Sustainable Me - Space for Creativity and Backyard Bunnies

I thought that I would include this in my blog, because it is kind of going back to the beginning of our move from the "industrial" area duplex, to the area where we now live. Because of the show "Fixer Upper" and the Magnolia businesses here in Waco, property costs have shot up, property taxes have had increases, and new building projects in the Waco, and surrounding areas have increased.  It has kind of been like living in some kind of boom town era. My parents worked hard to buy some rental properties and build a rental business for their retirement.  My Dad loved to do all of the repair and maintenance, and he was really good at it.  I learned a lot of my work ethic and persistence from him.  As he passed away almost six years ago now from cancer, my mom is the owner/manager of the business now. She sold some of their older properties, and invested into some newer duplexes in the Hewitt area. The original idea was for her to either build a duplex or buy on...

This is one side of the house.  I was thrilled to see that we have some bluebonnets.  This is last spring, and I haven't seen any come up this year.  I hope that the mowers didn't cut them too soon last year.  And I'm hoping that they will come back. This is the back porch and the fence closest to the side road.  I had to hire someone to take down a portion of the fence so that the storage building company could move the building into the back yard.  And then of course, have the fence placed back up after the moving was done.  So there was a lot of coordination involved and I was lucky to have a friend's husband that was willing to help with the fence part of the job. Photo Credit:  Ashley Vera The day that the storage building was moved on to the property was very exciting for me!  I was so glad that everything went smoothly.  This photo shows the back of my house, and how the yard slopes down towards the studio.

To begin at the beginning!  Last spring our family decided to make a move to a different home.  We are still renting, but this new place has more room and is surrounded by a greener environment.  There is a park near by - one street over, and a privacy fence and not in an industrial area like our last home.  So we don't have to listen to the steel plant banging and screeching noise at night, and we see more green instead of an ugly beige industrial building in our backyard.  It is very much an improvement from where we were living. When this move was in the process - I decided that I needed a back yard art studio.  And after looking at Pinterest  and researching the internet, I realized that I could make do with a small storage building.  My grown daughter and almost grown son live with me in our three bedroom two bath duplex, and there is no room in the house for creating art.  The kitchen table stays pretty occupied with us gathering a...