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Today is my 2-year wedding anniversary which means I have accumulated LOTS of wisdom that I’m now allowed to disperse to others. 🙂 I had no idea when I walked down the aisle that I was not marrying Mark, but a superhuman who is the epitome of Bob Vila, Ty Pennington and Scott McGillivray all in one person. When we tied the knot, I figured we’d have a nice house in the suburbs with a…

While I was at the Jersey Shore tanning, swimming and eating my way to the next pants size up, my saint of a husband was hard at work on our house. Let’s be clear…Mark WANTED to stay behind and work on the house, I didn’t ask/tell/make him. The word “can’t” is NOT in this man’s vocabulary. He rented himself a lift and started putting drywall on our ceiling. If you know anything about drywall, it’s…

In my dream world, I’d be sitting in my newly renovated (and ultra chic) rowhouse sipping a nice Pinot Noir watching Louie or The People’s Couch…if you aren’t watching these TV shows, you should start NOW. Instead, my current reality consists of living stuffed to the brim in my childhood bedroom while my parents’ cat runs around like it’s possessed. Because of work, family commitments and necessary tasks like laundry and food shopping, we have…

That is the question of the day…will these killer heels put a hole in my new floor? See all the important things you have to grapple with as an adult?! We want to put bamboo or cork floors on our second floor. The cork (far right) is definitely softer on our feet, but I seriously think my high heels (and the fact that I walk around like a linebacker) will puncture the cork. Mark suggested…

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…

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…

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…