Happiness Is Homemade: Young House Love

Friday, October 18, 2013

Transformations!

I have been obsessed with blogs like Young House Love and Bower Power for a while now. I may have even gone back and read the entire Bower Power archive from start to finish in the weeks leading up to us buying our house. I am fairly OCD sometimes, lol. I don't regret it though. I learned a lot and fell in love with their adorable family.

So I'm excited to post our own before/after photos of our house as we get to redecorating and all of that fun stuff!

So far we haven't done too terribly much because we've been working on moving our things over to the house from the apartment, making lists of everything we need to do, comparing options, and getting quotes.

But we did manage to tear down the walls in our bedroom. Before we did anything, it was only half done. The seller had put up some drywall on half of it, but the rest was lathe and plaster. There were a couple of holes and broken pieces and horrible wallpaper. In the picture below you can see the side with the drywall.

The other half of the room, which I never got a picture of, had ugly green/blue flowery wallpaper with streaks in it. I did get a picture of it from when that brick column started peeling though. It looked a little more blue than it does in this picture below.

We decided that the walls couldn't be salvaged, so we started ripping them away. That actually was more fun that I thought it would be. And a good workout too! I'm still sore from the tear down and then trying to shovel all of the plaster out of the truck at the dump.

We'd had weeks of frustration and anxiety waiting to find out if we were going to get the house, so I like to say that was my release. We also took off the drywall because there was a little moisture damage, so we'll be replacing that.

The view from the other side. We're hoping to get rid of that ceiling fan too and replace it with something a little more up to date.

So we have a whole list of things we want to do (eventually) in this room. Some will be sooner than others. And since I love a good list, I'll share it with you.

Put in some new wiring/more outlets
Put up new drywall
Put in a drop ceiling
Replace ceiling fan with one that's more our style
Paint the walls (pick out a color)
Put in carpet
Figure out window treatments
Put the door back on and fix it so it closes easily
Put in supplemental heating or forced air (still deciding)
Decorate (too undecided to itemize, lol)

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Young House Love and a Whole30 Update!

It's been a while since I checked in, but we've still been doing pretty good on our Whole30-ish way of eating. We have decided that we are going to just continue with the majority of the rules from the program that we did and incorporate them into our daily lifestyle. The exceptions are that we will not avoid Paleo-ifying foods and we allow ourselves peanut butter and honey from time to time as those don't seem to have any negative effects on how we feel. We've stuck to this plan about 90% of the time. Maybe 95%. We've been pretty good. Although, I do know now how easy it is to go overboard with certain Paleo-ified foods and will have to watch that.

I have noticed, now that we mostly eat only whole foods, that the foods that I used to love drool over are no longer all that appealing. They lack that extra umph that makes you want to just say, "Mmmm" when you take a bite. I can honestly say that about 90% of the time that I've eaten something off plan it has been a disappointment and not worth it. So that's good because it really makes sticking to the plan just that much easier! And... still no more headaches! : )

So now on to Young House Love. I don't remember how I came across this blog exactly. I know I was looking around for different decor ideas and different DIY ideas for the house that we are buying. (Update on that coming soon!) But anyway, I found this blog called Young House Love. It is written by a young couple, Sherry and John, who have a young daughter, Clara, and an adorable pup, Burger.

Apparently they started out just redecorating and remodeling their home for fun, discovered a real passion for it, and have turned it into their day job, along with blogging about it, of course! They have even written a book about their DIY adventures!

They are now on their third home and have documented pretty much everything from Day 1 online. It started out as a blog to keep their families up-to-date, but now they have a full business from it. Pretty cool! And we can all benefit from it by checking out their different design ideas and DIY tutorials. The website is very well organized, lots of great photographs, and enough personal touch to make it a must-read blog!

I've been copying all kinds of ideas for inspiration on decorating the different rooms in our house and have learned quite a bit. For example, you can make just about anything if you know where to find the materials, which don't have to break the bank either. Most of their projects are done by themselves and on a budget, so it totally makes it doable. Yay!

They are just getting started on the projects in their 3rd house, so check them out and follow along! I have to say that their second house is my favorite though. I just love pretty much everything about it. I can't say that I am lovin' the animal statues as much as Sherry, but she has at least made me think about adding them! : )

I just love all of the colors and the patterns and how everything seems to flow together. I think it's amazing how they tore down the wall in their kitchen in that second house to open it up and there's so much more light. I would love to be able to do that to the house we buy. No dark and dreary for me, thanks!

So Young House Love... our inspiration and daily entertainment as we consider options in decorating our first house! : ) And now I will leave you with a couple of before/after photos. To check out all of the before/after of their second house, CLICK ME!

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