Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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How To Add Basement Storage

Well, thanks to the generous and wonderful folks at True Value, we now have a totally dry and completely functional basement to use for storage galore (read about how we prepped and waterproofed the former bug graveyard here and here). And thanks to a little road trip to Ikea this weekend, we came home armed with pretty much every item that we planned to snag in this basic mood board of sorts that we shared last week: Expedit shelf (included in the total Expedit Workstation) -$120 Torsby table (already owned, so it’s free!) A woven basket or two – $17 each Two Aneboda wardrobes – $100 a pop A few white storage boxes – $12

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And Now A Letter To Ikea

Dearest Ikea, We love you. We really do. But yesterday you exploited that relationship and I just can’t bite my tongue this time. Just because “some assembly required” is one of the terms of our relationship, it does not mean that we want to put together every single thing that we buy from you. This means you Kassett storage box. Sure, putting together your furniture is often part of the Ikea fun. Not only do we gain an affordable and stylish item for our home, but it comes with a guaranteed sense of accomplishment. But there’s no pride in having to assemble my own cardboard box. None at all. Need I remind you that an item

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Natural Pest Remedies & Getting Rid Of Roaches

When Rebekah emailed us with a doozie of a question we were pretty much left scratching our heads. Here’s it is: Q: I’ve become an addict of your blog – just ask my husband! I can’t help but check it multiple times a day. Your posts are always so informative and they keep me motivated to keep working on our 1960’s home. Anyway, my husband and I purchased the brick ranch with a lovely yard about four months ago. My only problem is that we’re starting to see more pests (i.e. roaches… ewww!) due to the weather getting colder here in Georgia. I can’t live in a house and accept that the pests will always be there. We woke up at 4am

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Beautiful Bathroom Reno With Vessel Sinks

When Totty sent us photos of her almost unbelievable bathroom makeover we just had to share the big transformation. Here’s her letter: My husband and I are fellow Richmonders and have been following your blog for quite a while. I wanted to share some pics from our newly renovated bathroom. This poor room has had 2 makeovers in 4 years. It hadn’t been updated since the 60’s so it was in dire need of one and we unfortunately chose a bad tile guy who did a HORRIBLE job, hence the 2nd makeover this summer (I posted the full story on my blog). We were definitely budget conscious when planning this redo, but knew that re-tiling

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Painting An Old Wood Dresser Bright Green

When Monica sent her amazing dresser makeover our way we couldn’t wait to share the goods. Here’s her letter: I just recently found your blog and let me tell you, like everyone else around here, I’m totally in LOVE with everything you guys do, plus your How To tips are super! My boyfriend and I just moved to a new home (rental) and like anything that is not yours, we’re tying to put our stamp on it. I inherited my boyfriends dresser and I wanted to incorporate it into my kitchen nook, thus a PROJECT was born. While I love wood and before I paint anything I really think about it, I knew that the

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Fun Friday Departure: Costume Chitchat

With Halloween finally upon us we’re wondering if you guys plan to host parties, attend them, attend them in costume or just answer the door and shove fistfulls of Butterfingers at the three-foot-tall ghosts and goblins ringing your bell. Something about Halloween is especially intriguing to us this year. Maybe because it’s sort of a before and after fest when it comes to your house (our porch and our living room had a little spooky makeover) and even when it comes to yourself (if you’re dressing up there’s a definite transformation that takes place). So tell us all about who or what you’ll be for the night (any Jon & Kate Plus 8s? Or how

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Our Home Made Canadian House & Home!

We’re super excited to share that our humble abode made Canadian House & Home’s amazing website! They approached us a while back to see if they could feature our before and after pics in an online gallery (alongside some pretty amazing designers and fellow bloggers like Grace Bonney of Design Sponge and Courtney Barnes of Style Court). Of course we jumped at the chance. Ok maybe we screamed and convulsed at the chance. And imagine our surprise when a photo of our living room actually made their home page (!) last week (by the way, thanks for all the facebook and twitter messages directing us there so we could see it for ourselves- we gaped

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How To Oil-Based Drylok To Block Mildew & Seal Cinderblocks

Ok, we’re back on speaking terms with the basement. After it gave us quite a hard time when we began our Dryloking-interrupted-by-oh-no-is-that-mildew adventure (read all about that right here), we’re feeling victorious after conquering the first step towards turning our cinder block insect shelter into clean and functional storage space. If you recall, we had already faced the grueling disappointment of mildew spots making their way through our first coat of white latex-based Drylok (which is like painting with Elmer’s glue, btw)… So with our second round of bleach-treatment having tamed the mildew a bit more, we crossed our fingers as we broke out the powerhouse oil-based Drylok (as recommended by the experts at True

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