Bundle of Lime

Today I had the pleasure of attending the Nebraska Historic Preservation Conference, hosted in part by Restoration Exchange Omaha . Until last week, I didn't even know this event existed. Through an odd turn of events catalyzed by work, I discovered the conference and made the last minute decision to attend. Throughout the day, I gained some serious knowledge, networked with a lot of like-minded people, and had quite a blast in the process. The morning started out with Matthew and Sarah Baker Hansen who just wrote this book about...(drum roll, please)...food and culture! ...And history and buildings and grassroots businesses, but they talked a lot about their different culinary discoveries. The authors spent a year traveling through Nebraska tracking down hidden gems, including tucked-away restaurants that you would only find by getting off the interstate and exploring the small towns. This was right up my alley! I know that I haven't used this platform to talk about my l...

After creating the cabinet boxes for my kitchen last year, I was inspired to do more. I have worked with wood before, but for some reason this time, the whole process really resonated with me. The smell of the sawdust after making a fresh cut, the sound of the hand planer as it takes thin curls off of the surface, the feel of the wood once it's been sanded and finished...it just made me smile and gave me a deep sense of satisfaction. In addition, I found myself relaxing for the first time that I can remember in decades. My mind went quiet every time I started working, which was pretty amazing to me. I had been so stressed at my previous job for so long that my shoulders never relaxed and my mind was never truly quiet until I picked up my carpentry tools and started really working on my kitchen. After completing the two cabinet boxes, I wanted to do more which meant that I wanted to learn more. I looked around town at all of the options I could find and concluded that the most co...

All of us here in the Midwest seem to have suddenly awoken on the wrong side of The Wall . Despite the extreme cold (and my irrational fear of White Walkers…I mean, they are about as real as Grumpkins and Snarks), I have managed to do a little work for the exterior of my house. Just before Christmas, I had the siding on my house replaced. I ended replacing the old aluminum siding with heavy-duty vinyl siding. I've noticed that vinyl siding seems to illicit some strong opinions on the interwebs ( here's one ). I have mixed feelings about it myself. My project manager and real estate agent both had positive things to say about it, but on the next house when I do the siding work myself, I will probably look more into wood siding and maybe even try to salvage original materials if possible. Construction is one of the biggest industries contributing to waste, and I love the ideas of keeping the carbon footprint low and saving the historical value of a structure. But I digress. H...