Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers! Thank you for subscribing to my blog and for your visits. Thanksgiving is a very special holiday to me. I began this blog a little over a year ago and Thanksgiving was the first big set of posts I was able to upload. Thank you for allowing me to do what I enjoy to do. I love cooking and I’m very glad to be able to cook for my family, and I’m glad I can share my recipes and experiences with each one of you. Let’s make this new year a better one, and I hope you get the opportunities and/or motivations to accomplish some of the things you’ve always desired too! Have a great day and happy thanksgiving!
My Updates and Questions
Hey. I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve done a more casual and less scripted post. I guess that leads me to the questions I have. What do you think of the new format of my recipe posts? This is the second time I’ve altered the format for how I write these recipes in the last year. I’ve been moving more in the direction of how others do their recipe formatting. List the ingredients, and list each step with photos of that step. I also added the option to download the recipe as a recipe card. Is that helpful? Should I instead be formatting them as a whole page instead of 4×6 note card sized?
Lately, I’ve been trying to update some of my older posts a bit. I have so many more tags then a used to, and so I’ve begun adding newer tags to older posts. I’ve also been considering revisiting my older posts to remake them. My old phone had terrible photo quality, so many of my old posts were edited to remove the shake or grainy texture of the photos. I would really like to re-do many of them, but it will take some major time. Also, if I hear you like the format of these new posts, I will reformat older posts to fit the new style.
My plans for the blog are still moving forward. This week I got a tripod, so I’ll be trying that out on some older recipes. I will be posting the link to the YouTube once it’s up and I’ll be announcing it on every platform. I’m also thinking about holding off on Instagram for now. I don’t really know what to post, and when I do it’s not great engagement, which is understandable since it’s a completely different kind of website/app.
Projects right now are relatively slow around the house. We are preparing for hunting season and winter. The garlic was planted 3 weeks ago, and one of my garlic cloves sprouted after just a week, so it’s one of the few green things left in the yard. My peach tree has lost all it’s leaves overnight and we’ve had only two frosts so far this fall. My marigolds are still blooming in my raised beds, and though I’d like 2-3 more raised beds for next year, our priorities are elsewhere, so it’ll wait till the spring. Since we finished the master bedroom, no more flooring has come up or gone down. We are planning a yard sale for next summer though. Josh and I both have things we don’t need or use, so we plan a yard sale and a couple family picnics next summer since most family members haven’t seen the house since we moved in 15 months ago.
This virus has been pretty hard for us. We think we may have had it in May, but it’s impossible for us to know with all the testing being so limited where we are. With the second flu season coming, we are exposed to more people who are sick and it seems impossible to know who has it, and if you can even get it twice. When we were sick in May, we were mostly asymptomatic. I had a fever and a cough, and Josh didn’t even have that. However, when my mom got sick she was sick. And, this weekend I lost a Great-Great Uncle to the virus. He did have many existing issues and he’s been holding on for a while, but he got sick from a home nurse and that was it.
What a crazy time we live in. I wonder who will be looking back at our writings someday and what will they say or feel about this. It’s crazy in the U.S. right now, but at the same time, everyone is still just trying to live. For some, life has gone completely back to normal, while others are in a completely new situation and just trying to get their bearings. For some, their business is booming and has never done better, and for others their dream has been crush with lock downs and regulations they just can’t meet. Jobs, families, businesses, so many things affected. It stinks that so much bad is happening to so many people right now. However, I am very thankful for what I have. Things haven’t been easy with friends and family getting sick, being trapped inside with limited interactions with the world, and watching helplessly as we can just wait. But, we are thankful for what we do have. We are thankful for the changing seasons, for the warm days and the rain, for the food in our stomachs, and for the coming opportunity to once again fellowship with others when we are allowed to. Look forward to the future. Make goals and dream. Don’t stay in the sorrow of right now and instead look forward to the spring. This is just another season in life.
One Year Update
Listing Photos
It all started with my Starting Point post. There I wrote my initial thoughts and ideas for this house as recorded last November. We bought this house and found many things wrong with it. We starting putting work into the house starting last October/November, and below is what we were able to accomplish so far.
Current Progress
As you can see just between the first set of photos and the second, we’ve made some big changes. We removes trees and bushes, put in raised beds, added an exterior door on the garage, and changed the accent color on the house from red to teal. Inside, we removed a lot of the latex paint off the utility room walls, we built and removed our builtin pantry, and installed a storage shelf instead. We removed the broken dishwasher and sealed the space to be used for my canning stuff. We also upgraded the light in the kitchen, painted cabinets, remove the old range microwave and added a new range-hood, as well as replaced the old leaking kitchen faucet. In the dining room, we refinished the wall after removing about 1/3 of the wallpaper in the house, and we also created a lampshade for our single handing bulb from a lantern we used at our wedding reception. We haven’t done too much to the living room yet; we added a projector screen and are mainly using it for storing some of our extra stuff until we finish the master bedroom. We replaced the light fixture in the hall, and upgraded all the light switches in the house to the rocker style. We repainted the bathroom, removed the medicine cabinet, changed the light fixture, and painted the vanity and changed the hardware. We also added a new shower curtain to match. In the original green room, due to it’s carpet color, we originally replaced the floor in the closet with vinyl planking. After seeing how easy it was, we took on the task of redoing the entire rooms floor, which was not an easy task. we remove the wood from the closet to be replaced with matching floor eventually, I also painted the bedroom the two shades of orange, we moved in, and that is the state of our orange room. Finally, our current project is the master bedroom, or our new green room. We just finished laying the flooring on Saturday. There is still a lot of work we want to do in that room before the new unveiling, but I hope this helps build some excitement for the next unveiling, which will be coming in the next two weeks or so.
A Year’s Worth of Projects
A year is so long, yet so short. We were able to accomplish so much because of the blessing we’ve received this year and from taking things in stride. We are happy for our new experiences and are content with this house even as we continue to find more problems. We aren’t sure if we’ll keep this house forever, but we are happy for all the good things this house is providing for us. This Lustron gives my husband and I something to do together, to bond over, and to dream for. We hope for nothing but the best for this house in the future, and we hope our fingerprint on this house improves the beauty of this old Lustron, rather than hinders it’s potential.
For more on our home improvement posts from this year, feel free to check out any of this posts below. If not, I’ll see you again soon!
First Post
This is not only my first blog post, but this is my first time doing this kind of thing. I was talking to my husband and we decided that it would be really fun to create a blog in order to share what we are up to with those who might be interested, but also to keep track of some of our projects and what we feel can be improved for the future. Learn a little bit more about us by reading our About page, or just continue reading to see some of our DIY projects, life updates, or interesting recipes I’ve tried/made! Thank you for your time!
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Our Lustron Home 