What in the winter?

I realised after having a dream that I found a whole other part of my house to renovate, that I really miss renovating! I love taking something ugly apart and turning it into something useful. But unfortunately, I don't have another house to renovate.
I set my sights instead on my basement. Practicing minimalism hasn't quite prevented me from collecting some treasures down there. The trouble with treasure is, if you aren't able to use it, it has no value. 
Two years ago I bought this old gun box. I have a thing for boxes. I especially love big chests (get your mind out of the gutter).

This old gun box had been turned into a shelving unit by the person who had it before me, and painted a dark brown.

Also in the basement: table legs and two perfectly good, but out of fashion, stools that I picked up from the curb.

A bit of sanding to remove the paint and suddenly the hand carved celtic cross stood out beautifully.

The cross being on the door meant that when the door was open I wouldn't be able to see the cross. I took the door off, and flipped it.

After adding the legs and a bracket for stability, I had a pretty cool bar! I moved onto painting the bar stools and five hours later, voila!

A breakfast nook from salvaged materials.

Fix it or buy Refurbished

After my last post I decided I would finally take my blog seriously by releasing a post on a weekly basis and really digging into gardening and environmentalism. Life has a way of throwing us curve balls. As I began research on a new blog post my laptop, which had already been consistently giving me a hard time, spluttered and died. 

As a person born into a society where when something breaks it is easiest to go buy a new one, I was tempted to donate the computer for scrap and buy myself a shiny new one. However, as someone who is becoming increasingly environmentally aware (attempting zero-waste, using reclaimed materials for renovations, cycling to work, eating a mostly plant based diet, etc.) I decided this was a perfect time to practice what I preach.

I do not like to support big box stores if I can help it, so I found a website that some dude in my village created claiming he can fix broken laptops. I contacted him, brought the laptop to his home, and waited. I'm still waiting.

My friend shared this website with me as an option in case I decide to give up waiting for my freelance geek: https://www.newegg.ca/Refurbished/Store

Refurbished electronics, yay!

It can be inconvenient to be eco-aware. I've been without a laptop for over one month now and it makes paying my bills on time more difficult, I miss watching videos (I don't have a TV so all my visual entertainment came from the laptop), and I want to have a computer again. After living 16 years of my life in steady presence of technology I do miss it. I am strong willed enough that I will not sacrifice my dedication for the environment in exchange for convenience, so the wait will continue. 

I hope my readers will consider making the same choices.

Before buying something new to replace something broken, try to fix it or try to buy that product second-hand or refurbished. No matter what it is. I had a second-hand flicker-y lamp, and rather than buy a whole new lamp I just had to buy a tiny new plastic part for it to work properly. Let's try to recycle the resources we've already extracted before mining for new ones and increasing our polluting influence on this planet.

Have a lovely week and continue to practice the art of patience!