We’re Still in Shock after Painting Our House Exterior.

Finito! Our exterior house painting is completed! All we did was paint, but the house looks drastically different. Although we had mockups to give us an idea of how it might turn out, we still can't believe how good it looks in person. Pictures don't do justice to just how dark and dingy it looked before. How we chose our exterior paint colors! The guys have been hard at work. You can already see how…

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How We Got Our High-end Bathroom Floor Tile Design For (Almost) Free.

As per usual, finding a bathroom floor tile design that Jess approved of was no straightforward task. At first, it seemed easy enough! I liked the look of travertine, and I found this picture, so I thought, "Good to go!" source However, like so many projects, I soon realized that the bathroom I envisioned was like a magical unicorn in my mind, never to be found on Pinterest. Nice try, internet. But my answers will…

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The Ugly Duckling House: Transformation with Exterior Paint Colors.

With the front yard taken care of, we moved on to the exterior paint colors decision. It wasn't a dire need (like the new roof or the insulation or the completely new HVAC system we had to put into this fixer upper before moving in, among other things!), but it soon moved its way to the top of the priority list. Not only had the stucco not been painted in 30 years, but much of…

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Home Design for the Highly Sensitive Person.

Jess shares a little of her story, plus 5 of her home design tips for the Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) and/or those with Sensory Processing Sensitivities (SPS). written in 2019 One piece of knowledge that dramatically changed my life was learning about having Sensory Processing Sensitivities (SPS), or being an HSP (Highly Sensitive Person). This explained how not only my immediate environment affected me... Click here for our FREE Interior Design Guide! ...but how EVERYTHING…

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Our 3 Secret Steps to the Perfect Mudroom & Entryway!

This gives away all our secrets as to how Matt and I max out the function of our rooms. And how we got all our mudroom ideas sorted out before implementing them to make our high-function mudroom. I've not shared these steps with anyone before. It's an insight into how we think things through. And when it comes to a tiny mudroom that's only 35 sq ft but you want 100 sq ft of functionality…

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What We Use for Natural Cleaning.

I had started to describe more about the natural cleaning products featured in our final laundry room post, but that was making it waaaaaaay too long so I needed to start a new little post about this. I did NOT think I would be talking about our move to more natural cleaning on our blog, but it just happened naturally. (No pun intended. Really. Matt is the king of puns, not me.) So here we…

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Why We Ripped Out Our Small Shower.

Updated May 2022 First, we gave a full master bath tour in our upstairs house tour. Now we're going to show you our master bathroom remodel floor plans! Let me tell ya, we are SO excited to share this one with you! It's big! It's brilliant! It's...going to be beautiful! (Aha! I knew I could find another B word.) The complete list of our master bathroom remodel! Q: "Why are you changing the floor plan?"…

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Why We Ripped Out Our Small Laundry Room.

We're moving our laundry room. Here's why: Tell me, do you feel any sensations when you look at this space? You can find the after of this room here! I do. Oh boy do I feel some. If you want to jump ahead you can see what we turned this small room into here! A few of the sensations I feel in this laundry room are:    Anxiety.  Shortness of breath.  Claustrophobia.  Panic. Why?  …

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Painting Over Old, Frightening Cabinets.

Q: What’s black and grey and staring you right in the face when you walk up our stairs? A: The linen cabinets! Feast your eyes on THIS! (And ignore the frames—they belong to the prior homeowners as this pic was taken during the first inspection, before we took over.) Yep, this is what they called “the linen closet.”  Except it’s not actually a closet.  Clearly.  I want to say to the real estate agents, “It’s…

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Why You Should Instantly Paint Before Moving Into a New House.

Do you paint walls before or after you move into a place? Do you do the work yourselves or hire that work out? In our first house, we did all the painting ourselves before moving in. That took us a lot of time, but we did save money. (That was also 14 years years ago when we were a bit younger and zippier, sans children.) A (before) tour of our downstairs! When we lived in…

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