Lifestyle Archives - Forever.Six.Acres

Board and Batten Wall- DIY

Board and Batten Wall

I’ve been wanting to do board and batten walls for a while in both of the boys rooms. It was a goal of mine to get them done over the summer since I would have more time. We could have done this while we were building, but it saved us money at the time. It was a project we knew we could do ourselves later on. It was so much fun this way, I really enjoyed including my followers on Instagram in the decision making process!

I plan to go over how we did both rooms, which is pretty much the same process, but I took better pictures of the process in Blaine’s room. So you might see some pictures of Liam’s room, or Blaine’s room.

Let’s get started!

Let’s get down to business here. Starting with materials needed!

Supplies we bought and used:

Brown Panel Board
12 ft Pine board
1X2 Treated boards
Minwax Provincial Stain
Sherwin Williams paint and primer in one 1 quart for each room
Mini Foam paint roller
Paint Tray
Painters tape
Angled brush
Nail gun

I have linked some of the direct products we used, but I couldn’t link all the exact ones. I will link similar products that will get the job done though!

Where to start???

First thing we did was measure. Both boy’s rooms are the exact same size, 11X12. Jeremy did the math because he is good at it! He first put one 1X2 board on the out side of the room, then worked his way in, to figure out how many boards he needed for it to evenly be spaced out. I think ours came out to be a little over 15 inches apart. But will be different for rooms that are different sizes! Here is a before picture of Liam and Blaine’s room!

Once we had the measurement’s down of were the 1X2’s would go, we cut nine 4ft 1X2’s. We put the brown panel board on first so their wouldn’t be any texture for where the board and batten wall will be.

We tried to measure the panel board out so when we put up the 1×2’s the seam would be behind one of them. Less Caulk work for us! 🙌🏻 Next, we took a measuring tape and measured out where all the the 1×2’s needed to be!

We used a nail gun to attach the panel board and the 1×2’s. We used about three nailed per board; top, middle, and bottom. We nailed in the board at the top to keep it in place, then used the level to make sure it was straight before we nailed middle and bottom.

Changes

Here is what we did different between Liam’s room and Blaine’s room. For Liam’s room, we put up the 1×2’s first, and for Blaine’s room, we put up the stained board first. The reason we changed this up for Blaine’s room was to make sure the 1×2’s where as far up as possible before attaching them so there wasn’t a gap where the boards met. Again, this less caulk work for us! We caulked the bottom up, but you can’t really see that area!

Although we didn’t have to caulk as much, it was a little harder to tape around the stained board! So this is what Jeremy says about situations like this, 6 in one hand and 1/2 a dozen in the other. It’s pretty much the same thing! But it was good trying it both ways to let you all know it can be done either way! It’s up to you!

Finishing touches on board and batten

We started painting after the caulk was dried and I sanded it to make it smooth. I chose Sherwin-Williams Rosemary green for Liam’s room, and Mindful Gray for Blaine’s room. I love the green color for Liam’s room. It is a little moody, but not to dramatic. I decided on a neutral gray color for Blaine’s room because you can see his room from the living room and I didn’t want it to stand out too much!

Both stained boards are pine wood and stained with Minwax Provincial. I felt like this stain brought a beautiful neutral and natural tone to their rooms. First we sanded down the wood to get rid of any rough spots, and to avoid splinters. We used a lint free cloth to apply the stain on the pine to create a light smooth coat. We did not seal it since it won’t be exposed to water or other things that could stain it.

I used a mini flocked foam roller which will give you the smoothest texture. As you can see, I lost my paint tray, so for Blaine’s room I used a aluminum cooking pan! A smaller angled brush will come in handy to get in between the creases and small areas. Sherwin Williams was so helpful in this process in deciding the colors, and picking out everything I needed for the paint and stain. Definitely a one stop shop for all that! And no, this post is not sponsored by them, I just love their customer service and quality of their paints! I even painted a bright green dinosaur on Liam’s wall, the same Rosemary green so it would match better! The other green was like a bright lime green, it definitely stood out! Haha!

Final pictures of both rooms below!

Blaine’s Paint color is Mindful Gray and Liam’s Paint color is Rosemary.

Small change, big difference

A way we saved money was making both rooms simple when we built because we knew we could do something like this ourselves! Both rooms look so different with this small change! It gave their rooms so much character with just a simple accent wall!

To shop the look of both boys rooms, you can find that info under my Shop with Me page! If you have any other questions or want links to some things, let me know! If you use this post to help you in any way, let me know! I would love to see what you created and share with others!

Have a great day y’all!

Categories: #building101, Lifestyle

Landscape

Hey Y’all! This post has been in the making for a while! The end of the school year is always so crazy busy! But I’m not here for excuses, I’m here to share what I know about landscape! Which isn’t too much, but I’ve learned a few things over the years about deciding what to plant, how to design landscape, and ways to save money. I included this post under the categories Lifestyle and Building101 since this topic applies to both areas!

Let me start off by saying that we did not include our irrigation system and landscaping into our loan. We decided that we would rather do these things ourselves and put that saved money into the house design. So we moved in to a house with no trees, and a lot of mud! You can see the pretty house surrounded by dirt and weeds below. 🙂 We waited about 4 months or so before we decided to hire a local business to do the irrigation system first. Before they put in the water lines and sprinkler heads, they needed a general layout of the landscape design so they knew where to place things. So our the first part of this post will cover how to go about designing your landscape!

Designing Your Landscape

When you start to design you landscape, or really anything, first thing you have to do is research. You can find ideas on Google, Pinterest, Blogs, Instagram, and even looking at houses around your town. Getting ideas from other people is were your inspiration spark comes from! Once you see something you love, then screenshot, save, or take a photo of it so you can reference back to it when you start drawing it out!

Once you have collected your own inspiration, the next step of designing, is to create some sketches on paper, or a computer app if you have something that will work for this. Here’s what I did, I took a copy of our house plans and traced the perimeter of our entire home (driveway, and patios included) onto a piece of blank copy paper. I did this a couple of times because I had a couple ideas I wanted to draw out and see which one we liked best.

Once you have your perimeter of your house traced, you can start sketching ideas on how you want to wrap your landscaping around your home. Do you want it just in the front elevation? Do you want it to go on the sides? How about some spots in the backyard? Are you going to plant trees and put edging and mulch around them? Where do you want those to go? Do you want your edging to be curved and flow, or do you want the more modern look with straight edges? There are lots of questions to consider when designing.

We first added edging around the house to make sure we liked it! Then staked it in the ground.

What We Did for our Landscape

I decided to do a mix of curved edging and straight edging. The front of our home has curved edging around the front elevation. The curve straightens off to a straight edge along the side of the house with the garage. The other side of the house has a large curved out area because of the septic system. Jeremy didn’t want to have to worry about mowing and weeding around that area, so we included in the landscape for that reason and so we could plant plants around it to hide it. The back elevation has curved edges except were we extended the patio concrete pad out. We have straight edging with 90 degree corners to frame that space nicely.

When designing your landscape, also think about the process of upkeep. If making an area have small curves or corners makes mowing or weeding harder, then choose to do something different in that space. It is recommended to have a minimum of 4 ft. of landscape area from the distance of the house to the edging. This is allow plants to have room to grow, and you can layer the plants. You don’t want the plants to grow too close to the house, this can speed up the wear and tear process of your exterior.

Another thing we did before we started was we made our drains into french drains. You can see these black flex pipes that pop out of the ground. This is because those pipes connect to our downspout gutters, so the water doesn’t flood the landscaping area, and the puddles stay away from the foundation area. We eventually cut those black pipes, and put drain lids on top of them. They are flush with the grass now, and you can’t even see them!

What to Buy for your Landscape Areas

Plants

The number one thing to make sure you look into for plants is finding out what zone you live in. Finding out the correct plant hardiness zone will allow your plants to flourish and be as healthy as possible! It also saves you money, because you’re plants will most likely not die due to weather conditions. You can find your plant hardiness zone here on the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map! Once you are there, you can simply locate your area to find out what zone you are in. I am in zone 8A! Then you can research what plants are best in your zone. This helps you narrow down what plants you have to choose from, and it helps you know which plants are right for your landscaping!

If you are a local Texan in my area, or are located in a Zone 8a, then here is a list of plants that seem to do really well for us!

Ligustrums A.K.A Sunshine plant (these are the very bright yellow green shrubs around our home!)
Lantana
Crepe Myrtle
Kaleidoscope Abelia (this shrub changes colors throughout the year, and has small white blooms on it during summer)
Texas Sage (This can get very large, has a lighter green color to it, and small purple flowers)
Mexican Heather (small shrub with purple flowers on it all through spring and summer)
Hydrangeas (these do well in areas that only get morning sun for about 4 -6 hours. Any more that than, or afternoon heat will burn the leaves, and flowers will not bloom. I had to transplant one of mine to a different location this year because it was getting too much sun. It is now blooming like crazy and none of the leaves are burnt!)
Rosemary
Mint
Fountain Grass

landscape plants before weed barrier and mulch

Edging

There are several different ways you can edge your landscaping. You can chose the metal edging, stone, brick, wood, cement blocks, or even no edging. We chose to do the black metal edging, for a few reasons, one because it matched the house, and two because it’s definitely a cheaper option that doesn’t have maintenance. It’s easy to flex and flow for how you want your landscape designed to be laid out.

Tip: Use spray paint to outline where you want the edging to go to help you get a better visual of how the landscape design will flow with the exterior elevation of your house.

Weed Barrier and Mulch

Weed barriers aren’t necessary, but they are great to have if you hate pulling weeds! They aren’t perfect by any means, but oh my gosh they make a HUGE difference! I have linked the ones above in the Amazon favorites ad so you can see the ones we purchased! There are tons of great reviews out of thousands! You will also have to get some weed barrier metal U shaped stakes to keep it down flat. Then you will use a box cutter to cut a big X on the barrier to have the plant come through. Try to push weed barrier back up around the bottom of the plant around the roots. This will help prevent weeds from growing right next to the plant.

Once the weed barrier is down, and the plants are planted, then it’s time for mulch! There are several different kinds of mulch to choose from. I originally wanted the black rubber tire mulch to match the house, but my parents ( who are AMAZING green thumbs) said that the black mulch will get too hot in the Texas heat and kill the plants. Which made complete sense to me, but it wasn’t what I wanted to hear! So we went with Cedar mulch to go with the cedar posts. Although it does fade over time, mulch is usually something that has to be freshened up each year anyway!

Ways to Save on Landscaping

There are several ways we tried to save on our landscaping. We did this all cash a few months after we moved in, so we had time to save money and plan it all out. We still needed to try to save as much as possible. It is definitely expensive purchasing all the landscape for the first time, but after that, it’s not too bad!

One way we saved is doing it ourselves! It took a couple of weekends to get it done, but it was so cheaper than paying someone else to do it! Having someone else do it would have been much easier, but it also would have cost us a several thousand dollars!

Another way we saved is purchasing the mulch by the truck bed load. We have a local place that we found that will give us a trailer or truck bed full of mulch for a fraction of the price of purchasing it bag by bag! To get our landscape started, we needed quite a few truck loads! This year we used about two truck bead loads, but we have a lot of landscape area!

Mulch truck load — Mulch by the trailer load

Purchasing perennial plants instead of annual plants is another way to save money. Perennial plants will come back each year, and annual plants will only last the season. This will help save money in the long run, because you won’t have to replace a lot of plants next spring. I only purchased perennial when we first put in our landscape, and this year I added a few annuals for some color in the front and back, but it wasn’t expensive since most of my landscape came back from last year! You can also purchase a smaller size of the plant you want, it might not be big when you plant it, but it will grow!

We also grew most of our grass by seed. We bought a pallet or two of sod to put in the front right along the sidewalk, and in the backyard right right around our landscaping. The sod in the front by the sidewalk helped keep the sidewalk clean from all dirt and mud from rain. For the back yard, we put a small area of sod grass to let the boys play in this area. This allowed the boys to have some grassy areas to go play in without getting muddy or ruining their clothes every time. They were actually really good about staying on the patio or grass only areas! It also gave our little baby grass seed have a chance to grow instead of being trampled on constantly!! 🙂

Planting Tips

A few points to mention when planting!

Purchase smaller plants that will grow bigger. Maybe purchase the 1 or 3 gallon, instead of the 5 gallon.
Organize your plants from what will grow to be the tallest in the back, to medium in the middle, and shortest in the front.
Don’t plant too close to the exterior.
Dig a large hole, and fill with some soil from a bag to help the plant’s roots settle in.
Put weed barrier up as close as possible to the bottom of the plant.
Mound the base of the plant with mulch. It will settle down once the rain has moved it around or washed it away. It also helps keep moisture around the plant.
Try to create patterns or group together specific styles of plants to create an aesthetically pleasing design that suits your personality and design of your home!
Grow grass from seed. It takes a while, but it is MUCH cheaper! If you need grass in some small areas for kiddos to play in, then you can purchase some sod for those areas, but then let the other areas have grass grow by seed!
Use gardening plant tape and tape taller trees or shrubs to a bamboo stick, or metal T-post so the plant will grow straight up until it’s trunk and roots get strong enough on its own.

Let it Grow

I hope you found some helpful tips or information in this post! Just remember that the plants will grow and it takes time! Let it grow along with you and your family as you live life in your home!

I also posted a reel on my Instagram that shows good before and afters of our landscape! Check out my highlight on my Instagram over our landscaping from last year! It’s called Building101 Landscaping! It talks about each plant we bought, and shows you where exactly we planted everything around the house!

If you have any landscape tips to add to the post, comment them below so others can read about your tips too! Thanks for reading friends, and don’t forget to subscribe to my blog posts! I promise, you only get emails when there is a new post or a special event!

Categories: Lifestyle

Meal Mix up

Meal mix up recipes coming in hot! Sometimes it’s good to switch things up a little, but the boys don’t always love that too much! I’ve put together a post of our favorite go to meals that everyone in our family loves! We have some meals that we cook every week to keep things simple and in routine. We want to try to cook what the boys will eat so we don’t have to have the fight of eating a few more bites every night! But occasionally we switch it up! These meals are easy and quick because we don’t spend much time cooking on week nights! Sometimes just mixing up your basic meals or sides with the simplest things can make a meal feel so new!

Meal Mix up- Oven Baked Lemon Salmon

First up is Liam’s favorite! He may only be 6 and a half (ha!) but he as always loved salmon ever since he was a little baby! When I first started cooking salmon, I wanted to keep it simple, because I knew I wanted to start incorporating it into our meals more often. So, I don’t really measure anything, but you can probably guesstimate what you should use for your own taste. I will try to explain the best I can about how much to use of each ingredient!

Usually, I cook the salmon in the oven, because it’s easier for me than using the grill. So let the oven preheat to 375 degrees while you prep the salmon.

Prepping Salmon

In a 13X9 glass pan, place the salmon filet in the middle. First, add a little olive oil on top (about a spoon full for large pieces of salmon), and spread it around with the back of a spoon. Then, squeeze fresh lemon juice on top. Depending on the size of your filet, use either a half of a lemon, or the whole lemon. Next, sprinkle on a generous layer of sea salt, and Italian Seasoning. And BOOM, that’s it!!

For the photo above, we cooked the salmon on the grill, that’s why it’s on some foil instead of a glass pan. Using a glass pan for the oven will make sure the salmon cooks evenly and it doesn’t stick to the bottom. This image above was also screened shot off my Instagram when I uploaded this to my stories. So sorry for the extra text over top! 😀

I’m not trying to make sushi, so I try to make sure my salmon is cooked to at least 145 degrees. This is what the FDA recommends it be cooked to, and I kinda just trust them! HA! You can tell it is done if it turns a light whitish pink in the middle, and it kinda flakes apart easily! Enjoy!

Meal mix up- Not your Basic Green Beans

Another way to add a little meal mix up are these Lemon Pepper Green Beans. I promise not all my recipes have lemon in them (…I think…)! These green beans are literally so easy, and my boys gobble them up! It’s honestly not much more that what you would do for cooking some green beans out of the can! All you need is a can of green beans, a fresh lemon, and lemon pepper seasoning!

Cook beans and drain liquid. For a regular sized can of green beans, add in half of a fresh squeezed lemon, and season with lemon pepper seasoning (to taste). The lemon pepper seasoning can be strong, so it doesn’t take much! We use this instead of adding salt and pepper! That’s it!

Meal Mix up- Mix it Yourself Pizza

This is one of my favorite ways to mix meals up for the week. Usually it’s on a Thursday, or Friday when the weekend vibes are starting to set in. I don’t really want to cook, and no body can decide on what to eat. I usually keep the make your own pizza ingredients in stock in the pantry, that way I can whip this up and make everyone happy.

This is definitely cheaper than ordering pizza from somewhere! It’s healthier than ordering pizza and even the frozen pizzas because their isn’t as much preservatives! The boys also enjoy making their own pizza!

Now, these make your own pizza’s could definitely be more homemade, but I like to keep things simple and buy the pre-made stuff! We like to use the ultra thin crust, that way we can really taste the ingredients on the pizza. The Classico Traditional Pizza Sauce is my favorite, and the HEB brand roasted garlic pizza sauce is delicious too!

Ingredients for this can be really simple, like what I have above, or it can be really complicated! Here is list of the must have ingredients and optional ingredients in order to make a simple delicious pizza!

Pre-made pizza crust
Olive Oil
Pizza sauce
Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Optional ingredients:

Pepperoni
Black olives
Fresh Mozzarella
Basil
Garlic
Red onion
Jalapeno
Bacon
Red or green peppers
or really anything you like to add on your pizza!

Making the Pizza

There are two ways you can cook your pizza, in the oven, or on the grill. To make the pizza in the oven, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and it will cook for about 10 minutes. It would probably longer if you have thicker crust. The pizza will need to go on a metal pizza pan, or you can put it straight on the rack ( but this can make a mess sometimes). If you are cooking on the grill, make sure you use a pizza stone, and cover it in flower so the pizza doesn’t stick. Cook for about 8-10 minutes (longer if you have a thicker crust).

Making your pizza is easy! I cover the pizza pan with foil because this makes the clean up is easy. Put the pizza crust on the pan, and coat it with a light layer of olive oil. Then, I spread the pizza sauce out evenly to our liking. Sprinkle on a generous layer of shredded mozzarella cheese and finally we add the toppings of your choice!

Meal Mix Ups

I’m definitely not a home cooking blog, but I thought I would share some of the ways we like to mix up our meals! Spaghetti and tacos are always our go to, but we like to change things up every once in a while! Hope something sounded yummy and you try one of these out! If you do, please come back and let me know how you liked it! Also, if you have a meal that you want to share, I would love to try it out! Leave the recipe in the comments below!

Have a great week y’all!

Categories: Freshly, Lifestyle

Freshly Meals

Here me out. Jeremy travels out of town for work all the time. It’s hard for me to cook for a 6 year old, and a 2 year old and myself. By time we get home, we are all hungry and ready to eat. Liam will be happy with fish sticks or chicken noodle soup every day, and Blaine will eat just about everything, including all of the things Liam didn’t eat. I wasn’t never eat healthy when Jeremy is out of town for work, and it’s starting to take a toll on my body.

I knew I had to make a change. SO I started looking into different meal delivery services. I looked into meal delivery serviced that offered pre made meals. I’m not one to eat the same thing for days in a row, and I know my boys won’t either! I finally decided on Freshly Meals, and here’s what sold me.

I knew I didn’t want a food delivery service that I had the ingredients sent to me and cook the meal.That can be done that by grocery shopping, or using what I have at home. My boys would be happy with quick meals, but I need something quick, healthly, and simple for me.

So I decided on Freshly meals. I was nervous because I’ve never tried any kind of meal delivery service. I wasn’t sure if they actually lived up to their title, and if it was actually worth the money. Cause let’s face it, I’m on a teacher budget over here!

There are a lot of meal delivery services out there right now, but let me tell you why Freshly is different.

These things are what sold me on ordering Freshly meals:

It’s never frozen
It’s already made for you (no prep or cooking involved!)
It is so easy to warm up and ready within minutes!
Variety of meals to chose from
I can skip delivery weeks if I don’t want to order that week at no extra charge.

About Freshly meals

All meals are portioned well, which make them have lower calories, carbs, and fat content. Their chefs use natural sugars, minimal processed foods, and they are really good at sneaking in veggies without me even knowing! You can select specific diet plans so and it will only show you meals that are offered on that specific plan. For example, if you want dairy free meals, they only show you the dairy free meals, so easy! Also, all of their meals are gluten-free and they even offer Freshlyfit meals which are even healthier!

Customer Service

What’s even better is their customer service. The day after I put in my first order, I got a phone call from Freshly asking if I had any questions about how Freshly works, and if there was anything I needed. I was amazed! I’ve never had a company follow up with me after I’ve ordered, and before I’ve even received the product!Right then I knew, I had made the right choice!

I asked about when they would be delivered. Living in Texas, I was worried about them sitting on the front porch, especially when the Texas heat starts to kick in. She informed me of how they package their meals to keep them good for up to 12 hours. They come in a large box with foam padding, and two extra large gel cool packs (which are reusable, we saved some of ours in the freezer to keep for coolers if needed) – one underneath the meals, and one on the top of the meals.

First Impression

I was so excited to open my first box on Monday when I got home from work. Everything was packaged just as she said it would be, and all the meals were still really cold! I checked out each meal I ordered and they all looked so yummy! The first meal I tried was the sausage penne because I’m a pasta gal!

I was nervous about it tasting weird or having a weird texture from being warmed up in the microwave, but it didn’t have either of those things. I cooked the meal according to the directions, cook for 3 minutes, and let it sit for 2 minutes. Then, I took it out of the container and put in on a paper plate to let it cool. First bite of sausage, penne, cheesy, saucy goodness was just as delicious as the last bite! The noodles were fresh, sauce had really good flavor, I didn’t taste the zucchini chunks, cheese was the perfect amount, and I liked that the sausage had a little kick to it! Recommend 10 out of 10!

Here is one week of meals I chose! These are all so good, but the Chicken ‘N’ Dumplings was my lease favorite, but still good!

Changing & Selecting Meals

I only order Freshly meals when I know Jeremy is going to be gone for several days. I ordered two weeks in a row, and skipped a few weeks. Then ordered again for another week. It’s so nice that I can easily change my meals each week, or choose to skip weeks all within the app. If you forget to change your meals, it sends you what you ordered the previous week.

I set a reminder within the app to notify me each Thursday. This notification tells me when it’s time to update my meals, or skip that week before the order is put in. I chose for the orders to be put in on a Thursday, and they would be delivered on a Monday. You can chose your plan when you first sign up. You can change your plan within the app if needed. I chose to do the 5 meals a week plan!

They also add new one or two meals weekly, so you aren’t stuck eating the same things week after week!

Favorite Freshly Meals I’ve Tried

Here are a few of my favorite meals if you aren’t sure what to order! Just so you know, I do not have any special diet needs. You should pick a plan that fits your needs.

Sausage Baked Penne
Golden-Oven Fried Chicken and Mash
Cauliflower Shell Beef Bolognese
Freestyle Beef Lasagna
Homestyle Chicken with Masterful Mac & Cheese
Steak Peppercorn
Zingy Buffalo Chicken with Loaded Cauliflower Mash ( Freshlyfit)

Coupon and discounts!

Below are a few codes you can use to help get you started! They are definitely worth using! Especially if you aren’t sure and want to try it out for a week or two! You can always cancel subscription anytime with no fees!

NOTE **Just to be open with you, I these links are affiliated with Freshly, which means I earn a small amount of commission if you decide to order with them. This is at no extra cost to you, it is something the company does with their affiliates. Also, if you aren’t familiar with me from my Instagram, then I’d like you to know that I ONLY promote products that I truly believe in and are worth the money. I am affiliated with other companies, but don’t promote them all because I didn’t believe in their product.**

Use this link below to sign up today!

ORDER FRESHLY NOW

Codes:

Use code PESTO for $15 off your first 4 orders.

Use code rad40x for $40 off your first 2 orders.

or use code get60 to get $60 off ($12 off each order) your first 5 orders.

Reviews

So I hope you take the plunge and order. I truly love this meal service and wouldn’t write this much about it if I didn’t think it’s worth it! If you decide to order, PLEASE come back to visit the Life on Forever.Six.Acres tab and comment how you like it! Good or bad! I wanna know about your meals and your favorite ones!

Can’t wait to hear what your thoughts are!