Eight years ago we moved into a little bungalow on a 1/10th of an acre lot in the Brentwood-Darlington neighborhood of SE Portland. We put a lot of elbow grease into polishing this house into a loving home. But the tine has come to start the next chapter with a new homestead. We scored big with our new digs! We found a cozy, 1950s bungalow
Pergola & Patio Update
Four years ago we built a patio and pergola in our backyard to act as the central gathering space in the garden. It’s time for an update on those projects and to share some lessons learned. What comes to mind first is finishing the patio in 97 degree heat. Wish I could go back in time to say “Damn girl, take it easy! Finish it
Backyard for Entertaining
We all dream of having the garden where you can do it all: relax and retreat, entertain friends, grow some veggies, and the list goes on. But it’s a real challenge to do it all in one small urban lot. The garden I am sharing with you is a great example of how a well-planned space can accomplish your long must-have list. It sure doesn’t
Graduation
Four years ago I was spending 40+ hours a week at “work” and 40+ hours a week getting my hands dirty somewhere – digging in our garden, helping friends with garden designs, volunteering for the farmers market, etc. It was clear that I needed to make a choice between those two lives. I chose the one with dirt under my nails. I turned in my
My Graduate Thesis: Equal Access
For three years I have been diligently working toward a masters in landscape architecture degree. This past week I had the pleasure of presenting my masters thesis to the department. Next week I will walk across the stage during commencement and accept my degree. My thesis is titled Equal Access: Providing Urban Agricultural Benefits to Under-Served Communities. It will be available through interlibrary loan, so
Product Review: Naturalyards Raised Beds
Recently I was approached by a local company, Naturalyards, about doing a product review. After careful consideration, I agreed to it because they met my criteria: 1) they are a great company, 2) they make a quality product 3) it’s a product we need for our homestead and 4) it’s a product you might actually be interested in. In exchange for receiving their product, I
Kitchen Facelift
In our series of room facelifts for our tiny house, we did some simple changes to our kitchen as well. This room functions as a kitchen and dining space and is luckily one of the larger rooms in our house. Before the kitchen had a funky light hanging over the dining area from Ikea, which has since died of unknown causes. We were repurposing a
Bedroom Facelift
Since returning to our Portland homestead, we have turned our winter focus inside to making our tiny house feel as comfortable and space-efficient as possible. We started with our narrow bathroom and Bug’s nursery. Our nesting has spread to our bedroom now as well. Our poor bedroom has a few challenges. Storage is an issue, as we only have one tiny closet. We also needed
Tutorial: DIY Upholstered Headboard
There are some long nights ahead of us with the coming arrival of our baby. Those nights will be spent sitting up in bed, half awake, nursing our little girl. We have never had a proper bedframe, so we decided to kill two birds with one stone by making a headboard that frames the bed and provides some comfort sitting up on those long nights.