Preparing the Cottage Roof for SlateGSaturday, April 30th, 2016 This weekend was doubly productive—while we worked on trimming the indoor eaves, Dan and the crew from Arlington Roofing were here to prepare our cottage for slate. This meant removing our old, holey tar paper, adding a sturdy sheathing, cleaning u...
Indoor Eave TrimmingPGSaturday, April 30th, 2016 When building our little cottage, we didn't stack straw bales all the way to the roof. Instead, we left an open, angled channel running along the eaves. The base of this channel is a "bale stop" that compresses the straw for increased wall strength...
Sunshine & Barbecue with the HartmansGSunday, April 24th, 2016 It's one of those rare weekends during which nothing has to be accomplished. We're far away from our thousand-headed hydra of a homestead, in Illinois with our dear friends, the Hartmans. The springtime sun shines with warmth, prompting flowers to ...
Bringing in HelpGMonday, April 4th, 2016 Building your own home is an amazing adventure, but one that should probably end at some point. Carly, Vermont Natural Homes Since Tyler and I held our Life Summit, I've been busy getting quotes from different companies to tackle vari...
Sally Brillon's Hearth Cooking ClassGMonday, April 4th, 2016 For my (32nd!) birthday this year, my parents signed me up for a hearth cooking class. They know me well—I've loved everything to do with old-timey foodways since I was a little girl. After a couple months of waiting, my class was held at last on t...
Pulley System Drying RackGSunday, April 3rd, 2016 We've had tons of improvements to our quality of life recently: first the movie theater, then the ladder and railing, and now, a drying rack. For ages, we didn't have a good way of hanging wet clothing and towels indoors. After collecting photos a...
Loft Railing: CompleteGSaturday, April 2nd, 2016 We're finishing small house projects left and right. Most recently was the loft railing. We're still trying to decide where to mount wooden handles on it for easier climbing, but for all intents and purposes, it's finished. We're pleased with how i...
Life Summit 2016GFriday, April 1st, 2016 We recently held a “life summit,” a semi-regular event where we sit down to review our life plan. We've canonized our hopes and dreams in a document that starts in 2008 and currently runs to 2026. Most of the time, reading our plan is a life-affirm...
