The Hugest Project Ever Undertaken in This House

If you follow me (or Bob, for that matter) on Twitter, then you've probably seen all the work he's been putting into renovating our boat.

To say this has been a huge project is an understatement.

To say I'm really, really proud of and impressed by him is another understatement.

And to say that it was a good feeling and so much fun to take that thing out on the water last weekend is yet another....you guessed it, understatement.

The process included replacing tons of rotten wood, re-upholstering the seat covers (5,000 staples out. 5,000 staples in. Seriously!), putting in new carpet, painting a new floor covering (KiwiGrip), and a few additional mechanical and cosmetic touches that Bob could tell you all about, including but not limited to waxing the boat and putting new carpet and new brakes on the trailer Whew!

Here are a few pictures showing the process:
It's helpful to use the steering wheel as a focal point to help you see where everything is.
Also, Blogger's picture spacing drives me nuts. Sorry for the inconsistency.

We'll call this a "gutted before" picture.

Old, cracked seat cushions.

Some rotten wood, just a little bit of what needed to be replaced.

Before - Back Deck Cushion

After - Back Deck Cushion

A good "before" picture.

And a good "after" picture.

That gutted, "in between" picture.

Ta-da!

Hooked up and ready to go...

We are.

SO.

EXCITED!

Cute guys!

We forgot to pack Sam's life vest so he was stuck with this gigantic orange one. He was a great sport about it though.

Cute kid.

A little self-photography to make sure my presence was documented.

Lots of jumping...even more avoiding the propeller.

All in all, we're hoping this boat will provide tons of fun family time! So far, so good.

Thanks Bob!!

DIY Eye Make-up Remover

I'm on a little "make my own stuff" kick.
Have you noticed? You haven't? That's probably b/c I haven't quite finished my batch of DIY laundry detergent. When I do finish, I promise to post about it. (hopefully sometime this year....)
However, I have posted about DIY dishwashing detergent (See here for that.)

And now this...eye make-up remover.

This is incredibly easy, incredibly cheap, and incredibly effective.

I'm running low on eye make-up remover and have been mulling over when is the best time to hike it up to the mall, our nearest Sephora, to get a bottle of their remover. I bought some with a gift card last year and really, really like it. It cleans easily, isn't oily, and it's pretty cheap.
It's not as cheap as this concoction though!

Mix the following ingredients:
1 cup of water
1 1/2 tablespoons of baby shampoo (tear-free)
1/8 teaspoon of olive oil (you can also use coconut oil or baby oil, although apparently there are people up in arms about putting baby oil on your eyes...) *

Anyway, stir that up real well in a bowl and immediately pour some into a tiny bottle.
I say immediately because I think it separates pretty quickly and you want a good mix in your tiny bottle.

Verdict: This cleans really well, there is no oily residue, and it's scented with my kids' shampoo! Who doesn't love clean baby smell?!

*I got the recipe from here.

Cost Comparison for the DIY Dishwashing Detergent

This is a follow-up to a previous post.
Thanks to my wonderful husband's number-crunching, the verdict is in. This DIY dishwashing detergent costs .3 – .4 cents a load!!!
We run the dishwasher about once a day, so a conservative estimate is that we’ll run it 300 times in a year. So using this recipe, we’ll spend $12 a year.
The gel paks are .35 - .40 each. ($105-$120 a year)
The powder runs about .28 per load. ($84 a year)
Obviously, getting the Cascade products on sale and using a coupon, or using another cheaper brand, would lower this cost marginally but still…good grief!
I did find all the ingredients for this detergent at Wal-Mart, in the laundry detergent aisle.  Any other questions? If you’re not making your own yet, why not?!

DIY Dishwashing Detergent–A Collaboration

Over the last year and a half, my grocery/household item spending has gone like this:
1-shop at Wal-Mart and stretch food as far as I can/eat lots of cheap stuff like spaghetti
2-delve far into the world of couponing, save tons of money/save a little less but have way more food than we used to and purchase lots of cheap food like instant mashed potatoes, pasta, frozen pizza, etc. and get most of our toiletries for extremely cheap or free (toothpaste – always free, razors – frequently free, shampoo – really cheap, etc.) shopping at Wal-Mart, Publix and CVS mainly
3-realize the benefits for Bob (at least) from eating a gluten-free diet and begin purchasing WAY more produce and meat and WAY less packaged “cheap” food – also begin to spend a whole, whole lot more in this category than we were spending
And so now, we find ourselves in #3. We are eating healthier, that’s for sure. But we’re spending quite a bit more than we were in #2, on groceries.
I’m constantly looking for ways to cut cost, especially in this category. It makes me feel like I’m contributing to our household financially. I guess that sounds silly since I’m not actually bringing in any money, but saving it is almost the same thing, right?
Anyway, I’ve seen lots of stuff about DIY detergents and really, in the past, and just brushed them off thinking these concoctions probably don’t clean as well or smell as good. The jury is still out on laundry detergent (we bought the ingredients but haven’t yet made our mix), however, I can tell you that most dishwashing detergent stinks anyway and this recipe cleans just as well, if not better, than what we have been buying.
If money were no object, I’d probably stick with these little guys. Since it is, money, an object, we recently switched to this.
I hate it.
That’s probably why I’m typing this post right now. If I’m going to use powder detergent, it’s going to work and be really cheap.
So here’s the recipe we’re using:
1 cup borax
1 cup baking soda or Arm & Hammer Super Washing soda (the DIY laundry detergent recipe I found uses both so I have both - we're currently using baking soda)
1/2 cup table salt
1/2 cup Lemi-Shine
Rinsing agent: white vinegar (just fill up the reservoir with this stuff)
Not pictured: table salt and white vinegar

Now if you’re looking at this picture and judging how dirty my stove is, shame on you. Just shame on you.
It’s a mix of a few recipes that we found online with this one being the basis. You can make a much bigger batch if you want but you only need to use about a tablespoon for each load.
I can’t take credit for this. I found lots of recipes for DIY dishwashing detergent (as well as laundry detergent) on the internet and after my first attempt left tons of hard water spots, Bob found some too. In fact, he made the final adjustments to my initial attempt.
So, DIY dishwashing detergent?
I’m sold. A believer. A convert.
Now, on to the laundry detergent.