Fun In Our Own Backyard

Sanibel Island's Lighthouse Beach

The next few months are going to be tight!! I'm taking a summer class and getting the house painted. So with a tight budget comes some creativity and I'm ready to push myself to stay local, have fun, and save money.

Here are a few things we plan on doing this summer. If you have any good ideas please share!

<3 Ashley

Captiva Island near sunset

1. Go to the Beach! We love Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel, and Captiva islands! Pack lunch, drinks, and snacks. Cost $2 an hour parking.

Lakes Park

2. Go to Lakes Park . They have a great sprinkler park for hot days plus a huge children's playground, bike and boat rentals, and a children's railroad. Invite friends. Cost $2 an hour parking.

Six Mile Cypress Slough 

3. Go to Six Mile Cypress Slough. Bring binoculars and a camera! The slough has an elevated boardwalk with rails safe to walk through a cypress slough and see animals in nature like alligators, snakes, turtles, river otters, and more. It's free except to park and has a nature center for visitors that is exceptional for children. Cost $2 an hour parking.

4. Make cookies at home. I swear I'll let him crack an egg one day!

The melting stage in the second life of crayons

5. Make home made crayons. We haven't done this in a few years. I'm sure we have enough broken crayons to do this again. Tutorial to come!

NEW EXPERIENCES

6. Go to Sun Harvest Citrus. It's a neat store that sells Florida grown citrus and products from them. In another month when the heat goes up and the tourists go home this will be a perfect place to go. It will be our first time visiting.

7. Kayaking at Manatee Park! This is on the pricier side, at about 35 dollars per person and close enough to our house that we shouldn't need to eat out before or after. Plus - kayaking on a river with Manatees! So cool. We've never done this before so I'm very excited.

8. Golisano Children's Museum - getting tickets for free from the library! It's a 45 minute drive, so we'll make a day of it! This will be a new experience for us.

9. Party at home! Now that we have our own house it's time to have some friends over! Fun includes and inflatable water pool, water balloon toss, 3 legged race, egg relay race, chalk and bubbles. Cost food and drinks.

Soldier On

About two years ago I was taking my first college class in 7 years. It was Biology 101 with lab. You would think easy...but it's not. It's everything you learned in high school expanded on and then some micro biology and more. Without a medical terminology background I boldly took on this part animal, part human, and part plant class. It started with about 70 kids in the lecture, and 30+ in the lab. By the end of the semester the class had whittled down to about 30  and the lab maybe 20, maybe.

The lecture and lab had different teachers. The lab instructor I found enchanting. Her name was Rebekah and she was from Zimbabwe. She explained her family thought she was crazy, she was married in her home country to someone who didn't understand her and they divorced when she decided to pursue her education instead of finding a job and being a mother right away.

She moved to a state I don't find particularly exciting - think somewhere like Idaho. She went to school full time, working through language barriers, cultural barriers, and working a job at a sewing factory. It wasn't the American experience she had imagined. She told us on the first day of lab she often questioned herself when she was in college, and her family and friends questioned her as well. Why are you doing this? It made her doubt herself. On top of that, she was so tired from work she didn't get to study as much as she wanted and she would get discouraged when she didn't get the grades she knew she was capable of.

That first night of lab she said, I know you're taking a night class for a reason. You're parents, you're working students, you're people with other commitments and you're here. She said, even if you feel discouraged, soldier on. Keep going.

After a long weekend I'm up right now soldiering on. I have three more weeks, two tests, a final, and a paper left for this semester and I can do this. I'm soldering on. I've gotten too far to stop now. Stay the course my friends.

<3 Ashley

Changing The Flapper....And The Kitchen Faucet

I was up reading America's Cheapest Family, by Steve and Annette Economides and as I began reading the chapter about household consumption and water waste my toilet began to run for a minute or so, then turned off. It had been doing that a lot lately, and as I read through the chapter I was enlightened to find out what was often wrong with a constantly running toilet was a simple fix for less then five dollars and didn't require a plumbers professional skill to fix. 

The Economides even gave an example of putting food dye in the tank of your toilet once it was full to see if the dye went in to the bowl before a secondary flush. If the food dye moved from the tank to the bowl you had a slow leak, which can typically be caused by the flapper being dried out leading to a poor seal. My son and I used a bath fizzy, because we were out of food dye. Low and behold, the dye was showing up in the bowl. 

We bought a new flapper for about two dollars at the home supply store. I turned the water off to the tank, flushed to empty the tank, and removed the old one comparing old to new. The old one was stiff and felt a little brittle. The new one was bouncy and gave back when bent and released. All of a sudden I understood why there wasnt a good seal. It's recommended you change your flapper every year or two, and especially if you get the occasional toilet fill noise when no one has used the toilet recently. Funny, I remember a neighbor telling me the previous occupants of the house had complained of high water bills.....

 After I flexed my plumbing muscles in the bathroom I decided to move on to the kitchen. The kitchen faucet  had a nasty leak....it cost me about 20 dollars for a very generic fixture, and after watching some youtube videos I felt I could do this myself. Except the bolt underneath was rusted in place.  The store I purchased the faucet from offered third party installation set up service. I decided to go with this for 100 dollars. This led to a huge cost savings. My normal plumber charges a 100 dollars to show up, and 25 dollars for every 15 minutes afterward, plus parts. Eesh!!!Here are the before and after pictures. 

BEFORE

AFTER

Between both changes, I'm saving a lot of water. It feels good to fix things. Both fixes combined cost me roughly 122 dollars. Not too shabby considering the cost if I had called a plumber to diagnose and fix everything. Of course, that's part of the intimidating part of owning a home, when you aren't handy, you know how much things can cost to have people come out and fix them. It's intimidating and daunting. What I would tell any new home owner is to slow down, get different quotes, ask someone you know who is older than you and has a home. Tell them what's going on and ask them what they would do? I dont know the Economides personally, but know they are a wise couple with great ideas and lots of knowledge. Their one small section about changing out a toilets flapper led me to not only fix my own but inspired me to do more by changing a leaky sink in to a properly working one. Little steps all add up.

-Ashley

Old Curtains Become New Again

When we bought the house I was overwhelmed by how many windows we had!!! In our one bedroom apartment we had lived in for three years, we had one window in the bedroom I had children's curtains for, and a sliding glass door in the living room, which I had never bought curtains for... It was time to make some smart investments in the curtain department!!!

My son has the master bedroom at our house with two large windows. We had the curtain set from our apartment which was a nice light blocking fabric, very popular in sunny places like Florida. I loved it, but we only had two long panels, enough for one window. The store I originally bought it from didn't carry the item anymore. It had been three years, their inventory had changed.

It was time to do some cutting and sewing. My son and furchildren helped. First I made sure the length would work if I cut the curtains in half. It did, but I had to lower the curtain rods. Cue me getting on a ladder. Then we got to the fun part!

My oldest furchild Inuka helped hold the fabric down when I was pinning the hem. Pro-tip: If you dont have a large table, or measuring board you can use a tile surface to help you measure the length and line up the hems.

I bought this great sewing machine off Craigslist. It worked so fast I ended up doing the hem by hand. lol It's currently for sale on Craigslist again if you're in the area. ;)

A few needle pokes later and we have the final product. The curtains made such a huge difference!!! My little boys bedroom finally feels complete. Here's the before and after.

BEFORE

AFTER

The Power of Craigslist

My house is a little different than everyone else's... we dont have tv. Well, we dont have cable anyway, we do have tv's. They're the large clunky older ones and they date the space. When moving in to our house I knew the wobbly old wooden bench I had the tv on wasn't doing it for me anymore. I didn't have extra money to spend on furniture, but I kept my eyes peeled and a television hutch in the free section of Craigslist appealed to me. 

You have to have a little vision when seeing it for the first time. 

I bought a can of chalk board paint and got to it.

Cue my friends making fun of me for the Diet Coke cases used for edging material.

Spraying on the chalk board paint. It needs a few layers sometimes.

Pro tip - put something down in front of where you'll be spraying.

Mom tip - give your kid the camera. 

He gets some really good photos.

The finished piece. 

In it's final destination! What an upgrade! 

This was such a win. I paid less then 10 dollars for the paint, and nothing but my time and talent to transform an old tv hutch in to something a little more modern and useful again. Inside is a behemoth television, and underneath the tv shelf is storage space we use for toys and things. It's great to be able to shut the tv off and put it away. One day I'll upgrade to a flat screen, but for now I'm keeping what works and making the most of what we already have. 

May there only be a shower in the bathrooms

When I first bought this house I knew the soffet on the roof's front was worn. I knew we'd need to have that redone, so I did it. Then, a month later, there was an active leak in my living room. >.<

I had done some research on the house, the only time a permit had been pulled on file with the city was in 2009 for a roof permit. Well, the previous owners said there was a new roof, it was actually just a second layer of shingles. It was time to get the whole roof redone.

Every time it rained I looked at the crease in the ceiling in the living room with disdain. I didn't know how old the original roof was, and the second layer of shingles on the roof didn't fix any underlying problems. It was time for a new one. I did my research and found a great company with a competitive price. I told them I was going to wait for tax time and then pull the plug so I could pay them in cash instead of taking out a loan. Well, they came back to me after Christmas and asked if I were still interested in getting the roof done. I said yes, but again told them I wanted to wait, I was short a few thousand dollars, but if they could come down a thousand bucks I'd do it.

Well....a week later I had these guys at my house. I'm glad I haggled down the price, the cost of wood replacement past what they contract in to the sale drove my price up about 700 dollars. They also told me if I had tried to make it through the rainy season this year, there would have been a shower in every room of the house. There was just no knowing how old that original roof was, but it was bad.

They are laying down black paper that goes under the shingles here.

I posted this on Facebook and my friend thought I painted the house pink. It's just the reflection of the tarp. Doesn't look bad though...

The packages on top are the new shingles placed and ready to go.

The little Royal Palm in front of the house was getting awfully big. They usually grow 40-50 feet tall, way too tall and big to be 10-15 feet from the house. Palm fronds falling from 50 feet on a roof can cause damage. I gave it away to someone for free on Craigslist, the tree was re-homed, and the service was done for free. Win win for everyone!

This is what it looks like right now with the new roof and no palm tree. It's a little naked right now, but I'll fill in the rest soon. Next step, paint the house. You have to dig back the dirt to paint the house. So no putting the rocks down for the landscaping in front until the house is painted. All these steps!!! Moving forward!

Indecision at the check out lane

This morning my son requested 'sprinkle cookies'. This is his name for sugar cookies with frosting and sprinkles on them. He really really really wanted them. I said we'd get them as a treat.

Today at work I was doing my math for the month and realize how tight things will be until I get paid, and as car insurance is coming up, I'll be tight again till the end of the month. Then tight again for my son's birthday where I intend to throw him a small party. At some point in the near future I'm also redoing my roof....so again this feeling of being broke.

I walked in to the grocery store prepared to buy sprinkle cookies and an oven pizza for dinner. And when I went to the bakery there were no sprinkle cookies! My grocery store, Publix, usually sells big packages only for 7 dollars and change. Target sometimes has smaller packages for 3 to 4 dollars. An oven pizza let's say 5 bucks.

I walked out.

I decided we'd make cookies at home. We have premade ones I can bake off put frosting on and sprinkles. And I had english muffins, cheese, and toppings for home made english muffin pizzas. I went from being 12 bucks in the hole to coming out for free today.

Decisions are hard to make. Sometimes learning how to eat at home is less about learning to cook and meal plan and more about making the decision to skip the store and take out and go home.

I took lots of great pictures. But my camera isn't registering on my computer...hmmm..I'll post photos as soon as I figure that one out ;)

-Ashley