Happy Spring & The Winter That Wasn't, Upcoming Home Updates!!!

Happy Spring & The Winter That Wasn't:

Happy Spring to all of you out there! It was 80° yesterday which is crazy for March! We didn't really have much of a winter this year. It was 62° on Christmas day! I believe that was an all-time record. I really missed having very little snow this year and it's really not good for snow pack and water here. While it is really pretty to see all the green it is way too early to be this warm. I hope we're not going to have a brutal, early summer. It was nice to see some of the bees out pollinating the peach tree which has flowers just opening up. The backyard is super green and the Italian parsley that should have gone dormant on the deck never did because it was so mild- 

 

 

 

We did get a little bit of snow this winter, but just not very much. Meanwhile watching the news it was terrible to see what the Midwest and East Coast were going through with all of the blizzards, over and over. I guess nature is what it is, we just all have to stay prepared. Preparedness is one of those things that people need to keep taking seriously. A lot of people still don't seem to bother, which I don't understand! I guess we all do what we do. Luckily our new little dwarf apple tree did great over the winter. Hoping for apples in the coming years. Girls are laying eggs steadily also! 

 

  

Old "buffet"

 

Upcoming Interior Home Updates:

We've been living in our house right now almost 20 years. We've done a lot of updating over the years with various things. When we first bought the house the carpeting was super cheap and wore out really fast, so that was one of the first things we did. Dave installed laminate through the main part of the house at one point. We had the kitchen cabinets refaced by professionals which luckily has held up really well. We painted all the rooms and the exterior, changed out all the light fixtures, redid both bathrooms, and that's just the inside! Since time goes on of course things wear out and need to be replaced. Then there are things you're just ready to update, and we saved up for. Since we have no plans to sell the house we decided to have some work done, by professionals. We don't want to be on the roof and have to be careful with lifting, etc. We got several bids and are happy with our choices. 

At this point we're going to be getting new light gray carpeting in all three bedrooms, new luxury vinyl planking in our kitchen and main bathroom, new countertop in the kitchen with under counter sink, new backsplash. We're also going to be removing our old microwave exhaust fan and replacing it with a vent/light that's ducted out. Will buy a new smaller microwave. We're going to be updating our current "buffet" that used to be an old computer desk the previous owners installed and we'll top with butcher block. I may whitewash it. Will probably keep the fabric for now but may pull that out and put in a couple of painted cabinets. Here's the previous blog post of on of the original updates Kitchen Update 

 

A couple MINOR updates first- 

hoping to replace the old Habitat brushed stainless dining fixture. We have a combo kitchen/dining room, hoping to get something like this, 

sort of rustic French/Scandinavian. Maybe thrifted, new one here Rustic Wood-Chandelier -

 

 Old one- 

We're removing this, to replace with a small vent/light like this in white Broan-NuTone  Nice and quiet, a good brand! We will remove and have the backsplash go up into that area, maybe add a shelf when they install the tile-

 

 

  

 

Small bathroom needs a new faucet, that's it! Old Ikea one getting pretty worn, too much hard water- 

 

 

Major changes- Old sage bedroom carpet, will get a light gray-

Old kitchen flooring beige- 

 

  

Old bathroom gray vinyl-

 

NEW kitchen and bathroom flooring will be LVP, same as our small bathroom. We will install a new toilet as well-

  

Old kitchen laminate counter/plastic backsplash-

 

 

New counter, quartz "Peppercorn", basically white with small particles of gray/off white. We were going to do a light gray, but it was too dark. We wanted something durable and simple-

 

Backsplash still to be decided. We got great advice- what until counter is in, then make the final decision! We are leaning towards a satin white/off white with a textured surface, like this- Apollo Tile White I REALLY wanted Zellige tile, but it's WAY too expensive. It's handmade (partially) and I love the rustic look-

 

Really looking forward to an UNDERCOUNTER sink, finally!!! Will be this one KRAUS Undermount    Counter top very similar to our new one-

 

 

I'll do some "after" shots once things start up. New roof coming first! Carpet, then counter/backsplash, then flooring. So excited!!! Work to start in about 3 weeks, roof sooner. Happy Spring!!!

 

 

 

Best Thrifting Scores! Installing A New Microwave, Kitchen Project- Turning A Desk Into A Buffet !

 

Best Thrifting Scores! 

We had some donations to make and I had the thrift store bug. I am redoing an area in the kitchen and wanted to add a little bit more French Mediterranean decor items . We decided to go out New Year's Eve day and dropped off some donations at our local Idaho Youth Ranch. We went inside and there just wasn't much in the store. They had a fire sometime in the summer at their warehouse and had asked people to stop donating. I don't know if they just never recovered or what happened but I've never seen their store that empty except for tons of clothing. We decided to go to Goodwill up the street. Oh wow wow wow were they ever stocked up!!! 

I started going through the home decor section and first found this really pretty pitcher made in Mexico for water for our dining table. Really nice size, $4.00-

Next I found a Ziploc plastic bag section of the store where they put all kinds of random things together. I found a brand new Teavana brand steeping tea brewer. Basically you put your loose tea in, fill with water let it steep. It comes with its own little coaster. After it's steeps when you set it on top of a mug and the weight of the liquid releases the tea through the stainless steel filter in the bottom. Pretty ingenious! It was brand new along with a few other crafting goodies, $3.00! New it is $20.00. The really nice thing about it is it's small and solves the problem of bulk teas that I like to brew. When I use a tea ball or tea spoon filter it seems like something always leaks through with chunks of tea in the bottom of the cup. The filter worked great!

Next I found a shadow box that was going to go perfect for a little vintage World War II French hen print that I found online. I inserted the photo, I'm going to add things like wheat sprigs, seeds and broken eggshells. So far it's really cute! In French at the top of the photo it says solve your barnyard problems. Then down in the middle it says something about a girl's school. At the bottom it says I Am A Brave Little Hen I don't eat much but I produce a lot. I stumbled on this print and loved it! We'll play around with the frame, which was $1.50.

As far as Mediterranean/French I found a cabbage leaf serving platter, $4.99. Many of these kinds of ceramics are made in Majorca, Spain-

Found a really cute whitewashed flower with galvanized metal and a jute center, $3.00. Really reminds me of a bakery we go to in McCall (Stacy's Cake's). They have lots vintage baking tins and make flowers out of them for decorations. It's up in the dining room now-

I found a faux lavender pot for $1.99-

 

And then a Fleur delis-style statue/baluster for $3.00. I wasn't sure about the green but it's growing on me. I had planned of painting it white but I think I like the green. Time will tell...

Next I found a serving platter, about 11 inches across that I will hang in my wall once I get a plate holder. It's a really nice brand, lots of available online, for $4 it was a bargain. At Home Depot a while back I bought a faux miniature olive tree that will also dress up the space this will be going-

Last for a couple dollars I found a Rachael Ray olive oil picture, like new and my favorite color! Washed really well with very hot soapy water and just like new, is $20.00 new! 

 

On the actual free side of things I found this nice free printable online. It's for my frame I already had for the holidays. I had originally put one with the same French wording but it just didn't print out right. I finally found one I like and it was free! Will save that for next year-

I was looking for a greenery swag for my living room but all of the Christmas items were completely gone. Will have to wait for next year. My entire haul (small items not shown) was $30.00!

 

 

Installing A New Microwave- 

Dave and I were relaxing nicely, about ready to eat on New Year's Eve, when suddenly our microwave arced and that was the end of that. I was cooking some veggies. We had it for about 13 years so we got our money out of it, for sure. So New Year's Day we spent shopping for a new microwave. I had pulled up a few models on YouTube and did a little research the night before. All our appliances are white so we were sticking with that. I noticed that a lot of the newer microwaves have recessed handles which I really like. Lower profile is always good for me. We stopped at Lowe's to look and see what they had and we lucked out. We found one in stock for $279 with the recessed handle! Dave and I installed it New Year's Day and it works great, and much quieter. Also made me finally really deep, deep clean my range top and stove. I took all the knobs off and scrubbed with really hot soapy water and a toothbrush. Scrubbed down the upper section really well, the bottom drawer and door. Looks much much better. All in all Santa came a bit late with that, but we got a good deal and got what we wanted. There is a series called Profile that we really liked with all of the digital keypads down along the bottom in a thin strip but they are much more expensive and it wasn't that important to us. Happy that we have one installed and it works!

 

 

Old dead one

 

We pulled the old one and proteced the glass top stove

 

New one out of box, Whirlpool

 

Installed and we cleaned up!

 

 

 

My inspiration from Romantiskahem.blogspot

 

Kitchen Project- Turning A Desk Into A Buffet! 

I saw the photo at the top a while back. It gave me an idea and so here's the reveal! Here's the history first- When we bought our house we inherited a desk in the dining room which we decided to keep. For a long time it was good to have our computer there, work online, pay bills and be able to chat with each other-

 

Earlier this year we decided to move the computer into the home office that I used to work remotely. When I changed jobs and went to work in an office we decided we could really use that space in the kitchen for other things. I'd always wanted to put in a buffet there. The plan right now is to put a slab of butcher block type wood and replace the counter. Eventually I'd like Dave to remove the cabinet, pull out the rolling cart and add some finished shelves. I found the fabric at Joanne's and loved it! I bought a white tension rod and sewed it up! I wanted something sort of Mediterranean-ish.

 

 

Kind of reminds me of the ocean

 

 

Hides lots of stuff! Next sewing project will be re-upholstering my two dining chairs, they need some love! After winter decor is put away I will put out my French/coutry decor-

 

Flowers bloomed in time for New Year's!

Heat Dome/Garden Progress, A More Resilient Kitchen, Dehydrating Eggs!

From Survival Quote Series Year Zero

Heat Dome/Garden Progress-

I don't know about anybody else but we have been under the heat Dome that's been all over the news. It's been in the 100°s for the last 2 weeks. But we lucked out today, it was in the '80s and it RAINED this morning! Not a lot of rain, but enough to really cool things down. We have just been watering, watering and watering the yarden. I've been taking extra cool care of our chickens. I use a water mister near their shade area, hose it down once or twice a day, and give them cool treats. Our tomatoes been growing like crazy in the heat! Typically tomatoes don't set fruit over about 80° or so, luckily there were lots of baby tomatoes already on the vine. It's made a HUGE difference in the production in the garden with more SUN. We did a major professional prune a while back. What a difference!!! 

We finally had our first harvest! I picked one medium sized tomato and two lemon cucumbers. The lemon cucumbers are doing amazing, they are growing so fast! I decided not to plant any pickling cucumbers since I found a wonderful local farm where I can buy them fresh. I made the best fermented pickles ever last year using their cukes! We have a good amount of peaches on the front peach tree, just starting to change colors. Our apple tree is running a little bit light on the harvest this year. That's nature. That's why I wanted to plant three different kinds of fruit trees. The blackberries are ripening now as well. Pretty soon I will be canning fruit! I also bought a pressure cleaner so I'm going to start canning some meats and non-acid vegetables. I hope to be also canning soups for the winter. With potential blackout/brownouts/fuel shortage good to have easy, healthy fast foods on hand. If you're not getting prepared for some future difficulties better late than never! I heard about a shortage coming of Garbanzo beans so I bought about eight lbs. of dried in the bulk section. They're tucked away in glass jars with O2 absorbers. I also got a great deal on Augason Farms freeze dried strawberries, $20.00 for a #10 can, nice deal. Still on Amazon clearance. Never to late to get things in order...

A More Resilient Kitchen-

When we bought our house almost 20 years ago there was a built-in desk in the dining room/kitchen. That worked out pretty well and we decided to use it for that. Later I really wanted to remove all of that and put in a buffet, but we never put new counters in the kitchen. I had hoped we would be able to do solid countertops and turn that area into a buffet for storage. Fast forward to now. I decided since I'm not working from home anymore to move our kitchen office into the spare bedroom. I'm hoping we'll be able to put some butcher block where the current countertop is. In the meantime I decided to take back my kitchen. We moved the computer system into the home office, where I previously worked at my job. That opened up the entire counter. I cleared everything off and wiped everything down. It's amazing how many dust bunnies were under there! I even had room to put out my radio/CD player!

I made 2 loaves of bread in the new (thrifted) bread machine there, Honey Oat bread (recipe in my Pinterest bread folder)-

Great flavor and crumb!

Next I used the same recipe, but used 1 cup WW flour and 1 teaspoon dough enhancer, excellent result!

Hole from the paddle, great otherwise! 

I will keep playing around and plan to make some herb breads too. One of the things I wanted to start using the area for is for dehydrating-

Orange slices for winter teas

It will be really handy to have that area for cooling home-canned bloing jars instead of the top of my dining table. When we have lots of company over in the winter for the holidays I can use it as a serving area. So far so good! I'm leaving the dehydrator there for now so I can run various batches including eggs. More on that below...

18 eggs in there!

Dehydrating Eggs!

I've seen a few different blogs and YouTube videos that had information on how to dehydrate fresh eggs. I decided to try that! Since we have a bumper crop of our own organic eggs it's a good shelf stable way  to preserve them! Basically I ran about 9 of our eggs at a time through our Magic Bullet until blended, 18 totla in the 1st batch. I had previously bought some silicone trays for inside my food dehydrator, link here Dehydrator Trays I had the trays stacked and simply carefully poured the eggs in. The temperature I read everywhere was to do about 140° for about 18 hours or so. Probably depends on the humidity where you live. Here's the photos of the process-

Mostly dry, checking for doneness

dry and crispy, looks like corn flakes!

I ran the chunks thru the Magic Bullet again (clean and dry), came out perfect. I added to O2 absorbers in the glass jars. Just treat like raw eggs and cook. You can use in baked goods, for scrambled, eggs etc. 

Great video here from one of my fave Youtubers with lots of info!  From RoseRed Homestead-