Seeing your old houses changed by new owners can sting more than you expect. This week we talk about how we processed those feelings, found the silver lining when someone undoes your work, and moved forward. Back at our current home, we finally tackled a long-overdue change to make the driveway more kid-friendly — a surprisingly painless project that the whole family enjoyed. We also cover items you should avoid buying used, why Sherry’s Invisalign timeline got extended (and she’s back in “tooth jail”), and how our beach house area is connected to a real arson investigation.
You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher and TuneIn Radio — or listen to it using the player embedded below. Use this page as a reference for links, photos, and notes we mentioned during the show. If you’re reading in a feed reader you may need to click through to the post to see the player.
What’s New
- Hallelujah — our driveway is finally paved. The photo shows some lighter and darker patches because it had just rained, but you can see how out-of-control the weed situation had become along the front. The kids also wanted a safe surface to scoot and ride bikes on, so paving felt like a win for everyone.
- The crew we hired worked quickly and it was oddly entertaining for the kids to watch the whole job unfold. If you want to keep little ones busy for an afternoon, paving your driveway is surprisingly effective.
- And yes — here’s a GIF-style-frame from Sherry’s Instagram story showing her latest Invisalign elastics. She used a dog filter to distract from the orthodontic hardware.
What’s Not
- Apartment Therapy put together a helpful list outlining things you should avoid buying used.
- Kiplinger also shared a list of items that are smart to buy used, which inspired the “faker” item I used in Sherry’s quiz during the show.
Listener Question
- If you want to reference rooms and projects we mentioned, you can tour our first and second houses in the photo galleries on our site.
- Sherry was right — we did mention our first house being for sale again way back in Episode #13. I forgot about that, too.
- Below is a photo of our old bedroom with the built-in closets on either side. Those built-ins added much-needed storage while we lived there. We don’t have a photo of the room after the new owners removed them, but it reverted to the original look it had before we added the cabinetry.
- Below are two views of the fence situation at our first house. On the left is how we had it — low-profile and keeping the yard and driveway feeling open to one another. On the right is a photo from a return visit a couple years later with the kids. The new fence is well done, but it creates a stronger separation between yard and driveway than we originally had.
- We also reflected on the layout of the kitchen in our last home and how we might change the opening to the dining room if we were doing it again. The kitchen formed a “P” shape — you can see that arrangement in the original project post where we talk about the remodel.
- I mangled Kristen Bell’s advice about a celebrity couple during the episode, but I did capture the gist of it — imperfectly, and with comedic timing.
We’re Digging
- I’m engrossed in the book American Fire, which covers a series of arsons on the Eastern Shore of Virginia near our beach house a few years back. I’ve read more since we recorded and it only gets deeper and more compelling.
- The photo above isn’t from the book — it’s a picture Sherry took earlier this year in the county where many of the fires occurred. It reminded us of the abandoned homes that were burned during the arson spree.
- Also — is Sherry’s new favorite drink actually healthy, or slowly toxic? We debated whether it’s as benign as the headlines claim. Bring your thoughts.
If you’re trying to find something we mentioned in a past episode but can’t remember which show notes to open, we keep a master list of everything we’ve been digging across older episodes.
Finally, thanks to Grove Collaborative for sponsoring this episode. They offered listeners $20 off a first order of $40 or more, plus a free bottle of Mrs. Meyer’s All-Purpose Spray with qualifying orders when the episode ran.
Thanks for listening, everyone!
*This post contains affiliate links*