Young House Love

DIY Home Decorating Projects, Tutorials, & Shenanigans

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The Duplex Has Drywall! And A Video Tour!

Last week we gave you all of the details on the outside of our duplex renovation, but today we’re turning our attention to a big development on the inside: DRYWALL! We’d nearly forgotten how big of a step this is in a renovation, but all of the feels quickly came flooding back (just like when we hit the drywall stage at the pink house last summer). Rooms suddenly feel like rooms again! Your floor plan starts to feel real. And the vision for its finished state comes much more into focus. Speaking of vision, Sherry shot a video tour that goes room by room to explain what goes where (everything from where we’re planning to

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Things Are Getting Homier At The Duplex!

Last month we shared how refinishing the floors at the duplex made us feel like we turned a major corner at a house we’ve been renovating for over a year (remember when it looked like this?!). And now we are firmly in “the fun part!” You know, where you get to start bringing in rugs and light fixtures and furniture and accessories so it goes from looking like a construction zone to an actual home. It’s THE. BEST. Especially after months and months of expensive improvements that you don’t even see when the drywall goes back up (like plumbing and electrical upgrades). So let’s just get right into it. Behold, this wall of the left

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How Floor Refinishing Totally Transformed The Duplex

Last week Sherry and I got to see the freshly refinished floors at the duplex for the first time. And despite having just gone through this last year at the pink beach house, we were still taken aback by what a HUGE difference it makes. Which explains why we’re about to hit you with a bunch of before & afters right now. We can’t get over how finished it makes everything feel. It’s like changing this one surface suddenly takes the whole place from “renovation zone” to “move-in ready.” I mean, let’s just appreciate how far we’ve come for a second. This is that same room (the living room on the left side of the duplex) when

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Exciting Developments At The Duplex

GUYS. GET EXCITED. Lots of major stuff is happening at the duplex. Like extremely thrilling developments that we’ve thought about and planned over the last year and finally… FINALLY!… they’re happening. You last saw the duplex about a month ago when we shared that it was drywalled, and the latest progress has basically put me over the edge. I, Sherry Petersik, am feeling what people refer to as “messy” about these recent developments. It means I’m too excited and it’s not a good look. But you know I can’t contain myself so I’m just gonna share it all anyway. GET READY FOR A CAPS LOCK EXTRAVAGANZA AND LOTS OF PICTURES! That room above is the living

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Our Duplex Paint, Cabinetry, & Tile Choices (Let’s Just Say They’re Not “Safe”)

I’m not gonna lie. Simultaneously choosing a bunch of finishes – like paint colors for walls and ceilings and trim and doors, cabinets for two kitchens, and tile for six bathrooms (plus two mudroom/laundry rooms along with two kitchen backsplashes) has felt overwhelming at times. Heck, planning just one room, like a bathroom renovation on its own, can feel overwhelming… and here we are planning six different bathrooms, two different kitchens, and 10 other rooms simultaneously! But we’ve managed to keep our heads on straight (so far) and even have some advice to offer through it all. So whether you’re working on a new construction and have to make a lot of decisions like this

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Why Are Shutters So Hard? And Other Duplex Exterior Questions Answered

You guys may have seen some of our progress on the duplex’s exterior on social media, but let’s get into some of the nitty gritty (and answer a ton of questions that have come in about it) here on the ol’ blog. We wanna talk shutters, steps, metal awnings, and what the heck is happening with all of that diamond door drama (among other things). As a refresher, this is what the house looked like before. Due to the historic mandates in town, we’re required to keep all of the basic elements of the house the same – original front doors, exact window locations, the roofline itself (ahem), and the corbels along the roofline… …

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The Duplex Is Coming Back Together, And It’s Happening Quickly!

Last time our duplex renovation was on the blog, it was still looking like shell – er, skeleton – of its former self (see below). The stench of potential was thick in the air (how’s that for a mental picture?) and today, nearly a month later, we’re gonna blow a big whiff of progress in your general direction. We’re starting to see our new floor plan come to life, the second story additions on the back of the house (two more bathrooms!) are nearly complete, and the rain held off just long enough last week to get the front windows in – including Sherry’s precious diamond-grille windows in the top middle (if you follow us on

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#94: Just When The Duplex Was Going So Well…

Just when we thought the duplex renovation was finally rolling along smoothly, we found ourselves in the midst of an ordeal that required an emergency trip to Cape Charles, and another hot-seat meeting with the Historic Review Board. We’re sharing all the details, along with an update on our month-long shopping ban (oh the temptations!). Plus we’re talking about how to get large materials and furniture home when you don’t own a giant car or truck. Because as much as we DIY, we don’t actually own the ideal DIYers vehicle. So this week we’ll tell you why, and share how we get around it. Plus, maybe millennials are just efficiently experts…? You can download this

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The New Duplex Floor Plan

If you saw our before & after post about the beach duplex demo, then you know we’ve got some big plans for the duplex’s floor plan. We want to make the most of the given space – and we’re even adding on a smidge more – so it can sleep more people, offer more bathrooms, and generally improve the feeling of being in this cool old house. Before each side had only one full bath (!!!), so we’re hopeful that we have nowhere to go but up. So we’re back today with some floor plans to show you exactly what we intend to do. And the nerd inside of me is extremely excited about it.

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A Tour Of Our New Beach Duplex!

If you haven’t already heard the news: we’re doubling down in the beach house department. And I mean the “double” part quite literally because we lost our minds and bought a DUPLEX! If you caught our podcast yesterday, you already know the whys, hows, and wheres of this story. The price was right (we even got them down 30K), the location is awesome (close to the park, shops, and a few blocks from the beach), and we didn’t feel like we could ever afford this much house in such a great spot if we waited much longer. This small town only has so many affordable fixer-uppers available before everything gets renovated and we get priced

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How To Install A Removable Wallpaper Mural

We’ve been eager to try a wallpaper accent somewhere in the duplex, and last week we finally installed not one, but two, removable wall murals! And I can’t begin to describe how much easier and cheaper it was than we expected, plus it turned out like ten times better than we had even hoped. If you’ve listened to our podcast recently, you may recognize this space as one of the small sleeping nooks on each side of the duplex. The rooms are only about 8′ x 8′ and our goal is to turn them into fun bonus sleeping spaces. So they felt like natural candidates for a bold injection of color and pattern. We had

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Before & Afters Of Our Beach House: Downstairs

I’m not sure I’ve ever been so excited to share before and after photos as I am today. Last month marked the 2-year anniversary of buying the beach house and while we never like to declare a home “done,” this place has come so far that this felt like a good moment to look back at everything (and to document what’s still ahead). We’ve dug up dozens of before photos (including many that we haven’t ever shared!) and we’ve done our best to find or take similar angles to match up with them. There are so many angles to show you, and so much to cover, we’re just doing the downstairs today  – and then

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