• how did you guys meet?
• are you real friends or just blog friends?
• how long have you been friends?
• what were your first impressions of each other?
• what surprised you about each other?
• what do you like to do together?
• how are your styles similar? how are they different?
• do your husbands really get along?

So we thought we’d answer them all on film for ya. Warning: you’re about to lose 12 minutes of your life to two giggly girls who incessantly say the word “like” and perform incredibly terrible impersonations of each other).

When it came to the stuff that we did together this time, here we go:

• filled our bellies with a ton of favorite local food (Bottom’s Up, Q BBQ, Carytown Burger & Fries) along with enjoying a few home cooked meals together in our torn apart kitchen courtesy of chef John
• did fun stuff with the kiddos like going for a walk near the river (where Katie snapped some family photos for us), hanging at the playground (where Clara & Will had some quality sandbox time), and even attending Clara’s weekly music class with Will in tow (he fit right in)
• checked out a few Saturday morning yard sales and even found a Goodwill Outlet (where they sell things by the pound in giant bins – it was like nothing Katie or I had ever seen)
• strolled around Carytown (where we did some browsing at a few thrift shops and consignment stores) and shopped at Stonypoint mall (where Jeremy got the same jeans as John, I’m telling you our men are hilarious together)
• hung around the house while our kids napped (Clara slept from around one to two thirty, and Will would sleep from two to five… so we were house-bound for a good chunk of time each day- which we used to do some synchronized blogging, talk about future projects, debate the merits of certain paint colors, take naps on the sofa, etc)
• rented a few movies after the kids went to bed for the night (X-Men: First Class for the boys and Bridesmaids for the girls) – we also watched a lot of Bang For Your Buck on HGTV since we liked betting which room got the most bang

In summary: good times. Katie even used her photog skillz to take some sweet pics:

So thankful for good friends, good weather, and sweet babies. Er, I guess they’re technically toddlers now. Sniffle. Did any of you guys hang with friends this weekend? Or have a weird feeling that KB and I were together? One commenter totally guessed that we were visiting each other while it was happening and we had no idea how they knew about it (maybe they’re psychic? or they saw us around town together?).

Psst- Check out Katie’s sweet post about everything. She even dug up our first email exchange. Love that lady.

We figured we’d just do a potted herb garden this year, with only a few “edible essentials” for our kitchen. Which is why we picked up a foursome of local and organically grown herbs (parsley, oregano, basil, and mint) at the farmer’s market this weekend for $12. Speaking of which, you can read more about our trip to the market on BabyCenter today as part of their “Big Day Out” this Saturday.

But back to the tub. It was about $8 at Lowe’s (way cheaper than any planter of that size) and to turn it into our herb pot, we figured it could use some holes for drainage in the bottom. They were a cinch to make with my little cordless drill.

To make them a bit bigger, I also wiggled a big nail around in them too. Oh yeah, and I made the holes in a heart shape. Maybe I was feeling romantic? Maybe I was subliminally professing my love for galvanized tubs? Or it was an ode to the L in YHL? Either way, this photo is about the most any of us will ever see of it.

Update: A few savvy commenters recommended that we test for lead just to be sure it wouldn’t leech into our food if it was randomly present in the metal. We just used one of those $4 Lead Test Sticks from Home Depoton to test the seams, the inside, the outside, the bottom, and even the holes that we drill and it was negative. Whew. So that’s definitely something to test for if you’re not sure how pure your galvanized tin is (and you’re using it for edible herbs)!

Also for drainage, we put a layer of gravel on the bottom (they were leftovers from the patio project). Hopefully they’ll keep the majority of the soil from dripping out of my hidden hole-y heart.

Before adding any dirt, we did a quick “dry run” of the herb placement. The taller guys (basil and parsley) went in the back, and oregano got some special space on the side – since my oregano tends to get bushy. Yeah… not so sure I like the sound of that last sentence.

Of course, if things do well (i.e. grow big and strong) this tin could soon get a bit cramped. But hopefully we’ll achieve “full” and not go as far as “so full it’s bad.” But if so, we can always transplant things into their own larger dedicated pots. You know if anything gets all diva on us. And we’re keeping the mint from spreading like crazy by separating it in a buried pot (a tip we learned a while back at the farmer’s market from a friendly local gardener).

You can see dirt in the bottom of the pic above. That’s some organic potting mix that we snagged at Lowe’s. It was about twice as much as the regular stuff ($10 vs $6, I think) but we figured since we’ll be consuming these plants it was worth going the slightly more natural route (since they were organically grown up to this point).

We usually would use our nutrient rich compost pile, but since moving our DIY compost bins got a little jumbled while we got settled so we don’t appear to have enough “ready” soil to use just yet (aka: things are still breaking down).

Here are the plants all in and soil-ed up:

Since the patio (which also got a bit soil-ed, as you can see) isn’t very sunny, we decided to put the pot on our balcony-to-nowhere (right off of our living room and kitchen). Despite being between two sections of house, it gets a remarkable amount of light – almost the closest thing to full sun that we have on our mostly shaded property. Plus it’s pretty darn convenient to the kitchen.

The beauty of having our herb “garden” potted this year is that we can move it around to test other sun spots if we find that this one isn’t doing the trick (since we’re still trying to wrap our heads around sun patterns here). Heck, it might even help us decide where to put a more permanent garden next year (gotta find that sweet spot). And if we decide to keep this potted version around, it’ll still look good on the larger deck that we plan to build out here eventually. Maybe even as an oversized centerpiece on an outdoor table?

And since no herb garden story is complete with an artsy close-up of your plant labels – here we go!

If you’re wondering, Colonel Oregano is not some weird variety of oregano. It’s just me being weird. I decided it’d be funny to take our simple popsicle stick labels and give them the Clue-character treatment. You know like Miss Scarlet and Colonel Mustard? Here’s my whole cast of made up herbs / suspect names. Yes, I’m what Sherry’s dad likes to call “a strange bird” (he’s also the man trying to single-handedly bring back the term “sick puppy”).

Next year if we decide to grow peppers it will be tough deciding whether to give it the “Sergeant” or “Doctor” title. Though the idea of a Dr. Pepper plant sounds pretty awesome, so maybe I’ve already made my decision.

What are you guys growing this year? Anything sprouting up particularly well or deliciously? Anything not showing as much promise as you’d like? Anything murdering someone in the conservatory with the lead pipe?

Psst- Don’t forget to check out the rest of our Farmer’s Market adventures here on BabyCenter.

So yeah. Baby, baby, baby. Sorry if that’s all I talk about but Clara is kind of awesome. Haha. It was the best present ever.

The weather on Saturday was around 70 degrees and sunny (which is funny because it used to always snow on my birthday when I lived up north) so we went on a nice long walk in one of our favorite neighborhoods (look at that gorgeous house behind me) with Clara and the dog.

We even saw turtles in the river (Clara loved it, Burger seemed ambivalent).

And the whole time I was sporting my new bun/thigh toning Reebok Easytone b-day sneaks that the hubby got me.

That’s right, he wants me to firm up. Haha. Just kidding, I begged for them and he humored me. They actually didn’t kill me at all during or after the first three mile walk that I did in them. But the next day I did the same thing and I needed a serious break afterwards. So yes, they do actually burn the buns and legs after a while (although my first trek with them made me think they were all hype, my Reeboks had the last laugh).

What else. We went out to a nice little sushi dinner (we have a thing for it)…

… and I got some pretty fun stuff from J and the fam. Beyond my tush toning Reeboks John also got me an awesome book called Love Life (from a local gift store named Mongrel) with a perfect greeny-yellow cover.

Not that you should judge a book by its cover, but it never hurts if it looks as good on the outside as it actually is on the inside. We mentioned a while back that sometimes we struggle with balance (since the internet is a 24/7 thing, sometimes it’s hard to draw the line and unplug) so the book is chock full of couldn’t-be-more-true reminders, like:

• “The work will wait while you show the child the rainbow, but the rainbow won’t wait while you finish the work.” – Pat Clifford
• “If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live” – Lin Yutang
• “I think the most significant work we ever do, in the whole world, in our whole life, is done within the four walls of our own home.” – Stephen R. Covey
• “It is a great art to saunter.” – Henry David Thoreau
• “I haven’t a clue how my story will end, but that’s all right. When you set out on a journey and night covers the road, that’s when you discover the stars.” -Nancy Willard

But enough philosophical stuff. What is it about birthdays that make you evaluate where you’ve been and where you’re going? Oh yeah, the whole “I’m aging” thing. We were just joking that we’ll have to change our blog name to Middle Aged House Love. Haha. Somehow it doesn’t have the same ring. Anyway, now for the fun stuff. Look at the home-related booty I got from John’s awesome sisters. We always do “wish lists” when it comes to gifting each other (which makes it easier on the buyer and pretty sweet for the receiver) so I moseyed around the world wide web in search of a few prints that I’d love to add to our soon-to-be-expanding frame gallery in the hallway, and found these beauties:

That one’s from here (we love a good road trip) and this next one is from here (I just think peacocks are purty) both gifted by John’s sister Emily:

This one is from here from John’s sister Katie (NY will always have a special place in my heart since it’s where we met and fell in love):

And John went for extra credit. I begged for those Reeboks and thought they’d be the extent of my gift, but he also surprised me with this adorable bee print (we have a thing for bees too).

So I can’t wait to hang all of my new prints among family pictures and keepsakes in the hallway. Pics when we knock more holes into the other side of the wall and hang that pile of Ikea frames that’s still sitting in the corner of the kitchen. Someday. Oh and my sweet friend Heather sent me these lilies out of the blue:

I love them so much and especially adore that she specifically picked out the lime green vase because she knew I’d flip for it. Affirmative Heather. I went crazy oohing and aaahing and still find myself walking in from the other room just to “visit” my bouquet every hour or so.

So overall, birthday number 29 was awesome and life is good. Who the heck knows where I’ll be when I turn 35, or even 30. I’m just trying to make it count, without going so crazy that I forget to enjoy the little things like baby snorts and puppy sniffs. Man am I still hormonal from birthing Clara 10+ months ago? Sorry if this post is all sorts of personal and corny. I guess that’s just me these days.

Psst- All print images found via the Etsy seller that we linked to above or below them. Love Life book image found here.

Pssssst- For anyone who has asked how we organize Clara’s toys or inquired about the big brown basket next to our sectional, click here to check out our BabyCenter post for the mind-numbingly simple “dump & cover” toy storage system that’s rocking our world.

On this date in 2006, Sherry and I woke up on an air mattress in my Upper West Side apartment (she had already moved all of her stuff out of her Soho studio and turned in the keys) to greet my dad, who had driven up in the mini-van that would move us and all of our worldly belongings (hence the air mattress – we had sold our mattresses) to the River City. Seven hours and one stop at Ikea later we arrived at our new apartment in Richmond – unemployed, unwed, and uncontrollably excited about the life ahead of us.

(Gorgeous pic of Richmond’s skyline by doxadigital on Flickr)

But enough about our back story (you can read more about that here), let’s talk about Richmond. We often get asked for recommendations for what to see, where to shop, and what to eat when in Richmond. So we’re taking this 5th anniversary occasion to share five “Top 5″ lists about some of our favorite things in RVA. Are you sensing a “five” theme here? Here’s what we’ve covered:

• 5 Favorite Places to Chow Down
• 5 Favorite Tourist-y Things To Do
• 5 Favorite Ways to Enjoy a Gorgeous Day
• 5 Favorite Places to Score Home Deals
• 5 Favorite Swanky & Inspiring Home Stores

***5 FAVORITE PLACES TO CHOW DOWN***

Sherry and I aren’t “foodies” by any means, but we definitely love finding an excuse to eat out for those special occasions. Here are a handful of quintessential Richmond restaurants where we love to dine:

1. Kuba Kuba: A cozy, casual, and colorful spot in The Fan for Cuban food. Sound “in the know” by pronouncing it “Coo-ba Coo-ba” and not “Kyoo-bah Kyoo-bah.” Here’s the Kuba Kuba website.
2. Bottom’s Up: We took the Bowers to this pizza spot in Shockoe Bottom during their visit last year. Be sure to check out the 6 foot high water marks from when it flooded during Hurricane Gaston in 2004. Here’s the Bottom’s Up website.
3. The Boathouse at Rocketts Landing: We celebrated the news of Sherry’s pregnancy at this new-ish riverfront restaurant. The food’s great, but the views of the James River and the expansive city skyline are our favorite part (see the picture below). In fact we took Sherry’s mom and stepdad here last night. Here’s the Boathouse website.
4. Crab Louie’s Tavern: Technically in Midlothian, this seafood restaurant sits in a historic house older than the USA. Among other reasons, we love all of the fresh bread options that you get before the meal arrives. Carbs. Yum. Here’s Crab Louie’s website.
5. Sticky Rice: We loves us some sushi (read about our sushi tradition here), so this somewhat American hipster twist on it is always fun. Plus, where else can you order “Sticky Balls” and not get a weird look? Here’s the Sticky Rice website.

***5 FAVORITE TOURIST-Y THINGS TO DO***

We don’t have a Statue of Liberty or an Eiffel Tower, but these Richmond “landmarks” should be on your list when you’re in town:

1. Browse the VMFA: Recently renovated, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts building and the art within it is pure eye candy. And with the exception of special exhibits (currently it’s Mr. Picasso), it’s all totally free to see. Here’s the VMFA website.
2. See a movie at The Byrd Theatre: This gorgeous movie palace built in 1928 still shows second-run movies for just $2. It’s fun to grab some popcorn, squeeze your legs into the old school seats, and enjoy the cinema in style. Here’s the Byrd Theatre website.
3. Stroll around Hollywood Cemetery: It sounds weird, but this cemetery makes for a gorgeous afternoon walk. Beautiful views and famous headstones (including two US presidents and countless Civil War figures) totally negate the creepy factor – especially in the fall (pictured below). Here’s the Hollywood Cemetery website.
4. Shop Carytown: Loads of local shops and restaurants line Cary Street to create Richmond’s iconic and colorful shopping district. You’ll even hit up a few other items on these lists in the process of visiting. Here’s the Carytown website.
5. Walk (or run!) Monument Avenue & The Fan: Monument Avenue is lined with stunning historic row homes and – surprise! – several monuments. And the nearby Fan district also boasts lots of inspiration. It’s great for walking or running on a nice day, especially if you have time to stop in a neighborhood restaurant or park. Here’s The Fan district association website.

***5 FAVORITE WAYS TO ENJOY A GORGEOUS DAY***

We think Richmond truly shines when it’s nice out, so here are some of our favorite places to soak up a beautiful day:

1. Pony Pasture: This horse-y name actually belongs to an area of the James River Park System with great nature trails for walking, gentle currents for swimming, and exposed rocks for sunning in the hot months. We always describe Richmond as a beach town, but instead of having an actual beach, locals hang out at the river. (Check out Burger enjoying a hot rock and a long stick in the picture below). Here are directions to Pony Pasture.
2. Maymont: This park is one of our favorite spots to take visitors. Why? Tons of paved paths, beautiful gardens, a petting farm, historic buildings, a nature center, and even a zoo (sorta – there are bears, foxes, buffaloes, and bald eagles to name a few). And most of it’s free – even the zoo and the petting farm. Here’s the Maymont website.
3. Belle Isle: Kinda like Pony Pasture, but more island-y and closer to downtown, you can come here to enjoy nature and the city skyline in one vista. Plus it has great trails for walking, running, or mountain biking. This is where Sherry and I went from liking to loving Richmond when we first moved here five years back. Here’s Belle Isle on Wikipedia.
4. Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden: Call it nature in a more controlled setting, but the admission price is definitely worth the scenery (and the landscaping ideas you can bring back home). We took Sherry’s mom and stepdad here when they first visited – it was a great way to spend the day outside strolling through scenic settings. Here’s the Lewis Ginter website.
5. Stony Point Fashion Park or Short Pump Town Center: These are spots for a more traditional “mall” experience, but in an airy outdoor setting. So you can hit up Anthropologie or Crate & Barrel, but still get some sun and stroll along cobblestone paths. Stony Point’s even dog-friendly (Burger has visited every shop from Sur La Table to Banana Republic). Here’s Stony Point’s website & Short Pump’s website.

***5 FAVORITE PLACE TO SCORE HOME DEALS***

We couldn’t survive in this town if we couldn’t find awesome deals for our house, so here are some local haunts that we love (besides the national chain stores like Tar-jay):

1. Diversity Thrift: We’ve found lots of great stuff here over the five years (including the base for our pedestal table in the sunroom and our glass coffee table in the old living room). You can read more about why we love it in this post.
2. Love of Jesus Thrift: This is another go-to thrifting spot, especially if we’re on the hunt for furniture. My sister scored the amazing console below a couple of years ago there. Read more about that in this old post.
3. Lakeside Avenue Thrift Stores: A more recent discovery of ours, the thrift and consignment stores along Lakeside Avenue (like Consignment Connection and Pass It On) are where we recently scored our beloved wooden goose.
4. The Decorating Outlet: This store is where items from local sponsor Shades of Light go to be discounted, and where we’ve been going to buy items like the rug and the capiz light fixture in Clara’s room on the cheap. Here’s the Decorating Outlet website.
5. U-fab: This discount fabric store is always on our list when we’re hunting for textiles or patterns to bring home. Their selection is more stylish than the big chains tend to be, but they’re cheaper than the fancy designer places. Here’s the U-fab website.

***5 FAVORITE SWANKY & INSPIRING HOME STORES***

On the opposite end of thrifting and discounts are some of Richmond’s most gorgeous and inspirational home stores. Be sure to bring a tissue to wipe the drool from your chin when you visit (even if you don’t have the money in your wallet to buy something):

1. Williams & Sherrill: Half housewares, half fabric store, this place has more inspiration than we can handle on most occasions (see our photo below). Someday we’ll be fancy enough to actually buy something. Sigh. More on them here. And here’s the Williams & Sherrill website.
2. Ruth & Ollie: This shop in Carytown is smaller yet a bit more contemporary than Williams & Sherrill. We especially love the furniture and art that abounds. Check out a few ideas that we got from them in this post. Here’s the Ruth & Ollie website.
3. LaDifférence: Located in Shockoe Bottom, LaDiff is a huge store filled with modern furniture, accessories, lighting – basically, the works. You may remember them from this oft-referenced wallflowers giveaway post. Here’s the LaDiff website.
4. Shades of Light: Yes, they’re a sponsor of our site, but we couldn’t not include them on this list of go-to home stores in Richmond that we love, especially when it comes to gorgeous lighting (we’ve been obsessed with them since way before their sponsorship started). Here’s the Shades of Light website.
5. Caravati’s: Unlike the others on this list, you won’t find anything new or pristine at Caravati’s. It’s an architectural salvage warehouse that is loaded with once-loved items for any remodel, restoration, or craft project with a historic and authentic twist. See some more in this old post.

So there you have it, five “Top 5″ lists to celebrate our 5th anniversary of moving to Richmond. Obviously in five years we can’t claim to be Richmond experts, so we invite everyone else who lives here in RIC (or have visited) to chime in with their favorites in these categories (or others). And while we’re at it, those of you in other cities are welcome to comment with a “Top 5″ list for your hometown too. Who knows if we might end up visiting someday!

Boathouse photo by Beth Furgurson found via Richmond Magazine.com, rest of images snapped by us (except for that gorgeous first pic from here).

Psst- We announced this weeks giveaway winners. Click here to see if one of them is you.

But we’re sleeping like babies and are downright giddy about the sale of our house and the purchase of our new one. Why? We’re 100% convinced that the time was right and everything happened the way it was meant to. Are we crazy? Maybe. But here’s our thought process:

• Our monthly payment for the new house is $200 less than what we’ve been sending in for our old much smaller house thanks to historically low mortgage rates and a great deal on the new house (which we never could have afforded in a better market – our offer was well below the asking price and they went for it). More house in a better neighborhood for less money each month? Yes please.
• The unimproved houses in our old neighborhood (which look a lot like ours looked back when we purchased it) are selling for 30K, 40K, even 50K less than ours sold for. So not only were our projects fun and fun to enjoy while we lived there, they seemed to help our house retain its value and even improve upon it (even though we bought it when the market was amazing and we sold when the market was -uh, not).
• We got an offer within just a few days of being on MLS, so that’s a lot to be grateful for in this housing market.

Want more details? Sure. You know we like to talk…

We’re not house flippers, we’re house lovers (hence the blog name). We never moved into our old house intending to flip it or upgrade it for any other reason than to enjoy it and make it the perfect home for ourselves in the time that we spent there. And it was. So the fact that by doing those updates we were also able to keep the house from dropping a lot lower into a price range that actually may have made us cry ourselves to sleep at night really does feel like a blessing. And we can’t forget the inexpensive backyard wedding that we were able to host thanks to diverting our venue rental budget into a new paved driveway and cobblestone patio that were around long after our big day ended. Or the kitchen renovation that spawned a blog that spawned a business that now affords us the opportunity to both work at home with our spawn by our side (sorry for calling you “spawn” Clara- it’s a terribly un-ladylike word).

Plus, it’s easy for us to see the rewards that the new house holds. After all, we’re not just sellers in this buyers’ market – we’re buyers too. And boy is it a sweet time to buy. We’ve scored our new larger house in a nicer neighborhood at a serious discount (we paid over 40K less than it was valued five years ago). Plus since interest rates are awesomely low we’re potentially saving tens of thousands of dollars in interest over the term of the loan. And since we had some nice equity in our old house to roll over into the purchase of the new one (and thanks to that lower interest rate) that’s how we got to that lower monthly mortgage payment that we mentioned above.

Plus we figure that when/if the market recovers in who-knows-how-long, there are greater rewards to be had on our new house than if we had waited around to sell our old one (which might have gone for more money in a few years, but at that point our new house might have been waaaay out of our price range just like it was five years ago when the market was doing gangbusters). And of course we can’t ignore the most important facts: that this new house satisfies our passion for DIY, offers more room for our family to grow, and helps fuel our business. Which is really the day to day stuff that helps with the whole sleeping at night thing.

But let’s revisit that whole 35K spent on improvements, only 5K of which we actually made back in the sale price. The good news is that it’s not like our improvements didn’t serve us at all. Similar houses in our old neighborhood are now selling for muuuuuch less than ours did because they don’t have any of the updates that ours has. In fact a similar ranch on our old street (only about three houses away) that’s notably bigger than ours sold this summer for 50K (!!!) less than our house did. Which makes us feel incredibly good about the improvements that we made to set our former casa apart so that it would not only hold its value but would even creep up 5K since the good ol’ days of the bubble. So although on paper it might look like we lost 30K based on what we paid, how much we put into it, and how much we sold it for- we like to look at it like this: by making the improvements that we did, not only did our old house not drop 50K in value in this bum economy, it also slightly improved by 5K. Call it looking through rose colored glasses if you’d like, but thinking about it that way really helps keep things in perspective.

Oh and here’s another interesting house-for-sale point that our lender made. He has noticed that what homeowners aren’t getting back financially from their improvements, they’re getting back in sale speed. For example, a buyer might not pay much more for your house because it has granite counters, but you’ll get an offer a lot faster than a similar house down the street that’s sporting laminate. And that has certainly been our experience. We were on MLS for 2 days before getting an offer while a similar larger house down the road is going on 4 months without a bite. And it’s listed for $30k less!

Do we wish the market were better? Sure. But we’ve got zero regrets. Some may accuse us of seeing the glass as half full (and we definitely don’t think everyone would make the choice to sell at this time), but these are just a few reasons why we’re so glad to be in our new house just in time for Clara’s first Christmas. Speaking of which, we’ve got some boxes to unpack…

Odd little house made of money in a pot image from here.

You can see when you get up close that it’s one of those flat grid-like grungy twenty year roofs without any sort of dimension or crispness. And did we mention it was on its last legs (as in about to leak at any moment)?

And here’s our brandspankingnew roof (pardon the lighting inconsistency, we wish we could control the sun):

We were especially proud that we negotiated a great price but also scored free hauling of a bunch of demolition junk and old rotten wood that we had piled up in our garage (we sweetly asked while they were tossing the old roof into their dumpster if we could add our stuff to the pile). So there’s a tip for ya: think about killing a few other birds with the ol’ hiring-someone-to-do-something stone when you can (we looked into hiring a man with a van but got gunshy about the $100-300 estimates- so we happily kept that money in our wallets and came up with this odd-but-accommodatable request). Of course we volunteered to haul it all in there ourselves, so here’s John up on a ladder after tossing about twenty garbage bags worth of stuff inside:

We also negotiated a nice $15 price tag for each of the two low profile vents that they installed on the roof instead of our old metal whirly-gigs that stuck out so high from the backside of our roof that they were visible from the front (see ‘em peeking up over the roof line in our second before shot?). Here they are all installed and a lot more current and modern looking (it was a total of just 30 beans for this entire upgrade). We also considered adding a roofline ridge vent as well (for $325 extra), but we talked to a few friends and neighbors who had them done and actually never saw any difference in air flow. Plus our house has side vents and awning vents along with these two new top vents, so our attic is actually really nicely ventilated as it is.

And just because you know we love a progress shot, here are the guys hard at work on the top of our house in 90 degree weather. They rocked it out up there (while Clara and John did this inside).

But on to the questions that you guys shot our way last Thursday:

How did we save for it? For the past 24+ months we’ve been saving because we knew this day was coming. Our roof wasn’t leaking yet but everyone else in the neighborhood had actually reroofed already, and our inspector said we had about 3-5 years left on ours when we moved in back in 2007. We also learned that our sunroom already had a few compromised areas that were causing water to collect in the glass bulb cover on our ceiling fan (water + electrical = yowza) so it was definitely time to get ‘er done. Thankfully we saved enough to finally pull the trigger before stormy hurricane and acorn-pelting season hits in full force (which we’re sure would have done the old roof in within the next few months).

Did we get a deal for being Young House Love? Someone actually commented to say “I hope this company gave you a discount because they will receive a lot of leads from your blog. Mr. Sanders (your floor guy) said 50% of his business comes from you website.” That was definitely news to us! For those who don’t recognize his ironic name, Mr. Sanders is the guy we hired to sand and stain our floors, and we loved him so we’re happy to endorse his work on our blog and we’re happy to hear that he gets work thanks to our recommendation- nobody deserves more praise! He really did amazing work. So that’s what’s supposed to happen when people do a great job.

But to answer the question about if we got any special treatment or snagged a discounted rate because of our blog the answer is: nope. Nada. We actually were offered a free roof from two companies but we sweetly declined. We never mention our blog when we get estimates from local businesses, we just call a bunch of people in the phone book (and those who come recommended by friends and family members) and try to find the best people for the job (at the right price of course). It just feels odd to promise people “good press” or “lots of referrals” so we prefer to pay people for their work as any other homeowner would. In fact everyone who works on our house has no idea who we are and we like it that way. It makes it easy to endorse their work if they do a good job because we’re confident that they’re like that to everyone (and aren’t just being especially thorough or sweet to us since they want a good internet review). And we really liked who we found for this job. Read on for more deets.

Why we didn’t do it ourselves? We definitely like to take on our share of DIY projects. Especially the ones that sound like fun (like gutting a bathroom or running around on the roof). But after some heavy thought we came to the conclusion that it wasn’t something that we could tackle this time (there’s always next time though…). Basically, we knew our roof had such little time left before it started leaking and potentially damaging our house and our stuff, so we decided to leave this undertaking up to the pros. And it’s a good thing we did because the flat roof that we have over our sunroom stumped a few professionals that we had over for estimates (so it definitely reinforced the conclusion that we would be biting off more than we could chew this time). The good news is that we’d been saving for quite a long time, and we always believe in getting a ton of estimates to find the best people for the job (at the best price). Although one estimate came in at nearly 10K, the one we went with was around half of that price, and we loved that we could rely on a fully insured family owned local business who had been in the roofing game for nearly 60 years.

What kind of roof did you end up with? We went with a 30 year dimensional roof (made up of GAF shingles) to add some extra definition and protection to the house (the previous roof that we were replacing was a 20 year one). Many roofing experts that we talked to said that although you could save around a thousand dollars going with a 20 year flat roof, the dimensional ones were a lot more in demand, so they’re great for resale. And to get ten more years out of a roof is definitely less wasteful and less work to deal with in the future – so it seemed like the smartest choice. When it came to the color, we went with “Pewter Gray” since we had seen other similarly toned brick homes with that shingle color and we liked the look. So we didn’t have any nerves about picking a color since we just drove around to find homes that we liked and then modeled our decision after our favorite ones.

Why not a white roof (or lighter more reflective color) for the eco benefits? We actually did a lot of research about light colored energy efficient roofs (lighter tones can reflect heat and light instead of absorbing it, which makes for a cooler house) but every expert we spoke to said that our property was far too wooded/shaded for the roof color to make any detectable difference. They also pointed out that in heavily wooded lots like ours, lighter roofs more easily show stains and discoloration which pops up thanks to all those trees dropping things on the roof. And because darker roofs show less staining/discoloration, that choice can actually extend the life of the roof and keep it looking better even longer (which makes for less waste and a longer life, so that seemed to be the more eco-conscious decision in our case).

Why not solar panels? Same reason as above. Unfortunately our property is just too shaded to get any sort of energy saving benefits from solar panels. Sniffle.

Why not metal or slate? We got more than a few quotes for metal and slate roofs, since they charm us to no end (seriously, I fantasize about them). But not only did they come in at two to ten times more (!) than shingles, they would also have priced our house out of the neighborhood. Since everyone else has shingle roofs in our area, we knew we wouldn’t ever recoup the cost of a metal or slate roof since it’s not a standard that has been set in our area. So it would have been amazingly gorgeous, but it was sadly out of our budget and above our neighborhood’s value.

So there you have it. A new roof and a ton of a’s to your q’s. Anyone else have any roofing going on at their house? Was anyone brave enough to DIY their own? Are you proud that I resisted the urge to work any raise the roof puns into this post? John is.

It’s an amazingly cool consignment shop for kids that just opened in Richmond’s Carytown district last month – and they gave us a sneak peek at the space before they unlocked the doors to the public. We scored the special treatment because the shop is a spin-off concept from our friend Lesley who opened the grown-up consignment version called Clementine years ago just across the street (both are now owned by two other fams). We also crashed her charming abode back in ’08, so we know she’s the real deal when it comes to having some serious style.

Oh, and you probably remember us mentioning Clover a few weeks ago in this giveaway because their floors sport the Sunny Goode paint treatment.

But the creative and inspiring decor doesn’t stop at those insanely amazing stenciled floors. Clover is full of playful DIY projects that are as adventurous as they are affordable – and it’s always good to remember that sometimes you just have to go for it to achieve that perma-smile-inducing look. It’s definitely not your typical kids clothing store:

Let’s start with what you can’t miss when you walk in: the dragon. This colorful Chinese dragon greets you at the front and weaves its way all the way to the back of the store. They scored it at Pearl River Mart in NYC (a store that Sherry often reminisces about- I’ve never been, but it was on Design Star this season for their first challenge). After Lesley hung it she wondered if it would scare any kids, but luckily they all seem to love the playful and imagination-inducing addition to the space. Maybe it’s that cheerful yellow color or those furry pink lips that keep the scare-factor down?

The front half of the store is split into boys’ clothes to your left and girls’ to your right. Each wall features an art installation that’s subtly gender-specific, but totally unlike anything that we’ve seen before. For example, the boys get buoys, which act as a colorful twist on the traditional nautical theme. The authentic buoys were a found on eBay for just $5.99 a pop (Lesley saved on shipping by making sure to order them all from the same vendor). The awesome 2″ thick braided rope also came from eBay – apparently it’s the same stuff you’ll find schoolkids climbing in gym class.

Over on the girls’ side was a 3D collage that was strangely fascinating and beautiful at the same time. Lesley meticulously pinned and velcro’d flash cards, paint swatches, playing cards, and even Pez dispensers into a wave of bright colors that anchors the entire wall (scroll up to the second photo to see it from afar). Even though there’s no apparent theme to the items, it’s somehow inherently playful and fun – and weirdly hard to take your eyes off of! Kind of like Where’s Waldo without the guy in the striped shirt. And we love that she used free items (like paint swatches) and super affordable things (like playing cards- 52 for $1) to cover a lot of ground without breaking the bank.

The wall art isn’t the only non-traditional element when it comes to the clothing areas. Even the racks themselves are a unique creation for Clover. They took metal plumbing pipes and had them fashioned into double- and single-level racks to house a slew of consigned clothing at the exact heights and lengths that they needed. We think it’s so cool that they didn’t go the expected route by defaulting to a basic wire rack. It adds just a glimmer of edge to this kids store, which keep things from veering off into the sugary-sweet territory.

And speaking of shelving, to house some of the non-hanging items, Lesley scored two of these wicker and glass shelves on Craislist for $45 each, then painted them a bold watermelon color (leftover from the floor) to fit seamlessly into the space. Sherry was especially enamored with the chic criss-cross back:

Back in the dressing area (little kids need to try stuff on too, right?) they converted a closet space into a private changing room with some clover-esque Ikea fabric ($8/yard) that they paired with a colorful backing (see the stripes reflected in the mirror?) and embellished with some red pom-pom trim. Lesley even loaned us some leftover fabric for one of Clara’s weekly photos. Score!

Next door to the dressing room is a little spot to entertain tiny shoppers, complete with two pint-sized chairs scored for $10 at a yard sale and painted a bright cloverly green (with already-owned paint). I picture this as the spot where exhausted baby husbands rest their feet while their baby wives try on outfit after outfit (at least there’s a nice little flat screen TV for watching Sportscenter Sponge Bob).

And of course there’s the spot where money is forked over. Clover opted for a simple teacher-style desk (which was scored at a local thrift store and painted black) to act as their check-out HQ, which is especially perfect for pre-teen purchasers who are just learning to pay for their own things.

Above the desk hang two pendant lamps that Lesley actually fashioned out of $10 industrial lamps from Home Depot topped with red bushel baskets (the top of the lamps feature a ceramic resting point for the basket so they never threaten to overheat the woven buckets). So simple and smart, right? And the DIYed pendant lights fit right into the color scheme thanks to some red paint (applied by none other than Lesley herself).

On the desk itself, they had a piece of glass cut to size and underneath it they laid some fun patterned fabric. But it’s not just any fabric, it’s custom Clover fabric that they had made by Spoonflower.com. We hadn’t seen any Spoonflower fabrics in person before Lesley’s, but we’d been in love with the concept for a while. Basically you can upload your own design (any design! the sky’s the limit!) and get it turned into custom fabric for as little as $16/yard. You can even check out a sample swatch before finalizing your order to make sure it’s perfect. We love unique and thoughtful touches like this- especially because Lesley only needed two yards of fabric and now has a desk that she literally “designed” to take Clover’s decor to the next level. Plus the desk was such a cheap thrift store find that she didn’t flinch when springing for the custom fabric to finish it off.

Last but not least, we’ll take all of you organization nuts ’round to the “employees only” part of the store where Leslie worked her magic again to beautifully arrange all of their extra inventory and supplies (despite it not really being directly visible to shoppers). They created an awesome workspace with butcher block counters (which they snagged on discount from Lumber Liquidators, who knew you could get a countertop there?). We love how clean and organized it all looks – and of course the fact that Lesley used more steel piping as fabric rods to close off some of the compartments below has us especially enamored.

And how could we not share a close-up of the über-organized baskets with charming tag labels that pepper the space. If you can believe it, the baskets were from Walgreens of all places (small ones were 2 for $5, big ones were 2 for $10). Doesn’t it almost make you want to work at Clover – just so you can bask in the beautiful order of things?

So that’s our spin around all the inspiration that is Clover. We hope you guys spotted as many fresh ideas in there as we did… maybe even a few that you can adapt for your own home! If you’re here in Richmond you’ll totally have to swing by (they’re near the Galaxy Diner) to see it for yourself – especially if you’ve got little ones to clothe (or just entertain for a while). And a big thanks to Lesley, Lyn, Jill and all the other Clover-folk for letting us pop by to enjoy all the amazing DIY details.

Did you guys spot anything in particular that caught your eye? Let’s play the always entertaining what’s-your-favorite-part game. And feel free to share any retail stores in your area that also boast unique decor. Who knows, if it’s not too far from Central Virginia we may just swing on over…

The Backstory: Last spring I went to a local writing seminar because our friend Noah (who’s also a published author, award-winning blogger, and all-around-good-guy) was speaking and we wanted to show our support. Sadly Sherry missed out because she had a conflicting “make-up party” to go to with my sister. No lie. Anyways, on the panel was another Richmond-born author named Jenny Block. She was very funny and the story about getting her book published was very interesting indeed. Naturally it made me curious to read her book, so I made a mental note and headed back to pick up a sure-to-be-heavily made up Sherry from her party (she did not disappoint).

The Yard Sale: Fast-forward to June and I spot Jenny’s book, Open, at a local yard sale. Sherry seemed a bit worried when she saw me grabbing for a book subtitled “Love, Sex and Life in an Open Marriage” but I reassured her that my sole interest was in seeing how this witty speaker’s voice translated on to the page, NOT in opening our marriage to others (and I realize this sounds like a typical guy duping his wife, but trust me here – I’ve seen enough episodes of Big Love to nix that idea).

The Blog Post: After the yard sale we blogged about our finds in this post. Along with the post, we shared the picture above, where you can clearly see the titles that we purchased. The small worry that someone would recognize the title and start wondering if Sherry and I were becoming, um, “adventurous” did actually cross our minds…

The Email: Well, someone did recognize the book. A friend of the author’s emailed her the link which prompted an email back to us from Jenny herself: “It looks as if you bought my book at a yard sale! I’m not sure if I should be happy or sad since that means the original owner no longer wanted it. LOL. But I’m glad someone scooped it up! If you want to drop it in the mail to me, I’d be happy to sign it to you and send it back.”

So we did. And she did. And now we’ve got this:

Oh, and I’m about halfway through the book and it has been a very interesting read. And I can say with the utmost confidence that I’m more than happy to keep my marriage closed! So that’s our latest small world story. Do you guys have one to share? Or any other good reads that we should put on our list?

We honestly didn’t expect to see anything blogworthy there - since photos of us stuffing funnel cake down our traps doesn’t quite qualify as “decor inspiration.” But as we snapped pictures of our trip for our own little album we kept coming across cool shots that had us saying “Man, you could almost throw a frame around this and call it art” (which you know we’ve been known to do).

So with that in mind, here’s some visual fare from the fair that we think could be frameworthy – especially if you happen to be better photographers than us.

We snapped these at a vendor selling bulk candy. We didn’t buy any (bummer, I know) but we at least treated ourselves to these colorful close-ups that could brighten up a kid’s room or be a sweet addition to an office (or kitchen!). Though I think I put on a few pounds just looking at them…

If our last name was Eatersik or Neatersik, these snapshots of lighted carnival letters would make great, punchy monogram art for our house (and you know we love a good monogram). Maybe if we’d looked harder we would’ve found a sign for Pie or Pumpkins. I guess there’s always next year.

In keeping with the circus theme, we found the bold stripes of the tents to be quite interesting – almost sophisticated with the right color affect on them (picture it as a graphic high-contrast black and white print with a large white mat in a sleek black frame).

And since it wouldn’t be the fair without farm animals, we risked life and limb to get this close-up of baby ducks (actually, the one in the foreground did poke our digital camera with its beak through the cage. We survived, thank goodness). Who knew ducklings huddled under a heat lamp could be such a nice pop of soft and fuzzy yellow art? And the one in the foreground is really connecting with the camera. Tyra would be proud.

But if ducks are too cutesy for your space, Sherry snagged this pic of bees on honeycomb at one of the agriculture exhibits. Our shot was thwarted a bit by the protective glass casing (not that we’d have it any other way), but the resulting blurriness still had an interesting look to it (we picture this blown up huge in a modern space). Buzzworthy, no?

So that’s a sampling of the potential art we uncovered at the state fair. The lesson? You never know where taking the time to tote your camera along could result in some free wall art (well, it may cost a few bucks to get it blown up at CVS or Kinkos but it’s still majorly affordable- plus you get the pride of saying you snapped the shots yourself). And of course we got this non art-worthy obligatory shot of me in funnel cake heaven. Ahhh, the powdered-sugared memories. Sidenote: do you like how I powdered my pants and struck my best Zoolander pose?

Anyone else been to this (or another) state fair recently? We know our Facebook friends seem to be big fans, but would love to hear if anyone else has discovered some inspiration there as well. Even if it was just your mouth “discovering” some strange-but-delicious fried treats.

PS: The State Fair of Virginia runs through this weekend (October 4th) if you want to check it out for yourself. Sherry and I were quite wow-ed by the new location too. And don’t forget your camera!

It’s probably heavily inspired by the DC area’s Arlington Rap, but we love this one more because it’s about our hometown (and they mention three of our favorite restaurants). Plus it’s definitely already stuck in my head… “statues, statues, statues comin’ atchu”…