the middle of our kitchen remodel we just really needed a break. We camped so much last summer that we had getting packed totally down, it was a sleek, organized process that took minimal time. It was great. And, we’ve forgotten how we did it already.
How did we do this again?