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Category: The Row House

Laying carpet + mini naps


There is nothing Mark and I won’t try…and we usually accomplish any home renovation project we start…but I think we need to go on the record and say that putting down carpet is HARD. It started as a pretty easy day…we put the carpet tack strips around the edges of the room. We cut the under padding fairly quickly. Quick suggestion…we found the scissors to be better than the carpet knife. My favorite part was…

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Cheap as $#&!


You know what that title means. 🙂 I wouldn’t say Mark and I are cheap…I’d say we’re frugal and like to stretch our money as far as we can. Especially when the renovations won’t be seen by anyone…here’s what we mean. There are four holes in our back bedroom floor that need to be patched. We’re putting wall-to-wall carpeting in this room, so no one will even see the patches. Instead of buying new wood,…

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The only time I'm okay with stains.


Normally, I hate stains…and I usually get them on my clothes right before I meet someone important, but that’s for another day. These kinds of stains, though, are totally welcome in our house. Our friends at the PPG Paints store helped us create the stain we needed for our back bedroom door. She really is a thing of beauty. Here’s how we stain it…take an old rag, dip two fingers in the paint and rub…

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Awful weather…perfect for painting


Mark and I housed this AMAZING meal at Dish Osteria on the South Side on Friday night. Stuffed to the gills…and with negative wind chills…we stayed inside and tackled the second (AND FINAL!) coat of paint in our back bedroom. Mark attacked the ceiling and then all the window trim. We pride ourselves on a neat and tidy workspace, but this is the truth of what home renovations really look like! One last picture to…

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So good he could cry!


Mark walked in the door like this. He was so happy to find the ceiling fan that we thought had been discontinued. We wanted the fan in our back bedroom to match the fan that’s in our master bedroom. We looked for it everywhere but couldn’t find it. A few days ago, Mark went to the Lowe’s on McKnight and they had one left on the very top shelf. And if his life couldn’t get…

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The baby's room


This will be the baby’s room…I know, I know…we don’t have a baby. I’m hoping if I put the whole “baby thing” into the universe, we will have a baby to put in this room. And so we must get it ready. Mark and I primed the walls and ceiling on Saturday morning. My dad came over that afternoon and painted. My dad is meticulous and likes to listen to talk radio while he works….

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An update + a cool picture


The following photo has absolutely nothing to do home renovations, but I like it…so here you go. Now, onto real things that matter…like progress pictures. Our back bedroom has acted as a storage room throughout our home renovation. When Pittsburgh Magazine featured us…it still looked like garbage. In the last three weeks, we got our act together. I present to you, our back room…mudded and taped and sanded smooth! I’ll say out loud what you’re…

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Revival.


Don’t worry, I’m not gonna get all religious on ya! 🙂 But hang with me for a minute.  What Mark and I are doing…even with the small stuff…like this door… Taking the old and reviving it…turning it into something new and better. Finding the old gems and shining them back up to show their beautiful souls. We worked outside this past weekend (since it was apparently Spring but no one told us) and we finished…

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Give the artists their space!


Kinda loved sipping wine on a scaffold admiring the handiwork of someone else! We are living the DIY life, but sometimes you gotta call in backup. And backup comes in the form of Shawn. Shawn is an artist.  He taped the drywall and did all the mudding and finishing for us in our back bedroom. We felt it was the best use of our time (and money!)…Mark and I hung the drywall (easy!) and Shawn saved…

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Guess who's a genius?


Well, it’s not either of us. But the geniuses who give Ted Talks are my new favorite people. Lacking a bit of inspiration? Looking for a positive kick-in-the-pants? Click HERE! I’ve started listening to Ted Talks every morning, and then I tell Mark how we can apply all of the inspiring stories I hear to home renovation. For instance…did you know the Wright brothers never went to college? No one on their engineering team did…

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