We certainly don’t…at least for now. You currently can see directly into our basement because the old stairs used to be right here. We tore them down and built new ones in a different spot. (That post HERE) The old stairs held up one of the walls in our front upstairs bedroom, so now we need to add 2 support beams to the ceiling joist in its place. To do that, Mark cut open part…

I’ve never considered myself “high maintenance.” My sister can attest that I’d rather go makeup free. As a kid, I was a TOTAL tomboy who couldn’t be bothered with makeup or hair dryers. That has since changed because HD television can be very unkind…who would have ever thought PRIMER, TONER and BRONZER would be part of my vocabulary?! While I really love getting all grungy and dirty with this home improvement project, I’m craving some…

A lot of weekends, I get to emcee different events. Last Saturday, my sister and I both got to emcee an awesome memorial run/walk for Trooper Kenton Iwaniec… That’s us with Kenton’s mom, the most WONDERFUL lady. These events can last 6-7 hours, so Mark is often working at the house by himself. One day in a 6-hour span, he built 3 temporary walls on his own… For the basement wall, he used the old…

Our home improvement project is going a bit slower than planned…I know, I know, all of you are SHOCKED. We are lucky because my parents live close by and we can crash with them for a few weeks. While it might bother most 30-something’s to live with their parents, I’m TOTALLY OKAY with it. Here’s why: #1 – My parents are actually VERY COOL…my mom loves to dance… And so does my dad… #2 –…

Only your family will help you move 5 times in the last 4 years. (And I find if you feed them & buy them beer, it makes the day go more smoothly) My cousin Rob (who is freakishly strong) helped Mark and my dad take our furniture out of our Lawrenceville loft… And move it into my parents’ garage (thanks Mom for parking your car outside!). Rob let us borrow his truck & my Aunt…

Me and my dear ol’ dad… We’ll never be able to repay him for all the help he’s given us with our Lawrenceville house. It’s kind of a déjà vu for him because a LONG time ago he used to be an electrician for the city of Pittsburgh and he worked on the traffic lights in Lawrenceville. That’s his old toolbox he used. It still has the old color code for the lights taped to…

This trusty orange book basically holds every detail our life right now. I guess it’s more of a butternut squash color. Anyway, we use it to track our expenses. We write down how many hours we work on the house each day… Our crew is small, but dedicated!! We also put in where we buy breakfast, lunch and how many adult beverages we purchase. 🙂 Before we started this project we did 2 things…DESIGN and…

I’m a big believer that we all have God-given talents and abilities that we’re meant to use on this earth. God gave me the ability to talk nonstop with my hands. I know what you’re thinking…WHAT a skill. (Ha!) Sometimes (because of life circumstances) we never get the chance to fully realize those talents or put them to use. And that sucks. But, there are other times, when those talents aren’t just FULLY REALIZED, they’re…

There are many uses for the HU-MUN-GOUS hole in my ceiling. For one, we’ll be able to hoist our new shower unit up to the second floor. We ripped out the old bathroom and are building a new bathroom in a different location. We were going to buy the above GELCOAT shower from Lowe’s. And then our plumber told us to buy ACYRLIC because it doesn’t yellow over time and is all around better. We…

Too much?? Yeah, you’re right…don’t want to get all lovey-dovey here on my HOME IMPROVEMENT blog. 🙂 Tell me you knew a picture like that was coming next. (BTW – I made Mark flex…he is not happy about this picture). We framed in our upstairs with stud walls so the plumber and electrician could come in and run their pipes and wires. We used a framing square to make sure our walls were all squared…