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Yes, we picked the hottest day to go up onto the roof and work. Every time I’m up there and see the incredible views, I tell Mark that he needs to build a roof patio STAT! No patio work right now, just measuring the exact spot to put our two attic vents. Thank God for Mark’s huge muscles because it was a lot harder than we thought to cut through several layers of tar to…

They say anything worth doing is hard. And Mark and I can prove it with all the new wrinkles and lines on our faces. Is 32 too young to get Botox? Mark is 38 and already scheduled for a much-needed appointment. 🙂 As we try and tie up some of the loose ends of our DIY home renovation project, we are reminiscing about all the CRAZINESS that led us to this! Remember when we ordered…

Mark and I have officially become slow pokes. It’s taken us FOREVER to finish this window project. But when your super fun nephews are in town, you’re going to hang with them and put the house stuff on hold! (Uncle Mark looks drunk in this picture but he’s not.) We summoned all the energy and focus we had and were determined to finish! Mark cut and put up the trim. He hung out the window…

Mark got a little overzealous with the spray foam insulation. I’m not sure if he’s trying to soundproof our room or just wants it to be REALLY insulated. Whatever his motivation, I only think of the white, sugary goodness when I see this. (I think my body is trying to tell me to buy a jar of fluff and eat it with a spoon. MUST. NOT. GIVE. IN.) As we finish our new window project,…

I saw the Blair Witch Project in high school and it scared the bejesus out of me. So, I was not thrilled with this… Tell me you remember those creepy hand prints on the wall at the end of that movie! The ghost (Mark’s) handprints came as he painted and caulked the outside of the window frame. Here’s an even scarier picture from the day. Mark doesn’t blink an eye getting up on that ladder,…

You know it’s about to go down when my husband looks like this. Mark spends half of our renovation time just looking at the project. (He swears he’s thinking about what he needs to do, but I think most of the time he’s thinking about hot dogs.) We needed to finish replacing our old windows. We bought black windows for the front of the house because they are chic and fabulous. I went out for…

Or it’s what I imagine hosing off a pig would be like. We took our old and dirty work table from the basement… And hauled it out onto our teeny tiny back porch. (I know you’re jealous of our miniature Keystone Light grill) Mark sawed off the legs to make them even. Then we hosed it off. (I know water isn’t the best for wood, but it needed a MAJOR cleaning.) Once we put it…

No more card table chairs, baby, we’ve got ourselves a couch! Woot woot! I don’t think our backsides could take much more sitting on those crappy chairs…we’re not young’uns anymore, ya know?! 🙂 Our couch from West Elm is called the “Peggy” and it’s very mod and retro. (Please ignore the hideous pillows we threw on there…we’re getting new ones.) The couch is a bit larger than a love seat and fits the space perfectly….

Mark and I were in a very cool furniture store looking at a very cool table. Then, we saw the price tag and thought we could totally make that. We knew we had this old wooden work bench in the basement. It was left behind with the house. It took several tries but we finagled it and managed to fit it in the basement door hatch. A couple of Heev-Hos and we got it upstairs….

Some days, it’s easy to forget how long we’ve had the house and how long we’ve been working on it. It seems like we just snapped our fingers and POOF! all of this happened. Remember when we first bought the place and there were walls everywhere and a staircase right in the middle??? That teeny tiny compartmentalized downstairs now looks like this. Drum roll for the comparison shot… And what about that super weird hallway…