One old house. Two young people. Plenty to do.
(3 votes)
Recent posts
Riiiiiiiiiight nah-aa-oww…. ovah me. Well, over us. Shall I explain why these Beatles lyrics are so apropos? I think I shall. But first I shall stop saying shall. Do you remember these puppies that we picked up at a yard sale last year for $10 a pop? They’re old professionally framed prints of the berries and wildflowers of Alaska, which we thought were sweet since we honeymooned there. So we spray-painted the frames (and mats!) and hung them on either side of our bed. If that doesn’t jog your memory, perhaps this old pic from that post shall will. Well, recently they’ve – say it with me now – come together. Here’s how it all went down...
read more at This Young House Posted 1 day 9 hours ago.
**Psst- We know most Fridays we just post once, but every month on sponsor shout out days we double up. So we’ll be back in a few hours with a bedroom-related update. It’s time for our monthly showing of thanks to our sponsors (the folks who help make the other 30+ posts happen). This time we took Clara’s recent par-tay as an excuse to celebrate all of the worm-like objects they’re serving up. Just kidding, we went with our favorite pink and orange items since those were Clara’s colors (none of which have been gifted to us – here’s our no-swag policy). And as always, if you’re looking to save some loot, don’t miss the round-up of special discounts at the bottom. Confidence-boosting art prints from Silhouette Blue (hello right back atcha!) Nice Girl Notes...
read more at This Young House Posted 1 day 11 hours ago.
Clara may be another year older, but she’s still a long ways off from her tweenage years. Which is why it was fun to live vicariously through Courtney’s makeover of her 11-year-old niece Emily’s room. Having virtually crashed Courtney’s own home last May, we knew there’d be some great eye candy, and we often hear from folks who’d love to see a tween room or two, so here ya go. Hi guys! I hope all is well in the Petersik house. I wanted to show you my 11 year old niece’s room that we helped her makeover. She would be so excited for her room to be featured! This was an accumulation of four very long months worth of work. We converted an old laundry room… … into a little girls paradise...
read more at This Young House Posted 2 days 7 hours ago.
Hold onto your miniature hats, it’s time for the fun part! When we last left off, John had completed his idea of the fun part… the building process: Which meant it was time to schlep his 31″ x 31″ creation up into the sunroom for some priming and painting. Just like our office cabinets, kitchen cabinets, and the play kitchen we made for Clara, I used a coat of Zinsser Smart Prime (it’s no-VOC but amazingly good for blocking bleed through when you’re painting raw or stained wood) followed by two coats of Bejamin Moore’s low-VOC Advance paint (really durable and awesomely self-leveling). I went with Decorators White since we had it leftover from painting the office cabinets and the play kitchen, so this step didn’t cost us anything...
read more at This Young House Posted 2 days 11 hours ago.
When Sherry and I started talking about building a dollhouse for Clara, I was afraid. I know, I know – scared of a dollhouse? Get your laughs out. But that ominous word conjured up these elaborate images of perfectly crafted, to-scale replicas of Victorian mansions that seemed waaaaay beyond my skill / patience level. But once Sherry showed me some of her inspiration pictures on Pinterest (from Mousehouse, Natty Michelle and Under The Sycamore) my cold sweats dried up and I actually got a little excited. Yes, excited about a dollhouse. Now get those laughs out. More accurately, those cold sweats turned into regular sweats since starting this project required a bit of basement cleaning first...
read more at This Young House Posted 3 days 11 hours ago.
This is one of those posts I never thought I’d write (it’s definitely not very home related) but due to a surprising amount of requests, here it is. I guess anything that has to do with saving money and doing something yourself is fair game, right? I have no idea how I got into cutting people’s hair, but throughout high school and college I just played around, cutting off a guy’s mullet here and giving my BFF a super short pixie cut there (all at my “client’s” requests, of course). Why did they trust me? I have no idea. Maybe I just have a trustworthy face? I most certainly don’t have any formal training. I just sort of treat hair like I’d imagine I’d make a butter sculpture. You just remove the extra stuff so you’re left with the shape you want. Confidence inspiring, huh?...
read more at This Young House Posted 4 days 7 hours ago.
We don’t talk much about our hall bathroom. In fact, in 17 months of living here, it’s been the subject of just three posts (finding an inspiration room, knocking down a towel bar and fixing the toilet). And since we later used almost the same color as the inspiration room in our guest bedroom, we’re no longer planning to use that color in here, so we’re kind of back to square one. But we finally made a little lighting progress, as today’s title suggests. There was nothing especially offensive about the existing fixture – nor anything especially exciting about it. It felt sort of builder basic to us. And kind of “backstage make-up room” to us thanks to the long line of bulbs (long vanity + long mirror + long fixture = lots of long things)...
read more at This Young House Posted 4 days 11 hours ago.
***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – see who won below!*** Random.org did his duty once again and picked our winner of this pair of prizes as… Sarah (whose recently two-year-old daughter insists on telling everyone she is “mean”, and her response to everything is “You’re womp womp (you’re welcome).”) Congrats! Since Clara is officially two years old today, we’re celebrating with a kid-themed giveaway featuring two $200 prizes. Are you sensing a two theme yet? The first comes from Sarah + Abraham who offer a slew of customized treats, including party supplies (banners, invitations, cupcake toppers), housewares (personalized plates, pillows, place mats) and more (stationery, water bottles, magnets, etc)...
read more at This Young House Posted 5 days 7 hours ago.
Aw, yeah. Clara’s second b-day party was full of food, family, friends, fun… and worms (she picked the theme based on her deep love of looking at, drawing, and even dreaming about worms). We were so thankful to be surrounded by the people we love, the bean had the best time, and the 75 degree weather and sunny skies were the icing on the worm cake. Or should I say worm cupcakes. Let’s get this party (breakdown) started… But let’s start at the beginning. Clara was born two years ago today. Wait, that’s too far back. Let’s just cover the party. Here’s the sunroom all decked out for the big day. Nothing too fancy, just some balloons and streamers from Target, a colorful tablecloth from HomeGoods, and lots of worm-a-licious food...
read more at This Young House Posted 5 days 11 hours ago.
Q: Since you decorate/upgrade/reno your house for a living, do you ever feel like you are always working on your house but not ever getting to just live in it and enjoy it? Like when you spend all day cooking in the kitchen by dinnertime you aren’t hungry and don’t even want to eat half the time. If something (like your house) is never quite done and there’s a to do list longer than the purchase contract, is it hard to just peacefully sit without always thinking about the next project and thereby giving yourself low level anxiety? Or….am I the anxious one which is why this even occurred to me? – Rach A: Haha, it’s a great question and we actually get it a lot...
read more at This Young House Posted 1 week 1 day ago.