Engineering, Home Entertainment, Ongoing Projects, Organization, Space Efficiency, Storage

Garage “Mud Room”

November 18, 2015 No Comments

Maxing out Garage Storage

Ideally, we’d love to have an actual mudroom or entryway some day, but for now, we are making do with the space we have. If you know us, you know we I have a lot of shoes. There’s really not a great space in our house for our shoes to live, so we’ve been keeping them in the garage.

Well, we’ve engineered a somewhat functional solution that we hope to keep improving. It’s a big improvement actually. With winter on the way, this will give us a central location for all the snow pants, jackets, hats and everything else. And it’s a step up from keeping them all in bins!

Crafts, DIY, Furniture, Lighting

Burlap Lamp Shade Upgrade

November 7, 2015 1 Comment

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?

Outdoors

Operation Dock Extraction

October 23, 2015 1 Comment

You know it’s been a great summer when it’s still summer weather in October. It was in the 60’s this week and it’s almost Halloween! I can’t believe how lucky we’ve been to have this. But, we know it won’t last, so we’ve started winterizing. Yes, the W word. Last weekend we had a farewell to summer sendoff and started cleaning up the yard.

You know you’re a Minnesota home owner when… Most of these hit too close to home. Especially 1, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 12.

crawl space, flow, Holidays, Lighting, Organization, Space Efficiency, Storage

Reorganizing the Crawlspace

October 14, 2015 No Comments

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.

Décor, Detailing, Holidays, Just for fun, Leah, Minnesota

Halloween House

October 7, 2015 No Comments

A couple weeks ago, Joe and I took a few days off work for our very first staycation. I’ve got to say, it was really exciting! We hardly told anyone where we were going – I know, it’s pretty anticlimactic when you realize our big getaway vacation was actually… nowhere. But to us, it was our time to truly enjoy the house for the first time between moving in, work, and a summer of nonstop commitments.

Cooking, Crafts, Detailing, DIY

Bonfire Cupcakes

September 26, 2015 No Comments

If you have a summer/fall party to go to, or just can’t resist baking something, this easy campfire cupcake recipe is really fun. It takes about an hour and gets 10 points for the cuteness factor. Plus, my sweet tooth just can’t say no to those chocolate creme filled wafers. Yum!

Here’s the backstory.

Landscaping, Outdoors

Ring of Fire: Building a Bonfire Pit

September 17, 2015 1 Comment

How to Build a Bonfire Pit

One of the second things Joe wanted to do after moving in was build a backyard fire pit. It was one of the easiest projects to date, and took less than a day! We love the bonfire pit kits – I know it’s not 100% DIY, but there is still plenty of elbow grease that goes into this.

Here were the steps:

Collect the materials
Build a perimeter around the area to fill with sand
Build a fire pit in the middle
Fill the area with sand
Enjoy bonfires

Simple enough, right?

Décor, Design, DIY, do it yourself, house tour, Paint

Unpacking our Bags

September 3, 2015 1 Comment

We’ve been moved in for awhile now, but we can finally look back and decompress. Although, we still have a box or five that still need to be sorted.

Moving day was a crazy blur. We left the old house and did both closings the same morning. We handed over the keys and a few tears were shed, but we were really happy to learn a disabled military veteran would be buying the house. We were just excited to get an offer, but this was icing on the cake. He was most looking forward to the running trails and impressed by the neighborhood. We thought he’d be an excellent fit!

So, we were homeless for a few hours before going to our second signing.

Uncategorized

Moving in

August 13, 2015 No Comments

Before

It will be fun to one day look back and reminisce about all the changes we’ve made to this house. Our little fixer upper is growing up so fast already. Sigh.

art, Décor, Design

Choosing the Perfect Rug

August 7, 2015 2 Comments

Maybe perfection is that elusive, unachievable thing that you’ll always be chasing in your home. Maybe it’s an ongoing process that evolves over time. This is a new philosophy for me – Usually I know what I like and what I don’t like. I either fall in love with something, or I don’t. But that’s just not the case with this new area rug.

Leah and Joe: Home DIY Projects & Crafts

Garage “Mud Room”

Maxing out Garage Storage

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Burlap Lamp Shade Upgrade

Lamp Shade Upgrade

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Operation Dock Extraction

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Reorganizing the Crawlspace

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Halloween House

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Bonfire Cupcakes

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Ring of Fire: Building a Bonfire Pit

How to Build a Bonfire Pit

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Unpacking our Bags

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Moving in

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Choosing the Perfect Rug

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Maxing out Garage Storage

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Lamp Shade Upgrade

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How to Build a Bonfire Pit

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Before

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