Can Your Relationship Survive a DIY Home Renovation Project? Yes! Here’s How Ours Did.

Renovating a house with your significant other can be stressful. I know. While overall Brian and I enjoyed the experience of renovating our new house together, there were definitely instances in which we questioned each other’s sanity in regard to design choices. But now that we’re in our new house – and both loving it [...]

“Before” and “Now” Pictures of Our New House!

A reader emailed me yesterday asking for more house renovation photos. I thought I had been doing a good job of sharing our DIY project progress, but then I realized that, while I’ve been updating my renovation album on Facebook often, it has been awhile since I shared photos of our house renovation on the [...]

D-I-Y Done!

In the last month I’ve stripped wallpaper, scraped paint, removed nails and screws and stickers from walls and ceilings, mixed joint compound, spackled walls, sanded walls, primed walls, painted walls, painted trim, dusted, vacuumed, cleaned, dusted, vacuumed, cleaned (yes, again), removed fixtures, become adept at taking down shelves with a crowbar and hammer, sanded floors, [...]

Old House, Vintage Finds

I love history. It’s why I majored in the subject in college. I love discovering things about the past, especially as they pertain to me. So buying a house that was built in 1900 with a lot of things to discover about it has, as you can imagine, been a very exciting experience for me. [...]

Sanding walls: an unexpectedly fun date night activity

Last night, Brian and I had a two-hour date at the new house. Sure, we were sanding walls while dressed in our working-on-the-house clothes, and wearing safety glasses and dust masks (not exactly typical “date night” apparel)… …but we actually had a great time. With Christmas music playing in the background, we were spending time [...]

Home Renovation Project: Two Rooms Done (and Learning To Compromise On Paint Colors)

If you’re a regular reader, you know I’m crazy about Brian. Like, I love the guy beyond words. But during this home renovation project we’ve got going on, there have been a few times that he’s driven me a little bit crazy. Like when he suggested that we make this room our designated “demo room” [...]

Video Tour of our House’s Second Unit (2nd & 3rd Floors)

Brian and I gave a tour of the first floor of our new home the other day. Let’s be honest – it could’ve used a little more energy. So for the tour of the second unit of our home (second and third floors), I thought I’d include the excitement value that only four brothers can [...]

Home Renovation Project: Day 1 (Plus Video House Tour)

I wanted to blog about this yesterday, when it actually was our first day renovating, but after hours of cleaning and stripping wallpaper, I was too exhausted! Oh man, we have a lot of work to do! But it’s all good… we got a lot done and I started to do a little decor/furniture planning/placement [...]

We’re homeowners! And soon-to-be DIY-ers!

As of today, Brian and I are homeowners! And future landlords! We bought a two-family house and will be living on the first floor while renting out townhouse-style second and third floors. Now we just need to rent it. But the second unit is pretty much all renovated; our apartment, however, can use some major [...]