Farmer Andy is back at work again preparing for the spring planting in our organic backyard garden.

After we bought our house in Birmingham last spring we rushed to get a garden planted before it was too late. I was so busy renovating and painting the inside of the house that I didn’t have time to build frames for the raised bed garden Ellen and I were planning for the back yard. We just piled the new soil on top of the grass and started planting. Read the rest of this entry »

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Welcome back food-growing backyard gardeners. This is the second part of my review of the Food 4 Wealth system of ecological gardening.

When you receive your copy of Food 4 Wealth, you get a download link to several videos that help develop certain aspects of the system, like Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: companion planting, ecological gardening, Food 4 Wealth, food forest, frugal, garden design, gardening, no-till, organic, permaculture, raised-bed gardening, Review, vegetable gardening

Confession time gardeners and backyard farmers. I have never successfully grown an edible plant. To call me a “newbie gardener” is too kind. I am a plant serial-killer. The closest I can claim is one summer I got 1 or 2 tomatoes from a medium sized patch before the last plant died.

So the more I’ve read about organic gardening, the more worried I get can I really pull this off? This is a LOT of work. I also have a full-time job, two little kids, and permanent mommy-brain. But I do love to dig in the dirt. And eat. I love to eat. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: companion planting, ecological gardening, Food 4 Wealth, food forest, frugal, garden design, gardening, no-till, organic, permaculture, raised-bed gardening, Review, vegetable gardening

Ellen, here (AKA Mrs. Go-To Guy!). While we get our photos and thoughts together for posts on the house renovation, I’ve been wanting to tell y’all about the exciting things were doing to grow ourselves some fresh food with a backyard garden.

Ever since we decided to move here to Alabama, nearly two years now, I’ve been daydreaming about putting in our very first fresh food garden, and researching different approaches. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: ecological gardening, edible garden, edible landscaping, food forest, garden design, gardening, growing food, no-till, organic, permaculture, raised-bed gardening, vegetable gardening

Trickle, trickle, trickle. Gurgle, gurgle. Whooooooooooosh.

That would be the sound of a very large quantity of water passing under the bridge since our last post. Mrs. Go-To Guy! here, to fill you in a bit. The reason the updates on this renovation never got finished, is because the renovation didn’t get finished until 7 months and one huge life upheaval later.

Lets see, since the last post on Day 8 of the Ikea kitchen, we’ve had Read the rest of this entry »

The badly needed kitchen renovation of my New York City apartment continues into day eight. I continue installing our new cabinets from Ikea in the new space.

Here’s today’s progress report:

The remainder of this project will revolve around installing the cabinets, finishing trim details, and hooking up the plumbing and appliances. I’ve got one more day before I have to go back to work. After that, things will slow down a bit as I finish things after hours (but hopefully I’ll be able to rest up a little.)

The Go-To Guy!

Technorati Tags: DIY home renovation, ikea kitchen, kitchen renovation, sears kitchen appliances

The badly needed kitchen renovation of my New York City apartment continues into day seven. I’ve been at it one full week now and today I began installing our new cabinets from Ikea in the new space. Oh, and the appliances arrived from Sears.

The appliances arrived promptly at 8am:

The installation work goes much slower than all the rest of the prep. The hand plastered walls in an older New York City apartment are never square or level, so there are lots of little tweaks and adjustments that need to be made in order to fit everything together. But, things are finally coming together.

Here’s today’s progress report:

Tomorrow the installation work continues.

The Go-To Guy!

Technorati Tags: DIY home renovation, ikea kitchen, kitchen renovation, sears kitchen appliances

The badly needed kitchen renovation of my New York City apartment continues into day six. Today was the mad race to finish patching up all the holes that the electricians and I made in the walls. I also dry fit some of our new cabinets from Ikea to see how everyhting would fit in the new space. The new stove, microwave range hood, and a dishwasher from Sears are scheduled for delivery tomorrow and I got a confirmation call today – 8am!!!

Here’s a progress report for the day:

By the end of day six I had to have the wall repair work finished because the appliances are coming the next morning between 8 and 10 am. They have to go into their final spots in the kitchen, because I don’t have anyplace to put them and won’t be able to move them by myself anyway.

I worked like a madman to finish the wall repair and somehow got everything done. I was able to put up a coat of primer over most of the patches and only have a little work left in the morning before the Sears delivery shows up.

One little bonus today is that I ended the day by dry-fitting a few of the cabinets in place to see how well everything fit. Ellen did a remarkable job putting this all together, because the fit is perfect.

Tomorrow starts very early and promises to be very busy.

The Go-To Guy!

Technorati Tags: DIY home renovation, ikea kitchen, kitchen renovation, plaster repair

The badly needed kitchen renovation of my New York City apartment continues into day five. Today was the day to start patching up all the holes that the electricians and I made in the walls. I also started to assemble some of our new cabinets from Ikea delivered yesterday. The new stove, microwave range hood, and a dishwasher from Sears are scheduled for delivery on Friday.

I spent much of day 5 waiting for the delivery of the drywall and other supplies for patching the holes. While I waited, I put together some of the cabinets.

Here’s a progress report for the day:

The delivery came around 3:30pm. Building supply companies aren’t like Ikea – they don’t bring the stuff inside. The delivery guy dropped things in front of the building (in the rain) and I had to get it all inside myself.

Progress was good today, but I’m getting nervous about getting all the wall repair done by tomorrow. I didn’t factor in enough time for the plaster to dry and to put a coat of paint onto everything.

There’s nothing like the rising feeling of panic to focus your attention and get you working!

The Go-To Guy!

Technorati Tags: DIY home renovation, ikea kitchen, kitchen renovation

The badly needed kitchen renovation of my New York City apartment continues. Today was electrician day and they came to replace the fuse panel and completely rewire the kitchen space. We also got our new cabinets, counters, refrigerator and a sink from Ikea delivered in the  afternoon. The new stove, microwave range hood, and a dishwasher from Sears are scheduled for delivery on Friday.

Yesterday I opened up the walls and pulled the copper tubing for the water supply line to the new fridge. I didn’t have the right kind of gloves to give the grip and flexibility I needed while pulling the tubing and this is the result:

Day four was focused on getting the electrical work done. The electricians were extremely efficient and got the entire kitchen rewired in less than 1 day. The new breaker box is installed and all the outlets are in place. Once I finish repairing the walls, they’ll come back and hookup the outlets and put on the covers.

Here’s a quick shot of the guys hard at work pulling the new wire in the kitchen:

Ikea also delivered the cabinets and sink today. It’s very important to do a complete inventory when you get your order to ensure that you have all of the parts and don’t find yourself in the middle of an installation and missing something important. Our order checked out 100% – very happy about that.

Finally, I also went to the building supply company around the corner and ordered the materials for closing up the walls. It gets delivered tomorrow. While I was there, I picked up the parts to hook-up the ice maker’s water supply line.

When the electricians left I hooked up the water supply line to the main water connection and tested for leaks by running some water into a bucket. No leaks! Everything looks good.

Here’s the recap of the whole day and a look at what was accomplished:

Tomorrow, I start patching up all the holes in the walls and putting together some of the base cabinets.

Stay Tuned,

The Go-To Guy!

Technorati Tags: DIY home renovation, ikea kitchen, kitchen renovation