***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – see who won below!*** As our time in Portland comes to an end, we’re excited to share that the random winner of this very Oregonian prize is… Joyce (who would go all the way back to the late 1700s to check out the Constitutional Convention). Congrats Joyce! … Read more

We kept putting off deciding where to permanentize our vegetable and herb garden at the new house, so we missed the spring planting window this year. Rather than surrendering to a season without fresh herbs, we chose a temporary, portable option: a galvanized tub turned into a compact herb planter. We opted for a small … Read more

We may have been a little distracted by holiday celebrations and trying to keep everyone entertained, but that didn’t stop us from sneaking in a few home projects and sharing the results. After showing you my compact city space, it’s time to take a closer look at John’s apartment on New York City’s Upper West … Read more

Let’s talk about crack sand. We all try to save money where we can, but sometimes scrimping backfires. After living with our finished patio for a few weeks, we realized we should have sprung for the pricier product the first time. For the initial joint filling we used leftover paver sand instead of paying roughly … Read more

You may remember Kara from Kara Paslay Designs from a memorable house tour she shared with us. When she sent photos of a stunning DIY ottoman, we asked if she would write a guest tutorial for YHL. Happily, she said yes. Below Kara walks you through how she built and upholstered this beautiful, surprisingly doable … Read more

We’re back with another update on John’s sister’s nursery for her soon-to-arrive baby boy. Over the past few weeks we’ve been transforming the space (you may remember when we painted stripes and added mirrors). This week’s project was an easy, budget-friendly custom crib skirt made from sale fabric—created without a sewing machine or even a … Read more

Are you kidding? In this market? Of course not. We sold our house for roughly $5,000 more than we paid during the 2006 bubble, but that figure doesn’t tell the whole story. We estimate we invested about $35,000 in improvements: new bathrooms, a new kitchen, updated flooring, replacement windows, a new roof, a patio, a … Read more

And now for the paneling update. Hold on to your hats — this one was a wild ride. We’ve painted paneling before, and although removing it was an option, that would have meant taking down and rehanging all the cabinets that sit in front of it. With old plaster walls behind the paneling, ripping everything … Read more

Woo-hoo! We’re celebrating three wonderful years of sharing our home improvement adventures (and occasional misadventures) with you in this little virtual home of ours. That means blogiversary fun is officially underway. As we head into year four, we have more projects lined up—big and small—and we like to use blogiversary week to give a little … Read more

We delight in the generosity of strangers, especially when it plays out in community swap forums like yard sales, flea markets, or online marketplaces such as Craigslist and eBay. That’s why we wanted to revisit one of our earliest—and still favorite—posts: The Power of Craigslist. I’m still amazed the experiment worked. Essentially, we invited strangers … Read more