Our woodburning stove – one of the things we’d been obsessing about since we saw the house for the first time in March – was finally fitted last week and boy, it’s nice. It’s a small one – for heating a single room rather than the whole house – but we spend most of our evenings in that single room so it’s fine, in fact it’s better than wastefully heating the whole house (either with a bigger stove or with central heating, as we used to do). The stove is also certified for use in a smoke controlled zone – we got a certified one not to blindly follow the rules but because it means they burn more efficiently with less emissions.

John’s dad is one of those people who knows whenever a tree is being cut down within a 10 mile radius so we’ve already got a big stack of logs – some seasoned and ready to burn, others fresh cut so will have to left to dry. They’re currently stacked on an old pallet (to lift them off the ground) and covered in a tarp but with all the wind and rain we’ve been having lately, that doesn’t seem to be enough, and anyway it’s not exactly convenient where it is at the moment so we’re thinking we’ll build a better wood store nearer the house.

I’ve not had to build one before but I imagine there are two ways of doing it – a top opening trunk or more of a workbench, with a solid top and either doors or a flexible plastic cover to the open front.

For making the former, I’m think we’d probably be best off making a frame out of timber then covering the side/making the hinged lid out of any flat pieces of wood to hand (for example, John’s dad has some salvaged old fence panels to hand and also some old school table tops), while for the latter, I’d probably look out for an old kitchen counter top for the surface — it would make a nice potting bench too. Any other suggestions or advice?

What about repurposing existing items of furniture? I guess a standalone wardrobe would work or a dresser – although they’d have to be painted/treated to protect them from the elements. Any other ideas?

A few weeks ago, I made passing reference to arm/wrist warmers but I thought I’d mention them again because it’s amazing what a difference they make.

There are hundreds of different knitting and crochet patterns for fingerless gloves – from the very simple (a square folded over with a thumb hole left in the seam) to ones with cabling-a-go-go and separate half fingers to provide more coverage – and they don’t take long to knit/crochet up — but what are the options for non-knitters/crocheters?

Last week, Leethal posted a how-to make them out of old socks and you can also make them from the sleeves of old jumpers/sweaters/long-sleeved tops.

Any other suggestions? Any advice on refashioning them out of existing clothes – what to look for/avoid in the starting items?

(Picture by deb roby)

So, as I’ve mentioned once or twice, we moved into our new house three weeks ago.

I do apologise for mentioning it a lot but it’s pretty much overwhelming my life at the moment – I’d lived in the last place for nearly a decade and hope to be here at least the same amount of time. It needs a lot of work doing to it – considerably more maintenance-type work than we’d thought (every floorboard creeks, every tap drips…) but also a lot to make it our own. It’s a lot of work but mostly very satisfying.

As we’re getting past the bulk of the “must do instantly” jobs, we’re starting to combine chores and fun tasks and one of the fun tasks is filling all the blank walls with pictures and other creations. I’m definitely going to use a lot of the frame ideas you wonder people suggested when I was asking about mirrors a few weeks ago but I also wondered how people have made the actual surface to paint on – what works well instead of actual canvas? I imagine other lighter cotton such as t-shirt jersey or bed linen might be too thin to hold the paint but would denim from old jeans work as a heavy textured alternative?

I’ve heard about the underside of hardboard being a good surface. What else?

Lizzy left a comment on the Suggestions page, asking:

How about Recycling things into energy saving things? For example, I use leftover cheapo clingfilm as secondary glazing on all single-glazed windows in winter – stick it round the edges with no gaps and hairdry it to make it pull tight and go ‘invisible’.

Also, the shiny silver insides of food packaging (cleaned) can be stuck on a piece of cardboard to be used as a radiator reflector panel. Living in a house that loses heat like a sieve (no cavity walls *shakes fist at builders* ) I would love to hear more ideas from all the imaginative people out there :)

I’m there with Lizzie on this one – I’m amazed by how few energy saving measures the previous owners of our new house have implemented and we’ll have a few busy weeks ahead getting the house into a better, warmer state before winter properly kicks in.

So any suggestions? I like Lizzy’s idea and will certainly be investigating a secondary glazing option for our chilly (single-glazed!) porch. I’ll also be making sure all our hot water pipes are insulated – people have previous suggested using old yoga mats, waffle foam or foam drink holders for doing that.

Old bedding can be used to add another lining layer to curtains and fabric scraps/old clothes can be turned into draft excluders for the bottom of doors. Also don’t forget to turn old woollies into slipper socks and/or wrist warmers so you don’t feel the cold quite so much.

Other ideas?

This “Reduce This” follows on from Tuesday’s “How can I make this?” question: “how can I make a outside washing line cover re-using/recycling stuff?“.

I read a lot of green/simple living blogs by people in the US and it amazes me, utterly amazes me when people say that their local homeowners association or the like doesn’t let them dry washing outside on washing lines. It seems crazy to me that people aren’t allowed to take advantage of the great solar and wind-powered dryer that is the big blue room.

If you can’t dry outside – because you’re not allowed or because you haven’t got any outside space – what do you do to avoid using an electricity-guzzling tumble dryer?

Do you have any tricks to speed up the drying process (extra spinning? ironing?)? Are retractable washing lines the way forward?