Reclaimed Materials: Bowling Alley Lumber

So, I'm visiting Detroit on a business trip, and come across something very New York: Shake Shack. Of course, I had to go in.

Yes, that is The Spirit of Detroit holding an ice cream cone and a burger. :) What else caught my eye was some stamping on the table.

Handcrafted in New York from RECLAIMED BOWLING LANES! It's amazing how many materials can be reused when a commercial space is demo'd or renovated. Some municipalities require a certain percentage of materials be recycled, and for others there's ability to sell them or get recycle credits for projects like LEED certification.

But did you know your own home projects can benefit from the leftovers? In the Seattle Metro area alone, there are several stores that second-hand sell building fixtures and materials. They include Habitat for Humanity's Re-store and Second Use Building Materials.

T discovered the Re-store when setting up his office/classroom space. We came across large chunks of granite countertop, cabinetry, and more, that could be rehab-ed or cut to size. What he ended up buying was several boxes of brand new carpet tile, presumably leftover from a project, and 1/4 of retail cost.

You do need to dig through for the right pieces, but these stores have great finds for a unique home reno or Pinterest project. One building's trash is another one's treasure!

Cute as a "Button": Reuse #11

I'm visiting a dear friend in Portland this weekend, and begged her to take me shopping. I desperately need work tops, and Portland had the cutest boutiques.

Our first stop was a cute consignment shop named Button.

If you aren't familiar with consignment shops or know the difference between them and thrift shops, the basic premise is this: the clothes are being sold by their previous owners through the shop for commission. Because the shop wants everyone to make money, they tend to be more curated (higher quality and trendier) than donation-based stores. There are plenty of brick and morter consignment stores, as well as online versions like ThredUp.

I walked out with a cute ruffle-sleeved top from J Crew, in like-new condition. The cool thing about Button's tags, is they list the normal retail price, so you know what a great deal you're getting.

Bottom line: if you are interested second-hand clothes, and want to minimize effort digging through racks of various quality clothing, consignment could be for you. Selling through these stores is also a great way to recoup some costs while cleaning out your closet.

Retail price: $49.50
Button price: $16.95
My savings:  $32.55 (66%)

The previous owner will make $8.47.

Thoughtful Dogs!

Well, dog park volunteers and dog owners, that is... :)

T and I frequent Grandview Dog Park with Meeko. It has some great open space for play, and a grand view (get it?) of Mt. Rainier.

The dog parks in the area are fully run by volunteers via donations. The park has always had some great features, and the most recent group has made additional improvements.

There have always been several stations with rolls of bags to take care of your dog's mess, like this:

One of the recent improvements was the addition of bag holders throughout the park, where patrons can bring their plastic shopping bags:

But, you gasp, I don't have plastic bags! I always remember my reusable grocery bags!

For those who end up with plastic bags anyway, this is a great way for them to get an additional use. Using the collected bags also eliminates the use of a brand new bag for pet waste, which costs the volunteers or donors $$$ and time to stock, saving those resources for other improvement projects.

Next time you head to the dog park, consider grabbing a handful of bags to share at the park!

The other cool feature at the park is the rain water barrels used to collect doggie drinking water.

There are a couple water fountains throughout the park also, but the rain barrels allow dogs to get free water during the rainy and following months of the year. This saves on the water bill and allows the park to shut down plumbed fixtures in the colder months.

What interesting features do your parks have to best utilize resources?

A Little Weekend Sewing

Being a curvy woman, my pants always wear out in the thighs only, and the rest of the pants are still in great shape. It's super annoying to have to buy new jeans every few months after a little wear and tear.

After 4 pairs of pants piled up of my recycle or mend pile, I finally decided to give it shot. First step, acquire iron-on patches. You can find these fairly easily at craft or department stores. I got a multi-pack at Target: with 8 patches of varying colors of denim and khaki that can be cut to size, it's only pennies per patch.

Trim the patch to cover the holes, and iron on. Follow the directions on the package: mine was high-heat, no steam.

You could stop there, but iron-on stick tends to wear off after a couple washes. We can easily reinforce the patch by sewing back on forth over the edges.

Minimally noticeable from the outside - at least, less noticeable than skin showing through. ;)

Now, if it was for somewhere less scandalous, like the knees, you could try visible mending. There are several styles including the Japanese embroidery "sashiko" and patchwork "boro". Examples:

(Image from womanwithwingsblog.blogspot.com)

(Image from honestlywtf.com)

After an hour of work, I repaired 4 pairs of pants. Here's hoping I can now double the life of the pants, saving my self potentially $100s per year.

Potatoes v2

So my 2nd potato plant was ready for harvesting, 5 weeks later than the 1st plant, and yielded 13 ounces of baby potatoes.

And boy, what beauties they are! There are still several super tiny potatoes but the larger ones are almost small russet sized!

My full harvest from this plant:

And one of the larger potatoes in my hand for scale:

Lesson learned: keep the plants alive for as long as possible for full sized potatoes. I still have one plant left, a red potato I planted in June: I'm looking forward to seeing how my red potatoes fare in a couple months.

Real world savings? 13 oz potatoes for $0.00. 

 

Skip the Travel Toiletries

I've previously written about hotel mini toiletries, and how some great hotels are participating in recycling of the minis. Recycling is an ok end solution for waste, but what if we take it a step back and don't create the waste in the first place?

On a business trip last week, I was excited to see the the hotel didn't have minis. Instead, they had refillable standard size bottles with pumps. No packaging waste, and no waste of half-used product.

Additionally, many hotels have signage similar to: "We're interested in saving water. If you are willing to reuse your towel, hang it up in a certain way." Have you found those to be effective? T and I will routinely hang our towels and find them replaced anyway.

This hotel took it a step further: if you refuse housekeeping for the night, they give you a $5.00 credit to use at the hotel. This housekeeping refusal saves the water and energy for the fresh linens, but I also like that the direction is clearer than "hanging your towel a certain way", and the small incentive to encourage guests to participate.

Kudos to Tempe Mission Palms hotel for exploring sustainable programs. What are some cool alternatives you've seen hotels offer?

WE HAVE BABIES! (Potatoes, that is.)

I started my early adulthood thinking I had a black thumb. All of my plants never lasted more than a few months. Then I realized I was always buying annuals. :)

A few years ago, I bought a cherry tomato starter plant at the Vashon Island farmer's market, and it grew rapidly taller, and grew beautiful little super sweet cherry tomatoes (in fact, the type was "Sweet Million"), and it renewed my faith that I might be able to not kill a plant.

Fast forward to this year, and I'm still not an amazing gardener, but after finding some sprouted potatoes in my pantry, I decided to try my hand at growing potatoes.

First, I found a YouTube video to give me some basic pointers, and I put the sprouted potatoes in some planters. The smaller planter ended up in my windowsill and sprouted quickly with lush green leaves. The larger planter had to stay outside and got a little slower start due to the cold.

Last month, the Seattle area finally started thinking about having Spring/Summer, and it was time to transplant the planters into the garden, because I didn't feel like my planters were quite large enough.

Well, the plants that started outdoors are still growing, and the leaves look green and healthy. The plants that started indoors didn't transplant as well. The leaves started yellowing, then wilting, and then dying altogether. YouTube tells me this means the potatoes are "done", but I was pretty sure this was a failed batch, since the plants died so quickly after transplant.

Tonight, I decided to play in the dirt to see if there was anything there, and lo and behold - I found over a dozen baby potatoes!!

Here's another shot with my hand for scale. Some are like small marbles, while others are almost new potato sized. Keep in mind that the parents(?) were regular russets, so even the larger ones are pretty small. I cooked one up and sure enough, it tastes like a potato. I can only imagine that the other plant, which will have more growing time, will result in larger more flavorful potatoes.

Overall, I'm pretty excited that I successfully grew something new, with very little effort. As you can see, I had no controls in place - some were started inside, some were started outside, I transplanted halfway through because I didn't have large enough containers. I watered them when I remembered to, but took a lot of short vacations and weekends away... Seattle has been temperamental weather wise, and ultimately, there have been few sunny days. Seems that potatoes are pretty easygoing. If I can do it, anyone can!