North Carolina Home
Our Exterior House Tour | Fall 2024
This year has been the (slightly unexpected) year of our exterior renovation! And, honestly, the house has never felt more us. All the renovations we've done to our "Modern Colonial" North Carolina home feel like they represent the elements that I loved so much about our last house in Idaho. There's this moody exterior with […]
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September 30, 2024
North Carolina Home
Mudroom Exterior Renovation with New Pavers & Plants
Our mudroom renovation has been quite the journey... a year-long journey to be exact! One of the factors making this a more complex (and lengthy) project was that it involved significant changes to both the interior and the exterior of the space (if you remember, this was a laundry room before!). After adding an exterior […]
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September 23, 2024
DIY
Can You Paint an Electrical Meter Box? (Answer: Yes!)
We're finalizing the exterior hardscaping around the mudroom and one thing that stuck out like a sore thumb was the meter box. It's that pale grey color and against the red brick, it was just too loud. So I decided to spray-paint it, and the payoff was immediate! There's really only one portion that you […]
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September 16, 2024
Projects
Before & After: A Laundry Room Into A Mudroom
Well fam, we made it. We're finally here! The mudroom is officially done. I looked back at the very first post about transforming this space, and it was one year ago, almost to the day. On the one hand, I feel a little deflated that it took us a year. And on the other hand, […]
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September 9, 2024
Projects
All About Our New Copper Gutters (And How Much They Cost)
As soon as we started our exterior trim makeover, we knew the gutters had to go. It was not even a discussion really. (They were purple? I don't even know how!) The old gutters were pulled down during the trim painting, and we worked with our contractors Kennon Construction to order the new copper gutters. […]
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August 26, 2024
North Carolina Home
Turning a Window into a new Exterior Door for the Mudroom
With every change we make to our house, we're always looking to solve problems and make our home work for us and our family in the most beautiful way we can think up. This time, a door was (literally) opened when we turned a window in the former laundry room/now mudroom into a functional entryway! […]
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August 12, 2024
Design
Choosing a Wallpaper and Trim Color for Greta's Room
Greta's room is the bedroom that I always knew would get another round of redesign. We did a few small updates right when we moved in, like updating the flooring and painting the walls as you can see in our last update. It's a beautiful space. But as an official teenager, Greta is over the […]
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June 26, 2024
Design
Unveiling Our Future Room Renovation Plans
It's hard to believe we're three years into designing our moody modern traditional home. Sometimes people will ask me, "What are you gonna do when you're done?" I can't think about that yet — I'm not even close! While I feel great about so many rooms in the house, some are still on the "to […]
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May 13, 2024
Design
Project Update: The Primary Bathroom Has a NEW Plan
It's been over a year since we started designing our bathroom. We were working with Unique Kitchens and Baths for the cabinetry, and they came up with two different layouts. We selected one, tweaked it a bit and chose a lot of the finishes...annnnnd honestly we could never quite give the final "go ahead." This […]
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May 8, 2024
Design
Our Exterior Window Trim Color Reveal! (And the Whole Process of How We Finally Decided)
It’s been over a year in the making, but our exterior windows have been replaced and now painted!!! (The interior of the windows are black and the exterior we opted for paintable so we could paint them whatever color we wanted!) I have a slew of photos to show you, and I feel like the […]
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May 5, 2024
Design
Revealing Our New Black Interior Windows
Even when we moved into our home three years ago we knew we would have to replace our windows. The seals had been broken on some of them, and they were fogging up. It took us a while to get to that project on our list (plus we knew we had to budget for it), […]
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April 22, 2024
Projects
Gigi's Nursery Reveal: A 10x10 nursery loaded with charm
Last fall, I started designing a nursery for my sister's newest addition. Her baby arrived early (on January 1st!) and over the last month, Chris and I have been on location finishing it up just in time for her to move out of her bassinet and into her crib and brand new nursery. Today, I […]
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March 4, 2024
Projects
Our Mudroom Tile: A Vision of Black & White
This blog post is sponsored by The Tile Shop One of our Instagram followers replied to a preview photo of our mudroom tile with the comment that "it's giving...'I live in a boutique hotel,'" and they couldn't be more right. Every time I step into the hallway, I feel like I'm strolling into a glamorous […]
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February 26, 2024
Renovations
8 Things to Consider When Replacing Windows
Before we even moved into our house, the previous homeowner told us we'd have to replace some of the windows. Many of the seals were broken and some of the windows had some cracks. We held off as long as we could — it's not the most exciting use of money. But the investment can […]
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February 19, 2024
budget breakdown
The Evolution of Our Home Gym
Chris and I both have gym memberships, but we still wanted (and get lots of use out of) our home gym. I like to go to the gym early in the morning (like 5 a.m.) when it's not too crowded, and I can have my pick of machines. I've found that going even an hour […]
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January 29, 2024
Renovations
Privacy Window Options for Bathrooms - Which to Choose and Why
We're about to embark on a major renovation. In that process, the tub may or may not stay in the same place, but the window isn't going anywhere. We love the idea of a big walk-in shower, with natural light cascading through the giant window. Sounds amazing, right? Record screech as reality walks in the […]
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January 19, 2024
DIY
How We Plan for a Renovation Project Before It Even Starts
Learn how to effectively plan and prepare for your renovation project before it even begins, ensuring a smooth and efficient process.
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January 15, 2024
Decor
The Transformation of Our Modern Colonial Kitchen
There are some projects that we do in a weekend, some we do over a few weeks. Some take us a couple months and some take over a year! When it came to our kitchen remodel, it was an over-a-year kind of project. And now, since it's been over a year since we have finished […]
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January 12, 2024
budget breakdown
Money Habits to Plan and Save for Renovations - or Anything, Really
This post is sponsored by YNAB Something we hear often is "This is great for you, but I can't afford to renovate." I remember feeling that way when I was looking at inspiration photos from our basement apartment. This entire blog was built out of us DIYing just about everything, because we barely had two […]
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January 4, 2024
Renovations
Renovation journal: Demoing the mudroom
The mudroom was a laundry room when we moved in, and when we renovated a room on the second floor to house the laundry room of our dreams — this became Cricket's room. We then started thinking this room might make a good "pool bathroom" since it's just off the backyard, but the longer we've […]
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December 13, 2023
