What’s With the Name? Each of us has a home. Whether we rent, own, or live with other family members, we get up and go to bed in the same place (most of the time). Most of us are working to make our home and community better, either through remodeling, community involvement, or simply painting a room in the house a more cheerful color.
Each of us envisions the perfect home and community for our family and our neighbors. And we work to get there - one project or cause at a time. Anyone who’s owned a home for more than a few years knows that the list of house and community projects never ends. But that doesn’t stop us from tackling them, because every project moves us One Project Closer to the perfect home, or community, or life. So that’s what the site is about: tips, advice, experiences, products, reviews, giveaways, finances, how-tos, tools, and more that help us build better homes, communities, and lives. Whether we get to the perfect end, well, that’s not really that important, is it?
So Who’s Writing Here? In short: Fred, Kim, Ethan, and Jocie. We’re four best friends living in the same community in the suburbs of Baltimore County, Maryland. We’re married (Fred to Kim, Ethan to Jocie), and have three homes between us. Fred & Kim live in a four bedroom traditional colonial in the back of a cul-de-sac. Ethan & Jocie live in an end unit townhome that backs to the woods on another court. Fred and Kim own another townhome in a nearby community that they rent out. Our community has about 450 homes on 130 acres, and is governed by an active (but not too intrusive) Homeowners’ Association. We’ve a nearby community pool, and are blessed to have a number of other friends living close by.
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Recent posts
This week’s Before and After winner comes from a well know style and design resource on the web: Rhoda @ Southern Hospitality....read more
Posted 1 day 11 hours ago.
As Hurricane Earl makes his way up the Atlantic coast, we have a tangible reminder to review our homeowners insurance policies for hurricane and tropical storm deductibles and exclusions. Hurricane insurance deductibles can have a dramatic affect on how an insurance company will compensate you in the event your house is damaged in a storm....read more
Posted 2 days 12 hours ago.
You may have a slick, new dishwasher with all the features but it won’t matter unless you know how to make it work for you. There are a couple things you can do to improve your dishwasher efficiency and best of all, they only take a few moments to accomplish. Dishwasher Filter Dishwashers have a filter to keep objects and large food particles from entering the pump....read more
Posted 3 days 11 hours ago.
Do you know what the coolest thing is about blogging? It’s the interesting connections you make with people that live down the street or across the country. For example, Kim met one of the home improvement blogging giants–Tim Carter from Ask the Builder– earlier this month at a Delta Faucet PR Event....read more
Posted 4 days 12 hours ago.
By now, you’ve probably seen a few different “multifunction wrenches”- the ones that combine several popular socket sizes into one handy tool. Craftsman has the Dog Bone Wrench while Black & Decker has the Ready Wrench. Now, Channellock is on the scene with a new offering, the 4 ‘N 1 Wrench Set....read more
Posted 5 days 11 hours ago.
We told you last week that coming up soon on our list of articles would be a tutorial for installing under cabinet lighting, a project we’ll be tackling next in our ongoing kitchen remodel. Coincidentally, as we were planning the project, Kichler Lighting reached out to us and asked if we’d like to try their new Design Pro LED Under Cabinet Lighting solution in the space....read more
Posted 6 days 12 hours ago.
This week’s Before and After winner comes from Candice in Southern California. Candice and her husband, Scott, give a badly outdated and worn bathroom a new life. We chose Candice’s submission because this remodel required completely gutting a wood-rotted room–an intimidating task to say the least. We’ve worked in environments like this in some of our Rebuilding Together sponsor houses....read more
Posted 1 week 21 hours ago.
I’ve been meaning to share a few good reads with you and just haven’t gotten around to it… So instead of waiting for the weekend (when we usually run round-ups), I’ve decided to go way outside the box and share a bunch of links with you mid-week. Number 1: Headlining this round-up is a great tutorial for how to tile a kitchen backsplash from Todd over at Home Construction Improvement....read more
Posted 1 week 3 days ago.
Kenmore just recently released a new line of Elite appliances including the new 1394, stainless dishwasher with 360° PowerWash technology. This dishwasher is elegant, efficient and packed with all the features you’d expect from an industry leader....read more
Posted 1 week 4 days ago.
There’s a good chance that if you visit our site in the next 24 hours you might see some articles or comments disappear and reappear (or never reappear). If that happens it’s because we’ve recently switched our hosting from Dreamhost (where we’ve resided happily for three years) to a six-node VPS.Net cloud server....read more
Posted 1 week 4 days ago.