OUR New Home Design & Farm Update

Good morning from a rather warm day for February in Iowa! This time of year, just about anything is possible with the weather. Will it be a -60 degree ‘polar vortex’ day? Or a 50 degree day, prompting some of the life-long Iowans to bring out their shorts? We just never know.

Looking ahead to future projects helps get me through these cold winter months, and today I am sharing the plans for our personal home that we plan to get started on toward the end of this year, and where we will be living in the interim!

As you probably know, we have been living in a college apartment since we sold our home in April, and while it’s a functional space it’s also teaching us a lot about how to live minimally (and that we have to pick up everything every night or risk tripping over it in the morning!) Our farm has an enormous machine shed (originally for farm equipment) that we will be taking a portion of and converting into a guest cottage, and we will also live in this space while we build our home.

We already had planned to put in a large canning kitchen and extra bathroom as well as an office in the machine shed, so we are just tweaking those plans a bit and doing that project first. This way we can live on our property, have all of our stuff in one place, and work on our home as we have time. When our house is done, this guest cottage will work great for extra storage, visitors, large cooking operations, etc. We recently got to work on the guest cottage, as you can see below….hello there in-floor heat!

In-floor heat install day

Framing begins!

Next up after the guest cottage is the new & improved ‘Critter Cottage’ as I am calling it. It’s a small, 12x20ish building that will have our dogs on one side and our chickens & guinea fowl on the other side. Obviously we will have to separate the bird hunting dogs from the birds to ensure there are no mishaps, so each side will have their own entrance/exits. The dogs are currently in a similar sized building on the property (with their own fenced area attached) but that building needs to come down as it’s not insulated well and doesn’t have electricity, and in general is less than ideal.

Original ‘critter cottage’. New building will be directly in front of this one.

Stage #3 of building at the farm includes our house and gardens, which are obviously the most expensive and time consuming projects. For these reasons we have been extensively planning, creating drawings, consulting, etc and I think we finally have settled on what we want. It’s been a long road, but here are some of the preliminary images.

The entirety of our plans for the farm are more of a 5 year process, and the order in which items get accomplished will probably vary a bit due to a variety of reasons. But regardless, each hour of work we accomplish is moving us toward our goal, and I cannot wait to see what has transpired even one year from now!

It feels good to have a plan, even if it’s a really long and complicated one! :)

We’ll chat again soon, for now try and hold out the rest of this winter…Spring is ALMOST here!

Cheers,

Rachael

NEW Year, NEW Hours & Services

Oh hey there, 2022!

The new year rolled in, burning hot and fast, whether we were ready or not.

Each year, when we are turning the large wall calendar from December to January, we write down some goals we have for the upcoming year. Some are small, some are unreasonable and unattainable, but regardless we write them down.

One of the goals for 2021 that seemed unattainable was Adam being able to quit his job at the city and build homes full time, which he was able to do.

Another goal that seemed unreasonable was taking a vacation (it had been since Oct 2019, y’all) and somehow we were able to pull that off, too.

As we look ahead to what will almost certainly be an interesting and unpredictable 2022, we have a couple of goals in mind that will hopefully set us up to succeed.

First up, we will no longer be working on Sundays. I know this might not seem like a big, unattainable goal, but for us it’s a huge milestone. Previously, we used the weekends to catch up on whatever hiccup happened during the week that delayed/rescheduled our work. Moving forward, we will still use Saturday for those types of activities, but Sunday will be reserved for our own projects, including building our house and working at our farm.

Second, we will be shifting focus a bit to building new homes, for at least the immediate future. Designing and building homes from a sheet of notebook paper to finished product has always been a passion for Adam. We will still take on the smaller projects, but scheduling will only allow for a limited number of those per year. For more info about home building, connect with us over at APS Homes by clicking here.

Well that is all I have for today! As always, we greatly appreciate your support for our little corner of the internet. For day to day happenings, make sure to follow us on Instagram!

Stay warm and safe out there!

-Rachael

Major Life Update!

It is with extreme excitement that I inform y’all that Adam has closed the chapter on his full time job at a nearby city, and is now able to do what he loves full time - build homes.

We had planned on this happening in the next few years, but everything came together in the last 12-18 months that showed us now was the time. I am a firm believer that opportunities will present themselves when the time is right, and that’s exactly what happened here.

Last year all taught us a number of life lessons, and for our family we realized that the time is now to act on our dreams. Looking back, we should have made this move years ago, but were always worried about one thing or another - and we ended up putting it off until ‘next year’.

Well, there’s no time like the present, and we are all in.

Thank you for your continued support over all these years, we obviously couldn’t be where we are today without such amazing clients, friends, and family.

Stay tuned for A LOT of projects this summer…we have our work cut out for us, and we couldn’t be more excited!

We’ll chat soon,

-Rachael

The Final Porch Photo

It’s been about a week since we visited our home for the last time, picked up the final items, and took one last photo on the front porch.

The last porch pic!

It’s been a bittersweet experience, leaving the first home we built together from the ground up, our child’s first home, our beloved dog Mia’s last home.

We are excited to move on to our acreage and spread out…to watch the summer sunset’s with sweet tea and fireflies…to chase chickens, play in the creek, and enjoy the wildlife. I mean, first we have to build a house out there, but we will get started on that soon.

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

We have plenty of exciting projects this summer, and I can’t wait to start sharing them with you. Now that we have a bit more time (and aren’t in the middle of moving) I will be catching up.

We’ll chat soon!

-Rachael

Iowa Winter Fun & Life in 2021

Hello 2021!

Iowa started off the new year with nearly a foot of snow. Exciting for those who like to play in the snow, but also challenging for those who remove the snow. Our household experienced both sides of this dilemma.

I am grateful we took some time to slow down and recharge over the holidays, we certainly needed that. If I could just have one week every quarter to sit at the beach and refill my cup, I think I could go on at this intense pace of life indefinitely! Not too much to ask, right? Ha!

In all seriousness, we are using the beginning of this year to organize our business to the highest level. I am a big advocate for efficiency, and gathering receipts for taxes has shown this is an area that is lacking (does anyone else have a large plastic tub full of paper to sort through?).

We have a couple large projects that will begin once the ground is un-frozen, until then its clean and purge time at home. Each year I feel the need to really minimalize my house around January/February. Maybe it stems from trying to get every last piece of glitter left over from Christmas, or just that I’m over the clutter of the holidays. Either way, it’s time for it to all leave my house and as a bonus I am reminded of what my kitchen counters look like. I consider it my yearly surprise. Here are a few photos!

Also, we will be selling our house soon to move to the farm, so I guess the clean and purge is currently serving two purposes! We don’t quite have our house plans finalized yet at the farm, and thus no start date, but there is not much that can be done right now in the frozen tundra of Iowa in January.

Speaking of that, it is supposed to snow again tonight so I had better tidy up some things outside. I hope this post finds you safe and healthy!

Talk soon!
-Rachael

Happy Holidays From Our Crew To Yours

It seems like just last week it was Thanksgiving, but here we are just a few days out from Christmas. I’m not sure what happened to December, but I am ok with this year coming to a close.

The magic of Christmas is so exciting to watch through a child’s eyes, and it has been a really fun time for our 3 year old, Phoenix. When the weight of this year and all that has changed becomes distracting, I try to focus on her excitement and joy surrounding this season to keep me grounded.

We have SO much to be thankful for, and I can’t wait to see what next year brings for us! I hope you can take time to enjoy the holiday, and refresh/recharge.

-Rachael, Adam, and Phoenix

It's Finally Happening!

It’s been over two years in the making…

…and after looking at countless properties and writing offers and being super frustrated, we finally found a piece of property for our forever homestead.

Y’all, it’s FINALLY HAPPENING!

Finally a place to raise our child in the great outdoors.

A place to raise chickens and have a huge garden.

A place to store all of our trailers and construction equipment indoors and out of the Iowa elements.

We will have to build a new home, and it will sit roughly where this shed is pictured in the photo below…

I can’t wait to sit here in the evening and watch the sunset over the crops from my back deck! Maybe this time next year we can make that happen.

There are a few other buildings on the property, one is a huge morton building which will store all of our trailers and equipment. We also will have a couple grain bin’s, and Adam already has a plan to turn one of them into an outdoor kitchen (?)

It doesn’t get much more ‘Iowa’ than an acreage with grain bins and a view of row crops!

So what’s next for us?

For now we aren’t going anywhere. We need to sell our house and build a new one on this property, which we don’t close on until October. Since there isn’t much work that can be completed during the winter months in Iowa, we will most likely be focusing this fall on cleaning out any dead trees or bushes, and pouring a concrete floor for the large building. I hate to make any plans for the rest of 2020 (since this year is so bizarre), but those are tentative goals.

There’s so much to do between now and moving to the farm, but at least where we are ending up is no longer a question. Of course we will document the whole journey!

I’m off to make 400 to-do lists, and enjoy what we have left of this hot summer Sunday. Thank you so much for supporting our small Iowa businesses, we really appreciate you!

See you soon!

Rachael

Rustic Home Accents

Hello friends!

It’s a hot and humid 1000 degree day here in Iowa, and I am suddenly finding time for all of my indoor tasks, such as updating this website! You will notice quite a few big changes to our site in the coming weeks, but for now most of the layout is remaining the same. I am not very skilled in the tech world, and don’t have a large budget for a website person, so it’s just me figuring things out by trial and error :)

Anyway enough on that, I wanted to pop in and put together a post about the most asked about items of my home, the various rustic home accents. I have several locally sourced items, and they are often the talking points of conversations with visitors. Now you might be wondering why any of this matters, and I will explain…

Adding a unique home accent can be both functional and decorative, all while setting your home apart from the rest…

-Have you ever driven through a neighborhood of similar style homes and had one stand out?

-On the contrary, have you been to several open houses or showings in a row and then been unable to recall what the inside of the home looked like the next day?

Let me show you what I am talking about…

This beam pictured is on my front porch and came from a barn that was taken down several years ago. It serves as a decorative item, and it also functional and holds up the front porch to my house.

Here are a few photos of other rustic home accents I have throughout my house…

An old window frame above my kitchen sink! In an ideal world there would have been a real window here, but since the floor plan of the house didn’t allow for one, this is the next best thing!

Is a home even complete without a giant rusty pig? :)

Floor to ceiling barn wood flag…because, America

Spare bathroom light fixture, and you can see the barn wood mirror beneath!

The pantry door is an old trap door to the attic space of a c.1920 carriage house

Our custom kitchen cabinets are new, but they were made to look old by using wood with imperfections

Ok, that’s not even all of them, but y’all get the idea! Unique items really make a home stand out in a crowd, and while some of these items were expensive (hello cabinets!), many of them were thrifted, free, or purchased for very minimal cost. Budget friendly is my way of life :)

That’s all I have for you today! Do you decorate with rustic home accents? Feel free to shoot me a message, I would love to see them!

Until next time-

Rachael

DIY: Budget Friendly Pantry Organizing!

Hi friends! I’m writing to you from frigid Iowa, where it’s a whopping 1 degree today, but hey we are over halfway through January so this won’t last a whole lot longer! I haven’t posted a DIY for a while, so I wanted to share with you what I recently did with my pantry.

I normally take everything out of my pantry once or twice a year just to make sure nothing is expired or forgotten about, and as I was getting ready to do that again recently I did a few searches on Pinterest and Instagram for inspiration on how to make the space a bit more visually appealing.

There were hundreds of gorgeous photos to choose from, but as I started researching the actual bins and containers for everything it became apparent that this was an EXPENSIVE task. I mean, $14 for a clear plastic tray to put on a shelf?! $25 for a set of 4 glass canisters?! There was just no way I was going to spend that kind of money or organize this space.

Starting Point

Our pantry is a walk-in space, that has a knack for collecting random items due to it’s proximity to the kitchen. The problem with this catch-all space, is that it only has a half door, so all of the random items are on display for every visitor to see. Let me show you what I mean…

From this angle, you can’t see the mess inside!

The mess!!!

Ok, now you know what I was up against! I knew there had to be a more budget friendly way to spruce this up, so I put my thinking cap on.

First up, I needed some glass containers. A lot of them. I didn’t really care if they all matched, and I wasn’t going to buy a dozen from Amazon at $5 a piece, so I went down to my local thrift store for some vintage jars and canisters.

Next up, I needed some labels for these jars and Amazon seemed to have quite the selection. I ordered a set of labels that was around $14 for 50+ stickers from a shop on Amazon called ‘The Talented Kitchen’.

I started the tedious process of emptying boxes and containers into the jars (after washing them of course!) and tossing all the expired items. I even found out what a very rotten avocado looks like, yikes! Here are a couple close up photos of the jars with labels…

These turned out really nice, and I was able to toss all the half packages of items! Bonus feature of the clear glass jars is the ability to see the amount readily available, making that grocery list a breeze!

Last up, I needed some clear bins for random things, and Amazon had some outrageous prices on clear storage containers so I went with what my local Target had instead. I included a couple pictures of the bins below, the larger one was $4 and the smaller one was $1.

All Finished!

Here are a couple photos of the finished project, I am not entirely certain that I have everything in the exact place that I want it, but it works for now.

I am really excited how this turned out, as it is no longer an eyesore to anyone walking by the area. Also, I was pretty impressed that I accomplished this project for significantly less cost than originally thought. Next up, I need to repeat this process for the spice cabinet as I currently cannot find anything in there!

That is all I have for you today, thanks so much for stopping by the blog and I would love to see some of your own pantry transformations, feel free to tag me on your photos on Instagram (@aps_design) or Facebook (apsdesignblog).

Cheers!!

Rachael

Fall Decor Preview

I love Summer, and believe me I am not rushing it along, but September is by far my favorite month of the year and we are just days away from being there. Often as hot as August, the weather in September is much more manageable with cooler nights and less humidity. It’s the best of both Summer and Fall, all wrapped into one!

My home always shows my excitement for Fall decor, and this year will be no different! I definitely have more Fall/Autumn items than any other season, which requires some creative storage but also quite a bit of time for setup. Each year I do everything differently, and that’s all part of the fun! We have an event here the first weekend in September, so my goal is to have everything decorated by then. Fall decor takes a bit of work, but is so versatile and lasts all the way through Thanksgiving. I will just add a few pumpkins/gourds in October and boom! Done!

I have a few areas of my home already set up for Fall, and today I am sharing them to hopefully bring you some inspiration when it’s time to decorate your own home. I will note that I don’t change anything out for Halloween, but that is just my own preference. This year I am really feeling inspired by the neutral tones and I tried to incorporate them as much as possible on my front entryway table. Here are a few photos.

I tried to keep this area fairly simple, as it is highly trafficked by the 1 year old and items are pulled down constantly to be played with. I haven’t really embraced neutral white or brown decor for Fall in the past, but I am experimenting and incorporating it this year. Decorating is an ever evolving hobby!

Next up is my dining room buffet!

I brought in a bit more color to this nook of the home, as this buffet sits right next to the dining room table and that will undoubtedly have some bright displays when I am done with it.

I have recently discovered a company that takes antique pieces and re-purposes them into candles, and I had to have one. This bucket candle is filled with ‘Fall Harvest’ and it’s fitting in just perfectly with my Fall decor!

That’s all the Fall decor I have ready to go as of today! I hope some of this can inspire you for your own decorating this season, and as always feel free to share your photos with us either here or on Instagram.

Thanks for stopping by the blog today! We really appreciate it!

Happy Decorating!

-Rachael