Happy Friday! This week we celebrated Earth Day in the garden, picked up trash at our favorite trail head, and got to hear all about our Kindergartener’s field trip to the transfer station (yup, they toured the dump 🙌🙌🙌). Trying to be good stewards of this Earth can feel daunting, but we’re trying. Hope you got some good time to celebrate this beautiful planet of our’s, too!
Read MoreAt the end of every project, I like to look back and remember where we started. Seeing those ‘before’ photos when you’re standing in the ‘after’ is fun, rewarding, and confidence-boosting. But more than that, it’s insightful. Looking back gives me a chance to see where the project excelled and where it fell flat.
So today, I’m going to share some ‘before and afters’ with you and 5 lessons that we learned on the Porch House kitchen + sunroom renovation. And you can be sure that we’ll be applying these hard-learned lessons on our upcoming Farmhouse kitchen renovation.
Read More2 years ago we renovated the Porch House kitchen for HGTV’s Master Plan pilot, and today we’re finally sharing the reveal and sources here on the blog
Read MoreHappy Friday!
Spring is all about falling back in love for me. Falling back in love with renovating and house projects. With making a home and keeping it up. With walking in my front door, taking a deep breath, and just enjoying it. I think Spring is when our Farmhouse and I come out of hibernation, wash our faces in sunshine, and just feel ready for it all. You know?
Read MoreBefore we could really dig into our kitchen remodel, the washing machine and dryer needed to be relocated. They sat in our future pantry, which of course, just wouldn’t do. These machines get a lot of use (with 3 young kids and country mud, I mean a lot!) and we didn’t want to go without them for long. So the new laundry room became phase 1 of our kitchen project, which we kicked off last week!
Read MoreHappy Friday! Things have been moving a little slow around our house this week…or maybe I should say fast. Spring sports started up (I’m coaching my 5-year old’s running team!) and our laundry room reno is getting underway, which I’ll share more about next week. We’re making quite a few decisions as we go - you know, our standard M.O. - and I find myself getting more excited every day. But everything else at home - the laundry, cooking, reading, blogging - has taken a back seat. I guess you could say we’re back in renovation mode 🙃
Read MoreWe’ve used butcher block countertops in 5 of our 8 kitchen renovations to date and we’ll be using them again in our Farmhouse kitchen this Spring. In all of those kitchen renovations, we’ve learned a lot about wood countertops, made some mistakes, and learned what works best for us. We shared some butcher block basics a couple years ago (here), and today we wanted to dive deeper into the types of wood we’ve used and where we’ve found they work best (and where they don’t!).
First, let’s look at 3 kitchens we’ve put butcher block countertops in…
Read MoreHappy Friday! It’s finally starting to feel like Spring around here…for you too? We spent much of the week outside, learning to ride bikes, cutting back the trees, and building a rudimentary tree house. It feels amazing to be outside again! We even picked our first bouquet of flowers from the yard (daffodils) and have fallen asleep to a chorus of frogs every night. This is the time of year I really love living in the country!
Read MoreSometimes it takes being away from home to really give you clarity about your home. At least that’s what Garrett and I found while on our recent 3-week road trip.
We spent hours (and hours, and hours…) in the car. A couple of those hours were spent talking about our home and upcoming kitchen renovation. But most of the time, we didn’t even think about our Farmhouse. We were too focused on our family, where we should stop next, and having fun.
And all that non-thinking-about-our-home turned out to be gloriously freeing and enlightening. By the time we got home, both Garrett and I knew exactly what we wanted to do with our kitchen. And I think our choice will surprise you, because it certainly surprised me!
Read MoreTry these 3 keys…most likely one will work!
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