Nothing lights a fire under your arse like making a public proclamation that you’re going to get rid of 100 things. So even though we’re not moving until mid-December, we made our way from room to room paring down every single thing that we don’t love/need/use. The mantra as we went? No mercy. Because nothing is worse than packing, moving, and unpacking things that aren’t worth the time they took to transport or the space they’re eating up in the new place. Here’s our getting-rid-of-it office pile: Then we tackled the kitchen (Clara helped): Here’s our outgoing kitchen pile (what you don’t see are a bunch of baskets and towels on the floor): And here’s
Window Shopping At Garden Ridge
So many people have told me about the miracle that is Garden Ridge, but I’d never been to one. Until yesterday. Yes, one finally came back to Richmond (we heard a lot about the one that used to be out by the airport but it was gone by the time we moved here 4+ years ago). Anyway, here’s what I found on my maiden voyage to the big Costco-ish warehouse full o’ house, garden, and other random stuff. My first reaction was “man this place is huge” followed by “Teresa Guidice would like it here” (NJ Housewives reference anyone?) since there are oversized urns and stone columns a plenty. Klassy. Let’s just say it’s one
Setting A Goal To Clear Out 100 Things Before We Move
I want to get rid of (via donations, craigslist, ebay, freecycle, etc) at least 100 things before moving day. On one hand the number sounds kinda high, but on the other hand, I know there are at least 100 things in our house that we never use, need, or should spend time and effort moving. And I actually plan to keep track, writing all 100 items down on a piece of paper in list form. Why? Because I’m weird like that. To kick things off I went through my shoes (pun intended). Amazingly, I realized that I hadn’t worn a good amount of them since leaving NYC and moving to Richmond 4+ years ago. How
How We Sold Our House By Owner
Well, I guess we haven’t actually sold our house by owner yet. That’ll happen at closing in mid December (fingers crossed). But here’s how we got an offer. We’re hardly real estate experts, so this post is just a roundup of things that happened to work for us. Here’s hoping they help anyone else attempting to DIY their house sale too. The cool thing is that the people buying our house aren’t blog readers (they’d never heard about us or YHL- but we disclosed the blog to them to ensure that they were cool with images of the house with our furniture remaining on the site). Anyway, we thought it would encourage other FSBO peeps
How Showings Worked When We Sold Our House By Owner
We showed our house a total of 16 times. So eventually we got to be old pros at it. At first we had no idea what we were doing. I mean of course we: cleaned the house like mad (vacuumed, dusted, etc) picked up all dog and baby toys turned on all the lights so everything looked bright and welcoming baked something yummy beforehand (so it would smell as good as it looked) removed the cutting board and the dishtowel from the counter in the kitchen so there was more granite on display removed the bath mat in the full bathroom (to show off more of the stone floor tile) polished all the faucets and
The Process Of Selling Our House By Owner & Buying A New House
To the tune of Katy Perry’s “Hot N’ Cold”… WE’VE BOUGHT AND WE’VE SOLD! Well not really, but we’re headed in that direction. As of 5:57 pm yesterday evening we got word that the the last of our negotiations with some potential buyers of our house have gone through, so the contract on our home is officially “pending.” Which means that the contract that we’ve got in on our sweet new house (yes, we fiiiinally found one) should move right along as well (since it was contingent on selling ours first). In fact if all goes well, in a little over a month we’ll be moving from our current house directly into our new casa.
A Hunting Lodge Chic Home Mood Board
We have no idea what our future living room will actually look like, but today this is what I’m loving: Soft gray walls (like Benjamin Moore’s Light Pewter) with crisp glossy white trim A huge comfy sectional (with washable covers- score) in a gray-brown hue. The fact that this baby is $848 has me permasmiling. Some sort of woven round ottomans (like these) that can be moved around for casual texture that can double as extra seating in a pinch. This sleek TV stand in high gloss gray from Ikea (we figure a room that’s big enough for a large sectional will probably dwarf our current TV stand, so we might need to go a
How We Picked A Yellow-Green Front Door Color
Mmm, pickles. That will make sense in a minute. But first we’ll show you what John’s sister Emily’s front entryway has looked like for the past three years that she’s lived in her amazing casa (which you can virtually tour here). And here’s the after, thanks to a new color on the door and some semi-transparent stain on the deck that leads to it (oh yeah and some pumpkins). Here’s how we landed on the door color and the stain hue. First I came over with a bunch of paint swatches and we held them up to the door to see what would work with the smoky gray color of the house. We easily narrowed
An Old Ikea Coffee Table Hack
Every once in a while someone asks us where we found the table in the sunroom and it reminds us that we owe you some details. We actually DIYed it a few years back with a $7.99 lack table from Ikea and the old tabletop that came with the inexpensive thrift store pedestal that we bought to create this table in the corner of the very same room (see how we removed the original square tabletop and replaced it with a larger round top from Lowe’s right here). And since that original square tabletop was then up for grabs we decided to put it to good use as the new top for our lack table.
A Historic Meets Modern House Tour
When our good friend Noah Scalin (who happens to be a published author slash skull enthusiast) recommended that we check out his mom and dad’s amazing house in Richmond’s hip downtown district called The Fan, we were intrigued. And when we got there we couldn’t snap pictures fast enough. Chuck and Mim are both well known fine artists who used to live in NYC before relocating to their charming 100 year old Richmond home. And their love of metropolitan loft-like living is obvious even in their historic casa. Let’s have a virtual look around, shall we? Here’s the lovely exterior… … and the entryway (complete with custom tile work commissioned by a fellow artist that
Best Spam Comment Ever
Every day we get about fifty spam comments that promise everything from naked pictures of Lady GaGa to free payday loans (all of which get caught in a spam filter and then get deleted). This one (left on our Pulling Out The Rug post by “Lexus Dealer”) made me snort. As far as spam comments go, it’s definitely more entertaining than most. No further explanation necessary.
Original Ideas? Pish Posh.
Q: How do you come up with your amazing home ideas? Is it all on your own? Do you have some secret inspiration method? Like the built in wardrobes in your master bedroom and the doorway widening trick that you pulled in your den/kitchen/dining area. I just wish you could teach me how to think like you so I could come up with some original ideas to make my house feel like it’s unique and cool instead of lame and boring! – Lisa A: First of all, we’ll say this: we’re 100% confident that nothing that we’ve ever done to our house or on this blog hasn’t been done before. We repeat: there’s probably not
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 69
- 70
- 71
- 72
- 73
- …
- 122
- Next Page »