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My husband took his first vacation since buying and renovating our house. I begrudgingly went along with him. (HA!) We went to the warm beaches of Longboat Key, Florida where we did absolutely no remodeling, but LOTS of sitting. I guess we have good mojo because the weather was beautiful and hot almost every day we were there. While we lounged, swam and played with our nephews, it was easy to forget that we had…

2014 was awesome. Really, really awesome. We bought our first house together and immediately went to work. We tore down walls, got really dirty and inhaled a boatload of dust. Our parents, siblings, friends and family came over, pitched in and encouraged us even when we were ready to throw in the towel. My husband, Mark, turned into a master renovator who upped his game…he has more brains and brawn than I ever knew. His…

Yes, he is…a DIY genius. Excuse me for a minute, while I help Mark squeeze his BIG head through the door…his ego is swelling with this post. 🙂 I’m not good at visualizing things, but Mark has said for months that putting that old elevator door on the ceiling would be awesome. He was right. Mark did it all in one day. I went to work with a huge hole in my living room ceiling….

Our DIY home improvements slowed this week because work has been really busy and then I got sick. Yuck. Before the HeBeGeeBees, I left Mark like this… Once the HeBeGeeBees were gone, I walked downstairs and I saw this. We have walls. A bunch of them. No more “insulation chic” in our house. Mark and I were talking about how slow we seem to be going now. I don’t know if we don’t have any…

If you’ve been reading this blog for awhile, you know that my husband is a MASTER home renovator…except when it comes to door frames. The first time Mark built a door frame for our bedroom, he ended up throwing things and cursing the sky and I had to get out of there because it was ridiculous. (Relive that episode HERE) You would think it would be different this time when Mark tried to build the…

It happened. We thought this moment would never come, but we moved into our house and slept there for the very first time!!! Our bedroom is finished, except for the new windows and blinds we have coming. The furniture might not stay this way, but it’s working for right now. With the bedroom, bathroom and laundry room completed, it’s kinda like we’re living in a one-bedroom apartment. Fine by us…we are just so THRILLED to…

I totally forgot to tell you about one very important moment Mark and I had last week. Normally, my husband is very calm and mild mannered…I attribute some of this to his Canadian roots because those Canadians are the NICEST people on the planet. 🙂 Mark rarely gets upset or angry. Because he’s so good at renovating and remodeling, we haven’t really had any situations where he was frustrated because he didn’t know what to…

Our roof work took a full two days. We had to run back to the store for more “ice and water shield” and we took our time with the project because we didn’t want to fall off. As I mentioned before, it was slightly nerve wracking to be that high off the ground but I got used to it (and actually liked it) pretty quickly. My very wise Nunny would say it was all good…

My brother-in-law, Kevin, is the total package. He’s smart and strong…and he loves my sister, Kelly, A TON so he’s basically a gem in my book. It’s great having him over because he’s done this kind of renovation work before and he’s a great sounding board for Mark. The two of them started a pretty big and tedious task…leveling our first floor ceiling. Part of the charm of these older rowhouses is that they’re crooked….

You learn something every day. This weekend, I learned that walls have an incredible way of making you feel like you live in a house instead of a construction site. My new 2nd favorite brother-in-law…(my sister’s husband is #1)…came down from Toronto to help us. Dave is tall and strong and he doesn’t complain…the 3 best qualities in a man. The Canadian boys put up drywall throughout the entire second floor and only one time…