Long Time, No Post

Yes, I'm a slacker...kind of. Last year was a WHIRLWIND. Our adoptions for the boys finally went through after months and months of court appearances. The sheer volume of paperwork involved was overwhelming to say the least. Then we fell in love with a house...quite unexpectedly. Then we went to Utah for a month. Then we closed on our new house. Then we worked nonstop on the new house. Then we moved. Then we had birthdays, followed by Thanksgiving and Christmas. And now you are all up to speed. Crazy, right?

We have been looking for a new house since we've been together, um, about 8 years. Seriously. EIGHT. YEARS. PEOPLE. That is a super long time to go house hunting. We looked at literally hundreds of houses and we were beginning to think we would never find our dream house. We are the kind of people who want our abode to reflect who we are and our lifestyle. We want it to have a certain look and feel, not just fit our budget.

Our house had tiny rooms and TONS of charm...a brick bungalow with a paradise of a backyard and separate art studio in the back. We loved that house. But with the addition of the boys, we officially outgrew it and our desire to find a new house became a NEED to find a new house.

Seriously, is that not THE CUTEST house ever? It is.

We wanted something bigger than the 1,400 sf house we were looking to leave. Bigger, but not too big, just comfortable. I wanted spacious rooms and lots of storage. We wanted a two-car garage and a big backyard. Rit really wanted to live on the water, but we both knew that this was a long shot.

I saw the house in the paper one Sunday. And even though the house was in a neighboring town that Rit DID NOT want to live in, I convinced her to attend the open house with me. She did not want to go. We walked through the front door and that was that. We fell in love with the house and made an offer shortly thereafter. And did I mention that it's on the river? Yep. ON. THE. RIVER. Hello, canoe, our old friend, get used to getting used.

I'm so in love with this house I can hardly stand it. Just to give you a little teaser, here is a picture of the house before we bought it.

Stunning, right? Full of potential, right? Rit and I wanted a project house and that's exactly what we got. This house is 2,400 sf of great bones and several years of neglect. The couple who lived here before us lived in the house 40+ years. They also loved this house and that is evident throughout. However, as their health declined, so did their ability to keep up with the maintenance required. They passed away and the house sat empty for a couple of years. Enter us. The DIYers. I admit, not very humbly, that I rock at plaster repair and texturizing walls. Rit is great with most everything else.

So the day we closed on the house, we came over and started ripping out the carpet to reveal the startling beautiful hardwood floors. YUM.

Welcome to our home. I hope you'll join me as we work our way through the house room by room fixing and updating what we can as we can afford it. Next post: The Sunroom.

It’s Worth the Wait

Dear Amy,

“For anything worth having one must pay the price; and the price is always work, patience, love, self-sacrifice.” 

John Burroughs

I truly believe that anything worth having is worth waiting for and working toward. Remember that saying we had on the kitchen tile growing up? “What we achieve too easily, we esteem too lightly.” So true. And so apparent in my life. I have found that I do appreciate more things I wait for, save for, work toward. They hold greater weight.

R and I have long wanted to move. We live in an absolutely adorable house full of charm and unique attributes. With all of the landings and stairways in this house, there are 11 different levels! However, having been built in the early 1930s, our house is small and chopped up into tiny rooms. They are fabulous rooms, mind you, but small rooms. It’s not a lot of square footage we seek, but a more spacious house—larger rooms, etc. Our house is technically considered a story and a half, which means that the entire second story floor has slanted ceilings that follow the roofline.

It was inconvenient, but very doable for two people. Then the boys came. Now we feel packed into this tiny house with it’s tiny spaces. Since the boys arrived so suddenly, we really didn’t have time to think through where to put their rooms, where to fit their cribs and toys and clothes and assorted sundries.

So, we placed their bedroom in the most convenient room, the room that was the most easily replaced—the guest room. As we soon discovered, the new kids’ room was found lacking. For starters, it was directly inside the front door…NOISY. Second, it shared a wall with the kitchen…NOISY. Third, it was on the ground floor…COLD. Fourth, it’s 9’ x 11’…TOO SMALL for two cribs, a rocking chair and a dresser. Last but not least, the boys should not share a room at this point. They keep each other awake.

So, we put our house up for sale. I suffered through months of last-minute showings and interrupted naps, scrabbling to clean for the curious non-buyer. In the meantime, we could not find a house we wanted to buy. We were not falling in love with any standing structure within our town or the surrounding area. Huh.

So, we took our house back off the market. And we began working toward our goal…to build our dream house. We have made the decision to make this tiny house with no storage to speak of work for us for the next year and a half. With our low mortgage and new goal of living on half of R’s salary, we are saving toward our goal. We have always wanted a barn house….the kind of house that grows from within the structure of an old, salvaged barn that has been deconstructed, refurbished and reconstructed. I can’t wait! A green house built to our specifications…small, but spacious, with a place for everything.

Hence, my lack of posts recently. In an effort to make this house work for us for the next year and a half, we are moving all of the rooms around. The boys have moved upstairs. D is now in our old room (and has moved up to a toddler bed!), while Eric’s crib is in the small bedroom upstairs. We have moved downstairs to the 9’x11’ bedroom. It’s so small. With our queen bed, we scarcely have room to walk around. We have an attached bathroom that is the size of an extremely small closet. I’m still trying to sort through things and find a place for everything. For now, we are surrounded by piles and half-furnished rooms.

It’s been a hard adjustment, but I welcome the challenge of coming up with some creative storage solutions without adding to our “stuff.”

Before and after pictures to follow.

Wish me luck!

Love,

Kate

Getting Started…

Dear Amy,
So, a lot is going on here. R and I have made some significant decisions regarding how we want our next couple of years to unfold.
We have committed to living on half of R’s salary for one year—HALF! Ouch. Although R doesn’t make a lot of money, she makes a good salary. And we feel that we spend more than we need to each month. Okay, let’s be honest, I spend more than I need to each month. And that other half of her salary? It’s going into savings. We’re going to do some traveling and the rest will go toward building our dream house in a couple of years—a spacious (not large) barn house with lots of windows on some spectacular acreage…with chickens…and a two-car garage.
The budget will be finalized this week. And living within such a strict budget? I know it sounds crazy, but it excites me! I look forward to the challenge. I welcome the creative problem solving. Part of the challenge will be to make this small house continue to work for our growing family for the next two years. Toward that goal, I am making daily decisions, conscious choices that keep us on the right path. More about that later in the week.
For now, I want to tell you about one of my favorite books in the kitchen: The River Cottage Family Cookbook. Love, love, love this book! It’s full of recipes and ideas for living and eating well. this book contains some great information on dairy foods, including directions on how to make butter. I realize that you’ve already tried this, but I haven’t, and I loved it. So easy! Last night, we enjoyed a dinner of homemade vegetable soup, homemade sourdough bread and homemade butter. Yes, butter! We made butter!
Please follow along with my make your own butter tutorial:
Start with heavy cream, locally produced is better, and leave it on the counter about 30 minutes or so, until it’s room temperature. The fresher the cream, the longer it will take to turn into butter.
Find a clean glass jar with a tight-fitting lid. I used an empty applesauce jar. Fill it one-third full with cream. It needs plenty of room to move around and churn, so keep it to one-third full.

Screw the lid on tightly and start shaking! Shake it up and down and all around so that the cream is really moving around and hitting the bottom of the lid. Don’t stop shaking until the butter is finished. It’s a good workout using such a large jar. R and I had to take turns! The boys loved it.
At first, it will obviously feel like cream sloshing around in there. Then, it will get quiet and you won’t be able to see into the jar. Voila! Whipped cream!

Keep shaking! Suddenly, you’ll feel something heavy sloshing around in there, surrounded by liquid. It may take anywhere between 10-30 minutes to get to this point. You’re almost done! At this point, it’s very soft and looks like whipped butter. It needs a little more shaking to firm up a bit more and separate from the buttermilk.

All finished. Here’s what the butter looks like before it’s drained:

Drain the buttermilk into a separate container.

Then fill the jar with cold water, slosh the butter around and drain. Repeat this step until the water runs clear. Dump the butter onto a wood cutting board. Press with the back of a wooden spoon or with your hands to remove the rest of the buttermilk. If the butter is still full of buttermilk, it will spoil more quickly.


All done! Shape, wrap in wax paper and store in the refrigerator.

I highly recommend enjoying your fresh butter with fresh-from-the-oven, still-warm sourdough bread. Does it get any better than this?
Love, Kate