Hooray hooray!  It’s the beginning of a 3-day weekend in the United States.  I thought I’d take this quiet internet day to point out a few behind-the-scenes things that have been going on at Making This Home.

1. Chat on Twitter. Quite often, I run into interesting links and ideas that might not be worth an entire post; Twitter is the perfect place to share.  Plus it’s a quick way to see what everyone’s up to in a sentence or two.  So if you’re on Twitter, click here and hit “follow” under my pale little face.  I’d love to follow you, too!

2. You can show yourself with gravatars. Ever notice how over the last few weeks some people have fun little pictures next to their comments on Making This Home?  Those people are using gravatars (globally recognized avatars).  When you go here to set one up for free, you can have your picture or image pop up next to your comments on blogs and forums that have enabled gravatars.  It’s so easy to forget who’s saying what online; a face to a name is always super nice.

Looking forward to seeing you around!  Have a refreshing weekend.

If your idea of remodeling is all about amazing views and tight budgets, you’re going to love this next small space makeover.  Niky and her husband live in Germany.  Piece by piece, she’s been decorating their little apartment and making it home.  I truly love it, and if we hadn’t just finished moving, I think I’d be tempted to beg Niky to let me sip ice tea with her right on her little balcony.

Let’s follow Niky’s inspiring transformation in her own words, shall we?

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What inspired me was the 85euros I had in my wallet! No joking, this was the main theme:) I needed to do something about that space, and it had to be quick and on a very tiny itsy-bitsy budget. So I thought of using things I already owned (see the upholstered chairs, all the decor objects and the planters).

I would like to say that I arranged them so Feng-Shui, but I didn’t. I just put them in there and relaxed with a glass of Ice Tea (I must add that in that specific day it didn’t rain..so not normal for German weather.. but HURAAY for me).

Now, I know my balcony isn’t perfect… but it’s ours and more important ..it’s on a very low budget.

Now chasing down to numbers I spent:

• 40euros on the green patio carpet
• 30euros on that cute table
• 15 euros on the paint
• the rest came out of the house :P

Now the only things I see myself adding(on a budget as well) are some flower boxes(with flowers of course) on the sides of the balcony to hang over the edge..(but all this when the weather gets more stable here in Germany), some other flowers in the other planters, and me and the Ice Tea in one of those chairs :D

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What do you say?  Anyone else want to beg Niky to let us come for a visit?  We could do it vicariously through her blog in the very least.

Want to scope out some more small spaces?  We’ve got a whole slew of them right here for ya.  Maybe you’d even like to see your cozy corner on Making This Home.  We eat that stuff up faster than the best Apfelstrudel, you know.  Share one and all!

When we announced our plans to spend the summer in the Rocky Mountains, we’d just finished creating a Man Cave for Martin to tinker in at the corner of our living room.  The space wasn’t much.  It was just a desk with a bifold door that he could shut when company came to visit.

It was time to leave Berlin, and a bunch of you kept asking me, “What about Martin’s new space?”  To be honest, it wasn’t something we thought a whole lot about.  You want to know why?  Now that we’re settling into our home for the summer, this is where Martin spends his days:

It’s the hangar filled with airplanes, tools, and a whole lot of greasy, man-looking stuff.  It’s where all the guys in the county go to drool.

Before I met Martin, my idea of an airport was revolving doors, metal detectors, and baggage carts.  Now I am seeing the other side of things – the part that makes you smell like an oil can if you spend any length of time in it.  It’s the part where you get to know the “hangar dog” and “hangar kittie” so well you’re practically BFF.  I’m getting used to dirty leather couches (I assume they’re to go with the leather coats all pilots must own).  I have to duck my head to get around the wings of airplanes.  And dusty piles of aviation magazines abound on banged up coffee tables, sort of like the collections at the hair dresser’s except the aviation magazines get really boring.

The good news is that the women’s bathrooms are always really clean.  No one’s around to use them!

Sure I could do without the dust and smell of oil.  But it’s not like I’m going home to our apartment in Berlin and have to worry about getting dirt on the bright yellow couch.  I’m going home to an easy going house made of tires that I share with a family of mice.

Do you guys have any places that you find yourself drawn to?  From the place you always knew you’d wind up to that (oily smelling?) place you never fathomed you’d be spending your days in, we’d sure like to know the place that really floats your boat…  or rather flies your plane.