My dream house: Dick Clark’s Flintstone’s-style Malibu retreat
Move over Snow White’s bungalow, because the newest installation of “amazing dream homes that have popped up on the market that Megan could never afford” is here.
Building a sofa: pros, cons, vague instructions, and valuable lessons
We needed a new couch. Wanting to build my own, I found this how-to instructional scanned from a vintage home maintenance encyclopedia. It took (a lot of) time, but the results are good! The thing looks nice, is child-jumping safe (so far) and saved us a chunk of change. Come see what I made!
Moving advice: save the mental grit for BIG decisions and allow yourself to let the small stuff go
We moved two weeks ago. I usually like moving, but this move was particularly hard. We loved our place, but our landlord was selling it and couldn’t guarantee that the new owners would let us continue to rent.
Some people think we have a finite amount of willpower each day. Some days we make big decisions, some days we make little decisions, some days we make a lot of decisions, some days we make only a few. If we use up our finite amount of willpower early in the day, we might not have enough later to make the “better” decision or exercise our will-power. So we moved, and I found myself feeling taxed.
Sick chickens, text art, and questionable piggy banks in this week’s reader photos
Happy Monday, Homies! Good to see you back. In this week’s photos we have a lot of voyeurism, and in this week’s Clicky Links there’s a lot of geeky consumerism.
Share your photos by posting to our Flickr group, and share your inspirations with us on Pinterest.
How buying heirloom seeds defends our habitat from invasion
IN THIS POST: Where do seeds come from? Why are seed banks important? Where can I buy heirloom seeds in my area?
Turn a crappy bi-fold door into a glowing damask enchantment
I installed this door over our laundry room after we dumpster-dove it, so I wasn’t surprised that a panel popped out before long. I took this fixit project as an opportunity to make the whole shebang a lot prettier.
Make your own homemade dishwasher detergent
I fear my hot water bill is going to be SKY HIGH next month! For the last couple of weeks I have washed and re-washed and re-washed AGAIN load after load of dishes trying to figure out just the right “recipe” for clean and CLEAR dishes! After taking a good, long look at my own dishes, I had to admit that the homemade version wasn’t doing quite as good a job as the stuff in the green box I’d been using for years.
Of course the store-bought stuff hasn’t been doing as good a job as IT used to do either since the ban on phosphates in dishwasher detergent went into effect. It took us MONTHS to figure THAT one out.
Anyway, I’ve got it sorted now — and I’m pleased to share.
How to consume ethically: reducing and recycling electronics and home goods
Recently we discussed Lolly’s question about how to consume ethically. Here’s what we came up with.