Me + a picture of our kitchen + Photoshop = this post. Back in December, when we bought our kitchen stools (from a school supply store for $32 each), we mentioned we were considering a few ways to tweak them down the line—painting, upholstering, or staining the seats—but we wanted to live with them for … Read more

Greetings from Panera — since our home still doesn’t have internet, we stop here for hot chocolate and free WiFi to put together a quick update. You’ve probably been waiting for interior photos of our new house now that it’s officially ours, so here they are. I moved quickly while friends and family waited outside … Read more

Now that our kitchen remodel is finished, we thought it was the perfect time for a long-overdue video house tour. Our last tour was nearly three years ago and showed very little progress since it was filmed just seven months after we moved in. With the first floor now almost unrecognizable from that earlier footage, … Read more

Nope, this isn’t a weight-loss post. The “scale” I’m talking about is a too-small, well-used bookshelf we shoved into the guest room a few months ago (just days before my mom arrived). It was tiny and had been doing duty until we made some recent changes. We also forgot to mention a small switch that … Read more

The beach house kitchen will be our seventh kitchen project after redoing three of our own (this one’s our favorite), a 2014 showhouse, a 2016 spec house for a local builder (we loved that blue tile), and a teachers’ lounge we remodeled last year. Even with prior experience, planning a kitchen still feels intimidating because … Read more

Guys, I did it — I pulled out the sewing machine to make something for Clara’s third birthday. It’s become a little tradition to make her a handmade gift since she already receives so many store-bought presents from family and friends. I even used fabric from her monthly photo collection, which I’ve used before to … Read more

We found this rocking chair on Craigslist for $25 because we loved its clean silhouette, low back and rich, chunky wood. We also wanted a rocker in the living area of our new house — I nurse Clara there often and prefer to spend time in the public spaces rather than retreating to the nursery … Read more

We decided to clear the path—math isn’t my strong suit, but digging a path I can handle. John, meanwhile, excels at both. This photo was taken before we began reworking the garden beds on either side of the porch, so you can see how that clump of shrubs in front of the porch looked awkward … Read more

We originally planned to include a few shots of the office-turned-guest-bedroom in this morning’s post, but we ended up taking too many photos to fit everything in. So here’s a follow-up with extra pictures and the small changes we make when the room needs to pull double (or triple) duty for visiting friends and family. … Read more

As we celebrate our two-year blogiversary, we thought it would be fun to share a few stats that make us smile, blush, or simply shake our heads in amazement. Here’s a snapshot of what we’ve accomplished so far: 1006- Total published posts to date (wild, especially when we had only 380 at our first blogiversary) … Read more