Home Decor diY

As many of you know, it can take me eons to finish up a room makeover. It's usually because of two things -- we pay cash for everything so I only make updates as the budget allows. And since I try to do most of it myself, it just takes longer than it would if I hired out. I don't mind this usually because I think I make better decisions when I take my time.  I'll take even longer if it's a room we don't use often (like our guest room) or one that we use mostly (and guests don't see) so I'm not as concerned about it getting finished up quickly. I've been working on our mudroom for more than three years now -- well, even longer than that if you consider all of our changes -- but I've been making updates for a few years to get it the way I want it.  And it's FINALLY DONE. Whoot! You may have seen the most dramatic changes I shared last fall, but I wasn't calling it done till we got the storage shelf built and finished up. Now it's finished

So I've used a LOT of tools over the years and feel comfortable with all of them. But I still get intimidated when I use a new one! (The tile saw made me sweat the first time, till I realized how easy it was to use!) If someone is interested in learning how to use a new tool I tell them to do two things -- do a ton of research (blogs are a GREAT resource 😉) and take your time and "get to know" the tool before you use it.  When I'm trying something for the first time I take my time unboxing it and putting it tougher, and read all of the paperwork that comes with it. This helps to ease me into it and makes me feel more comfortable. I also look up videos to see how people use the tool.  Recently the folks at Dremel asked me to share a DIY project using their  Dremel Maker Kit  and I was honored they asked...but nervous to try something new!: I laugh when I think about that because I feel totally comfortable using my huge compound miter saw but these little Dremel tools

Hello there! First of all, I know there is a weird redirect going on with my site and I'm trying to get it figured out. I'm still here! Go ahead and click through if you get the notice and hopefully I'll have it fixed shortly.  You all have been so helpful the past couple of weeks! If you missed my review of our family room sectional earlier this week, check it out here . You all had some great ideas that may be helpful for you those of you with similar issues. I've already tried adding a pillow to our cushions and it made them way too thick, but I'm going to keep working on it.  I have a whole post planned soon about the best way to hang your TV without seeing cables and cords everywhere ( safely ). But this post goes into more detail on how we hid our electronics in our family room. I didn't want to have the components out if we could help it and this was a perfect solution!  When we took down a wall and extended our family room years ago we had to build our g

Hello all! Sorry for the silence on the blog on Friday -- our boy had the flu and my husband was out of town. I was focused on getting him comfortable and feeling better. :) It's been going around and it was a doozy!  I like to update you on some of our bigger purchases occasionally and this one was probably our biggest furniture purchase ever for our home. I get asked about this piece ALL the time, even years later. We bought our family room sectional from Arhaus six years ago (the Landsbury) after we paid off our mound of debt . I was SO excited about this purchase and researched the best sofa for months .  I updated you on it a few years ago and it was still doing well for the most part. But over the years since then I've grown more and more frustrated with this sofa and decided it was time to share our review after years of use. Because our experience, we won't be spending extra on a sofa again. There are definite pros and cons with this one and I'll be sure to lis

I'm sending out an SOS! I got my act together last year when I finished purging our whole house using the Konmari method . It's one of the best things I've ever done for our home. BUT I ignored a small section of the house. Going through our photos was too overwhelming at the time and I knew it would take me at least a month. So I told myself I would tackle it later. Later has come and I'm totally intimidated by the thought of it. This is what I'm going to tackle over the next few weeks: That's not even all of it -- the rest goes back into the corner of the closet. As you can see, most of it is at least in some kind of box. MOST. When we try to access something up there at least ten photos rain down on us. :)  Although it doesn't look like it, I treasure these so much. I actually have quite a few old, vintage photos from our family (on all sides) through the generations. Because my home life was crappy for a few years in my teens, I lost pretty much everythi