New Home: Custom Look on a Budget

I'm not a big fan of the whole "builder grade" look, but I have a "builder grade" budget, and we are trying to put the bulk of our money towards the framework of the house (like the overall square footage) and things that will be hard to change later (like upgraded insulation in the exterior walls, roughed in bonus room above the garage), so I've had to get a little creative to be able to afford my dream finishes. Here are a couple ways you can save on finishes if you are building or remodeling

Buy your own finishes:
My builder is awesome. Yes, I know I say that almost every post, but he really is. Any finish I decide I want to "upgrade" (which has been almost all of them), he gives me the amount of credit or allowance that's in the total house quote for purchasing it myself. While I usually end up spending more than the builder grade option would be, I'm definitely saving money on the upgraded price I would have to pay if I just told the builder to go get it. The advantage to this is that I can shop for deals, watch for sales (like my hardwood floors purchased from Lumber Liquidators by my builder when I alerted him the ones I wanted were on sale) and get exactly what I want. Below are some of the finishes I have actually purchased online (I heart Amazon and Overstock and their free/low shipping costs!) My builder is still installing the finishes, but I had so much fun doing the actual shopping for them! I'm not sure how my parents are feeling about their "already-full-of-our-moving-stuff-garage" being piled even higher with this stuff (and I'm not quite sure if the shower will fit in there when it's delivered tomorrow...), but I love the deliveries! It feels like Christmas when the FedEx truck shows up...I don't even mind them ringing the doorbell during Isabelle's nap time...

Not only do I shop online sales but I also look at stores for sales and the best way to remember the price and look of all the different items you like? Take pics with your phone! I always take a picture of the item so I remember what it looks like, followed by a picture of the price tag with dimensions listed. This way I can show Charles and get his opinion, and compare prices/styles wherever I am.

Invest some "Sweat Equity":

If you have the time (and skills) you can do some of the smaller things yourself to save money...painting all our own trim saved us 2K...I could have saved another 2K by painting all the walls myself but that is a huge job and by the time I figured in the price of paint, materials and time I wasn't really saving that much. We are also tiling all the bathrooms and master shower ourselves, assembling and installing kitchen cabinets and painting the half bath walls (b/c it's so tiny and will take me 30 min to do since there will be nothing in there I need to tape and I'm only painting the top half of the wall) and installing the bead-board in the half bath. Next month is definitely going to be busy for us, but I think we are doing just enough sweat equity to save money but not overwhelm us (I will let you know if I regret that statement or not in August...)

Only about 2 more weeks, and I have to have paint colors finalized. Yikes! I'm still undecided on the guest room/bath and Isabelle's room so I'd better decide soon...I really hate painting so I want to make sure the colors I pick are ones I will want for a long time. This week the roof is being shingled and by the end of next week the sheetrockers should be ready to start. Not much longer till we can actually see the inside start to come together!

Canning Salsa: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good:
My family goes through a lot of salsa, about a jar every week. Since we started this diet it seems to be one of our favorite snacks. If you can find a great organic salsa, that's low in sodium, it's a great healthy snack to pair with some organic corn chips. Salsa is usually around 10 calories for 1 tablespoon, and the ingredients are a ton of great vegetables.

The (Semi) Bad:
We planted our garden this year with plans of making and canning homemade salsa. We planted tomatoes, green peppers, and jalapenos.  We then planned a day of nothing but canning, but got started a lot later in the day than we had planned. We set up everything, eager and ready to get started...and realized we were missing lids for the cans, onions, and vinegar....so we weren't as prepared as we thought. Anyways the process was made easier by many hands, but I was still tired by the end. We had frozen tomatoes throughout the season so we had enough to not only can 10 jars of salsa, but also can another 10 jars of plain diced tomatoes. Here was the process we followed:

1) We blanched all the tomatoes and peeled the skins off them
2) We used a food processor to chop the onions, peppers and jalapenos
3) We diced the tomatoes by hand (the frozen ones were easier to dice up)
4) We heated all the ingredients together and simmered for 10 minutes
5) Placed salsa in jars and canned

Recipe: Adapted from my Aunt Pam's Amazing Salsa Recipe

4 c peeled, diced tomatoes
2 c  chopped green peppers
1/2 c diced jalapeno peppers (more or less to adjust spice level)
3/4 c chopped onion
4 cloves of garlic, diced
1 c vinegar (we used white vinegar, but next year I want to try cider vinegar)
2 packets salsa seasoning

The Ugly (or better described as "The Messy"):

Simmering the ingredients for 10 minutes

Diced Tomatoes for Canning

Since you are dicing tomatoes anyways a pot of chili to eat after all the hard work is done is essential =)

This is the seasoning packet I used, although next year I would like to do all my own seasonings instead of using a packet

Mmmm!!!! We've already devoured two jars. It's sooo good!

There are definitely a couple things I would like to do differently next year. Starting earlier in the day would have helped, and of course making sure we had all the ingredients would have been helpful. We only used 4 jalapenos (instead of the 1/2c like we should have), and when it was simmering the salsa tasted super spicy so we didn't add anymore, but when we opened the canned jars it wasn't spicy at all, which was a little disappointing since I love my salsa spicy, so next year I'm adding a lot more jalapenos! 

Even if you don't have a garden you can easily can your own homemade salsa simply by hitting up a farmer's market and buying all your fresh ingredients there. Not a salsa fan? Homemade spaghetti sauce is another great staple to can.

My First Garden: Lessons Learned

For the past 4 years I've been growing herbs in pots on my patio (and occasionally a pathetic-looking tomato plant), but I've never had the space to have my own garden. It never really bothered me until I started eating healthier and paying more for organic produce. I would sit and watch documentaries, envious of those who could simply walk outside and "pick dinner" each day. My chance for a garden finally came this spring. We moved out of our house (with the tiny yard) in South Carolina and moved in with my parents who own 3 acres. We are living with them for a year while our house is for sale, and we look for a new place or land to build on. My dad had bought all the guys in the family (my husband and two brothers) i-touches and asked me if I wanted one too. My answer was....I'll take a garden instead.  We built two huge (20x4) above raised bed gardens and had organic black dirt mixed with manure brought in. Our total cost with the building materials, dirt, and plants/seeds ended up being near $300 (for both gardens). I planted a variety of vegetables that I thought we would use and would grow quickly (since it was already the end of May when we planted) Overall I was very happy with how the garden turned out. We did not use any pesticides or fertilizers and had no issues and a great harvest. I did learn a few lessons though and will be doing a few things differently next year. Here is my "recipe for success" for the next growing season:

Timeline:

1) Take the winter and come up with a list of the vegetables I want to plant, based on cost to buy in grocery store and our consumption level of that vegetable (bell peppers are guaranteed to be on the top of that list!)
2) Use the winter to research the best way to plant, care for, and harvest the list of vegetables, and using hay as mulch to prevent weeds
3) In March, order organic seeds online
4) In April,  plant seeds under growing lamp in garage or use cold frames to start growing seeds
5) In May, transplant vegetable plants to garden based on temperatures and specific plant's durability

Things to Remember Next Year:


1) The recommended spacing is correct, even if you don't believe that a tiny squash seed will ever grow that large :)
2) Do small plantings each week (plant a few seeds, of the same vegetable, each week the first month to ensure all your harvest doesn't come at once)
3) Start a compost, as that is the best way to fertilize your soil organically
4) Keep the watermelon away from other plants, and it likes to strangle them with it's vines
5) 4 tomato plants produce A LOT of tomatoes....plant 8 next year so we can make double the salsa! Mmmm!
6) Weed regularly to stay on top of it!
 7) Get the whole family involved in the process. Studies show that children (and in my case adults) that help grown their own vegetables are more likely to eat them.
8) Fresh produce, canned salsa (featured tomorrow on my blog), or other items that come from your garden make great gifts, and people appreciate even a ziplock bag with fresh veggies in it
9) Plant more fruit!
10) More gardens are needed next year!

My dad and husband hauling the extra dirt away after they finished the second garden

My daughter "helping" me in the garden

Newly planted gardens

This was about 1 month after I planted. They grow quickly! (broccoli, cabbage, tomato and strawberries)

Second garden (cauliflower, squash, zucchini, green beans, peppers, carrots, lettuce, spinach, and onions) 

My harvest from this weekend. Even though the season is almost over my little garden is still cranking out this much produce a couple times each week.

DIY: Table Runner

A few months ago I was planning my daughter's first birthday party. The guest list was mostly adults and since I rarely get a chance to entertain such a large group of people I decided the event could be a little more formal. (I'm sure this year the theme will end up being Dora or Sesame Street.) I decided the theme would be birds, to match her nursery theme. I found the cutest pink bird votive holders for $1.50 at Old Time Pottery. Once I bought them, of course, everything else needed to match that specific color pink. One of the biggest issues I had was finding a table runner. I didn't want just a plain white one because all my serving dishes were white. Anything unique or even close to the right color was too short (I wanted one that went the whole length of the table.) I only found a couple table runners online that were even remotely close to what I wanted and those were close to $100. While I was looking at one at Pier 1 it suddenly occurred to me that a table runner is just a piece of material. I decided I would make one. I went to the fabric store, carrying my pink bird candle holder. Ten minutes and $15 later, I had the perfect fabric. Because I was short on time, and just didn't feel like sewing. I bought the adhesive seam stuff that you just iron together to fuse. I simply measured the length I wanted the table runner to be, bought that much material, folded the material in half, used the adhesive to hem all the raw edges and then used the adhesive to fuse the seams together and....whala! I finally had the perfect table runner. It only took me about 20 minutes to do too. With table runners this easy to make, every holiday will now have it's own table runner =)

DIY: Dessert Stand

I love DIY projects! I love them so much that I have a list a mile long of projects I want to try. I decided to start out with the easiest and quickest one today- a dessert stand. Cake stands (dessert stands as I like to call them) aren't super expensive, but one is never enough and $20 a piece can really add up, especially if you want something other than the classic white. An easy way to create your own for a few dollars (or maybe even pennies if you're lucky) is by buying a vintage candlestick holder and china plate. I found mine at the amazing Goodwill by my house. (For all of you turning your noses up at the thought of Goodwill, I used to be a skeptic too, until I found this specific Goodwill that honestly seems more like an antique shop than a used clothing store). So here is the picture of my finished product. I used a glue gun and glued them together. It would be easier to store if you just stacked them at parties without gluing them, but I don't want to worry about the plate tipping over and having a guest feel bad. =) My next DIY project?...perhaps I will finally get to that upholstered headboard I've been wanting to do!