The End Of (What Seems Like) An Era
Is it just us, or does it seem like we’ve been pleading for your votes for months now? Ever since we pimped our porch for BHG’s 48-Hour Challenge back in April we’ve been bouncing over to BHG every morning to check the ever-changing tallies. And what a roller coaster ride it’s been (full of nail biting, profuse sweating, and face photoshopping). We don’t know what we’ll do with ourselves when the contest ends this Friday. Will our sweaty palms go back to normal? Will our nails grow back? Will we ever digitally experiment with John’s facial hair again?
Instead of begging for votes one more time in the frenzied final days, we thought we’d take this opportunity to thank BHG and Home Depot for such a fun experience and to congratulate our co-challengers for a job well done. Each project, from Marc’s grill cart and Dave’s arbor to Jen’s potting bench had us eager to give in to the outdoor sprucing bug that bites every spring.
And then of course there’s the lovely Nicole over at Making It Lovely. We adore Nicole (we’ve been huge fans of MIL since our early days of blogging) and we can’t get over how perfectly she injected style into her porch. In a word: amazing. We’ve grown to be blog friends with her over the last year and were thrilled to find out (what seems like ages ago) that she was doing the BHG challenge with us. We’re so happy to be in such good company and it’s no exaggeration to say that we wish we all could win!
So with that we’ll just leave you with a few of our favorite porch photos and a few words about you guys, our wonderful readers.
To those who have taken the time to vote for us (be it once or daily) please know that we are endlessly appreciative of your efforts and that we thank you so much for your thoughtfulness. Who knew thousands of people would care enough to click over and support us on this wild ride? I know it’s corny but $5000 or no $5000, this experience alone has been priceless. Now enough with the love-fest before my bottom lip starts to quiver (ok or before I do the ugly cry). In short: we love you guys.
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Been voting daily! I really hope you guys win!
Oh you guys – it’s been fun voting for you every day! I hope we’re able to give you one more comeback in the end. You really deserve that money. Besides, all of the fun things you’d do with it would make for some great blog goodness, and inspiration for us all! Thanks for inspiring me in my decor ideas every day. Sometimes I now catch myself, thinking, “what would John and Sherry do?”
You did a great job with your front porch and I know you’d be creative with the winnings so I hope you win, if only so we all get to see the lovely projects! =)
You guys totally deserve to win and I really hope you do! I can’t wait to see what awesomeness you come up with if you win…Good Luck!
I’ve been on the roller-coaster ride with you! Been voting daily and checking the scores – hoping you guys’ll win. Hopefully all us fans on here can give it one last voting shot and get you guys your $5000 – you deserve it!
So sweet! But I hope everyone continues to vote– and gets their friends to vote too!– because the pleasure you give all your readers everyday makes you two above deserving! Good luck!!
You’re in tough company so all the best of luck to you and Nicole (you’ve both done a great job)
I think you should keep up the funny doctored photos though…those are a hit no matter what you’re talking about. :)
Nail biter indeed! I’ve been voting daily too and have my fingers crossed for you guys!!
Hi there! I have a quick, but random question – do you know if it is possible to paint kitchen cabinets that are covered with that awful plastic stuff? My boyfriend says it’s impossible considering the manufactured wood will soak up all of the paint. Do you have any idea?
Barbara- Hmm, without seeing/touching your cabinets I wouldn’t dare guess if they’ll take paint but laminate can actually be primed and painted with varied success so there might be hope (if yours are even laminate). I’d suggest removing a door or drawer and taking it along with you to a paint store (Benjamin Moore, Home Depot) and seeing what the paint specialists there recommend. Hope it helps!
Katie- Believe it or not the shirt choice was just due to the fact that I was trying to avoid wearing something black. My closet is basically one black hole (as in 99.9% of my shirts are black) but in pictures they say that black is a bit harsh so I reached for the only clean shirt that wasn’t black (although admittedly it’s pretty close). The fact that it matched those flowers was a pleasant little surprise that we noticed after we looked at the pics!
Shelly- We have actually considered painting the exterior of our house white, tan or sage but we’ve decided against it due to the fact that Richmond has some green mold issues and painted brick (especially light painted brick) always makes this painfully obvious and requires a lot of cleaning/maintenance while our current brick is 100% maintenance free- which really appeals to two busy bees like us. But if you live in a place where painted brick houses are more easily maintained, we’d love to see your before and after pics!
xo,
Sherry
Hope you win too! And btw, love the family action shot of you, john and Burger. Did you purposely match your shirt to the flowers on your left??? I have a sneaking suspicion you did (from all your prop-setting training)!! tre chic!
Best of luck! I was just wondering if you guys have ever thought of painting the brick on your house? Our house is very similar in style and I keep seeing these painted brick homes and LOVE them but I’m a little nervous about jumping in and doing it. Even though I know it will look good.
You guys are very sweet and modest…everyone keep voting daily for these guys! Just think of all of the fun things they’ll do with the money for us to see :) I check the votes with bated breath for you embarrassingly more than once a day…hope you win!
AWWWWW! Love you guys, too! Going over to post my daily vote now! I hope my nails will grow back, too. I’m really pullin’ for ya!
I’ve been voting everyday! I’m so nervous too, I want you guys to win it, you are so close now!!
I love your porch bench and those pillows. You guys did an awesome job! I hope you win!
I’ve been voting for y’all every single day! If you two don’t win, I don’t know what I’ll do. ;-)
Yes, they are laminate! I hate it, but I’m not sure what I can do other than replacing the faces. I’ll try your idea and see if I have any luck! Thanks.
Ok, since you’ve mentioned it a few times, I just have to ask – what’s with the (almost) all black wardrobe? :-)
Hey Beth,
I guess just like for our house, I find something I love (jute rugs, cream tones, white ceramic animals) and I stick with it when it comes to my wardrobe as well (black tank tops, black v-necks, black dresses) and then I add some pops of color in my shoes/purse/earrings etc. It probably started back in NYC (where every store carries and sells more black than anything else) and it’s a very practical color when it comes to hiding oops moments with spaghetti sauce. Not so practical now that I’m in colorful Richmond (where I’m in the minority with my black clothes) and with a tan chihuahua (every single hair is highlighted by my black basics). I’m slowly dipping my toe into the whole color thing. Now I have a few turquoise and coral shirts and I’m loving them. And there’s also the purple shirt above. Slowly but surely…
xo,
Sherry
Just voted right now. Gladly, hitting the F5 key in my keyboard did refresh the page & I got a new code. I’ll also be voting for you every day & hoping you guys get the $5,000!!
I’ve been voting daily. I really hope you guys win.
I try to vote almost every day…because I can’t WAIT to see what you guys will do with the prize money ;)
Crossing my fingers – best of LUCK!!
Heh. That’s cute. And you know (I’m SURE you know) that Nate often says we decorate the way we dress and to take a look at our wardrobes to see what we like. I’m glad that applies to you in a relative sense, and that you didn’t paint all your walls black. :-)
All that lovey stuff right back atcha. Voting daily and will til the end. Sherry, are you sure you’re not prego??? That was pretty mushy.
Hey Dana,
No bun in the oven for us… but we do have a baby already. Of the four-legged-furry variety. Maybe I’m just full of puppy love.
xo,
s
Okay okay okay! I love you guys, so I finally just voted for you (I know, I suck as a reader if this is my first voting!). I sincerely hope you win because I love your aesthetic and can’t wait to see what you guys would do with the winnings! I never thought you’d need my vote so I didn’t vote until the last minute!! Also, if you check out my blog now, be aware that I won’t have any updates of how my place looks until at least 6/17, when I’ve had two consecutive days off from work to do some solid plastic surgery on the place (so don’t judge until then! please!)Good luck!!!!!
Yikes! You guys have fallen behind- how did that happen?!
Maybe you could post a daily reminder until it’s over?
Hey Antonette,
We actually get this request a lot so we’ve been doing a little “p.s.” ditty about voting after every post for a while now. Hopefully that helps! We just have so many fun things to share with you guys over the next few days that it would feel strange to do a bunch of posts begging for votes so frequently (we’ve limited ourselves to one weekly remember-to-vote post). It’s out of our hands now and even if we don’t get that pile of money we still have plenty of home improvement projects up our sleeves that we can’t wait to share with you guys! One of which we’ve already secretly started…
xoxo,
Sherry
Okay everyone – its rally time. I have been voting daily and checking the vote tally. The Youngsters were in the lead about a week ago – then Making It Lovely (sounds a bit like a horse race) took the lead. Maybe they have a strategy?
So let’s have a counter-strategy. Email a link to the Youngsters blog to your friends and walk them through how easy it is to vote daily.It is so easy and what a great way to pay back the Youngsters for all they do for us. Not to mention – seeing how they spend the loot. There is still time to rock the vote so spread the word.
I’m just making sure it’s okay that I mention y’all on my blog. I want to encourage my blog readers to go vote! I really want y’all to win! And, of course, I’ll link to your site so naturally you will get MORE READERS! We are huge fans!
-The Buies
Hey Cara Beth Buie,
Thanks so much for rallying the troops for us! We dropped in on your blog and loved it. Such cute pooches!
xoxo,
s (& j)
It has been such a pleasure to vote for you guys!! I really hope you win (because I know you would do something amazing and beautiful to your home with the money!!)!! :)
Win, lose or draw…you guys have been a class act in the BHG 48 Hour Challenge, and you’re winners in our book.
S’all good in the YHL neighborhood :-)
xoxo,
Katy
Ok. Post is up! I’m “rallying the troops!” I just hope the troops go vote now.
-CB Buie
http://thebuies.blogspot.com/2009/06/bhg-fan.html
VOTED AGAIN!!! I know you can do it!!! You have to win so we can see all the amazing things you can do with $5000!!! Maybe a little left over for a celebratory party?!?
EVERYBODY GO VOTE!!!!
What a nice post. Although directed to the contest through you guys and MIL, I’ve spent some time looking at all the projects and they really were all very well done. I’d take any of ‘em personally (although hubs definitely has his fave: he’s a griller, nothing personal :))
I still want you guys to win though, so I’ll keep voting every day until Friday. It’d be awesome to see what you guys do with it.
Good luck…my fingers and toes are crossed!
Good Luck guys. You both did an amazing job.