Moving along with our kitchen cabinets build, today I set out to make the cabinet face frame.  This isn’t an astonishingly difficult task, but I was apprehensive because of the fact that this is where the money’s at as far as cabinets are concerned.  With the carcass, any small mistakes can be covered up by the countertop, the drawers and the face frame.  If you screw up the cabinet face frame, there’s not many options for rectifying it. (more…)

With all of the big projects going on at our homestead, it’s easy to lose sight of some of the day to day tasks that need to be taken care of.  Mowing the lawn is one of them.  We spent the better part of the summer building an enclosed yard for the dogs to enjoy, but that requires a great deal of mowing.  In the future, we’re looking at reseeding the lawn so that it’s primarily grass.  At the moment, it’s still hay from it’s previous life as a hayfield.   (more…)

These are the exact house plans that we designed in SketchUp and used to build our own 600 square foot home.  I laid the plans out similar to (in my own childhood experience) LEGO instructions to simplify the ease of construction.  Using the plans also allowed me to create an accurate pricing and materials list for ordering.  These plans can be used for creating your own small home, or to start your planning process. (more…)

I despise banks.  There, I said it.  I realize that they serve as a general evil necessity, but still.  After the Wall Street crash and sub sequential government subsidiaries to private entities (which, I should now be entitled to a portion of a share, seeing as though my tax dollars went to save private entities which “can’t” go bankrupt) I have exponentially increased my desire to leave mainstream banking. (more…)

Prior to beginning day 18, I made sure to take stock of my material pile.  What had begun as several piles of what would comprise our house was now dwindling daily.  Large stock was taken down as the lower rafters were framed.  I knew that by day’s end my pile of rafters would no longer be on the ground; they would be on the house. (more…)