You may (or may not) remember what our old carpet looked like in the family room. It wasn't very memorable. Standard oatmeal color. A much higher pile than we would have chosen for ourselves: The carpet made us uneasy. When we moved into this home last year it was very dirty. We had to wear […]
Last night, we painted the walls. After demolition, framing out a wall, sheetrocking, and patching infinite holes in the ceiling and lots of other dirty jobs--we both agreed it felt great to do something pretty low key like painting walls. Chris and I have painting down and we can knock out a room in about […]
This isn't one of those never-buy-this-product posts. It will also be pretty evident that this isn't a "sponsored post." You know, those ones that have the disclaimer at the end where the blogger says that they were paid, but they promise all of the overly nice things they say about the product are absolutely true […]
The first pillow cover that we're working into our family room arrived over the weekend. It's gorgeous. It's thick and soft and well constructed. I mentioned I wanted to introduce chocolate as an accent color when I talked about our mood board here, and this is the exact color I was thinking of. You can […]
Or, "How to move your ceiling vents"....orrrr, "Make way for crown molding!" There aren't a ton of online tutorials about moving your ceiling vents to a different location (I couldn't find any--which made this project even more nerve-wrecking), but that's exactly what we did on Saturday. With the plans to have built-in bookcases from floor […]
Our blog was nominated for a Homie award for best DIY blog! So honored. With so many inspiring blogs nominated in our category, we don't expect to win--but if you are a reader, we'd love your vote of support as a way of saying, "Keep it up!" Thank you, everyone. You make living in constant […]
Guess what is happening this afternoon. I'm gonna try to contain my excitement during the process. I don't want to be a total weirdy and watch and stare the whole time--but playing it cool has never been my strong suit. I'm gonna take about 230 pictures and lean over the banister smiling the whole time. […]
Tuesday night was sheetrock night. It was also the night where we renamed the paint color in our home "Drywall." Isn't the color eerily similar to the paint on the walls? Nuts. I'm sure we did things unconventional, but like always--we do what works for us. "Us" being I man and one relatively weak-sauce woman. […]
We got the drywall up last night, but we still have to do the mudding and taping so we'll save that post for tomorrow so I can give the full rundown on how we checked "walls" off of our to-do list. If you already have walls, especially blank walls, you are gonna want to […]
Cheesiest, most expected title right? You love it. Last time you saw this wall, we had just finished demolition and it looked like this: Now, a few sick days and several stubborn concrete nails later, it looks like this: Chris and I finished framing this wall last night. Now, Chris helped build his parents' home, […]
Whew! This weekend involved a lot of sneezing, coughing, crying and me attempting to make soup for my sick babies (Greta and Chris). None of it was pretty, especially the soup part. Thankfully, everyone is feeling loads better which means Chris and I are back knee-deep in sheet rock--we really want to finish building the […]
Yesterday, we let you see what fun it was to take that silly half wall down--but we can barely wait to build things back up in a way that makes more sense to us than a random wall/shelf two-thirds of the way up a wall. So, here are the plans. Albeit, a very rough floorplanner.com […]
We had some technical difficulties yesterday. I thought I lost my MacBook. I knew where it was--but I thought it had gone kaput. Luckily, its sudden turning off and not turning back on was just a charging issue. So, for now if I keep a weight on the cord, it stays on. Hahaha. I'll take […]
The sectional sold. The piano found a new home. The room is getting measured for new carpet tomorrow and my Valentine (Hey-yo Chris!) took the day off to snuggle get this project started. I feel nervous and excited and anxious to get it going and see our plans come together. Let the family room reno […]
Greta is two today! Part of our date night this past weekend was to get a gift for our little Greta girl. We got to Ikea 5 minutes before it closed, but we knew exactly what we wanted to get her--this swing for her room: It was the fastest Ikea run in my history, […]
We got a sitter and hit the town. Turns out: Pizzeria 712 proved itself once again and remains our favorite restaurant. We proclaimed our love through every one of our 5 courses. Also, Crate and Barrel's Lounge Sofa is really just as comfortable as all the reviews said. We. LOVE. it and can't wait […]
We received an especially helpful comment yesterday from one of our readers, Diane. She said in regards to our family room renovation plans: You've obviously thought a lot about how you want the room to work for you..but what about aesthetics. Have you decided on a design inspiration yet...colors, art, textiles? The last few days […]
My large, 3'x8' painting of my favorite poem of all time, Robert Frost's The Road not Taken, is being sold. With our complete family room renovation, we are clearing the whole room out and starting new. We haven't decided on a price or even how we are going to sell it--let alone ship it yet, […]
Last week, I told you that our family room is one of my least favorite rooms in our home. It is not very family friendly right now or comfortable. ... Or good looking. Granted, it is an improvement from where we started: But we have recently started talking about putting kitchen plans on hold […]
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Welcome to our online community where we've posted home, DIY, style, renovations, and family since '09. Renovating our #cljmoderncottage in Idaho and headed for new adventures in Raleigh, NC. #cljfam #cljtransformations
