SHL Ep.7: Country vs. City Living & DIY Shower Tile Progress

In this episode of Simple Homemade Live we explore the pros and cons of moving to the country, which is a dream for a lot of people. We’ve done it and we can say that there are a lot of positives. But there are some negatives too. It’s not for everybody. Find out the nine pros and cons (in our opinion) of moving rurally.

Plus, check out our progress on the farmhouse shower tiling!

Simple Homemade Life Video

SHL Audio Podcast

You can also find this episode on podcast listening apps like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and TuneIn Radio.

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On The Farmhouse Property

Pros & Cons of Living Rurally vs. City

We started off mentioning that these are kind of subjective, depending on what you and your family’s goals are and preferences. So read on with that in mind…

Pros:

• privacy
• better views “room to breathe”
• quiet
• room to grow things – both plants and animals
• all the animals to see, both wild and farm
• save money (usually no water and sewage monthly cost; grow own food; not near things to spend money on)
• seems friendlier (know your mail person, who pump gas, etc.)
• running/biking/walking on peaceful country roads
• amazing how you can see the stars

Cons:

• more room/land = more work
• more room can also = more junk stored
• longer commute
• inconvenient to shop, eat out, do things, get to appointments
• limited public transport, more dependent on cars
• smaller schools = limited options for language, sports, etc.
• weeds
• potential for isolation
• tech: last to get power if it goes out, potential for slow internet and spotty cell

What would you add to these lists, if anything?

In The Farmhouse Bathroom

DIY tiling the shower!

I’ve gone on record saying I didn’t want to tile again (Podcast episode 56), but like we mentioned in the last SHL episode, the bids we got back were thousands more than we thought.

So yeah, we’re tiling!

And I thought floors were hard – yikes a shower is WAY more involved. But as you can see from the photos above, we’ve knocked most of it out in a little over a two weeks (long Saturdays and a few hours every weekday).

A friend came and helped Brian put the floor system in (he talks about that in the episode) and the floor tile. Brian then started on the walls and when he got all the tough bottom part almost done, I came in to help go up the walls (ha!).

The nine foot walls. That aren’t straight because – 100 year old house.

You can imagine our celebration when we finally reached the top!

We have the threshold, bench seat and niche walls to finish up. We’ve run into issues with finding tile that matches the subway tile with finished edges, but I’m sure we’ll come up with something.

Definitely stay tuned for the final reveal!

Oh, and now I realize that tiling the floor is goin to seem like a cake walk, lol.

Links to the tile system similar to the one we used:

• Kerdi-Shower 38 in. x 60 in. Shower Tray
• Full Kerdi Shower Tiling System

What’s Next

How to use “Urbanite,” aka – broken concrete used in landscaping!

You are definitely going to want to catch the next episode where we talk about all the ways you can use broken concrete in the garden, including a patio, edging, and more.

Look for new episodes every other Friday on YouTube or here on the blog!

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