I keep looking around our house thinking, “I can’t believe it…I can’t believe we did this.” Our house was so dirty and yucky and crappy for so long… And now, it’s not. 🙂 This DIY home renovation project took a big leap of faith. But I always knew, deep down, that Mark and I could do it. Same thing goes for this blog, I didn’t know if anyone would read it. But here we are…

Only a morning fueled by caffeine could help us attack our next home renovation project. We found an old brocade mirror that weighs about 60 pounds. Even though Mark is a beast, we got some old cardboard and cut it to the size of the mirror. Using the cardboard (because it’s wayyyyy lighter) we found the exact spot on the brick fireplace where we wanted to hang the mirror and marked it with tape. Mark…

Will you please take a seat? No, no, no…try this one. How about this one? Guess what lovelies…we got the best seats in the house! Woot woooo!!! Allow me to introduce our new dining room chairs. We got four of them. They’re definitely modern…a steel frame with a dark wood seat. We ordered them from wayfair.com. For us, that website had the coolest options with the most reasonable prices. I think the chairs go perfectly…

My niece, Lily, has quite the life. She eats, sleeps and gets her aunt and grandparents to lay on the floor and applaud every time she blinks. I want to put her in the Guinness Book of World Records as the “Most Amazing Baby Ever.” Even though I could hang out with Lilypad all the time, we needed to work on the house. Mark finished sanding and put the final coat of polyeutherane on our…

Breaking news… Our dining room table has arrived! It’s a concrete top with a dark steel base. We went with the slightly smaller size, 60×36, to fit our space. We can have 6 chairs…2 on each side and 1 on each end. But my dinner parties will have to stay at 6. Unless you want to sit on the floor…I’ve got for pillows for that. The concrete top is very industrial looking. It’s way different…

We did more play than work this past weekend, but how could you not when it felt like summer in the ‘Burgh?! Mark did his part in the Steel City Pizza contest that was held in Arsenal Park in Lawrenceville. No pizza for me, but I did drink a tub of fresh lemonade. I went out for a girls night and Mark started sanding our stair treads. We’re giving each one a light coat of…

I discovered something new this week. I found out that my sister is one TOUGH Mama Bear. We all were soooo excited when Kelly went into labor and got her room at Magee Hospital. Things were good for the first few hours, but then it got DIFFICULT. For 36 HOURS, my sister battled ridiculous contractions. We took turns being with her in her room and sleeping in the hallway. The doctor finally said Kelly needed…

My husband has an eye for great design, and so I’ve learned to just let him make all the decisions. How can I not with a face (and hair) like that? This weekend, we walked our neighborhood looking for an old antique mirror. We have an eclectic interior design vibe going on because who wants to be perfect and matchy-matchy? Not us, those perfect people are annoying. Pittsburgh Furniture on Butler Street (under Arsenal Lanes)…

If I would have known how much BIGGER our tax refund is now that we’re OWNERS and not RENTERS…I would have bought a house a LONG time ago! Seriously. Even with a nice refund, they say money doesn’t buy happiness. It does buy a trip to the outlets, though. Happiness, however, comes when the home you envisioned and created in a 3D computer program… Looks almost exactly like what you’ve built. We’ve still got work…

Long blog title…I know…stick with me. One of the main reasons we wanted to buy in Lawrenceville is because we wanted a walkable neighborhood. Don’t even pretend you don’t see Mark’s bunions. It’s okay…special shoes for a special guy. Last night was a perfect Larryville night with our first stop at Grapperia. It’s right behind Piccolo Forno and the people who own Piccolo were tired of everyone going to Franktuary or the Round Corner Cantina…