Category Archives: Home Improvements

Replacing a Building

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The second thing we decided to accomplish on our vacation was converting the metal building from the fabric and metal tubs to a wooden structure.  We knew it would be a process but I did not realize it would take over a month.  We started with this

We removed the metal to expose the fabric

The fabric was easy to remove but the pole took a little bit more effort.

By the end of the first weekend of at least 15 or more hours of work we were down to the floor.

We used the leftovers/remnant from the kitchen floor to make it harder to lose screws and easier to clean.

We were able to get up most of the walls on that same day but it was another long long day!

Weekend 3 complete and not on to the fourth in the next update!

 

Saving on Saturday

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This week I have been focused on doing the small things that add up to make a huge savings overall.

Let’s start with the yard improvements/maintenance. Mulch is something that needs to be replaced and replenished at least very couple of years. That becomes expensive especially if you need to replace most of it at the same time. This year we ended up needing 22 bags.  I know that usually in the spring the big box stores run a special for bags between $2 and $3 at bag. This year it was $2.50 a bag which is a savings of $1.28 per bag or $28.16.  Because of the work that we have been doing and trying to add different growing areas I also ended up purchasing 18 bags. This was another savings of $23. That adds up to at least $50 in savings. That is besides the saving that I talked about yesterday when buying plants only on clearance or from Facebook marketplace.  I would say that in addition to the money we have saved by starting all the vegetables from seeds would put us around $1000 which is over a months’ worth of groceries for us! This is before we get any food to eat!  Another way we save money outside is by capturing and using rainwater for all the watering outside.

Food saving is another big area for us.  I did a lot of cooking this week. I mentioned yesterday about canning. Another area that saves us money is menu planning.  A third way we save money is by buying our meat in bulk. We have purchased several cows in the past. Last year as we ran out of steaks and were low on hamburger, we found and purchased a whole cow.  We have been enjoying the steaks and some hamburger from the new cow but today we ended up using the last packs of meat from the previous cow purchased about 4 or 5 years ago.  I don’t regret at all purchasing the whole cow last year because meat prices have risen significantly in the past year and will continue to rise. I know that we saved money by purchasing and storing meat in bulk.  A much bigger and sometimes hard way that we save money is by not eating out. This has been hard at times but a cheap meal out for us is around $70, fast food using coupons and drinks at home is usually around $40 and a full regular meal is at least $100. We usually eat out on Sundays for a full meal and at least one other time during the week.  We saved at least $50 this week by eating only at home.

Our money saving goal for the next month is to try and save $1000 to use on our Disney trip.  This will be a stretch but we are focused and by not eating out we have making huge strives.

5 Things Friday AKA What I did for Spring Break.

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1.We, Lily and I planned a short but packed Disney trip for the end of May, approximately 2 weeks ago.  It is something I am convinced we all need and will enjoy. So, in anticipation of the trip, I am going to save as much money as possible between then and now.  I would love to have $1000 but that is going to be a stretch.  The catch to the saving is that it has to come from extra money, not money that I am budgeting. I have worked out the budget for May already, so this is truly going to be a challenge. One caveat is that money left over from the grocery budget can be counted as savings. In addition, I am also going to say no Amazon buying unless absolutely needed.  I will try and deduct this amount from any savings we get.

2. This is week has been both the kids and I week of Spring Break. I have really really tried to get alot of things caught up and prepared ahead for the next month as well. Which hopefully will help with the goal above. Braxton has been with us for at least half of four out of 5 days this week. He is actually enjoying screen free time!

3. One of the areas I have focused on this week is outside both for gardening and landscaping. I have spent $300ish on additional plants, soil and mulch. This includes paying Zach for lots of hot work applying mulch and helping getting the yard looking it’s best.  I have been able to purchase 2 hydrangeas for $14.00 each on clearance, along with several other “clearance” plants that have helped to completely fill by Greenstalk vertical planters. I found angel trumpet trees on Facebook marketplace. Zach helped me repurpose by painting several older planters with a fresh coat of paint which I think turned out great!

I will give a better garden update on Sunday, but we have not lost any plants from transplanting, and we have a watermelon growing!  I am so pleased. Several hours and bags of dirt went to finishing up the planting space. My goal is to finish all the Spring planting today!  I really only have one area to plant now that the dirt is filled.

4.. The other area that I have worked on this week is cleaning and organizing parts of the house. One was the living room, where we found a 5-gallon bucket of water sealant. Zach used this outside as well. I also moved all the plants outside for the fresh air and sunshine.  The living room is so open now it is amazing!  I also spent time filling and organizing the canning closet. I added 28 jars of beef stock and 8 cans of white beans.

5. I also planned to work on getting our food together for the next 4 to 8 weeks (until Summer break). I actually made multiple trips to Costco and Food lion. I also attempted to use up items in our freezers.  I am proud to say other than 1 lunch at McDonald’s for $10.69 We have eaten at home all week. This is huge! I have made multiple batches of sour dough and frozen some.

Overall this was a great productive week!

Saving on Saturday

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Today, we spent most of the day outside working on projects. I am hoping that we have only 1 more full Saturday of outside work and then things go slow down or at a somewhat maintenance level.

These are our two new chicks; they are approximately 8 weeks old and were hatched and cared for up until now by Zach’s agriculture class. As I talked about yesterday, the chicken run needed some repairs and some more predator proofing.  I purchased 50 feet of poultry wire at Tractor Supply on Thursday night for $20.00.  We, Matt myself and Zach worked hard on getting this net installed. We used the metal wire from the poultry netting to connect the existing netting, We also went around and found all the wood at the bottom from different areas. I am very happy with the result and the overall cost was $20. I also spent some time picking up and cleaning out around the chicken coop itself.

Next up we worked on completing the deck project from last summer.  I knew we need some type of barrier for around the outside of the deck as it is elevated off the ground and I don’t like fighting to keep it neat and tight.  We purchased two 16-foot cattle panel pieces for $47.00 We used a grinder to cut to size and they turned out PERFECT!  We have to cut and place both end pieces, but these will take some more time and energy that we were out of!  They will be finished hopefully next weekend!

Productive but exhausting Saturday!

 

Saving On Saturday

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We spent over half the day in Greensboro for the Swim Regional watching both Zach and Kendall.  The weather has changed significantly with the start of February. It was so nice that I was able to work outside with just a light sweater.

I am starting to think about and plan for the garden this summer. I have decided to try and grow cucumbers on a old chain link fence panel that was in the back yard. This meant we needed to move the panel and also secure it to the garden bed.

Next this particular bed was starting to warp really badly so we try to add a couple of pieces of wood to help straighten and prevent huge gaps that dirt can be lost thur.

We also removed a piece of cattle panel from the front that I am bending to use as an arch between the tomato beds. Total cost of garden repair was ZERO!

I was also able to plant some onion seeds and radishes in the container in the side year. I am hopefully to get an onion harvest this year. The radishes are going to the chickens, but I want to use the seeds I have and if they grow 3 or 4 radishes great if not then no harm done. If the weather stays really nice, I may go ahead and plant out some broccoli, lettuce and spinach in the next week or so just to see what we can grow.  It is currently about 11 weeks till our last frost date.

Zach and Matt have been working very diligently on building a bar on the back deck.

I am unsure of how often this will actually get used so I did not want to spend any money. So far they have been able to accomplish this!  All materials are from other projects!  Even the Blackstone is from Luzader’s in Florida. It will require some cleaning and oil before it can be used.

This Saturday was a success!

Five Things

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  1. This has been a better week for me. I have been able to enjoy work and am actually staying somewhat caught up.  I hope to continue this routine as the first of this school year has been rough and I am glad to not dread coming to work.
  2. We are headed to Florida for Thanksgiving. We have travel alot more years than we have stayed at home on Thanksgiving. My only disappointment is the temperature in Florida are suppose to be in the 70s , I was hoping for 80s.
  3. Thanksgiving is late this year, the last week of November so I have decided to go ahead and decorate!   I hope by the end of the weekend to have all the decorations that I am going to use both inside and outside in place.
  4. Zach has already started practice for Baseball in the Spring,  He is continuing to swim.  This means that staying at home all evenings was short lived but much enjoyed. I am glad that he finishes baseball around 4:45 instead of 5:45.
  5. I think we have settled our plans for Christmas/ New Years so now I definitely need to get my plans together for the beach next year!

5 Things Friday

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  1. Matt and Zach are planning to finish up the gazebo on our brand-new back deck tomorrow. We purchased the gazebo back in July during prime days.   When we started to assemble, we realized that. We were missing a box need to finish the top.  It has taken almost a month to get the new material needed. I am very hopeful that this project will be completed tomorrow.
  2.  One of the things that is suggested is to check to see if you can reduce any of your subscriptions/ regular bills. Our internet service has been with Spectrum for more than 10 years, I am thinking it is closer to 20. Our cost increased by $20 in the month of November. Matt was able to locate, and we should be switching to a different provider in the next week. This should save us approximately $20 a month for the next 24 months. The biggest hurdle is that we will loss access to our main email accounts. I am hoping to spend some time tomorrow while the guys are working outside and starting changing emails to a free account, we should have access to forever!
  3. We are continuing to experience the warmest November that I can remember!   The high today was 79 and the low was 64 which is the average high temperature.  I think we will be back to more average temperatures by the end of next week.
  4.  Monday is Veteran’s Day. In the past this has been the day that I start with Christmas decorating specifically my snow village.  Because of our current travel schedule, I don’t think I am going to put the village up this year. My current plan is to put out my Disney village stuff, one large Disney themed tree and the kitchen sink will hold a rod of Christmas ball ornaments.
  5. I dislike daylight saving time. The time change has been difficult for me this year!

A Saturday of Preparation

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I am not sure if it was Hurricane Helene or the fact that we had frost two mornings this morning or that our deck is finally complete, but I really feel like I need to get lots of preparation done. It may be preparation for the winter or for life in general I am not sure.  But today we were able to mark alot of things off the list.

We did have one big failure; we were not able to finish the gazebo on the deck because we were sent two identical boxes which means we are missing pieces.  Matt did contact the company so hopefully it can get finished soon.

Matt did finish painting the shutters black. We pulled out all the remaining tomato and pepper plants from the raised beds. I am not going to cover the beds this year and am hopeful this will kill off some of the bugs.  Zach tore apart the bucket garden as it was falling apart.

I was able to can 8 pints of hamburger meat these are nice to have inside and by doing so, it made the freezer work less as it was not over the top full.  I made beef stew for dinner in the crockpot which turned out well. Matt also made a gallon of tea.

We continued to battle the racoons. We lost one chicken so have been working to secure the coop as well as try and trap the racoons as there is more than one. Zach added another piece of wood which makes things tight and secure at the moment.

A trip to Costco ended the day. We filled all four of our propane tanks and also filled our last gas can. I purchased paper towels, bath tissue and a stockpile of drinks.

We are officially ready for whatever adventure is ahead!

Weekend

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Ecclesiastes 3:1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:

Last weekend was lots of fun as both Haley and Lily were home. We celebrated Braxton’s birthday, had a family dinner which included a haunted house decorating contest and lots of good conversations.

This weekend was about catching up and getting ahead.   Saturday- Matt, Zach and I spent all day outside. Matt focused on getting started on assembling the new gazebo for the back deck.  Zach and I tried to catch up on the yard work as well as helping with the gazebo.   Unfortunately, we also discovered that one of the chickens was attacked.  Which meant we spent about an hour working to repair and strengthen the chicken coop and run.    The gazebo will require at least one additional Saturday to complete.  I am very hopeful to finish up pulling out the summer garden and possibly throw some seeds in the ground for fall.  I am seriously just debating ripping up what is there and calling it quits for the year.

On Sunday, I convinced Matt and Zach to help me tackle food prep for the week.  I started a huge pot of rice as well as two boxes of pasta.   While these were cooking, I cooked three pounds of ground beef.  I combined most of the rice and the meat in the slow cooker to make taco rice.  This ended up making 5 meals!   The remaining rice will be used for Mongolian beef this week.  Matt and Zach both help chop up onions, cucumbers, tomato and pepper for the pasta salad.  Matt also grilled chicken.  Zach made mini muffins as part of breakfast.     I pulled out a dish of stuffed shells and a bag of chicken broccoli casserole for the week as well.

Plans for this week including packing- more details on that adventure soon, removing the rest of the garden, Baseball game for Braxton and Football game for Zach.