Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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How To Seal Stenciled Plywood Floors

It has been nearly a month since we talked about stenciling the floor in our sink nook (we’re all over the place lately – Clara’s room, outdoor tiling, installing our stair runner, landscaping adventures, starting in on the kitchen, etc) but that doesn’t mean we were done in there. We had a few more bullets to check off: sealing those stenciled floors loading in the closet after the floors dried (hopefully with more function/storage instead of the stuff we thoughtlessly shoved in there when we moved) updating the vanity with more function as well as a fresh finish (up close it was in pretty rough shape, and we thought we could gain more function from

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How To Pick An Outdoor Light

Our exterior light situation is a little ho-hum, as evidenced by this tiny fixture outside the back door on our garage (don’t mind the grimy green brick that’s screaming out for some scrubbing). And yes, I realize the door itself is looking a little rough. It originally sported a rusty, loudly-banging storm door (not just a medium bang, this was SCARE-YOUR-NEIGHBORS LOUD) that we removed. So we’re getting ready to repair some of the trim and prime/paint it white to match the door in the sunroom veranda that we already updated. But let’s turn our attention back to the light. It was too small and very weather-worn, so we decided it was time to make

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What Kind Of Accent Do You Have: The Quiz

A post on Facebook the other night led me to this random quiz: What American Accent Do You Have? Since we’ve always been fans of completely non-scientific online quizzes, why not take it for a spin, right? It was especially interesting for us to take since we get the occasional video comments like “John sounds soooo Southern” or “Sherry talks like Mila Kunis.” Not that Mila Kunis is an accent… We both think we have pretty neutral American accents – although I’m quick to point out that the Jersey in Sherry likes to call the top of your face the “far-head.” And she gives me a hard time for not distinguishing between the pronunciation of

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How To Paint A House Portrait

This week’s craft project has me skeered, I’m not going to lie. For the past month and a half I’ve had fun doing a simple and quick crafty thing each week, like making a fall wreath, stenciling a pillow, painting baskets, decorating pumpkins & gourds, making vacation keepsake globes, and taking ceramic paint for a spin on a bowl full of colorful cacti. Each of those projects took under an hour, and they were pretty easy and straightforward (paint this, wrap this around that, caulk this) – so I don’t know what got into me this week and whispered “how about painting a little portrait of your first house?” It easily took me five times

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Landscaping The Front Yard

Somehow we always find ourselves rushing to accomplish something each autumn. One year it was trying to sell our first house before the leaves fell (along with our curb appeal). Last year it was cramming things in before setting off on our book tour. And this year it has been trying to grow grass in our sad excuse for a front yard. I know, I know – landscaping posts aren’t always that exciting.  I know I’m weird for browsing fasttreeremovalatlanta.com so much. But we’ve crammed about two months worth of progress into one post in the hopes of making it a bit more satisfying than “hey, we threw down some grass seed. Doesn’t it look…

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Pregnancy After A Traumatic Birth

Some people have been asking for a little update on how I’m feeling and how this pregnancy is going, so I thought a quick Young House Life check-in would be fun. The short answer is that I’m so excited about this little bun (as are John and of course Clara, who tells anyone who’ll listen that she’s going to be a big sister). Burger seems ambivalent at this point, but I’m sure when a kid with sticky crumb-dropping hands comes along he’ll be elated too. It took me a long time to feel ready to carry a child again (more on that here), and it took us longer to get pregnant this time than it

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Meghan’s Dilemma: Ideas Anyone?

You guys. You’re varsity. Once again, I was blown away by the 500+ awesome and fun ideas that you shared – along with some pretty amazing photoshop skillz – for Jamie’s design roadblock last week. There’s nothing like a group brainstorming session, and Jamie’s so excited about all of the options she has to explore (and has promised us after pics when she’s done). So let’s dive right into Meghan’s dilemma, because I can’t wait to hear your take. Say hello to my little friend! Yes, I have a giant Scar Face bathtub. My husband and I bought our 1987 home a little over a year ago. We have been up to our eyeballs in

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Fab Freebie: Bling Bling!

Happy Veteran’s Day guys! First we want to say thank you to the men and women currently serving our country and to those who have bravely done so in the past (like my dad, my grandfather, and Sherry’s grandfather). We’re so grateful. And now, onto the giveaway… Who doesn’t need a little more gold in their life? This week someone’s getting $350 to spend at Hattan Home, which is well stocked with decor, accessories, and jewelry that can inject a little (or a lot) of sparkle into your home. But even if you’re not looking to live the lavish lifestyle of owning your very own golden piggy bank (Sherry’s dream of all dreams) there are

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How To Pick The Right Paint Colors

Two weeks ago when John shared this post about the times that we’ve made bad painting decision, we received a bunch of requests for a follow up post in the comments: Q: I guess I just have a hard time picking colors because I have a hard time telling which swatches have grey or brown undertones. Maybe you can show some swatches (of say the teal from the built ins). One that has a grey or brown undertone and one that is more saturated? It might be helpful to see them side by side! – Aubrey Q: Thank you for this! I actually think tip #3 (pick a muddier color) surprised me the most because

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How To Use Ceramic Paint

Sorry to anyone looking for Weekly Crafty posts on Tuesdays, it seems that they’ve shifted to Thursdays for the past two weeks! Since my hands are still recovering from staple pulling, more wallpaper peeling, and more painting (we’re doing our stair risers today so we can hopefully install the runner this weekend and have that post for you on Monday), I wanted to pick something fun & easy for this week’s crafty little endeavor. And here’s where I ended up: with a big ol’ hand-painted planter full of succulents and colorful cacti. You know I like sharing house plants that we’re adding/loving/killing every once in a while (like this and this), and this project all

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A Graphic Kid’s Bedroom Makeover

Last fall we featured a redesign that Nancy did for her son Owen. Well, she’s back with another awesome room makeover… but this time it was for another family with a great story. Here’s her letter: Hi John and Sherry! A while back, I entered the contest Creating with the Stars hosted by East Coast Creative, and I was teamed up with Kari from U-Create. I had the wonderful opportunity to makeover a space for a couple who have been trying for over ten years to get pregnant. Accepting this may never become a reality, they are in a foster to adopt program and are adopting three siblings. KK is the youngest out of the three

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Removing An Old Carpet And Staples

We’ve never been more all over the place than we have been lately (Clara’s room, the master bath, the kitchen, the sunroom veranda) and we can’t believe it has been around a month and a half since we last mentioned our staircase. Several of you have been eager to hear about the new runner that we ordered, and we’ve been eager to tell you all about it (it was back-ordered and arrived a little behind schedule, but it’s finally here). But the last vestiges of the old carpet in this house were standing in our new runner’s way… When we finally removed the carpet from our master bath, the stairs became the sole remaining carpet

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