lena's table update

Brandon hasn't quite gotten it finished, but I thought you might like a preview of how it's going. 

freebie

Our next door neighbor let us scavenge through her old garage and said we could keep whatever we could salvage.  Brandon found this:

 

A few hours later, we had it looking like this:

We removed and replaced the back with a piece that we stained with Old English furniture oil!  We cleaned the mildew off, hammered a few nails back in, rubbed it down with a wood refinisher and we were done.  Now we just have to find somewhere to put it...

use it up

I want to say that the "use it up" part of this frugal experiment--I mean, lifestyle--is my least favorite so far, but I have a feeling that the "do without" part might be worse.  I cleaned out the bathroom cabinets last week in an attempt to organize and inventory and discovered we had maybe twenty bars of soap and a few bottles of liquid hand soap--scented, full of pthalates, and very un-organic--that we've collected over the years from hotels, our trip to Paris, and the ubiquitous holiday gifting of of bath items.  Most of them are kept for emergencies, although we've never had a soap emergency that I can recall.  What to do with them?  I could Freecycle them, but the most frugal thing to do is to use them up.  So...after we ran out of unscented Method hand soap last week in the bathroom, I put out the Crabtree & Evelyn rose-scented liquid soap leftover from our wedding.  It was nice at the wedding, but the heavy scent of roses is a little much for everyday, and it kind of reminds me of old people.  I am dreading a bit the weeks where we'll all smell like sandalwood, however.  Maybe I can just Freecycle that one bar?  Who bought that, anyway?  (Probably me...)

I've also finally come to a comfortable place about what choices to make for chemical-free vs. frugal.  I've decided that it just doesn't make sense to replace all our plastics with alternatives, especially when sometimes plastic just makes more sense (freezer storage, plates and cups for the girls, etc.).  I am ridding the house of all food-based plastic that might contain BPA, which includes things marked with a 7 recycling symbol and unmarked clear plastic containers.  We've slowly started replacing our non-stick frying pans with stainless steel ones from the thrift store (and from Brandon's mom, who got most of our old stainless steel stuff when we "upgraded" a few years ago to non-stick!).  We have a couple of cast iron, but unless someone has a secret for using those on a glass cooktop, we'll have to limit their use to the oven or the grill outside. 

So far our changes have been small but easy.  The weather has finally cooled a bit so we can turn off the a/c and open the doors and windows, which is wonderful.  Brandon started a trend of line-drying most of our clothes and the girls' diapers outside, and now I've started doing it as well.  It saves money and ensures that we all get outside for a little while every day.  Speaking of cooler weather, we did have an insulation guy out a couple of weeks ago.  He wanted to spray foam insulation over the entire attic roof, as well as above and under the girls' room.  All for the low price of $3800!  We've decided that we'll try to insulate as best we can ourselves over and below the girls' room.  We'll let the walls go for now, and see how it is once we do the roof and floor, which will be easier and cheaper than the walls anyway.  We also need to install a storm door (purchased months ago but still in the workshop) and seal up the windows a bit.  Hopefully those changes will make it more comfortable, and if not...I guess we'll have to swap rooms with them or dress them really warm ;) 

lena's table

Although we love our mid-century modern dining table and chairs, we've decided that we might be better off selling the set.  We're not sure its delicate lines will survive a toddler seated on either side of it, although there is a theory that mac and cheese work as a preservative when rubbed into the cracks of old wood. 

A search for a new table and chairs began, long before our new experiment in frugality began.  We couldn't find anything we liked in a Mission or Craftsman style that we liked, or that we could afford.  Everything on Craigslist was "New!" and that just wasn't what we wanted.  So I queried my cousins and sisters..."Anyone remember Grandmother's old oak table?  The round one?  Do you know what happened to it after she died?"  Everyone remembered it, but no one seemed to remember its fate.  Someone thought someone else had gotten it, but no one knew for sure.  Until I mentioned it to my sister Kathy, who said that Grandmother gave the table to her, but she didn't have room for it, so she left it at Grandmother's house, where my brother and his family now live.

I immediately sent a lengthy email to my brother asking about the table's whereabouts and if we could possibly borrow it if they weren't using it.  Days passed, and the response finally came.  The email contained just two letters:  "o k"  Hooray!  A few months passed as he tried to actually locate the table in the storage shed and forge a path to carry it out.  Word came..."it's in pretty bad shape"..."it's missing all the veneer"..."are you sure you want this thing?"  We worried but continued to assure everyone that we did indeed want the old table.

Finally, nephew Henry went for a visit and managed a few photos of the table (see below).  Mom and Dad drove up last week and delivered it!  Brandon's been working on it steadily since it arrived, and it's just awaiting a coat of tung oil before it's ready to move into the house.  You'll have to wait to see what it looks like now that Brandon's done some work on it!

use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without (in which we bare our financial soul)

We are facing a little dilemma here at 1928 Bungalow.  Brandon works full-time as a public school teacher, and I am a public librarian.  I worked full-time until the girls were born and went part-time after maternity leave ended.  Until now we've been able to avoid the cost and trauma (for me, mostly) of putting the girls into daycare.  We debated over nannies and child care centers, checked a few prices, decided we couldn't afford either option, and ended up convincing my sister Kathy and my mother-in-law Patrice to take turns and come each week to watch the girls.  I have an odd schedule at work and basically work a week straight every other week (told you it was odd), so it works out that each of them only has to come twice a month.  But both of them drive two hours to get to our house and stay 1-3 nights each visit.  For FREE.  They agreed to do this for "a few months" meaning, maybe three months.  That was, well, a year ago.  And they still come.  Yeah.

So now that we've abused their goodwill for way too long, it's time to find another solution.  If I return to work full-time (which may or may not be an option) and we pay for full-time care, then I'll bring home (factoring in things like car expenses, etc.) roughly $125 a month after all expenses.  This would be in addition to us getting rid of some luxuries, like cable and maybe...yes...internet.  If I stay part-time and pay for daycare, we'll be losing money each month...somewhere along the lines of $300+ since I can't find part-time daycare for kids under 2 years old.  If I quit and stay home full-time, we'll be anywhere from $60-200 short each month.

the warm fuzzies

We have lots of projects in mind (but no money!) for the near future, but one of the more pressing ones is the fact that the girls' room is poorly insulated.  We got through last winter with an oil-filled space heater, but I'm guessing that before the end of this winter, the girls will be out of cribs and into toddler beds (pray for our sanity), so a space heater won't be a viable option any more.  We think their room used to be an old porch, and it doesn't have a brick exterior or a basement under it; the rest of the house has both.  So...what are our options?

Being a die-hard DIYer, Brandon suggested pulling down all of the drywall, installing insulation, and replacing the drywall.  My brother suggested we get someone who can cut holes in the wall and spray in foam insulation, which sounds expensive, but we haven't checked yet (not even sure where to start).  Brandon's mom suggests insulating from underneath and just dressing them warmly ("They survived last winter," she says, "when you didn't put enough clothes on them and they were tiny."  One of those times when "I told you so" is totally warranted...as per the books we kept the girls' room at 69 degrees and dressed them in light layers to reduce the risk of SIDS.  Later we realized they probably woke up so often because they were cold!)

We're open to suggestions and advice, so throw us some ideas!

*update:  Here's a description and photo of what we're considering.  This Old House says that foam is the most expensive, but best for air quality. 

thoughts for the future

I've been thinking about my blogs lately and wondering if merging them together would be a good idea...sort of a mish-mash of frugal living, green living, old house DIY, and my (hopefully) humorous observations on life with toddlers.  But I wonder if my current houseblog (right here where you're reading) and my baby blog (currently a bit more private) are too topic-specific to crossover well.  Honestly, the DIY portion of 1928 Bungalow has been on pause, or at least in pretty slow motion, lately, so I'm not sure there's much damage I could do by talking about life with toddlers more often ;)  And I have a feeling that these things mingle together in other people's lives as well.  If you have any thoughts on this, let me know...