Project alert! I’ve been in a pretty quiet place when it comes to personal projects. But I’m starting to come out of my annual March Funk and I’m feeling some creative motivation and I’m ready to take it on! Instead of setting goals for 2021, I set intentions. My three intentions are:
Actually LIVE here
Thanks to COVID, I don’t feel like I really live in Berlin. I see this coming together as: continually improving our apartment, learning more German, and exploring this city/country.
Figure out the next iteration of The Plan
We moved here without an end date. But our relocation package has strings attached until early May (which will be two years here WHAT). So I want to figure out roughly what our next steps are going to look like.
Be creative in the rest of your time
I have a ton of time, right? I may as well spend it doing what I enjoy. Which is being creative.
Monthly Goal Process
Every month, I’ve been writing and prioritizing goals based on these intentions. It’s been a great way to focus my goal-setting. I have a bad habit of feeling obligated to finish things, but if it has fallen out of line with my intentions, it’s easier to shelve the project until later.
This month, I realized that a big part of living here is using our apartment to its fullest. That includes two terraces! We live on the ground floor and have a decent-sized terrace on each end of the apartment, one off the living/dining room and one off our bedroom.
Last year, we made a half-hearted attempt at a garden. We got some cherry tomatoes, some tiny potatoes, and exactly two strawberries out of it. This year, we have bigger plans.
Plan: Back Terrace
Our back terrace (the one off the living/dining room) is long and thin. You might remember that I made a storage bench. That lives in one corner. I’m planning to build a workbench for myself, a chair, and a couple small tables. I’m going to be using plans from Ana White, like with the storage bench. She has an incredible collection of free and simple furniture plans. If you’re looking to build something for yourself, I would highly recommend checking her out.
We also recently bought a few sets of outdoor flooring from IKEA. We’re hoping the nicer flooring will entice us to go out there more often.
Seating side: Zack for scale 
Garden side: despair for contrast 
Plans!
You’ll notice that the flooring doesn’t go well with the storage bench. I’m thinking it might get a coat of paint. I think I’ll do the storage bench and chair in a neutral color, the tables in a bright color, and maybe stencil in the color on the bench/chair.
As for plants, we’re planning on putting most our container garden on the front terrace, since it gets southern light. So the back terrace will have lower-light plants and flowers.
Plan: Front Terrace
As I said, most of our container garden will be out here. It’s smaller than the back terrace, but more square. Our current wish list of plants includes:
- Potatoes
- Tomatoes
- Strawberries (new ones if last year’s plants didn’t survive the winter)
- Peppers (Zack found a local hot sauce company that sells pepper plants and then will buy your harvest back from you!)
- Horseradish
- Kale
- Onions
- Basil/Thyme/Parsley (these will live indoors)
- Cucumbers
- Eggplant
It’s an aggressive list. We’ll be going to the garden center this weekend to see what we can find. We already have a bunch of planter bags, so we’ll see what we can fit in what we have and then go buy more if necessary! As for furniture, I’m going to prioritize our back terrace furniture. But if I have time, I’ll make a table and chair for out here, too.
Timeline
Last year, I expected to get the storage bench done in time to use through the summer, but I didn’t finish it until October. This time, we’re setting a deadline for me. I have until the end of May to get my building done, and we’ll buy whatever I don’t finish. Germany recently created some new guidelines for COVID. If the 7-day instance stays below 100/100,000, you can go shopping with an appointment. (Once it gets below 50, we can shop in reduced capacity). We had been hovering in the low 60s until recently. Yesterday’s number was 94. So I’m going to make an appointment to go buy wood, but we’ll see how far I get in collecting supplies before things shut down again.
Anyway. I’m excited for spring, and funneling my creative energy into building outdoor furniture is a great way to express it!
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