Adding to the Family - Eventually

We've been talking about getting chickens for a few years.  I guess it's becoming sort of trendy.  We actually do eat a lot of eggs so I think it could be a way for us to save some money and I've heard that fresh eggs are SO much better than store bought.  We don't have a timeline for getting our girls, just whenever we have their home ready.  I've been letting Jacob run with this project since he gets a lot of satisfaction out of building things on the fly.  One of his goals is to build the whole thing out of found materials because being green is cool and saving green is cool.  The building of the coop has been going on for a few months because we had some other projects going on and because of the crazy amount of rain we had this spring.  Thankfully the last several Saturdays have been beautiful and he's made some good progress.  I'll keep the posts coming as he continues and I hope to introduce you to our brood sometime soon!

 Jacob cut the trees down himself for the posts.  The cedar was leftover from another property we had.

 The kids were helping.

 Free hardwood floors found on the side of the road.  These chickens will be living in style.

Corrugated metal roof from a friend's garage.  Vents, old fence wood and other random wood from various roadside trash heaps.

Do you have experience building with found objects?  I'd love to hear what the coolest thing you built out of recycled materials is - Leave a comment!

Behind Door #1 - Kids' Bedroom Closet

In most cases, visitors aren't going to be opening up closed doors in your home.  A lot of times these spaces become the ignored corners of the house thus allowing you to throw whatever you want in them in order to maintain tidiness elsewhere.  But, there is something exciting about having a closet/room that's organized even if the door stays closed 99% of the time.  It's like you did something for yourself and your own sanity that you don't have to share with the rest of the world.  Organization isn't one of my highest qualities but I certainly strive to be better.  My goal is to tackle all of these spaces in our house (and there are a lot of them!) to keep life a little simpler for us. 

Our kids' bedroom closet redo came out of necessity.  With a new baby on the way, our two older kids (ages 5 and 3) were now sharing a room.  The single rod wasn't going to provide enough space for their clothes and other random items like suitcases, sleeping bags and pillow pets.

And even though it's a closet, scuffed up walls and dirty paint really bother me.  Opening these doors and seeing this...

...is almost as disheartening as the shoes that couldn't seem to find their way in the basket.

We decided for this closet to give each kid (1 boy, 1 girl) their own side and a shared middle.  Each side would consist of double rods for their clothes and the middle would be a common space for dirty clothes, shoes, accessories, etc.  A fresh coat of paint was the first step and since the walls in their room are a light grey, I went with yellow to add a little fun. The next step was to build the closet unit and paint it. We went with MDF for the parts that are white since it is a little cheaper than plywood and a few stained 1x's for the heavier shelves. NOTE:  If you are going to make something like this, paint it first and then touch up after installation.  It was pretty difficult to paint the shoe compartments(especially since I was 9 mos preggo at the time). 

The final result is a simple closet system that works for our 2 growing kiddos:  space for their clothes, their suitcases, their shoes, dirty clothes and even unused shelves for future needs.

One little tip that works for us:  The wicker basket on the right is full of "I don't care if they get ruined" clothes.  We have lots of outside time that consists of mud and dirt so if we are going to be getting dirty the kids know they can pick out anything in this basket to wear and it doesn't matter what they look like after a fun day.

Just Another Home Blog

I like to follow home blogs and I think most girls do too.  Sometimes I get good home ideas, other times I am more inspired by their ability to take great photos and blog about it - that in itself often takes longer than a given project.  As much as I love some of the blogs I stalk, they tend to be very different than my family's style.

We live on 5 wooded acres just outside of the second largest city in the southeast.  Living on a little bit of land allows us to enjoy the outdoors through gardening, fishing, building fires, camping and teaching our kids about wildlife - all within the confines of our "backyard".  It's a huge blessing to a couple who spent the first 5 months of marriage backpacking the Appalachian Trail then were displaced to a fairly big city.  Because we love the outdoors we like to incorporate it in our style - I like to call it "rustic chic" - a little bit of elegance mixed with a good bit of rusticity. 

I'm starting this blog because after 3 years in our home, we are finally starting to tackle renovation projects.  I want to document the process for my own sake but also in the hopes of providing some small bit of creativity or knowledge to another.  So follow along and maybe you'll find something to inspire you and maybe we'll be a little bit different than the next blog.