So, how are we all feeling after a long weekend of house work? I know you housebloggers were all tinkering on something….. admit it. While everyone else was out shopping for Christmas presents at the mall this weekend, you went to check out the deals at Home Depot. Am I right? I’m feeling like an […]

We’re too busy working on upstairs “quick fixes” to worry about our kitchen progress right now, but that doesn’t stop me from daydreaming about my pantry – which is still lacking shelves, so isn’t being used yet. When we do get around to pimping it out, my top organization requirements are: 1. A place to […]

Oooooh. Ahhhhh. I’m pretty sure our french doors are the prettiest part of the house right now. I spend a whole lot of time admiring them. And now, with some embellishment, they’re even better. We had two leftover exterior brackets (from tearing off the old porch)that needed a purpose in life. Long ago we planned […]

Take a look at our state-of-the-art dustbag for the mitre saw. Why spend all that money on fancy attachments when you can just wrap some masking tape and paper towels into a makeshift pouch? This, my friends, is Wagner ingenuity at it’s finest. On par with another of our budget-friendly solutions, the homemade scaffolding. Why […]

Our open house was a smashing success – thanks to everyone who stopped by and humored us ;) It was great to finally share our progress with so many friends and family members. We’ve been in the house for nearly a year, and this was the first time I wasn’t mortified to have guests spend […]

Going from no wall, to plywood, to insulation, to actual real-live walls is about as exciting as it gets around our house. And getting the ceiling AND walls done in one weekend for the kitchen addition has got us doing cartwheels! Friday night: Sunday afternoon: (click on the thumbnails for larger images) The walls make […]

When you and your husband are trying to hold a piece of drywall up over your heads while standing on two shaky ladders, one of you perhaps wearing flip-flops, and you can’t get it to fit exactly right, it’ll start to feel pretty damn heavy. And when the “dead man” wooden support falls, and the […]

Another work weekend has come and gone; we worked hard and it paid off – the chimney is ready for painting, the kitchen ceiling is framed in, the french doors are spar varnished, and the inner walls are fully insulated. But I bet you guys are about as sick of the boring home improvement stories […]

You know the type of projects that start out as a “quick temporary fix” and quickly snowball into a weekend-long event? Ah yes, well, I stumbled into another one this weekend. I’m not what you’d call handy with a trowel, so Teague thought it better if I didn’t skim coat the chimney with him. But […]

When I got home from work tonight, Teague was out spreading mortar on the chimney. I changed into my play clothes (like all good fixer-uppers do) and grabbed a trowel. It’s kinda like building a sand castle, only messier. The verdict? I’m pretty sucky at masonry work. But, I didn’t have much time to practice […]