Hey!
I'm Sarah, a 27 year old navigating this thing called life with the help of my two dogs, a giant stack of TBR books, an unending to-do list, and a can-do attitude. I write about my journey to debt free living, body acceptance, modeling, tiny home life, and travel.
It is my eventual goal to leave my 9 - 5 and create full-time, join me on my adventure!
Sincerely, Sarah
Good news – windows were delivered the other weekend!
On August 10th I scooted myself on over to Mid-City Lumber Yard and purchased 7 windows for the Tiny Home. Among those purchased were…
One 6×3 sliding glass window – Kitchen
One 3×4 sliding glass window – Living Room, on the south wall
One 2×4 sliding glass window – Bathroom, on the south wall
Two 4×2 picture windows – North and south walls, in-between the lofts.
Two 4×2 sliding clear story windows – Loft, on the north and south walls
Thankfully, Mid-City has the most affordable window treatment options in central Missouri, and I was able to save SO much money compared to what I would have spent on the same products at a big box store. Plus who doesn’t love supporting local businesses?!
In total, my windows cost $1200 – which is a lot for 7 windows, but keep in mind these are all custom made, so really quite cheap.
What also helped with the price tag, was my dad offered to let them bill them on his account, and I could make payments, instead of paying the bulk cost upfront. His generosity and patience is really helping this whole process go easier than I could have imagined.
Exactly 3 weeks later, my windows were delivered! Look at the beauties.
They are BIG. And BEAUTIFUL. And they all came with screens!
These are new construction, double paned, vinyl windows by the brand Quaker. And while I originally wanted black on the exterior and white on the interior, I did not feel like spending an extra $150/window just so I could have my desired color scheme. Instead, I’m going to paint the exterior framing of each window black.
And yes people, vinyl CAN be painted – you just have to have the paint specially formulated to be outdoor proof, and mixed up by Sherman Williams. They are the best, and this way I’ll just buy a gallon of $60 paint instead of spending an extra grand on black windows. We love a money saving scheme 🙂
Today’s post is short, but just a fun little update. It’s so rewarding seeing all these bits and pieces and plans coming together.
Hello everyone, yes, I realize it has been 2.5 weeks since I posted anything tiny home related on here, and I would say I’m sorry, but I’m not. A lot happened in my personal life in those 2.5 weeks and I needed time to gather my thoughts and make sure I was good before talking to 445 people. Ahem. But I’m good!
Anyways, today’s episode of tiny home posts features the *beautiful* yet *itchy* ivy wall on the north side of the house, as well as the fun adventure I had removing the shit. I also discuss the work my dad put in blading off the north side bushes – thanks dad!
For the past few years, the weeds around the woodshed have grown out. A lot. There are huge bushes shrouding the north wall, and thick ivy bushes crawling up the front porch columns, as well as up the wall under the window. I wasn’t sure how we were going to remove the giant bushes, but shout-out to my dad for renting a tractor and blade from Rodger’s Rental in Centralia and blading the bushes away. The before and after’s are pretty shocking if I do say so myself.
Before – dad’s about to blade the bushes! We were all curious as to what it would look like after
After – Dad bladed away the bushes, revealing the stone foundation
Doesn’t it look SO much better?! Having those bushes gone reveals the stone foundation the building was built on, including the basement window, and gives us a better idea of the building’s potential. We can also see the creeping poison ivy, and fern covered front porch. But that was my next project.
The weekend after dad bladed off the bushes, I set to work spraying the poison ivy. You should have seen me – leggings tucked into tall socks, rainboots on, long sleeve tshirt tucked into leggings, gardening gloves, bandana covering my neck. I looked a damn fool rocking my weed killing get-up in 90 degree weather, but dammit I did it!
Pictured below is a close-up of the beeeeautiful ivy covered north wall, the wall with “The Woodshed” sign. This was the weekend I learned the difference between english and poison ivy. English is a darker green leaf, which sprouts off a climbing vine. The vine has little feathery feet which allow it to latch and grow up any surface. Whereas poison ivy is slightly lighter in color, with 3 individual leaves on each stem. English isn’t poisonous, but poison ivy is.
Crawling English Ivy
Continued English Ivy on the North Wall
Ivy and ferns near the porch
Sigh.
It seriously hurt my heart having to tear off that English Ivy – I’ve always loved the look of a building covered in ferns, so to have my own building covered in it, but yet needing to remove it, was kinda upsetting. I’m hoping once the building is finished I can coax some into growing again, but we shall see.
Below is the after – ivy removed, cluster of ferns near the porch *mostly* gone, and beautiful handsawn lumber revealed.
While I did successfully remove most of the English and Poison ivy that had been growing around my building, I still need to scrape all the other weeds out from around the porch, and from further down the building, near the basement entrance. That’s definitely a project from another day as I am out of poison ivy killer and will resort to burning them off – apparently dad has a miniature flame thrower thingimajij and uses it to burn weeds! That should be quite the time, especially seeing as I’m afraid of fire LMAO.
While garden-esque work is not my favorite, it’s very rewarding to be able to see such a big difference in a couple hours. And I learned something along the way! This is definitely a long process, but I am so thankful I have the opportunity to do something like this.
I will keep you guys posted, I am catching up on my tiny home blog updates – I have EXCITING news coming later this week about this past weekend’s discovery, stay tuned!
Anyways, I have to go. I’ve been blogging at work for like 2 hours now and should probably go do actual work. Oh how I wish I were self-employed. Sigh.
Yes it’s September 7th and I’m already in the Halloween mood. Pretty sure I’m not the only one either 🙂
But now that August is over, I wanted to recap the All of Me August challenge that I finished – kind of. I only fulfilled goals 1 and 5 – Workout every day, and not eat out as much. But in my defense, the pavement was still much too hot to walk Kobe every day – I have no excuses for not meditating or journaling every day, I just suck at those things.
But I DID complete the Sculpt You workouts every day (1 rest day a week as ordained by the plan) and only ate out 3x, which is SO much better compared to how I was over summer. And I would like to share my results with you.
This before picture was taken on August 5th, the day the challenge started. I was painfully bloated and uncomfortable in my own body here. None of my shorts fit, I broke my right pinky toe the week before (thank you stone fireplace at 1am) and was fighting with my stupid boyfriend. V unhappy, V didn’t know it. I hadn’t worked out or followed the Sculpt You plan continuously since April. I had been eating out a lot (again, thanks stupid ex boyfriend) and was going through an anxiety spike. This picture is hard to share, but it tells a story.
You can see how inflated my tummy is, and yes you can see my side ab muscle lines, but they were covered by so much lower tummy fat, and I was *horribly* bloated.
During August, my goal was to work out every day, and I fulfilled that goal. However, my strength was minimal, and I was not able to do the exercises properly because I was so weak. I became frustrated pretty easily and mad that I had let myself get to this point, the first week was definitely the hardest for me. However, I soon realized than I am stronger than I give myself credit for.
While my body may be weak, my mind is strong. I started finding ways to encourage myself, many times speaking out loud.
“Moving and trying is better than sitting on the couch. “
“You can do this – you don’t have to go quickly, but you CAN do this.”
I found that speaking out loud and being my own source of encouragement helped my mindset so much. Yea I might not be able to do full burpees, but I CAN do modified burpees! And I can do 30 of them!!
I also started logging my workouts and meals using my Fitbit. I own the Versa 2 model, and being able to track each exercise and compare each day to the day before, and being able to keep track of my water consumption and cals in vs cals out was super helpful. I even reached out to the Sculpt You’s nutritionist and received more information about how much I should be fueling my body in order to turn fat into muscle. Turns out it’s a LOT MORE THAN I THOUGHT. As in I was consuming at least 100 grams of protein every day, 75 oz of water, and a crap ton of carbs.
And after a month of daily workouts, burning over 3,000 calories, eating between 1200 and 2000 calories, these are my after results.
I know, I’m just as shocked as you. My back is even showing muscle and skeletal lines, when it never did before!! I’m rarely bloated, I dumped said boyfriend a week into the challenge, I am eating healthy foods, a lot, and am feeling so much more energetic than before.
At the beginning of August, I was weak. Now in the beginning of September, not only do I feel so much stronger, but I have seen a difference too. Below are my stats in terms of weight I could lift, and weight I am lifting now.
August
September
Squats: No weights
Squats: 20lbs, 10 in each hand
Lunges: No weights
Lunges: 10lbs, 5 in each hand
Arms: 5lb dumbbell in each hand
Arms: 10lb dumbbell in each hand
Cardio: Could barely do a modified burpee, couldn’t do reverse crunches, could barely walk on the inclined treadmill without becoming immediately out of breath and stopping, top heart rate near 190/bpm
Cardio: Can do modified burpees for the entire set, can do 5 reverse crunches without stopping, am walking on an inclined treadmill for 15 minutes and still able to breathe, top heart rate near 175/bpm
Although my changes might seem insignificant to some, they are huge to me, and I’m immensely proud of myself. These changes are proof that it really is mind over matter, that I can push myself, that I can transform into a strong woman. Stronger.
I hope my documentation of this journey inspires you to start sweating and doing everything possible to reach your goals, and I hope you realize you are stronger than you give yourself credit for.
All of Me August is a health challenge I am participating in.
For those of you who don’t know, I am a member of this fitness program called the Sculpt You, except the program focuses on so much more than just fitness. The woman behind the program, Katrina, created a monthly program and all female community that focuses on all aspects of health; from recipes and meal planning/shopping lists, to workouts (both at home and gym) and guided yoga sessions, to mental health betterment (including journal prompts and meditation) and a Facebook group where the Sculpt Squad members can discuss literally everything under the sun. It’s super refreshing to get on FB, a platform usually filled with political banter, and see women sharing their journal entries, workout struggles, favorite athletic wear, how-to-get-over-a-shitty-boyfriend and more.
And no, I’m not being paid to say all this. Katrina and her team don’t even know I’m writing this.
I’m truly just in love with this program.
Anywhosies, every month they start a new challenge with a new workout split, new recipes, and new journal prompts. The idea is to start each month fresh, and the challenge provides a way of being held accountable for completing each day.
Well, you-know-who signed up to participate, so every day I’m challenging myself to…
Follow the workouts – either in the gym or at home
Walk a mile with Kobe (obviously not included in the challenge but I like to walk him anyways)
Write in my journal
Participate in a yoga or meditation sesh
Try not to eat out as much
I plan on keeping track of my progress in further detail on my Instagram page,under the “SculptYou” highlight tab. Hopefully I’ll also recap each week on here.
Today is August 5th, 2020 – Day 1 of the All of Me August challenge. I have already taken my walk (3000 steps per thee ole Fitbit), journaled this morning, and as soon as I can clock off work, plan on doing a yoga flow, and the leg day werk.
I’m hoping this challenge allows me to put more inward focus on myself; to strengthen my body and mind, and to learn more about my inner working and what makes me *me*. I’m a firm believer that self care and being selfish about your alone time is essential to personal growth, so I’m excited to see what I can accomplish this next month.
This photoshoot was so much fun!! Aj and I wanted to take advantage of the sunset colors, so we made our way to the top of the 9th and Cherry Parking Garage. My little sister Emily came along, and she acted as the photographers assistant, holding the collapsible flash and moving the lights around. You’d never know it from pictures, but the behind the scenes of a photoshoot can be kind of hectic! Aj had a rolling cart filled with lense options and lighting equipment, I had a duffle bag with various outfits, and my little sister carried even more lighting equipment.
But anyways, we shot these on top of the parking garage *just* as the sun started to sink. I received my artsy images of the black silhouette-esque against a colorful background, and we did some promo’s for Aj’s apparel. Definitely worth shooting in the sweltering summer heat!
RESPECT Crop Tee: This is a tee created by the photographer, AJ, who is working on creating an apparel business. He can be reached thru his website, linked above 🙂
Black Bodycon Dress – This is from Charlotte Russe, however as that exact style is no longer being sold, I have linked a similar one: Amazon
**Some links provided above are affiliates! I am an Amazon Associate, which means every purchase made through one of my Amazon links, I receive a small compensation. This won’t cost you anything extra, but it does help me fund my Tiny Home dreams. Thank you so much for your support.
**Some links provided above are affiliates! I am an Amazon Associate, which means every purchase made through one of my Amazon links, I receive a small compensation. This won’t cost you anything extra, but it does help me fund my Tiny Home dreams. Thank you so much for your support.
A few years ago, I became hooked on Tiny Home videos, where hosts such as Bryce Langston (Living Big in a Tiny House) gave tours of various tiny homes and alternative living spaces throughout the world. I was fascinated by the idea of owning less so I could live more – many of you who know me in person know it has always been a dream of mine to travel the world. With travel usually costing a pretty penny, I always figured those were dreams for retired Sarah, I-finally-made-it Sarah, Sarah with grown kids and a wealthy husband. Sugar Daddy who?
But this concept of tiny, minimal living, makes it seem like the average Joe can afford lavish vacations and exotic holidays. FYI I don’t have a college degree, more on that later, and I don’t have a Sugar Daddy (yet, still working on that though, storytime tomorrow?), so money is usually always tighter over here. Not complaining though, because I’m an excellent penny pincher and am happy with where I’m at. I know I live a blessed life compared to many.
So for years I considered and researched the Tiny Home Lifestyle. I had dreams of white shiplap and no rent payments and Tahiti tours, until quite recently, when I decided to take those dreams and turn them into my reality.
Fast forward to March of 2020. I’m quarantined in my parents house, after making the decision to move out of my city townhome and back to the country, and have my eye on their outbuilding, “The Woodshed”.
The Woodshed is currently being used as a storage facility, think crates of childhood toys, camping gear, various lumber and spare siding bits, desks, box TV’s, golf clubs; various remnants of past lives, all crammed into this 11x24ft building. I began looking at the building in a different light – could this, maybe, *possibly* be turned into something more? Is she sturdy, is she safe?
I pondered this idea for months. I calculated how much it would cost to transform this shelter into a home, would it end up saving me money or costing more than it’s worth? Was it possible to hook up to the properties water and electric lines? How much of the work could be completed DIY style? And did I even want to live so close to my folks?
By May, I had decided that yes, this project would save me money in the long run. If I put what I was normally spending on rent at my townhome into this conversion, it would pay for itself in a year. A $10,000 home, not to shabby right? I realized that yes, it would be possible to hook up to water and electric. That most of the work would be able to be completed by my dad and I. And yes, I didn’t mind living on the same property as my family. I’ve always been fond of community-style living, not to mention my family are my most favorite people to be around. And I’m sure they would appreciate the extra help with managing the property.
End of May, I proposed my idea to my dad, who to my surprise, agreed to the plan, for all the reasons already discussed. The one person I was kind of nervous discussing this with was in full agreement, and already excited. He mentioned that he had been wanting to turn the woodshed into something, but he had no ideas as to what. We both agreed the tiny home will be the perfect addition to both our lives.
So that’s it! That’s the *official* beginning to this tiny home journey, and I can’t WAIT to see where it takes me, not to mention where this blog goes from here.
signedsarah.com 