Young House Love

Home Decorating, DIY Tutorials, & Shenanigans

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The Smart Home Tech We’ve Added, Ditched, And Still Love Most

It has been almost 4 years since we last detailed the ways we use smart home technology to make our household more efficient. Since then we’ve changed homes, states, and even our smart home systems. So today I thought I’d break down what we’ve added, what we’ve gotten rid of, and what still has a stranglehold on my nerdy tech-loving heart (and even one that was Sherry’s idea!). As usual, none of the products mentioned in this post are sponsored or gifted. It’s just stuff that we have bought and loved – or (in some cases) don’t love so much anymore. So let’s get into it. STILL LOVE: Alexa Voice Assistant Call us basic, but

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Introducing Penny Petersik!

If you follow our Instagram stories, you’ve probably seen the news that we welcomed a new member of the Petersik family recently. But I wanted to take a moment to properly introduce her here on the blog. So… say hello to Penny! After Burger, our chihuahua of 15 years, passed away in October, we were wrecked. It was a huge loss for our family, and in the initial days after Burger’s passing we donated a ton of things he left behind (our vet was able to pass along his treats, food, crate, and heart medication to other dogs in need of those items). Of course we saved a few keepsakes like his collar and blanket,

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A Small Kids Bedroom With Lots Of Functional Storage That’s Built Right In

When we thought about all the functions that would be helpful to have in our son’s bedroom, which can definitely be described as “cozy” when it comes to the size (real talk: this room is small), he needed: a bed to sleep in clothing storage book and toy storage out in the open some concealed storage for papers and other toys/games added bonus: a hangout-y lounge spot for reading or playing with his sister or a friend who comes over he also requested his own desk for drawing/homework/playing with magnets (yes, we have a current magnet obsession going strong right now) We definitely could have pulled the “your room is really small for a desk,

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#182: A Big Catch Up Holiday-ish Special (Surprise!)

So much has happened since we last picked up the podcast mic, so we have a jam-packed show to catch you up on all the things. We’re talking house updates, embarrassing stories, renovation plans, and we even worked in some bad metaphorical diagrams (because describing graphs and charts you can’t see always goes over well in an audio format). We’re also diving into how house projects have slowed down around here, the remaining projects on our list, and how our attitude towards having less on our to-do list has changed pretty dramatically over the years. Plus an impromptu musical exercise that captured our family’s contentment for living in a smaller home, and why Sherry can

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Our (Slightly Minimized) Holiday Decor 2021

It’s wild to think that this is our second year of decorating this house for the holidays (what even is time?!). You got a peek at some of it in our new kitchen door post, but today we’re gonna show it all! I’d describe Year Two in this house for the holidays as a more minimal Christmas but still a festive one. Last year we got a mini real tree for upstairs in the family room as well as putting up our skinny faker (that’s what I affectionately call this tree right here) in the bedroom. But this year we had a more central spot for our main tree… right in the nook our new

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How The Kitchen Changed With A New Door

There’s been a big change in our kitchen! As in, new-hole-in-the-house kind of big! Okay, so really it’s just a new door. But that’s big, right??? Our last post covered all the photos and angles of the new kitchen porch we created outside – just steps away from our cooking area inside. So let’s take a look at what went down inside. It’s always fun to rewind, so if we take a step back in time, this is the kitchen as it looked when we bought this house in Feb of 2020: We talked about our initial updates to the room waaaaay back in this post from May of 2020 (before we moved in). And

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Creating A Faux Sheepskin Seat Cushion

We used some quick and easy upholstery techniques to add some softness and texture to a storebought bench in our family room. We even knocked it out just in time for the holidays, adding to the coziness of this room! We scored this woven bench at HomeGoods mostly because it was the right size and we liked the woven texture. But as soon as we got it home, it was clear that the netted texture of the bottom was less-than-desirable. It wasn’t scratchy, just felt – I dunno – like you were sitting on a bunch of ropes. You can see in this post about the storage unit that we immediately threw some leftover sheepskin

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Our New Kitchen Porch

Finally took the photos and videos for this post and I can’t wait to share it because it changed our house in such a major way. Introducing… the area that we affectionately call our kitchen porch. Aka: the grillin’ spot with all the greenery. If you followed along on Instagram Stories for the last few months, essentially this side porch always existed, but after we closed off doors number 7 and 8 from our bedroom which led out here (yes our bedroom had 8 exterior doors & still has 6 of them – more on that here), it was just a floating porch without any door leading to it. Here’s an old photo to show

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2021 Holiday Gift Guides – With Ideas As Low As $9!

Every year it feels like we’re the last bloggers in all of blogland to get our gift guide up (is it me or are they coming out earlier and earlier?!), but the deed is done! We just do one post with three categories (adults, kids, and under $25), so here it is. We love including small makers and Black-owned businesses as well as some tried & true items from larger companies that we’ve bought & loved (like a favorite book, family game, etc) so let’s get into it. Gifts For Grown-Ups Here’s what we’re loving, either firsthand items that we’ve bought and enjoyed ourselves, things we’re getting for friends & family, or items that we’re

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Our Family Room: 1.5 Years In

We haven’t dropped in on this room since this post from more than a year ago about hanging our giant chandelier (how is that possible?! Where did that year go?!?!). This room in many ways has functioned well from day one for us – so I guess our infrequent check-ins make sense. We knew we wanted this big multi-purpose space to serve a few different functions like cozy movie room, a place to lay on the sofa and read/lounge, office/workspace for us, and an arts & craft desk for the kids that could also store all of their papers & creations while having another spot to store all of our board games and all of

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A Tribute To Burger

We shared some sad news on Instagram Stories last week, but wanted to make sure to post something here too, because Burger was such a huge part of our blog. Last Monday, our sweet chihuahua Burger passed away at the age of 15. It was a long wonderful life, but we miss him so so much. The house is way too quiet without him. We got him when we were 24 years old. Before we got married, before the blog, before we had kids, before almost every adult experience we had together. He was there through it all. He was always such a happy boy. We are so grateful for all the years we shared.

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6 Fun & Easy Pumpkin Decorating Ideas For Kids

Our kids are very much into the traditional Jack-O-Lantern-style pumpkin carving, often trying to make a scarier, grosser, or goofier face than last Halloween. They’re plenty capable of carving on their own these days, so it has been fun to let them take full control of their creations, but we still remember a time when toddler-friendly (even baby-friendly!) pumpkin “carving” was the name of the game over here. So we wanted to highlight six unconventional pumpkin decorating ideas for kids (all of which are so simple and fun) that we’ve used in the past. Including a “romantic” one we made pre-kids (yes, I’ll pause while you ponder what exactly can be romantic about a pumpkin…).

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