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.

Continue Reading

House Crush

House Crush Header

We have a total crush on this house. Guilty as charged. Joe’s long-time family friends bought a rambler in St. Louis Park Minnesota and completely gutted and remodeled it. The work is amazing! So much attention to detail. The 3,000 or so square foot space feels way more spacious on the inside than expected. That’s how so many rambler renovations seem to be lately. If there’s one word I could use to describe this house it’s “details”. We’ve been there a total of twice now, and took the opportunity to sneak a few pics. 😉 Thanks guys!

Tour Time

Entry Way

Continue Reading

5 Tips for Staging your House

setting the stage banner

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

Continue Reading

Happy New Year!

3, 2, 1 HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We hope you truly have a blessed year in 2015 and beyond. And a very fun and safe night tonight. Joe and I are still deciding how we want to ring in the new year, but I’m sure we’ll make it a memorable one 🙂 We hope you’ll hang around next year for some new adventures. Many surprises to come.

Here are some fun highlights from our blog. Click below if you’re curious and want to see the full infographic.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,300 times in 2014. If it were a cable car, it would take about 55 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

 

What are YOU doing for New Year’s? And what are your resolutions?

July Updates

Goodbye July

Hello August

July has been fun, but August looks just as bright! This week we’ve got some legitimate updates, some random things, and some cute things… So let’s just dive right into them, in that order.

Plant

I’ve purchased a lovely new plant. The YMCA was selling them for charity, so I picked it up for $10. I seem to do ok with tropical plants, and nothing else.

Sago Palm

It’s called a Sago Palm and is not really a true palm at all! It’s doing well so far. (2 weeks)

Continue Reading

Life Hacking

Life Hack header

Lifestyle Design

Aren’t there things you wish you had a say in designing? Like your office chair that never reclines far enough, or your quirky front door that needs to be shut just right for it to lock. Or that your coffee pot would start brewing your morning mocha (aka starter fluid) on a schedule each morning? Maybe it’s just for your family to have access to one calendar; everyone can update it on-the-go.

Continue Reading

Ice Dam[age]

 

 

Ice Ice Baby Header

 

 

 

 

 

Ice Dam

Remember that phone call we got about the ceiling leaking? Flash forward. We have the situation under control now and learned a few things about how to handle an ice dam. Firstly, we should have seen the signs. They were written on the wall roof. We know the deal now and have to say, it’s not so much fun. A little preventative maintenance is much better than a whole lot of cleanup.

So what is an ice dam?

Looks a little something like this:

Continue Reading