Floating home conversion on a shoestring.

In April of 2010 we purchased a boat house for a song. The goal was to convert it to a 1,700 square foot home with a small budget and recycled products. So far, so good. The windows are all from architectural salvage centers along with a lot of the wood. It's not complete here but it's well on it's way. Talk about a BIG design project!

Office cabinet's new life as a bathroom cabinet for $25!

So we needed a contemporary looking cabinet for our new downstairs bathroom. Everything we could find was way too expensive for the quality. $2,000 for a single contemporary cabinet is highway robbery. Luckily in Portland we have Habitat for Humanity ReStore where other people's junk can become your treasure. For $25 I picked up this cabinet. It had to be cut down and re-sized. No problem thanks to my handy husband. We added a eco-friendly compressed paper counter and chrome faucet and now it sits proudly in our new bathroom.

$45 garage sale find is a hidden treasure!

This chair was found at a garage sale covered in a horrible pink and blue floral brocade. I talked the owner down to $45 and promptly took it to get reupholstered. In the meantime I researched the the designer. Recently I found out that this is a Ib Kofod-Larsen a Danish designer who made furniture in the 60's for  the Swedish market. At the time, his designs were too extreme for Swedish taste. Today his creations are sold at higher and higher prices. Estimated value: $1,400-$1,800!