Building an energy efficient (small) home

I think Dan and I have finally figured out what we want. We have gone back and forth about buying an already built home, renovating our own, or building a house. We're still a little gun shy about building one, but the thought of trying to gut our own house seems more daunting. And we're not sure what can even be done with it to open it up...You know...load bearing walls and all.  We're also on a crazy busy street. Blech. It's an unfortunate location. Even if we changed the inside of our house, it's still not ideal.

Our street is loud. And we live right across from a golf course. I'm tired of finding golf balls all the way in the BACK YARD.  There are some REALLY terrible golfers in this community apparently.

After a lot of thinking, and crunching hypothetical numbers...Looking at home plans. We've shrunk the size house that we want. We were look at home plans around 2200 square feet. But I think we're going to settle on 1200 square feet. Only a mere 100 feet larger than our current house.  With an open floor plan, three bedrooms, 2 baths and hopefully a basement that can be finished at some time.

The things we want to focus on? Less room because we have been TRYING to live more minimalist. And moving into a bigger home would not help this cause. We also want to build something more energy efficient and not break the bank doing so.

We are pulling ideas from this article: Building an Energy-Efficient Home on a Budget, amongst MANY. The main thing in this article?? Smaller and simpler.

And frankly, with a smaller home, it won't cost as much to add premium details such as flooring and kitchen upgrades. It won't hurt as badly to put in a radiant heating system in a 1200 square foot home as it would in a 2200sf home.

I love a big, grand house. But we're not big, grand house people. I don't want to spend a fortune decorating a huge large house. We don't have a LARGE family, so we don't feel the need to have large space to hold lavish holiday parties we will probably never even hold.

Even with kids, this idea will work for us.

We have a five year plan for buying land and building/ moving into our new home. I'm excited about it. Even though right now,  it's a very daunting thought. It's stressful. But its going to be so worth it!!

What I'm Up To: 100th Edition!!

I don't even think I have 100 posts in this blog yet, so I can't say it's my 100th edition. If I were, however, to add all of my archives from all of the years I have been blogging (back into 2007-2008ish), there would be more than 100 posts where I'm just saying hey.

I never wanted this blog to end up stale like this, but I haven't much to say these days. I mean, don't get me wrong -- I have SO FREAKING MUCH going on around me, but I just can't talk about the specifics. I will tell you that I'm driving to approximately 10+ schools a week for treatments, evals, and meetings. I will also tell you that I am loving my job right now (even though I have a a few kids I have identified as kids that are going to make my life....rough...the days I see them).

I was going to take a complete hiatus in September, but a week or two off her and there is just what a gal needs to recharge.  I keep thinking of blog posts in my head, but never get to them...I will do better at writing down the ideas so I can actually make them happen. With ADD, if I don't write it down? It will never come across my mind again.

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My hip. Oh, the horror of this annoying thing connecting my leg to my torso. Hate it. Will never get better. The good news? I am being more mindful of what I eat, so I lost a pound or two of what I gained this summer not being able to exercise. I'm back to trying to walk again -- after taking another two weeks off of exercise due to a flare up. I also did yoga again for the first time in two weeks, yesterday. Need to make sure that stays on my radar to do nightly.

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And because no entry these days is complete without a few instagram photos....(although if you follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or even on Instagram...These are not new to you!).

I have switched from regular oatmeal to steel cut oats. I like the chewy texture and I'm sticking with them for now. However, they didn't make me as full as regular quick oats. The jury is still out.

The dogs I worried would never get along when I brought Vienna into our world two years ago? Yeah.  There's no issue now, as you can see.

I get to wear cute clothes to work, ya'll!  This is probably, by far, the best perk of this job. I have a ton of cute clothes and they no longer have to hide in the closet while I wear scrubs or something other ugly uniform.

No story with this. It was just my first day treating with kids and I was trying to just smile and tough it out. I think I took this right after my first couple of kids when it was going great. Then it went downhill from there. No joke.

Eggs benedict with avocado and smoked salmon. And lumpy hollandaise. I tried adding more of things, but it just stayed lumpy. It still tasted good!

I survived the 1st Day!

Why is the first week back to school always so ridiculously hot?! This morning, we got poured on by much needed rain but I felt bad for all those high school girls who already had school pictures this morning!

I had a great first day. Granted, it was lackluster and I didn't actually meet any students (I hope to observe them next week). I am taking over a massive caseload from another OT (she's lucky! Gets to drop down to three days a week!) and she took me on a tour of where I'm going to be. I met a few teachers, principals, and the most important people: secretaries. All of them were pretty nice, but one are going to be an issue for me. Blurgh. All were SUPER friendly but this one made it clear she wanted to be left ALONE. Whatever.
There is so much I want to talk about right now but can't. Don't you hate that? Many changes are happening in my life right now. I can't wait until things get clearer and I can open up about what's on my mind...

Ushering in fall and a new career...

You guys, I'm so excited! Tomorrow, school starts and I will soon be embarking on my crazy September journey. I get to meet my students (all 60+!!) and their teachers, principals of the buildings I will be in. It's going to be absolutely insane. I will try to post here at least once a week but I know it may be less. I already warned you. I've been pretty anxiety free as of late, and I thank my dear prescription of Lexapro for that one. I hate hate hate being reliant on pills, but it is the lowest dose possible without being cut in half, just 5mg. It makes my life easier and makes it easier for me to DEAL with life, in general. I went back on it earlier this summer, and after battling with Buspar for two weeks, asked my doc to give me Lexapro again. (Buspar was bad...SO bad.)

In the last two weeks, I've been getting myself organized for work. It's insane. It will take me a couple of months to truly organize everything, so I'm trying not to stress out too much about it.  I got my nose repierced!! Very thrilled about that. It's gone better than the last time, and it's kosher to wear it at work, so I'm all good. I was excited to see how many teachers had a little nose piercing when I was at orientation. I even asked one of them if they wore it at school. When they said yes, off to get it done I went.  I wanted it one more time before I got too old to wear it. 

We've had nice cool weather, which makes for wonderful, NON-FRIZZY hair. But it's warm again this week, so I will be battling the first week of school while I try to make great first impressions and look put together. Not going to happen, I imagine.  I just can't wait to break out my sweaters and boots. 

Yesterday, we took our last few boat rides of the summer season. We usually get one later in September, but the inlaws will be doing some construction on the cottage starting mid-month. They also will be out of town for a couple of weeks, in Colorado...so...we won't see them until at LEAST October. 

 And to herald in one of my favorite parts of fall?? Starbucks came back out with the Pumpkin Spice Latte. Seeing as this makes me POOR in the fall as much as I want to buy them, I went with these for the Keurig today. Found them at Target  and with a little vanilla creamer, it's OH SO GOOD! It's not Starbucks, but 18 of them for $12??? Significantly cheaper.  I could only get 3 or so lattes on $12.

HOWEVER....Being that tomorrow is the first day of school, I might have to jump on a Starbucks version. Or maybe I'll do that Friday as a treat for lasting the week!