Thank you for the encouragement this morning to finally put my long-held September 11th memories into words. Even though it’s painful to relive, I want this written down for myself—especially for Clara someday, when I try to explain the enormity of that day. It was horrific and life-changing, and it helped shape who I am. … Read more

T-minus less than a day until we get furniture on the deck — and I’m beyond excited. I may have used extra exclamation points and an over-the-top “woah nelly,” but honestly, who wouldn’t be? We’re finally at the point where the deck will start feeling like a real outdoor room. We haven’t chosen a final … Read more

Life has been busier than ever for us, and having a new baby has made our priorities crystal clear. Lately we’ve been asking ourselves: what are we working toward? What do we really want to gain? The answers don’t include more blog traffic, likes, or approval. In fact, the idea of pushing this blog to … Read more

When Liz sent in her DIY art project, we were excited to share the results. Here’s her note: I know you’re always creating fantastic DIY art, so I thought your readers might enjoy this simple project I completed. We had a blank wall in our den for over a year, and one evening I decided … Read more

***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries*** We know many of you love personalized stationery as much as we do, and we enjoy supporting independent husband-and-wife teams. This week’s giveaway comes from Wild Ink Press, a small letterpress studio run by a couple and their little helper. They create beautiful, handcrafted letterpress stationery, printed on … Read more

For the past few weeks many of you have asked for a House Crashing post with photos of the other six Homearama homes in the show. We slipped through and photographed each house, just like we did for a previous Homearama House Crash in 2012—so this post is image-heavy. Everyone who’s visited so far seems … Read more

We finally made it — after a few notable setbacks, the duplex is officially gutted. Today we’re sharing photo and video highlights from the demo and outlining our plans for rebuilding each side. Having renovated the pink house, we learned that extensive moisture damage calls for a full gut to expose any hidden mold, rot, … Read more

We recently passed the one-year anniversary of moving furniture into our beach house, so this week we’re looking back at how we stayed sane while furnishing and decorating an entire house all at once. That experience made us reconsider our usual slow approach of tackling one room at a time — and revealed a few … Read more

We’ve shared bits and pieces about our beach house progress on Instagram and the podcast, but we were long overdue for a big, photo-filled update that explains everything that’s happened — including our latest (and hopefully final) floor plans. Things look very different now compared to when we first bought the house; you can see … Read more

I was lying in bed thinking about the random lessons we’ve learned over nearly seven years of homeownership and DIY, and I realized they might make a helpful post. These aren’t exhaustive, but they’re the things that jumped out at me when I thought back on our projects — the small failures, the fixes, and … Read more