We bought a rabbit

Yesterday, we bought a bunny.  She is a mini-rex that is about 8 weeks old.  As a mini-rex she will end up being only about 4 pounds when she is fully grown. She is going to be a pet for our children, but more importantly she is going to be a manure machine for our yard.  Rabbit manure is supposed to be among the best available, and my yard needs a ton of manure so she cannot poop enough.

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Making butter!

If I had known how fun this homeschool activity would be, I would have done this much earlier in the year!  Yesterday, during my sons' homeschool videos, I had them make butter.  I put some heavy whipping cream and some real whipped cream into four baby food jars and had my boys shake away!

My second boy was the best at it.  He shook his own jar, two of this brothers' jars, and also my mason jar. It took us about an hour and a half to make all the butter.  Our first jar of butter took about 35 minutes.

This is the butter still in whipping cream form.

After some shaking, the mixture starts to thicken and pull away from the sides of the jar.

The butter is still in the "scrambled egg" stage here.  It still needs a little more shaking!

Now the butter really looks like a "butterball."  It was really neat to watch it go from the scrambled egg stage to this stage. Time to drain our butter!

I used a cheesecloth set in a colander set in a large measuring cup.  I think you are supposed to squeeze as much liquid out of the butter as possible but these were so little that I didn't do that.  Three of our bits of butter are gone already so I am glad I didn't go to the extra effort.

This batch of butter is from the mason jar.  I am planning on using the liquid in the measuring cup to make drop scones.

We had buttered toast for our snack yesterday and my kids loved it!  I think we will do this again just for the fun of making our own butter. I am not sure how long butter made this way will keep but if we only make them in small batches, I am pretty sure our homemade butter will always be gone before it can spoil!

Cement Block Raised Garden Bed

Today I built a raised garden bed.  I had planned to build one out of redwood until I saw the prices.  Creating a decent sized bed would have been well over $100 just for the wood alone.  At the same visit to Home Depot, I saw that concrete block was only $1.05 per block.  I ended up buying 36 blocks to create my bed.  Each layer is made from 18 blocks.


I had to dig out my yard some for the back section of blocks.  I then laid out my first layer of blocks using a 3 foot long level to make sure they were at least mostly level.  After that I used construction adhesive to attach the second layer of blocks to the first.  I have used the adhesive to hold together some other small walls I made before, and it worked out well.  Once the wall was built I laid 1/2 inch hardware cloth  on the ground to keep gophers out of the bed.

Once I get the dirt in, I plan to plant some Jalapenos, Habeneros, and Bell Peppers in the bed.  With the low price of the block, I should be able to build another bed for this year.

While working on my project, I even got to see a sun halo.  That isn't something I have seen often here in San Diego.

Drawer space in the vanity

  When we decided to refinish our current vanity instead of buying a new one, I was worried about how the drawers would work with the new plumbing configuration.  I knew we were going to lose the top two drawers but I wanted to at least have the two middle drawers.

   My father-in-law was able to reconfigure the current drawers (this is when it is great that all of the cabinetry in our house is real wood) and gave us a ton of storage space!

Here is the vanity completely refinished. It has a bit of a distressed look but I love how you can see the grain of the wood. Before it was refinished, the vanity was painted white.

One of the large middle drawers before we put it in the vanity to be used. My FIL did not have to use any new wood.  All the wood you see came from the drawer.

And the drawers work great!

Somehow I have fewer things in the drawers now than I did before.  I think it is because I went through and threw away anything that was too old to use or didn't belong in the drawers. This is one of the top drawers so we still have six drawers in the vanity instead of four.

The other middle drawer.

  At first, I wanted a new vanity, but Josh said that to pull out the whole old vanity would have torn up a lot of the plaster wall. Also, to get the same quality of wood would have cost a lot of money. I think it cost less than $100 to refinish the old vanity and buy new hardware. I am glad we stayed with the old one!

Spring: When a boy's fancy turns to tomatoes.

Spring is officially here.  Of course, living in San Diego County we never really have winter, but Spring does bring the start of planting season for tomatoes.  I have tried to grow them year round, but have not had luck so far.  

I always buy some tomatoes from a place like Home Depot so I can get an early crop before I start to get fruit from the ones I grow by seed.  I am not a big fan of your basic big red tomato, so I usually get different colors and sizes.  

Last year I had good luck with the Indigo Rose tomatoes.  Size wise they were larger then Cherry Tomatoes, but they were not very large.  They had a sweet flavor, and never lasted long once picked.

I also planted some Heirloom Tomato seeds.  I made the mistake of not marking what seeds went into what pot, so I have no idea what types I have growing right now.  It will just have to be a surprise in a couple of months!

I planted seeds for"

Japanese Black Trifele from Sustainable Seed Co

Cherokee Purple from Ferry Morse

Tigerella Tomato from Seeds of Change

Yellow Pear  from Seeds of Change

I also added to our Spring Time herb garden.

Cilantro - haven't had much luck with these in the past

Purple Basil

Sweet Basil

Thai Basil

Two posts in one day! - Bathroom Vanity Cost

Yes, I am posting twice in one day!  I thought it might be useful though to outline the costs for the entire vanity area and where the materials came from. The only installation we used a professional for was the vanity countertop. My husband and my father-in-law installed everything else themselves. I have posted costs before but so many things changed between that post and the final product that it is probably best to have the "after" also!

Let's start at the top of the vanity area!

1. Two Trendscope pendant lights - from Home Depot - $76.50 each - $153 total
2. Two Classic wall mirrors in Satin Nickel - from Restoration Hardware - $185 each - $370 total
3. White Hutton Medicine cabinet - from Restoration Hardware - $169
4. White wall cabinet - from Lowes - $75
5. Moon Jewel mosaic tile - from Tilebar.com - $19.95/square foot - total cost for vanity area: $220
6. Titan quartz prefabricated countertop in Sierra Ice - from Stoneville USA - $345.60
7. Fabrication and installation of countertop - $300
8. Two Kraus 15" square ceramic sinks, two Kraus Ramus faucets in satin nickel, and two pop up drains in satin nickel - from Home Depot - $520
9. Cabinet hardware - from Dixieline - $28
10. Refinishing of vanity - $30
11. Plumbing (I am really estimating here since I am not sure how much my husband spent on the plumbing.) - $50
12. Drywall repair, Electrical - $125
13. Vanity decor - from San Diego Rustic Imports and Michaels - $75

Total estimated cost for the entire vanity area:  $2450

I am going to assume that labor probably would have almost doubled this amount so we saved a lot of money by my husband and father-in-law doing most of the work themselves.  It took them a lot of Saturdays to do it though!

My current estimate for the total bathroom remodel is $5000, though I will not be surprised if this goes up because you never know what you will find behind a wall or underneath the floor!

Tomorrow's post - How my awesome father-in-law cleverly gave us most of the space in the drawers of our vanity

A month later

We had to take a break from the bathroom remodel because Josh was out of town for two weeks.  He was able to get a lot done before he left.  I was not able to update while he was gone though, so this post is to make up for that.

This is how the vanity looked before Josh left. The vanity area is missing a mirror because a piece of hardware to hang it was missing from the box! I am not sure what Josh is planning to use instead.

Before Josh was able to grout the tile backsplash.

I love our faucets!

The right side of the vanity closest to the door. Please ignore the ugly shower reflected in the mirror!

Our new medicine cabinet.  I love it! It is mirrored on the outside, on the inside of the door, and in the shelf area!

How the tile looks with our quartz countertop. I was a little afraid it wouldn't match but it is perfect.

This kind of tile backsplash is very hard to lay flat, especially since our walls aren't really straight. So we just had to make do with imperfections.

A closeup of the countertop.  I love how shiny it is.

The left side of the vanity and the other sink.  We no longer have fights in the bathroom between our kids.

The difference between the paint. We thought we were getting white!  But it is more of a lavender color and I love it.

Accent tile around the window.  Josh was not able to grout it before he left.

Our vanity in actual use. There are seven of us sharing this bathroom so I think countertop clutter with toothbrushes, toothpaste, and mouthwash is inevitable.

My attempt at spa-like decor

My  kids thought the stones in these cylinders look like mentos.

Final touch on top of the cabinet. Some blue hydrangeas. I am pleasantly surprised how much I like the teal in the bathroom. 

So we still have a long way to go.  The bathtub is the next project, which should hopefully not be too complicated.  After that, comes smashing up the shower and replacing everything in it.