I have mixed feelings about the back-to-school season, but one bright spot is the sales it brings. Right now, Wayfair is offering a $500 gift card to one lucky reader, which is a great opportunity to shop their Back to School sale, stock up on items for next summer, or pick up furniture, décor, tools, … Read more

That’s right — call me T-Boz. Let’s talk about the new shelf in the laundry room, finished with a waterfall edge and a light natural stain for a butcher-block look. It was a straightforward DIY using solid wood panels and stain/sealer to get that warm, textured feel. We moved away from our usual mocha stain … Read more

As our fifth blogiversary week wraps up, we want to send a huge thank you to everyone who took part in the festivities, shared laughs, and—most importantly—completed our little annual poll that appeared in Monday’s post. This year more than 30,000 of you responded. Wow. Thank goodness for Google helping to crunch the numbers (a … Read more

After weeks of waiting for three dry days in a row to grout, the weather finally cooperated and John is finishing the tile in the sunroom as I write this (and yes, he’s singing “grout, grout, let it all out”). He’ll share the full tiling recap tomorrow, but in the meantime I’m more excited than … Read more

Note: If you’re reading this during happy hour, feel free to make a game of it—take a sip each time you see the word liriope. Or a half-sip. No need to get carried away. We’ve officially started work on the side patio (previously mentioned in earlier posts) that we want finished in time for Clara’s … Read more

It turns out there are some surprising places in the kitchen where germs seem to congregate. In this episode we explore those spots and share practical cleaning tips to keep your kitchen healthier. We also explain why we ultimately stopped using meal delivery kits and what solution worked better for our family. Plus, we talk … Read more

You guys — you’re varsity. Once again I was blown away by the 500+ clever ideas and impressive Photoshop mock-ups you shared for Jamie’s design roadblock last week. Group brainstorming is the best, and Jamie is excited to explore all the options (she promised to share after photos when she’s done). Now let’s jump into … Read more

Q: I have a HUGE question for you! My husband and I have now lived in our first house for close to a year. We share your motivation, but are very intimidated by the projects that we’d like to tackle. Neither one of us is super handy, and I guess we’re afraid of “breaking” our … Read more

***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – see who won below!*** Our three winners this week (chosen via random.org) are… Lila @ sweet and lovely crafts (who wishes for triple the hours in a day), Molly (who wants three times the energy, time and money to tackle more projects), and Emily B (who would … Read more

Now that we’ve wrapped up our big brick house painting project, we’re sharing the behind-the-scenes twists and turns from the past week. A project this large can go off the rails fast—and ours did, more than once. We’ll explain why the finished result ended up even better than we expected, what’s next on our list, … Read more