Sustainable Flatbush is teaming up with The Cookbook Project to bring us: Healthy Eating on a Budget. The FREE vegetarian meal will be served up along with chats about food composting and environmental issues.

They are looking for donations of reusable soup bowls for the church’s food program, so bring some along if you have any to spare.

Saturday, January 28th, 12-2pm
Flatbush Reformed Church: 890 Flatbush Ave, Bklyn

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The Regal Vegan, the company that makes that fabulous Faux Gras, is holding a cooking class also on Saturday. Recipes include a Roasted Winter Vegetable Salad, Hot Kale Caesar Salad, Russian Root Salad (aka Vinigret) and Celery Root and Apple Remoulade with Dill Caper dressing. Info on registration and stuff here.

AT: Jivamukti Yoga in Union Square

The class starts at 3pm, so guess what? You can make both events!

  posted @ 9:39 am Comments (0)

Since Linn from Christonium sent an email describing her DIY stainless steel countertop, I’m just gonna be lazy and cut and paste the whole thing. Yeah, even though it’s on her own blog (hit link above). But it looks great and her how-to post is more informative than anything I can come up with myself. Because I’m lazy.

Soooo, here’s Linn…

I wanted to share a project of mine which I’m very happy with: my new stainless steel kitchen counters which me and my husband installed ourselves. When we were remodeling our kitchen we were debating about what counters to choose. I loved the idea of stainless steel counters, so industrial, natural and durable, however if you get them professionally installed then they can be pretty pricey.

We worked with a local sheet metal place that gave us a very reasonable quote on shaping a piece of stainless steel if we did some of the work ourselves: so we made a plywood model of our counters, brought it to our local shop and later installed it all on top of our old counters. The result has been great. We got really nice counters which ended up costing us around $400 (roughly $20/square foot.) Now, that’s an excellent price, and our counters are perfect!

  posted @ 9:38 am Comments (1)

New advertiser alert! Show Cliq Studios some love and visit their awesome page for tips and how-to’s. Then buy some kitchen cabinets from them.

Seriously, it’s not a simple task to plan out an entire kitchen. As much as I love to use recycled materials, if you want a specific layout and design consistency, it’s best to go with brand new cabinetry.

The Cliq website has a remodeling guide for first timers. It starts out with design principles and covers layout, budget and everything up to installation. There are designers available to chat if you get confused.

Personally, I’m liking the painted cabinets. In particular, that black and the sage are pleasing to my eye.

A black kitchen. Dude, that’s so goth.

  posted @ 7:36 am Comments (1)

When this blog first started in 2007, we featured an affordable neighborhood every week. Then we ran out of neighborhoods.

Well, we may be in search of a distressed property to restore and since our pockets are bare, it looks like this feature may start up again.

There are three neighborhoods that have consistently popped up in our < $300k price range. Bushwick, Ridgewood and Jersey City.

We know nothing of these areas, only that….

Bushwick can be hit or miss. There are some hipster havens, but the homes we’ve been seeing are in areas that don’t have much going on. And by “not much going on” I mean, not even a corner bodega. Been to Bushwick a few times but never fell in love with it. But we’ll be researching Bushwick some more.

Ridgewood. Yes, Queens! What, did you think I’m some Brooklyn snob? Well, Ridgewood is just over the border (of Bushwick) so that makes it ok. Actually, it’s supposedly a “lovely” area with great old home stock.

Jersey City. There are Hobokeny parts and dumpy parts. Guess what we can afford? NJ might not be the best option for us as far as the higher taxes and cost of commuting while renovating. DIY of course. It’s worth a look though.

Oh, there is a fourth neighborhood: East New York, one of the last Brooklyn neighborhoods to find gentrification. Definitely lots of affordable homes to choose from, but since it’s farther out than Bushwick, it makes sense to try to do Bushwick first. Also, it should be said that the crime levels are still fairly high in East New York. Not that it isn’t worth checking out!

Anyone have some input?

  posted @ 8:33 am Comments (6)

Reclaimed Wood Art. Green Upgrader

Borscht Casino Belt? Upstater

Tankless Water Heaters. Bob Vila

Brokelandia. Brokelyn

Trouble Getting Tenants for Tower 3. WNYC

  posted @ 6:24 am Comments (1)

Fusion from Ikea is the perfect design for a small kitchen or dining area. The chairs fit neatly under the table because of the leg placement. Genius! Comfortable? Have you ever eaten at the corner end of the table? $299.

A Murphy bed is a Murphy bed, but how cool is a bed that drops down from the ceiling? That’s like Batman shit. Found this one on Museum of Furniture website. It probably takes a very specialized contractor to install this or you might end up with the upstairs neighbors on top of you.

Expandable antique tables aren’t that difficult to come by. They may not be less expensive than an Ikea table, but you can be sure that they are better quality. The table in the photo is a drop leaf gate table. Library tables are often expandable as well.

Martha Stewart has a “how to” on this armoire made from two bookcases. Need to hide your office or crafts? This is key, baby!

  posted @ 8:34 am Comments (1)

This is a guest post by Jeremy who loves writing about living green, saving money and DIY. He is from EasyApplianceParts, a DIY resource and retailer of appliance replacement parts.

We spend almost one third of our life in the bedroom. The bedroom is our space to relax, unwind and leave the stress of the world behind. Creating a bedroom that is your own sanctuary can be done without having to spend a fortune redecorating. How?  The answer is upcycling. This means taking existing items and repurposing them to build the bedroom of your dreams. The recipe for an upcycling designer is a layer of personal design style, followed by a cup of creativity, two cups of the materials you’ll need and a sprinkle patience, topped off by a do-it-yourself attitude.

Create your own furniture

Buying a brand new bedroom set can be expensive. Most of the bedroom sets currently available from furniture stores are made from particle-board based wood.  Create your own durable and stronger bedroom set by using previously used wood such as boards, planks and wood pallets. Solid wood pieces can be found in antique stores, yard sales, estate auctions or old barns.

Making your own bed – Wood pallets used to transport goods can be obtained from nurseries or home stores. They can be transformed into just about anything – desks, chairs, end tables, benches and beds.  Homedit has developed a stylish and easy to build platform bed made from wood pallets. The best part of this idea is that it costs next to nothing to build.  The only materials that are needed are wood pallets, hinges and casters. Add your mattress, paint and you’re done. An extra added benefit to a wood pallet platform bed is it can be enlarged or reduced as required.

Extra seating – If your bedroom is large try adding in a bench at the edge of the bed or by the window for a window seat.  Old coffee tables or a small garden bench can be used to make your own bench – just add some paint, cushion and the bench is ready.

(more…)

  posted @ 7:27 am Comments (1)

I photograph a range of houses. It’s tough to make some of them look good. But yesterday I had the pleasure of shooting a beautiful home and the tough part was doing it justice.

The farmhouse plus restored barn is located in Beacon within walking distance to town and the train. The 1.7 acre property offers privacy and views of the Hudson.

The restoration is impeccable! Yes, I used that word.

One problem. You would have to have deep pockets for this baby. Ask is $745k which is not crazy for 2 homes on such a large lot. The cray-cray part is the taxes. $16k. Ouch.

But the house is sooooo prettttyy.

Flickr shots

  posted @ 7:24 am Comments (1)

Yeah, that’s right. I just discovered Pinterest. Don’t ask me what I’m doing, but I’m just gonna go ahead and repost (re-pin?) stuff I like. Go friend me or follow me or whatever. I’ll start pinning stuff once I figure it out. I promise.
 

  posted @ 6:58 am Comments (1)

*Click on photos for item link.

Air plants are pretty cool creatures on their own, but set them in pieces of antique salvage and they become repurposed works of art.

Hungarian born, Brooklyn dweller Zsuzanna of Roots in Rust has a background in the financial industry. She left all of that behind to fulfill her dream of becoming an Etsy seller. Ok, so that’s sort of a joke, but truth is, she craved creativity in her life.

Zsuzanna is taking the business seriously. Unlike many other Etsy sellers, this is now her full time career. It will be fun to watch the business take root! (Get it? Take. root.)

  posted @ 7:34 am Comments (1)

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