I picked up and moved my house across town (and then I moved out)
I bought this house when I was 20 years old. I bought the home SEPARATE from the lot and I had it MOVED ACROSS TOWN. That was an experience in itself!
I worked and worked to gut and remodel it. I didn’t know what I was doing and many things were done incorrectly. When I moved in, after 2 years of working, I didn’t have trim or interior doors. My furniture was a cobbled mess of thrift store finds that I planned on SOMEDAY refinishing. And I was happy in my pile of a home!
A sod-covered found-wood playhouse in a woody British backyard
Come along with me and experience the tale of the time J0_M0 decided to build his kids a log playhouse in the English countryside, using only found wood and purchasing only a bag of nails.
Tricks for storing holiday decorations so you can actually use them again
I love Christmas decos — it’s a chance to hide all the bits of the house I don’t like. But by March or April I really have to take them down again. Luckily, I’ve gotten really good at putting those decorations away so I can use them again next Christmas — no more broken baubles on the slate floor.
A pink room in Russia on January 1 and a hot pot of stewing bison meat in this week’s reader photos
Start your week with our collection of interesting articles on the web and photos from our readers. This week: a couple images of wild and foraged food and a link to detailed photos from inside a house based on Up! In these Clicky Links you’ll find lots of sites to waste a little time on.
Click through, too, to find our links on submitting YOUR stuff to Offbeat Home!
There’s no shame in not doing it all yourself: people exist who can do your projects FOR you!
The DIY movement has been in full force since oh, say, 2008. Its resurgence started before that, but that’s when it seems to have tipped over into a popular topic, when indie crafters got cool and became a thing you could be. The internet makes it hard NOT to see clever new things to make or fix or repurpose, and for some people crafting becomes a problem because the information is so available.
Thanks to the Internet’s cornucopia of information and ideas, I’ve very much taken on the attitude that I CAN MAKE ALLLLL THINNNGSSSS, even though truthfully, I’m fair-to-middling at making things. Given a little time and good supplies, we can make a good go at most things — which is a damn slippery path to the mindset DO IT YOURSELF OR IT DOESN’T GET DONE! Which doesn’t have to be the case.
How to build a constellation light for a little astronomy in the bedroom
Evita’s been sharing her tutorials on Offbeat Home all year — remember the starry window pelmet? Or her sewing machine-cum-computer-desk? She RETURNS! And you’ll be thrilled.
This tutorial makes a lovely, simple
You owe me a dollar! A self-improving way to save for big goals.
My beloved and I are not the neatest people on earth. We try, and we spend quite a bit of time each week cleaning up our humble little home, but ultimately the place is usually a little messy.
That being said, he has a habit of leaving his shoes smack in the middle of the front door, and I trip over them every day when I get home from work. This shit drives me INSANE.
One day I snapped. I told him every time he leaves his shoes in front of the door he owes me a dollar. The habit persisted, and every dollar he gives me goes straight into our wedding bank.
What color does my pink stucco house want to be?
When I first saw the house I knew I would paint it anything OTHER than pink. I assumed my neighbors would be thrilled. It is the only pink house in the neighborhood, and one of the few remaining stucco ones. Most of them have been sided. I even got two estimates! I was so gung-ho on doing this!
Until I started really thinking about the house. And how long its been pink. And maybe I should paint it a newer, hipper pink? Would she be sad if she was no longer pink?