The past couple of months have been a whirlwind at the Homearama showhouse — the project we’re designing and decorating with an incredible team of builders, architects, and other pros to benefit Habitat for Humanity. If you want background or floor plan details, those were covered previously, but the exciting update is this: in a … Read more

Our master bathroom presented an unusual mirror challenge. Instead of the usual mirror-over-the-sink arrangement, there was a window (pictured here on moving day before we removed the bi-fold doors). Although the photo makes the window look bright and welcoming, it actually looks directly at the neighboring house. That side-window placement isn’t ideal for brushing your … Read more

We’ve mentioned our book project a few times recently, so it felt like the right moment for a full update on where we are in the process. Our previous post two months ago covered how we got the deal and the earliest stages of writing, but now we’re deep into production and have plenty more … Read more

Our beach house has thrown plenty of curveballs at us, but frozen pipes was one we didn’t expect. This tense episode had a mostly happy ending, aside from one regrettable move in the final moments. We also debate whether high-end paint is worth the price or if everyday hardware-store brands do the job — the … Read more

Curtains — an essential for our bedroom. We’re building momentum in this space and were excited to introduce more color (this photo was taken before the mirror went white): We considered deep blue and shimmery silver, but ultimately decided to DIY curtains that would bring out the golden-green leaves on our new duvet. We didn’t … Read more

The sheer number of questions we received about this Instagram post made it clear we hadn’t kept you up to date on the backyard. A lot has changed — including hiring professional landscapers, which turned out to be the best warranty we could have bought (we explain why two DIYers hired pros in this podcast). … Read more

As many of us look for ways to cut expenses, it’s easy to forget a simple strategy: ask. By making a few phone calls to the companies behind our three biggest monthly bills, Sherry and I were able to save $590 over the next year. Here’s what we did. It began when our Comcast bill … Read more

We’re excited to share our Cincy adventures (we laughed, I cried, and yes — something got confiscated at the airport) and to show a few projects we’ve already started. We’ve kicked off a Pinterest challenge, have a before-and-after just about ready to share, and plenty of other projects happening around the casa — some duck-related, … Read more

If you’ve followed along, you might have seen our bedroom fireplace in Instagram Stories as it got a few updates. Today I’ll share the full story of how our plans went off-course and how Plan B ended up being even better than we expected. When we last posted about the space on the blog, it … Read more

We painted our front door a new color when we refreshed the brick on our house in October. For the doors I used a specialty product made for entryways: Benjamin Moore’s Aura Grand Entrance in the shade Tranquility. It’s available in satin or an ultra-high-gloss mirror finish, and I opted for the high gloss. Photos … Read more