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, [...]

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 [...]