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  • Our Schoolhouse Reno
    • Our Schoolhouse Reno: A Miracle in the Making
    • Our Schoolhouse Reno: Before
    • Our Schoolhouse Reno: First Fixes
    • We’re Living in a Camper Again – Here’s Why
    • Our Schoolhouse Reno: Demolition
    • Our Schoolhouse Reno: Framing
    • Our Schoolhouse Reno: Siding
    • Our Schoolhouse Reno: Temporary

November 25, 2019 by Jamie Siebens

Creative and Useful Gift Ideas for Tweens and Teens

Are you looking for creative gift ideas for tweens and teens?

As kids grow out of playing with toys, it can be hard to find gifts that don’t fall into the super-expensive electronic variety.

Even more, as a minimalist mom of tweens, I want at least some of the gifts we give to foster independence, creativity, and real-life problem-solving skills. Crafts are great, but creative activities that produce actually useable results are even better.

As the gift-giving season approaches, I’ve been curating a list of really awesome gift ideas for the creative tweens and teens in my own life. There are so many great options out there!

So if you’re looking for some really cool creative and useful gift ideas for teens and tweens almost anyone eight and older, feel free to use this list to get you started.

Note: Links below may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. For more information click here.

Creative Gift Ideas that Build Real-Life Skills

Ukelele Set + Learn Ukelele the Easy Way

You can find amazing, quality ukelele sets with everything you need to start playing for under $60! We got this colorful under-$40 ukelele kit for our 8yo daughter last year and have been super happy with it. I’m thinking about getting this fancy, more grown-up version for myself.

Weaving Loom Kit

There are so many highly-rated options out there! Here are a few I’m considering:

Build Your Own Computer Kit

Okay, so this is an electronic option, and it’s a little more spendy than the other things on the list, but aren’t these cool?

Learn to Code Books

Need some ideas for “something to read” that will build STEM skills? I know some kids who would love these:

Circuit Building Kits for Kids

My nine year-old daughter took a circuit-building STEM class in summer school this year and loved it. There are highly-rated options starting at less than $20. These sets below are the coolest!

Leatherworking Kit

Everything you need to make bracelets, bookmarks and key fobs, plus a new skill!

Wood Carving Tools

This is such a great starter set! Don’t forget to include wood for carving!

Cooking & Baking Tools for Beginners

Our daughter loves to watch baking videos, and she was thrilled to get a kid-sized baking kit. I love that she’s learning a new hobby and important life skill, and we’ve had a great time in the kitchen together!

Beginner-Friendly Sewing Machine + Book

A beginner-friendly sewing machine has been on our wish-list for a while now. I love this super simple model from Janome.

Microscope + Experiment Set

Seriously though, how cool is this microscope set? My science-obsessed kiddos would LOVE this!

Craft Kit Gift Ideas with Actually Useable Results

Candle Making Kit

The beeswax candle-rolling set is such an easy craft — a great option for simple, handmade gift-giving. The pouring set takes it to another level, and would be perfect for a crafty teen!

Soap Making Kit

DIY soap kits are another great craft/homemade gift idea!

Jewelry Making Kit

My kids love making and wearing handmade jewelry, and there are so many kits out there for every style and skill level!

Latch Hook Kit

I’ve got my eye on a few latch hook kits – what a fun way for a teen or tween to make their own decor!

No-Sew Blanket Kit

My kids have done several of these no-sew blanket kits, and they love the sense of accomplishment from assembling their own cozy blanket! This is another great gift idea for almost any age!

Canvas Bag Decorating Kit

Decorate your own library bag, activity kit, shopping bag, or craft tote. This is a great gift idea for a budding artist.

Build/Paint Your Own Birdhouse Kit

Birdhouses are just so fun — and how cool is it to see something you created become a home for a living creature? My kiddos would love these!

Needle Felting Kit

Needle felting is such an amazing art form, and there are a ton of beginner kits to get you started! How adorable is that hedgehog?

Easy Knitting or Crochet Kits

Right now my tweens are into finger-knitting, but I know these are the next step. It’s a skill set they can use for the rest of their lives. So fun!

Don’t you love these gift ideas for creative teens and tweens? I know I’ll be working off this list for years to come! Is there anything amazing that I missed? Let me know in the comments and I’ll add it to the list!

November 20, 2019 by Jamie Siebens

Our Schoolhouse Reno: Temporary

Ready for the next installment of our Schoolhouse Reno?

If you noticed, in the last photos of my last post, the camper is nowhere to be seen. That’s because rather suddenly, in mid-September, my family decided that they were DONE living in the camper.

We were also running very close to the end of our budget, and we knew that any further renovations would be happening slowly, as we could afford it. So we moved some furniture into the house, set up a temporary kitchen, and moved back in.

Since then, we’ve been moving forward, ever so slowly. Ed has installed drywall for all four bedrooms, and the room that is functioning as my office is completely finished except for flooring and trim.

We’ll finish the other bedroom, move the girls in, and then finish the room their currently in.

Our house isn’t pretty or picture-perfect yet, but it’s warm (thank you spray foam insulation) and cozy, and really, we have everything we need.

Here’s what our house looks like these days:

And that’s it, folks! Well, at least for now. Can you believe that we accomplished all of this on evenings, weekends, and days off in less than four months?

While I wish we were finished now, I am super proud of what we’ve done so far, and I have no regrets.

Thanks so much for following along with our Schoolhouse Reno!

Want to see the transformation? Here’s the rest of the series:

  • Our Schoolhouse Reno: A Miracle in the Making
  • Our Schoolhouse Reno: Before
  • Our Schoolhouse Reno: First Fixes
  • We’re Living in Camper and Here’s Why
  • Our Schoolhouse Reno: Demolition
  • Our Schoolhouse Reno: Framing
  • Our Schoolhouse Reno: Siding
  • Our Schoolhouse Reno: Temporary

Would you take on a project like this? Even if you knew you might have to move back into an unfinished house? Would it be worth it?

November 20, 2019 by Jamie Siebens

Our Schoolhouse Reno: Siding

It’s been so much fun sharing our Schoolhouse Renovation project.

So far, we’ve covered Demolition and Framing, and today I’m sharing pictures of my FAVORITE part of the project so far: siding!

When we bought the house in September of 2018, the previous owners had started a siding project but never finished it, and they left us with boxes of brand new tan siding so that we could finish. And that was our original plan – in fact, that fall we completely re-sided the front of the house.

Our first reno of the front. November 2018


But I honestly was never happy with the color or quality of that siding, and once I realized that we would have to tear off the existing siding, cut in windows, and then re-install it, I started lobbying hard for new siding.

I couldn’t imagine going to all of that work to re-install a product that I absolutely hated.

After much discussion, including my (strangely prophetic) declaration that I’d “be willing to live without kitchen cabinets for a while” in order to fit the new siding into our (tight) budget, Ed finally agreed to go with new siding.

Then I promptly fell in love with vinyl board-and-batten siding, which is nearly double the cost of the vinyl lap siding we had been looking at.

Me: “If we have to, I guess we can wait on flooring too.” #priorities

Things I love about the following pictures:

  • You can see the outline of the original 4 tall windows on the long sides of the house — total one-room-schoolhouse vibes!
  • Shiplap!!! <3
  • All the windows we put in ~ swoon.

As you can see, we pulled some late nights working on the siding.

The thicker board-and-batten style vinyl siding could only be installed at temps of 58° F or higher, any lower and it was too stiff to maneuver into position and it would crack and chip when we had to cut it. With cooler temps upon us, we were in a race against time, and we literally finished on the last warm-enough day!

Isn’t she pretty?

You may have noticed that we took off the little enclosed porch we had added last fall. There were some underlying issues with the cement slab causing rainwater to pool inside the porch, and it ended up being smaller than what we needed. We now have the framework in place for a larger, lean-to style porch which we’ll hopefully install next summer.

Just as a reminder – here’s what the house looked like the day we bought it, after adding the porch last fall, and a current “after.”

  • September 2018
  • November 2018
  • November 2019

That’s it for the exterior! Next up, I’ll be sharing our current digs. (Notice there’s no camper in the final pic?)

Thanks so much for following along with our Schoolhouse Reno!

Want to see the transformation? Here’s the rest of the series:

  • Our Schoolhouse Reno: A Miracle in the Making
  • Our Schoolhouse Reno: Before
  • Our Schoolhouse Reno: First Fixes
  • We’re Living in Camper and Here’s Why
  • Our Schoolhouse Reno: Demolition
  • Our Schoolhouse Reno: Framing
  • Our Schoolhouse Reno: Siding <<< You Are Here
  • Our Schoolhouse Reno: Temporary

November 20, 2019 by Jamie Siebens

Our Schoolhouse Reno: Framing

Four months ago we moved out of our fixer-upper and into a 24′ camper so that we could gut our house (a former 1895 one-room-schoolhouse and town hall turned home) from the rafters to the crawlspace.

In my previous post, I shared photos of our demolition process. Today I’m sharing the transformation from a cavernous empty space to framed up rooms.

In real life, the demolition and framing timelines overlap.

Ed framed in the center load-bearing wall, new windows, and the bumped-in kitchen wall before we had fully torn out the subfloor. You’ll see this in some of the photos. We also stopped framing for a while so that we could button up the exterior before winter – so we didn’t fully finish framing until mid-September.

Once again, I’ll let the pictures tell the story. Enjoy!

The most significant thing about this part of the reno is that we took our house from two bedrooms/one bathroom to four bedrooms/two bathrooms, and we nearly doubled the square footage.

We also hired a contractor to finish spray-foam insulating the rest of the house. It worked out to the same price per linear foot as the DIY version, with a better quality product – and most importantly we didn’t have to do it! You can see the finished ceiling in the last photo.

That’s it for now.

Thanks so much for following along with our Schoolhouse Reno!

Want to see the transformation? Here’s the rest of the series:

  • Our Schoolhouse Reno: A Miracle in the Making
  • Our Schoolhouse Reno: Before
  • Our Schoolhouse Reno: First Fixes
  • We’re Living in Camper and Here’s Why
  • Our Schoolhouse Reno: Demolition
  • Our Schoolhouse Reno: Framing <<< You Are Here
  • Our Schoolhouse Reno: Siding
  • Our Schoolhouse Reno: Temporary

November 20, 2019 by Jamie Siebens

Our Schoolhouse Reno: Demolition

Four months ago I announced that we’d be living in a camper (again). While I intended to update regularly on our process, I slightly underestimated how busy and crazy our life would be. It turns out that completely gutting and rebuilding the inside of your house, while living in a 24′ camper with a spouse, two kids, and a cat is actually kindof crazy.

But you probably knew that.

It was quite the adventure.

Looking back, it’s amazing to see just how far we’d come. But I’m getting ahead of myself…

This update covers demolition, which took basically every evening and weekend from July 14 to July 26, and includes tearing out walls and ceilings, painstakingly removing the original schoolhouse flooring (with the hopes of salvaging to reinstall) and pulling up the original 14″ rough sawn board subflooring.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ll stop trying to describe the process, and simply leave you with these:

It’s amazing, isn’t it?



Thanks so much for following along with our Schoolhouse Reno!

Want to see the transformation? Here’s the rest of the series:

  • Our Schoolhouse Reno: A Miracle in the Making
  • Our Schoolhouse Reno: Before
  • Our Schoolhouse Reno: First Fixes
  • We’re Living in Camper and Here’s Why
  • Our Schoolhouse Reno: Demolition <<< You Are Here
  • Our Schoolhouse Reno: Framing
  • Our Schoolhouse Reno: Siding
  • Our Schoolhouse Reno: Temporary



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Recovering perfectionist and creative soul, Jamie writes about intentional living, travel, parenting, and finding beauty in the everyday. read more...

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