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| By Young House Love | February 1, 2008 | 4 Comments

S’prise Squared

I love surprises, and John’s an expert at pulling them off. He’s done everything from arranging for my best friend to fly in for my birthday to pretending to go to work and retuning home 5 minutes later to say that we’re going on a trip to the beach. So from time to time I like to stage a little sneak attack of my own. And when I saw an amazing leather arm chair at Target.com, I just had to order it for him asap. It’s usually scary to buy furniture without actually seeing it (or sitting in it, in this case) but the 5 star rating accompanied by a bunch of rave reviews made

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Filed Under: Our First House

| By Sherry Petersik | January 31, 2008 | 17 Comments

The Fairest Mirror Of Them All

We painted an ugly bronze mirror white for a whole new look on the cheap. Here’s the play by play.

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Filed Under: Our First House

| By Sherry Petersik | January 28, 2008 | 12 Comments

How To Unclog A Backed Up Kitchen Drain (It Worked!)

Unclogging the kitchen sink wasn’t fun, but we got ‘er done. Learn what we did and what worked for us.

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Filed Under: Home Improvement, Our First House

| By John Petersik | January 25, 2008 | 22 Comments

How Much Did Our Kitchen Renovation Cost?

After our big kitchen reveal yesterday, it seems like the million dollar question still lingers: how much did it cost? (Hint: It wasn’t millions… and it was WAY below the national average spent on a major kitchen remodel, which is $44,000 according to realtor.org) After crunching some numbers last night we figured out exactly how much our wallets really bled during this project and (thankfully) how much we managed to save in the process. And we’re talking start to finish- wider doors, new floors, electrical, lighting, appliances, etc, etc. This wasn’t just your average cabinet and countertop update. Here’s the breakdown: Demo & Construction: $1,400 (negotiated down from $2,400) A local contractor and mason removed

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Filed Under: Our First House, Saving Money, Shopping & Thrifting

| By Sherry Petersik | January 24, 2008 | 171 Comments

113 Days Later: Our Kitchen Renovation Is DONE!!

Who would have ever thought we’d be without a kitchen for almost four months? Not us. But it’s baaaaaack. And it’s better than ever. First a shot of the kitchen that came with the house when we purchased it almost two years ago: And now for the dramatic transformation we promised. The granite was totally the icing on the cake. Here’s a shot of the whole shebang as seen from the living/dining room: And here’s a shot of the left side with that sexy hood that we just used while MAKING DINNER. Sorry for the caps, we just haven’t made dinner at home in ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN DAYS!!! Oops, there I go again. Here’s

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Filed Under: Home Improvement, Our First House

| By Sherry Petersik | January 23, 2008 | 2 Comments

Kitchen Confidential

The counters are in and boy are they better than sliced bread. After months of waiting for a surface to dice upon, any old counter would do. But our sparkling new granite is just the bees knees. And instead of revealing the new counters, we’ve decided to make you wait until tomorrow (when the faucet, sink, and dishwasher will be fully installed) and then post the FINAL BEFORE AND AFTERS! Can you tell we’re excited? But the start of the day wasn’t nearly as thrilling as the end. It was full of the usual trials and tribulations of home improvement. First, when the truck pulled up I thought it was some sort of joke. Check

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Filed Under: Our First House

| By Sherry Petersik | January 21, 2008 | 4 Comments

On The Road Again: Just Beachy

We’re currently blogging from the beach. Now before you get jealous let me just say that it’s about 20 degrees outside and we even got some light snow last night. But we’re loving the chance to relax and recharge at John’s parents’ lovely beach house just outside of Rehoboth, Delaware. They recently purchased the house and it’s amazing how comfortable and homey they’ve been able to make it in mere months. And while we’ve spent our time playing board games, reading, watching movies, and snuggling Burger- we thought we’d take a quick break to share some fun decor ideas with you. First, meet the beautiful beach house (love those starfish in the window above the

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Filed Under: Road Trips & Travel

| By John Petersik | January 18, 2008 | 3 Comments

Checking Out Our Pashmina Granite At The Stoneyard

Our new and improved granite slabs moseyed into town this week and, unlike our last visit to the stoneyard, it was definitely love at first sight. Here’s Sherry gettin’ friendly with our two hunks of Pashmina before they go in for cutting. The best news of the day was that our beautiful new counters are coming home on Tuesday. Score! That means our Home Depot installer can come back on Wednesday to hook up the plumbing and – dare I say it? – our new kitchen will be COMPLETE. ‘Til then, you’ll find us drooling over this photo we snapped of our soon-to-be countertop.

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Filed Under: Our First House

| By Sherry Petersik | January 14, 2008 | 20 Comments

Q: You Know What Sucks? A: Painting A Ceiling

The sheer equation of gravity + paint = nightmare. But add abnormally absorbent ceiling tiles that are bumpy and uneven to the mix. Sounds like something you’d like to do on a Friday night, right? Well for some deluded reason, it’s exactly how we spent our Friday evening. We’d been meaning to attack the dingy, half-painted ceiling tiles in our den for a while, and we finally got around to it this weekend. We even knew to use white primer instead of white paint for extra coverage (a tip passed along by one of our old contractors) so we thought it wouldn’t be that bad. It was. The whole process involved two gallons of primer,

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Filed Under: Our First House, Painting

| By Sherry Petersik | January 11, 2008 | 2 Comments

Stairway To Heaven

We’d love to claim these before and afters as our own, but most of you know that our house is a one story ranch by now. Bummer. Anyway, this is what the stairway at my best friend’s Washington DC townhouse looked like this morning: And this afternoon: Let’s give the girl a hand! Amazing transformation. I’m never one to endorse covering up gorgeous wood flooring- and this gleaming staircase is no exception. Doesn’t it look much better naked? Of course she has some painting to do on those toe-kicks, but that’ll be quick and painless. The good news is that no sanding and restaining of the once-covered floorboards is necessary. Gotta love it when carpet

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Filed Under: Random

| By John Petersik | January 10, 2008 | 26 Comments

Lesson: Pick Granite Counters From A Slab, Not A Sample

The excitement began yesterday when we visited the stone yard to check out our granite slabs. And ended when we laid eyes on the giant hunk of Blanc Noir. The small, white sample with gray & black flecks that we fell in love with months ago looked nothing like the huge, gray, polka-dotted pattern in front of us. We knew our tiny kitchen definitely couldn’t pull off that busy, 101 Dalmations-esque look and we had to hunt down another option. Fast. Thankfully, several trips to Home Depot and a few local stone yards led us to our one true love: Pashmina. It’s everything that Blanc Noir isn’t: much lighter and less spotty with much more natural “movement” (think

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Filed Under: Home Improvement, Our First House, Saving Money

| By Sherry Petersik | January 9, 2008 | 8 Comments

Warming Up A Living Room That’s Feeling Stark

While the majority of America seems to love hoarding and clutter, John and I are lone mice. Or whatever the opposite of a pack rat would be. But there’s a fine line between clean, uncluttered spaces and cold, stark rooms. It’s not an easy assessment to make on your own. But I was able to make an honest evaluation by photographing each of our rooms and then comparing each room in our house to rooms in decorating magazines and favorite furniture catalogs like Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel and Ballard Designs. I quickly realized that while our rooms were clean and simple, they were severely lacking in the design department. So of course I was

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Filed Under: Our First House

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John and Sherry smiling against pink backgroundHey, we’re John & Sherry. We’ve fixed up 7 homes, written books, designed products, started a podcast, and then downsized & moved to the beach! Here you’ll find over 3,000 DIY projects & home updates. More about us…
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