August Challenges

12 08 2008

Let’s see here.

I signed up for Crunchy Chicken’s No-Spend Month and I’m failing that so far with the baby stuff. ;) Otherwise, doing well.

Next was Chile’s Discretionary Eating Challenge. I had every single firm intention of doing very well with this, but I’ve been eating a lot of meat, sugar, and refined snacks. Sigh.

Round Three of the Quit Your Addition Challenge is going okay. At least I haven’t been online too much.

Continuing the A/C Challenge fairly well, and the 5 Minute Shower has pretty much gone kaput. I take what I can get when I get it!

Oh, and I had my baby on Saturday morning! :D

Here’s baby CSon!

The best part is that I caught him myself. I’m a proud mommy.





Making Time to Nest and Rest

6 08 2008

As you probably noticed, I’ve been mostly absent from the blog world so far this month. I also failed to do a Tiny Lifer profile this week.

After some serious thought, I’ve decided to take a little time off from the blog and hopefully the internet. Baby is impending, I have a feeling it will come this week but of course I could be wrong.

I just need time to take care of as much around the house as possible, to spend more quality time with ESon (before there’s competition!), and I also need to catch up on several craft projects. I feel a little overwhelmed with the number of sewing projects I have lined up over the next month or so, but at the same time it’s very fulfilling and it makes me happy to be doing something constructive with my hands again. On that note, I will probably be updating the homesteading skills blog to reflect that. I’ve made, and am making, so many neat things that I’ve never even tried before.

At the very least, with regards to this blog, I will continue with the Tiny Lifers because it seems to generate a lot of interest, and I also want to do some updates on the blog challenges I’ve taken on for the month of August.

I suppose I just feel the need to excuse myself from obligation to this blog for the next two weeks so I can regroup and prepare for another kiddo. I still haven’t figured out how I’m going to manage wrangling a toddler and a newborn. ;)

Take care, and I’ll be seeing you.





Simple Bliss

1 08 2008

I’ve just decided what be the ultimate happiness for me right now:

Working in the garden, barefoot, with a light rain. I can even feel the mud between my toes and smell the intensity of fresh turned earth.

What would make you happy?





A Tiny Home Obsession – Chatting with Bungalow Ranch Style

29 07 2008

Each Tuesday will highlight the ups and downs of small-scale living and some of the reasons why people make that lifestyle choice.

This week, meet the folks at Bungalow Ranch Style.

Location: Portland, OR

Square footage: 900 sq ft plus a 400 sq ft unfinished basement

Number of people/pets: 2 adults, 1 cat, 1 dog

What is your favorite and least favorite, or the what you would change, parts of living in a small home?

Our house lives big. It has a great floor plan with large public areas in front of the house, but also has well-lit, adequately sized private areas and lots of closet space in the back of the house. It really is about the efficiency of the floor plan and the balancing open space with closed space. Shared areas need to be big enough to avoid conflict and collisions, but you also need places where you can be alone. The only thing we really lack is an additional 1/2 bath. It would be nice to have an extra toilet and shower every now and then.

What circumstances led to living in a small home? Was it a choice to downsize, a desire to create a smaller carbon footprint on the environment, or some other situation?

We chose a smaller house because it fits our lifestyle. We’d rather be out in the community or in our yard than paging each other from opposite sides of the house. There’s also the amount of time you spend cleaning. It takes a lot less time to clean 900 sq ft of floor than 2500 sq ft. While we did consider conservation of resources, we also ended up buying an older home that isn’t quite as energy efficient as new construction can be. Even so, we use much less electricity and gas, we’re able to have a substantial garden on our city-sized lot. The other added benefit to a smaller house is that you can take money you have budgeted for renovations and apply it to quality, instead of quantity. We’re able to use more salvaged and natural materials and also afford low/no-VOC paint and other “green” products.

What changes have you made to your home since you moved in? Has it just been paint and decor, or more elaborate renovations?

We’re about to start remodeling the kitchen, but we’re going to keep the existing cabinetry since they’re made of the original solid Douglas fir from 1952, when our house was built. We’re also going to be refinishing the floors. We’ve replaced the sink in our bathroom and made plaster repairs. We’ve also painted everything, made new window coverings, and spent a lot of time landscaping our yard. Eventually, we may try to add a 1/2 bath and quest quarters (really a place for us to sleep when it gets really hot in the summer) in the basement and also finish the laundry area.

Where do you get furniture and other small scale items for your home? Any favorite shops or websites?

IKEA is a godsend. We also like salvage stores like Portland’s Rebuilding Center and Habitat for Humanity Re-Store. Otherwise, I just consider scale when purchasing furniture. Most stores have smaller versions of their models of furniture. For example, when we bought our sofa the floor model was 85″ but we ordered the 60″ version of the same sofa.

Would you ever upgrade back up to a larger home?

No. If anything, I’d rather have a bunch of tiny pied-a-terres all around the world.

Thanks, folks!

Come back next week for the new chat with Rachel from California.

For more posts in this series, check out this page.





It’s the Silence That Gets Me

26 07 2008

I’ve been quite here for most of the week because I’ve been focusing on more home-bound things. I guess you could say I’m “nesting.” :)

Crafting and home arts have been occupying my time, as well as organizing things for our home birth.

I’ll post more later, I hope, but right now I’ve got a thunderstorm approaching.