Bathroom Remodel: Shower Glass

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DIY Shower Glass Installation

Our shower is done! Well, not quite. We still might frost our shower glass, or add decals to it. But for all intents and purposes, it’s done and completely shower-ready! We knew we wanted a portion of the shower wall to be glass, but no more than that. So we framed it all out and planned to tackle the logistics later. And now it’s later…

shower glass installed LED lights

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Bathroom Remodel: DIY Backlit Mirror

DIY backlit mirror LED lights

How to Light Up a Mirror

If you have a mirror at home that you want to jazz up, this could be the perfect DIY for you. Adding LED lights behind your mirror adds some ambiance and a hotel feeling to your bathroom, or any other room in your house for that matter. Just be sure there’s an outlet behind the spot you want it!

 

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Bathroom Remodel: Plumbing, Electrical & Exhaust Fan

bathroom remodel lighting, plumbing, fan

 

Status Report

Joe says we’re half way done with the bathroom! I’m wary of this prognosis; I think we’re still a little shy of the halfway mark… Luckily, it’s basically uphill from here. We’ve done most of the dirty jobs already. Very dirty indeed: Demo, rerouting the drain, reframing, and now we’ve finished up the electrical, plumbing and the exhaust fan.

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Decking the Halls

deck the halls

Decorating for a Cozy Christmas

Something about baking, putting up lights, wrapping presents and listening to Christmas music just puts me in the most relaxed mood. I love seeing everyone slowly settle into the season’s comforts. I’m all about adding layers of decorations, day by day. And I love seeing everyone’s Christmas lights – new ones seem to spring up every night! It’s a month-long celebration and we’re right in the middle of it.

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Burlap Lamp Shade Upgrade

lamp shade upgrade

Lamp Shade Upgrade

This project was incredibly simple and affordable. I’ve been seeing burlap-covered lamp shades everywhere, and noticed my trusty bedside reading lamp was looking a little dingy. The shade was getting dirty and it was just too plain. So, why not use what I had and make it a little more homey?

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Reorganizing the Crawlspace

crawlspace

 

This has been a long time coming. When we moved in, we discovered this incredible secret storage area know as the crawlspace. After moving from a slightly larger house, we needed a place to put boxes and miscellaneous things that either didn’t fit, or we didn’t have a place for right away. So into the crawlspace they went. And the garage. But that’s a whole other story… It was finally time to tackle our storage area and get things to their homes. We spent our staycation working on this, and a few other big projects.

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5 Tips for Staging your House

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5 Tips for Staging your House

If you’re in the midst of trying to sell your house, you know how stressful it can be. But if you follow some of these basic tips, it doesn’t have to be hard.

  1. Get help – A staging person has a great eye and experience. When in doubt, have someone walk through your house and uncover your blind spots. Many realtors offer to include this for free and have connections in the industry who consistently stage houses that sell.
  2. Borrow – Ask friends and family for select pieces of furniture before footing a bill on new things. Thrift shops and consignment stores can be your best friend.
  3. Keep it simple – Neutral paint colors, sparse furniture and minimalistic decorations are the name of the game. Clean, clean, clean! I could say it again. It makes such a difference. People like to envision what they could do to a space, not see that someone’s living there.
  4. Storage – Invest in a storage unit, or rely on friends and family to hide away your clutter. Nobody wants to walk into the garage and see mountains of odds and ends. On that note, hide away anything that is valuable to you. If someone makes an offer, they may ask for you to leave that favorite rug or those expensive pillows behind in order to seal the deal.
  5. Breathe  – This is a process with lots of moving pieces. Get yourself a good team and do what you can to best prepare your home for showings. After that, let go and trust that things will work out. It’s important to get good sleep during this transition and eat healthy (even if you’re not able to use your kitchen.) It can feel chaotic, but it will all be worth it once you get a happy buyer for your house 🙂

 

Stage Presence

Here’s how we did it. We were pretty confident in our staging abilities, and guess what? We didn’t do too bad! When Barb the professional came in, we didn’t have a whole lot to change. Mainly this is because we had already cleansed the premises and shipped all our possessions off to various garages.

If you’re currently trying to stage your home, you don’t necessarily need to hire a professional staging person. Although, you may find it helpful. Luckily Joe’s parents had some furniture to lend us and his mom got to be the personal shopper for staging. I’ll try to give as many details as I can.

 

staging layout drawing

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Our Winter Games

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Goodbye Sochi

The Olympics are over. Sniffle Sniffle. It seems like just yesterday we were watching the closing ceremonies. Oh, yea that was yesterday. We didn’t get to watch too much of the games, but we’ve definitely been making winter memories of our own. I wanted to showcase some of our winter highlights before it’s gone. It’ll be spring before we even know it. This past weekend I went to the RedBull downhill skating event, fondly called Crashed Ice. It’s becoming a Minnesotan tradition! Joe spent his weekend swimming with manatees and baking in the sun. But we’ll save that story for later…

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Movie Theater – Phase One

Theater Soffits graphic

What do all legendary theaters have?

a) marquee

b) big screen

c) epic movies

d) great lighting

e) popcorn

f) all of the above
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