When the Christmas season came to an end and Martin and I returned to the tire house, we were ready to move. The little flame that has been burning inside us burst into something so large, something so uncontainable. All of our being is pouring into the creation of our home. We’re addicted to the idea of a warm space of our own. In fact, it’s so consuming that I almost forget to pause and write to you about the decisions that we are making (or anything else, for that matter!).

(Love seeing a wall go in! We’ll call it a little sneak peek for ya.)

We’re trying to make the greenest choices that we can afford. To us, that word – afford – means two things. How much money does it cost? How much driving and use of our time does it cost? Every day that we pay rent at the drafty tire house and the mortgage on the hangar costs us more, and we’re just so burned out on paying for both.

Deep in our hearts, you know Mother Earth is a good pal of ours. Somehow, we just want to do the best we can; it’s not perfect, but we’re trying. Here are some of the green choices we’re making at the moment:

1. We’ve reused all the old 2x4s that were a part of the old pilot training room. Pulling the nails out of those guys gave me awful blisters, and the lumber twisted just a little while waiting to be framed again. But all in all? Awesome.

2. In places where we need new insulation, it’s all an eco-brand that a local hardware store sells (and delivers!).

3. We’re shopping at locally owned stores as much as possible. I’m calling this a “green move” because the local environment and local economy go hand-in-hand for us. The big box stores several communities over don’t provide our community with nearly so much as small businesses. And quite often, small businesses are more open to improving their green efforts if you ask.

4. We have most of our building supplies delivered. Several local businesses make weekly deliveries in our rural area. It’s more fuel efficient to have a big truck go to multiple job sites along the same road than having everyone go back and forth to town. I don’t even want to think of how many trips it would have taken to get all this drywall out to the airport. Sometimes, being green means getting lazy.

5. Martin’s plugging away at the geothermal heating system every night after Pete the Carpenter, his funny little poochie, and I have gone home. (Evenings are when I start making soups to take us through the week and building all your handmade journals.)

Look at all those geothermal plans Martin has taped on the wall! I tell ya. We’re on fire over here.

6. Our house is gonna be pretty darn small, which if you ask us is pretty much the greenest thing anyone could do. If I start going into that again after living in a 480 square foot apartment in Germany, you’re all going to roll your eyes and call me a broken record. “Small…. smart… super…” I just can’t help it. We love the coziness (and affordability) of a small home! This one will be 720 square feet.

7. We’re just starting to think about greener finishing details. Paint. Flooring. Locally made countertops. Local wood cabinetry (made by us?)… Here’s where we’re starting to see the potential for paying the big bucks, which makes us slow down and really think about what matters most to us. Luckily, if we pick a few green details that really matter to us, we can afford them thanks to our small square footage.

8. Here’s where you come in. Have any green construction tips we should be aware of? Anything you think we should implement? Or better yet: what would you do in your dream home?

“Hey boys,” I shouted across the airplane hangar. “What are you doing up there?”

“Buildin’ stuff.”

“And alignin’ stuff.”

“For what?” I asked.

“To give you walls!”

“Oh! Well in that case, I won’t interrupt you guys. Carry on.”

A note on construction:The boys are building the walls piece by piece, lifting them up, and putting them into place this week. (If you look at the walls they’ve installed in the last photo, you can kind of see how they were put up in three pieces all in a row.) Building a home inside of an existing structure is a bit different than building a free standing house from scratch. In the picture of Pete screwing on drywall (phone #2), you can see the “outside” of our walls – the part of the wall going against the hangar wall. Martin decided to use 5/8″ drywall. Beneath the drywall is a layer of metal screen on the bottom half and a sheet of plastic. Sound crazy? We’re determined to keep all airplane related things out of our home (namely any mice that walk into the hangar door when its open, any airplane-related fumes, and airplane-related noise). After the electrical rough-in and a little more plumbing, we’ll add insulation and rock the interior walls. (The insulation serves as a barrier against sound and heat; airplanes really don’t need to be as warm as you and me.) The energy at the whole airport is crazy and awesome. We can’t believe this is finally happening after months of decluttering, tearing down, and planning.

Now its your turn. What kind of “buildin’ stuff” are the boys in your life up to these days? Any remodels? Squirrel feeders? Microcontrollers? Taxes? Hey, you never know!

Sometimes I park my home construction cart right smack in front of my horse. It started about 20 years ago. My brother and I decided that we needed a treehouse. Our dad was at work, and it would be another million hours before he’d be home to help us. That is, of course, our assumption that after a long, hard day at the office, all our dad would want to do is take off his tie and climb into a pine tree to help us build our fort, which we figured he could wrap up by nightfall.

We waited for a few minutes and ultimately decided: we couldn’t wait a million hours for our dad to come home.

We did what any logical kids would do; we took measures into our own hands. We drug a few sheets of plywood out of the garage and laid them under the tree. We found some 2x4s and the little saw set my brother got for Christmas. I had my red hammer. Our dad kept nails in baby food jars; we grabbed the jars with the longest nails we could find. Those would hold better.

My brother and I talked about our plans, and I ran into the house. I came back and dumped my art supplies in the grass. Then I started painting a fake picture frame and family portrait onto the plywood.

“What are you doing?” my brother asked.

“I’m decorating the treehouse.”

“But,” he said carefully the way little brothers do when doubting their older (wiser) sisters. “We haven’t even built the treehouse yet.”

I didn’t stop my drawing. “I know.”

Horse. In. Front. Of. Cart.

Fast forward 20 years. I receive this book to review.

I sit down at the table to flip through the pages while Martin sits next to me with his digital thermometer. I talk about all the cool painting projects we could do. He points and shoots his thermometer at the walls, the floor, the table… “How can you design a house and make it so cold?!” he asks. (We’re in the tire house, wrapped up in blankets.)

I shrug. “We’ll make our house in the hangar warm.”

I flip a few more pages of my book.

“And we can use hand-painted napkins like these,” I add.

Horse. In. Front. Of. Cart.

We don’t actually have a table right now. Our old table became a makeshift desk in my old bedroom at my parents’ house.

Martin acts cool. (No pun intended!)

I flip a few more pages.

“Maybe we should stencil our bedroom walls!” I’m brimming.

You should be aware: we don’t actually have a bed yet. Our mattress dates back to my high school days. Martin just looks at me. He knows my troubles with carts and horses when we do construction.

“Let’s just start with getting the walls,” he says.

I stop looking at the book and look at his thermometer-clad self. “OH!” I boast. “We have walls!”

Now who’s mixing up the cart and horse?

Psst. Amy was super sweet and set up a Pinterest Board for everyone to post suggestions for the loft. I’d LOVE to have your input, too. Leave your Pinterest account name below, and we’ll get you in the group.

Do you ever get so excited about some details that you forget about all the steps that need to come first? What’s your hurry up and start playing project these days?

There is no longer winter napping going on here. The rumble of the forced air heating system rouses us, and we spring from bed. No exaggeration. I’m not sure Martin and I have ever wanted something so badly as we want out of the tire house and into a cozy space of our own.

Early in the morning with new snow on the ground, we get started.

Martin brings up the air compressor. Pete rolls up his sleeves.

Pete is a carpenter we have hired to help us. He’s got mad skills, and he’s just a blast to be around.

His dog is also a kick to be around. This little guy loves to go outside to roll around in the snow and catch snowflakes on his tongue every few hours. He’s the sort of poochie that makes you think, “Boy, we need a dog!”

But first, we need a house. Back to work!

My first line of business is patching all the rips and punctures in the insulation. These spaces will all be blocked off by the framing that Martin and Pete are planning, so I don’t have time to dawdle. Or yack. Or catch snowflakes with the dog.

Chalk lines are drawn around the perimeter of our 750 square foot home. They’ll be really useful for squaring the whole home up when the boys start framing. Chalk lines also help us get exact measurements. No more approximating around here.

Meanwhile, I’m still tapping. I’m on roll #2, and I think the boys have a plan.

Egads! The above picture made it painfully obvious. I need to seal the seams between the ceiling insulation before it gets closed up. All the old tape was peeling off. (Either that or a few silver snakes dangling from the ceiling were thinking of chomping off Pete’s nose.)

Goodbye old silver snakes. Hello freshly sealed ceiling panels. Omph. And hello stiff neck that silently complained for the next 12 hours and made me tip my head quite awkwardly in the post office while mailing your journal packages.

Can’t wait for Pete and Martin’s plans to come together; I think it’s going to be awesome!

While we wait, maybe you can help me. After work tonight, my task is “start researching light fixtures we want and can afford.” Tips? Suggestions? Your dream lights? We’d love to steal your ideas. I mean “be inspired by” your ideas. ;)

As you are reading this, I am probably doing one of three things. I’m either curled up in a bed stacked high with quilts as it snows and blizzards outside. Or I’m adding a bajillion inspiring kitchen bits to Pinterest. Or – and this one’s really the most likely – I’m at the hangar doing this:

Martin is here at the hangar with me. Either that or he’s ordering more supplies to be dropped off as soon as the storm blows over. Next week?

You may recognize the spot where Martin is crouched in his white space suit. I showed you that space on Friday when it was oh-so-beautiful and looking, well…

That’s the location of our future toilet. Oh boy.

It’s crazy busy around here. But the funny thing? The hangar feels so much warmer than the tire house that we’re renting just because the hangar is so well insulated and sealed. I think I’ve decided that old tires are the worst material ever for building houses. (We recently met an engineer who built one in Texas, and I’m sorry to report that he was unhappy with the temperature extremes in his, too. Oh well.)

But a steel building, even if it’s dirty and needs to be scrubbed? Even if it’s so messy it’ll never be pinned on Pinterest? I’m liking it.

I’m liking this ugly insulation blob above the toilet plumbing.

When we were decluttering this summer, we discovered a window behind all of these boxes on the left.

It let in so much light.

Unfortunately due to the height of the ceiling, we had to close off the window so we could have a shower. Silly us. Who needs to shower in the country?!

Well after all the progress we’ve made and the dust we’ve stirred? Us.

So today, imagine Martin and me standing somewhere below:

Imagine us wearing funky warm clothes, heavy hats, and orange rubber gloves. Imagine the dreams. Imagine you’re standing at our front door. Because this angle? That location is exactly where this shot was taken from late at night. Welcome to our home.

There’s not a whole lot to talk about with the hangar loft home remodel right now unless you’re into the fine art of bathroom plumbing.

It’s not exactly the chocolate santa in my Christmas stocking.

Of course, I am not this guy.

Martin really gets into the world of plumbing and geothermal heating. When we do inventory counts, he makes it look like an art.

Right, little kitty?

Monday is scheduled to be an enormous party over here. And by “party” I just mean a lot of deliveries and a lot of people. We’ve got airplanes to move out of the hangar and lumber to bring in. The subfloor needs to be leveled and put back down. Then it’s time to start framing. Yes… FRAMING!

We’re super excited to show you the plan for framing. It’s nothing like you’d do in normal home construction. Of course, homes usually aren’t built inside steel structures. For now, we’ve got some lumber orders to put together.

What types of orders have you got scheduled for the weekend? Any pizza deliveries? Or couches? Maybe it’s just one of those late but not too late Christmas cards in the mail. I love those!