We don’t always agree on projects or decorating choices. In fact, we’re in the middle of some pretty lively home debates right now. In honor of Valentine’s Day, we’re sharing our current home disagreements and how we plan to work through them — hopefully with minimal hurt feelings (although Sherry is already pretty fired up about one). We also share a bunch of updates, from the historic review board’s decision on our duplex roof proposal to Sherry’s ongoing Invisalign saga (this might be a record-breaking case). And of course we answer one of the most-asked listener questions: whether our neighbor still thinks Sherry’s name is Laura. Plus: our favorite solution for organizing shower products, and one of us falling hard for some shiny new rocks.
You can download the episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, and Spotify — or listen to it below. Use this page to check any links, notes, or photos we mention. Note: If you’re reading in a feed reader you might need to click through to the post to see the player.
What’s New
- The image above shows the pink armchair from Target that we discussed returning. In photos it looked different than in person — the tall arms created a “cube fortress” that blocked the bookcase.
- Below are the pictures we took the night we finally brought the chair to the beach house (apologies for the poor lighting). You can see how the arm height interfered with the room’s sightlines.
- We ordered a slipper chair to replace it and will bring that to the beach house soon.
- If you want the backstory about buying furniture online, listen to Episode #83 — we even left a review about the high arms on that chair to help other shoppers.
- That same episode contains prior updates on our duplex roof saga; its beginnings are also detailed in an earlier blog post about duplex renovation hurdles.
Updates
- Sherry first talked about Invisalign back in Episode #20, with another update in Episode #62 (there’s a GIF from that episode showing her elastics).
- The original “Laura” neighbor story appears in Episode #59 — a favorite of ours.
Design Disagreements
- It’s tricky to photograph the current bathroom layout. The shower/toilet area sits just beyond a separate vanity zone — one of these days we’ll draft a floor plan and decide whether a tub or different shower layout makes the most sense. For now, the final configuration remains unresolved and much-debated.
- For context on the beach house shed conversation: the original shed that came with the house was large, rusty, full of holes, and had poison ivy growing inside and on the roof. The door eventually only stayed closed with a stack of bricks.
- The backyard has looked pretty overgrown since we bought the house, and over the last year and a half it got denser with brush (these earlier photos show its condition after purchase).
- To show how close the old shed sat to the house, here’s a photo from when our HVAC units were installed.
- Sherry posted an Instagram video after we cleared the old shed and some brush; you can hear her excitement at the potential of the cleared space (this was before we learned about the setback rules from the property line).
- The vine-covered metal shed visible to the right belongs to our neighbor and is essentially identical to our old one, including being partially over the property line — so we can’t remove it and must leave it covered in vines.
- From an upstairs window I roughly outlined the situation: the blue marks show the footprint of a potential 9×12′ shed. Even though it’s smaller than our former shed, setback rules mean it would encroach into usable yard space more than the previous, larger structure did.
- The other debate concerns a 100-year-old bed: the headboard lives in our daughter’s room and we considered using the matching footboard in our son’s room to mirror the look, but we ultimately chose a daybed for his room for several practical reasons.
We’re Digging
- We’ve been using Ikea IMMELN shower baskets (we now own four) plus a pack of hooks to organize shampoo, soap, and other bath items in both houses. They’ve been very reliable, much more so than a couple of Target purchases that fell apart quickly.
- Sherry has also been falling down a crystal rabbit hole. Below are photos of the new crystals she’s collected for “podcast research.”
- She found a local rock shop, Packards Rock Shop, where she bought a heart-shaped celestite and a cube-ish pyrite, among other pieces.
- Many of the other stones came from Etsy sellers in small shops; if you’re searching for a particular shape, use terms like “point,” “pyramid,” “cluster,” or look for stone bead strands if you like that look (one pictured is howlite, which resembles marble beads).
Some pieces Sherry is currently eyeing include amethyst points, a celestite cluster, selenite sticks (pretty displayed in a glass), rose quartz points, large quartz towers, a chunky amethyst, and amazonite stars. She’s having a lot of fun hunting for the right shapes and colors.
If you want deeper reading about crystals and their meanings, we previously published a series covering favorites like Aura Quartz, Blue Calcite, Green Aventurine, Ocean Jasper, Rainbow Fluorite, and a selenite fireplace project.
For a master list of items we’ve discussed across episodes, check our “We’re Digging” index from past shows.
Finally, thanks to Grove Collaborative for sponsoring this episode. New customers receive a free $30 gift set (including a tin caddy and Mrs. Meyer’s cleaning supplies) with their first $20 purchase when they sign up at Grove.co/YHL.
Thanks for listening!
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