Haunted Houses & Dumpster Diving

I know, I know...what do Haunted Houses and Dumpster Diving have to do with each other...and why am I talking about Haunted Houses in May? Well, we have made a big life decision that includes us moving to a new neighborhood where it is accurate to say that we live near The Edge of Hell and down the street from The Beast...and while that sounds terrifying it is actually an artsy, creative, unique home. Since I was laid off 5 months ago it has become quite difficult to continue our current lifestyle (beautiful cape cod house in a beautiful neighborhood) and we have been searching for a cheaper place to live. We found a listing for some Warehouse Live/work space in the West Bottoms and after looking thru several different spaces we picked the perfect one...which will save us almost $1000 a month in living expenses! With 7 people in our home right now, we needed a large space so we thought a 4500 sq ft loft would be just the right amount of home for our 4 kids, 2 puppies and grandma!

Since our budget is very small, we have been VERY creative with our space. We have been inspired by a new fav. show that uses "freecycling" to create an artsy, unique and functional space...and the kids have really embraced the recycling attitude. Our little suburb had its bulk pick up day a few weeks ago and we decided to go "Dumpster Diving"! I know, sounds awful doesn't it? In our case...there were no dumpsters involved but we did have an exciting night driving around the streets, with all the other "recyclers" looking for treasures! We have picked up several priceless objects and are incorporating them into our new loft. I even raided Grandma's basement for paint, trim, tools and other miscellaneous treasures. We have acquired sinks, bathroom cabinets, a mirror, tile, paint, several doors and other little goodies. It has turned into a great learning experience for us and the kids are learning a lot about recycling, waste, reducing our waste and creativity...I guess when you don't have very much money it is good to be creative!

Since we have some extra coffeehouse equipment we are using that for our kitchen and we are very excited to be living in a coffeehouse! We will have an industrial type kitchen with a 3 compartment sink, stainless steel tables, shelves, hanging pendant lights and a new corrugated metal ceiling! We have a beautiful view of downtown and windows on three sides of the building. We have maple floors (that I have spent 2.5 weeks sanding), huge windows, huge wooden columns and exposed brick walls. It is A TON of work but we think the end result will be beautiful and unique...plus the monthly savings are just what we need right now. We hope to start moving next weekend so we will post lots of photos once it is finished...but for now...here are a few teaser shots.

Aren't they a cute bunch of dirty kids? They are great workers and have been big helpers during this process...but man do they know how to get dirty!