Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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What We Put In Our Thanksgiving “Thanks Jar”

We promised to share some of the things that we dropped into our Thanksgiving-inspired “thanks jar” over the last month, which we finally got to read after a month of blindly writing without knowing what the other person was jotting down each day. Here are a few highlights: For finally figuring out what the heck to do with this thrift store glass jar. – John That Clara’s birth was a miracle and she’s a healthy & happy little girl. -Sherry That we sold our house & found a new one that we love (fingers crossed for a smooth closing).- Sherry That Clara finds Burger as hilarious as we do. She just cracked up watching him.-

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Why Cohesive Flooring Is Key In A Small Home

We’re trying to soak up all the things that we love about this house before we move on to our next big project, and we realized that our floors make us inordinately happy. And it’s not just the fact that they’re mostly hardwood in a nice mocha color, it’s the whole cohesive flooring thing in general. Seriously, I never thought these words would come out of my mouth (because it honestly sounds like I’m a motivational speaker or someone who takes design way too seriously) but… cohesive flooring is a game changer. Really. It is. Our house used to have eight different flooring materials and seams. Think about that for a second. Eight! All on

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Closure.

You guys probably remember us mentioning “the bed & breakfast” house around the corner from us a few times. We’ve admired it for years. Not just because it has an in-ground pool, a tennis court, and a picnic area, but also because it’s just about the most charming exterior around. Here’s a pic we snapped during a snowstorm last year: In fact, when Sherry and I started our house hunt this fall, we secretly schemed about knocking on their door and begging the owner to let us buy it. But before we could muster the confidence to march up to their doorstep we learned that someone else had beaten us to the punch. The nerve.

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How To Make Faux Christmas Presents For Decorating The Mantel

Jingle bells! Batman Smells! Robin laid an egg. Batmobile lost a wheel and Joker did ballet. What? You didn’t sing that song at camp while wearing culottes and a tie-dyed shirt? Well I did. Anyway, the point is that I hung the stockings and did a little extra Christmas decorating beyond putting up the tree (just in time to put it all away in about a week when we start packing for the big move in mid December). Gotta celebrate Clara’s first Christmas, even if it’s only for a hot second. Out came the ol’ feather trees (from Target and a local store called Buford Road Pharmacy a few years back) along with the same

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Fixing A Leaky Underground Oil Tank

Surprise! This was the scene at our house yesterday: Allow me to explain. We decided to test the soil around our home’s underground oil tank (we have oil heat) a few weeks back to assure any interested buyer that it’s in tip top shape. Much to our horror, it wasn’t. Soil tests came back indicating that we had a small leak. We felt like somebody punched us in the face. Here we are with our rain barrel and our compost bin along with all of our energy star appliances and our cloth diapers in an effort to be green while our oil tank has been oozing nastiness underground without our knowledge. Shudder. Luckily we learned

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How To Use A Paint Pen On Drinking Glasses

You could call these tumblers titillating. That’s right. I said titillating. Who doesn’t love a good set of small glass cups that can be anything from charming votive candle holders to drinking glasses or even holiday candy serving dishes grouped en masse on a coffee table? I’ve always wanted to try my hand at glass paint (the kind that you apply with a pen and bake on in the oven) so I figured using it to create a cute little DIY holiday gift would be just the thing. Or it could be another epic fail- you never know when you start these things… For this project I originally planned to go to a thrift store

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Fab Freebie: Merry Maxx-mas

***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – scroll down to see who won!*** You know we love a deal. Especially around the holidays when it’s so easy to bleed money. Which is why we’re psyched to have two of our favorite discount stores, T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, here to help us kick off the whole holiday shopping scene by handing over two $50 gift cards that can be spent on gifts, festive seasonal decor, or whatever else tickles your fancy. We’ve always loved snagging cheap finds for our house at both stores – like the nailhead trimmed ottoman in our bedroom (from T.J. Maxx) and just about every pillow in our den (from Marshalls).

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Making Wacky Meals To Use Up What’s In The Fridge

We’re buckling down and making ourselves eat as much of the remaining food in our fridge as possible. We haven’t gone grocery shopping for at least three weeks (except for the occasional under $30 run for milk, cereal, and some fresh fruits & veggies) and we don’t plan to go at all for the next two weeks (since there’s still plenty to nosh on before we move). We’re concentrating mostly on eating things in the freezer and the fridge since there will be at least five hours between handing over the keys to our current house and getting the keys to our new one (we were luckily able to coordinate both closings on the same

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Thank You

We have about a million things to be thankful for, and you guys are at the top of our list. Thanks for caring to drop in and see what’s going on at our house. Much Turkey Day love coming atcha. Especially from Burger. He always looks so dapper in a photoshopped pilgrim hat. Now go stuff your face and stop messing around on the computer. The challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to be unable to button your pants by the day’s end. We’re already hard at work on that over here… Psst- We just announced this week’s lucky giveaway winner. Click here to see if it’s you (and to snag a sweet discount even

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Making A List Of All The Things We’ll Miss From Our First Home

In the words of Rose from Titanic…..I’ll never let go. We’re both going to miss so many things about our first casa that we just had to dedicate a post to those little details that bring a smile to our faces. We don’t want to forget a thing. 1. The gorgeous cherry tree in the front yard. 2. The new kitchen (which was totally worth 113 days of eating-out-and-living-without-a-sink chaos). 3. Our view of the amazingly lush and private backyard (which was actually one of the main reasons we bought our house back in 2006) 4. The sweet front porch where we’d sit and watch the world neighbors go by. 5. The layers of paint

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Our Green, Pink, And Silver Christmas Tree

Yes, we’re those people. I personally get irritated whenever stores skip holidays. For example, if I’m walking around Target and they have Christmas stuff out but it’s not even Thanksgiving. Not ready yet. Let me get through Turkey Day before you push your red & white santas and snowmen on me. But this year we did the unthinkable… … we set up our Christmas tree before Thanksgiving. I’m so sorry. Feel free to virtually slap us or break out an “oh no you di’int.” We’ve already warned our Thanksgiving guests, and thankfully they acted like it was some fun novelty. So we’ll be able to tell you firsthand if turkey and mashed potatoes taste less

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