Mark and I housed this AMAZING meal at Dish Osteria on the South Side on Friday night. Stuffed to the gills…and with negative wind chills…we stayed inside and tackled the second (AND FINAL!) coat of paint in our back bedroom. Mark attacked the ceiling and then all the window trim. We pride ourselves on a neat and tidy workspace, but this is the truth of what home renovations really look like! One last picture to…

Mark walked in the door like this. He was so happy to find the ceiling fan that we thought had been discontinued. We wanted the fan in our back bedroom to match the fan that’s in our master bedroom. We looked for it everywhere but couldn’t find it. A few days ago, Mark went to the Lowe’s on McKnight and they had one left on the very top shelf. And if his life couldn’t get…

This will be the baby’s room…I know, I know…we don’t have a baby. I’m hoping if I put the whole “baby thing” into the universe, we will have a baby to put in this room. And so we must get it ready. Mark and I primed the walls and ceiling on Saturday morning. My dad came over that afternoon and painted. My dad is meticulous and likes to listen to talk radio while he works….

The following photo has absolutely nothing to do home renovations, but I like it…so here you go. Now, onto real things that matter…like progress pictures. Our back bedroom has acted as a storage room throughout our home renovation. When Pittsburgh Magazine featured us…it still looked like garbage. In the last three weeks, we got our act together. I present to you, our back room…mudded and taped and sanded smooth! I’ll say out loud what you’re…

Don’t worry, I’m not gonna get all religious on ya! 🙂 But hang with me for a minute.  What Mark and I are doing…even with the small stuff…like this door… Taking the old and reviving it…turning it into something new and better. Finding the old gems and shining them back up to show their beautiful souls. We worked outside this past weekend (since it was apparently Spring but no one told us) and we finished…

Kinda loved sipping wine on a scaffold admiring the handiwork of someone else! We are living the DIY life, but sometimes you gotta call in backup. And backup comes in the form of Shawn. Shawn is an artist.  He taped the drywall and did all the mudding and finishing for us in our back bedroom. We felt it was the best use of our time (and money!)…Mark and I hung the drywall (easy!) and Shawn saved…

Well, it’s not either of us. But the geniuses who give Ted Talks are my new favorite people. Lacking a bit of inspiration? Looking for a positive kick-in-the-pants? Click HERE! I’ve started listening to Ted Talks every morning, and then I tell Mark how we can apply all of the inspiring stories I hear to home renovation. For instance…did you know the Wright brothers never went to college? No one on their engineering team did…

This weekend was spent keeping people up to date on the snow storm for my real job and drinking hot tea with honey and bourbon..the best! Mark and I also used #SnowStormJonas as the perfect excuse to stay in and work on our house! (Ya’ll knew we were gonna work on it any way.) First…sustenance. Yes, I cooked. (Shocking!) I made Mark a three egg omelet with meat and cheese, then promptly announced that I…

Not that I thought anyone would…I just wanted to go on the record saying that. Even though we insulated the hell out of The Rowhouse…and most rooms are toasty warm…we still feel a few drafts. We did a very scientific test (ha!) and found that our back bedroom is about five degrees cooler than the rest of the house. This means we can only have people sleep over who are warm-blooded or who are willing…

It’s kind of like “Oprah’s Favorite Things” except I don’t have a billion dollars and no one cares what I think. 1 – Saturday morning coffee…when it’s brewed with cinnamon and when Mark gets out of bed first and makes it. 2 – Our back room completely dry walled. (Woot woot!) 3 – When I make lunch for Mark and he actually eats something other than orange Pringles. (Still can’t replace his beer.) 4 –…