Welcome to our first VIDEO blog!! What did we do before iPhones…seriously, how did we survive?? I thought it would be cool to show you how our upstairs is shaping up. Now that we’re putting stud walls in it’s much easier to visualize how it will look. Hope you like the quick tour…cheers! [wpvideo SnMZPT3L] **FOLLOW ILOVE2SWEAT! Just click the “+ Follow” button at the top of the page & put in your email address…some…

Heyyyyyy-oooooooooo!! Look who’s standing on the stairs!!! Mark talked to his genius Canadian carpenter friend (who he likened to Jesus because the guy has a heart of gold) and the carpenter told Mark he had to “double up” the stringers to keep it from wobbling. He also added cross braces and put in another 76 screws!! The stairs feel SUPER sturdy and they don’t move at all! I think that’s what you call SUCCESS. 🙂…

I mean that in the nicest possible way. Mark is like the Energizer Bunny. The man seriously keeps GOING & GOING & GOING… While the rest of us humans have to stop to eat and go the bathroom…my husband somehow can subsist on 1 donut and a coffee in the morning and last until 7 pm. The first 2 weeks I felt inferior. I would feel bad when I needed to sit down for 10…

The NEW, temporary staircase is in! But I’m afraid to walk on it…so I guess that’s a bit of a problem. Mark cut the two stringers out of two 2x12s. He used his skil saw for the job. (I never knew there were so MANY types of saws…skil, jig, etc…) My brother-in-law then cut 15 three foot treads and Mark started screwing them in. Halfway through, I made him stop and take this picture…I told…

I’ll be honest with you…my “home improvement vocabulary” is limited. I know what a hammer, saw and drywall are…but outside of the most basic tools, I’m pretty clueless. That is extremely frustrating for my husband who will say “Grab me that socket wrench.” And I kinda stare at the toolbox for a few minutes and then he says “Grab the silver thingy with the tube thing on the end.” Finally…a language I can understand. In…

I stole that quote.  It originally came from the uber-fabulous Courtney Kerr who said “I’m a B-U-Y girl, not a D-I-Y girl.” And that quote totally encompasses my FORMER self.  I’m not a crafty person or a person who gardens or makes stuff or builds things. I like to buy things in stores and watch TV. 🙂 But this house project is slowly changing that.  My husband, Mark, has always been a “hands-on” type of guy….

Oh, hey there! Don’t mind us…we’re just hanging out. 🙂 We are getting ready to move the stairs, but first we had a lot of cutting to do… All those first floor ceiling joists had to come out… Look how much light shines down from the top back bedroom!! This made me very excited that we’ll have some nice light shining on our new staircase. Mark did all the cutting by himself late one night…

I’m an equal opportunity kind of girl.  Boys can play with dolls and girls can play with trucks…to each his or her own. That said, as I watched my husband build a temporary wall…I was struck at how very manly (and cool) it was. Mark and my brother-in-law are cut from the same cloth.  They both work hard, fast and don’t have to stop to eat or go the bathroom. The two of them built a temporary…

I’m so happy I could cry. And I think I might have shed a tear or two…but then again, it could be from the crazy dust that never seems to go away. All of you have been so encouraging about our “exposed brick” project…you’ve sent in countless suggestions and I’ve read every single one out loud to my husband! I gotta be honest…it kinda feels like we have a team rooting for us and the…

I am tired. My hands hurt. And I hear the “whack whack whack” of a hammer against plaster in my sleep. No one said this would be easy. But they should have said – “IT’S GOING TO BE REALLY FREAKING HARD!” We are in the FINAL STAGE of our demolition…and it’s the most tedious. We are on a MISSION to get the last bit of remaining mortar off the brick. We have a TEAM approach….