Young House Love: Recent Episodes
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I'm honestly a little surprised by all the interest in my photo digitization project, but we continue to field questions about how I've organized our old family photos. So here are answers to the most often-asked burning questions about exactly how we sorted, organized, and backed up our photos throughout the digitizing process. I won't claim to have ALL of the answers because there's been some trial and error along the way for me. But below are the steps I wish I'd followed from the very beginning. There's also a "rapid fire FAQ" at the end.
Continue reading How We’re Organizing Our Digitized Photos at Young House Love.
Our neighbor recently asked for help adding a drip irrigation system to their new garden. My last experience with a DIY irrigation installation was pretty intense, so I was wary. But installing drip irrigation was the total opposite. It was easy, affordable, and fast. Plus, it only cost around $75 and took just a few hours to install. It's also a much more efficient way to water your plants than traditional sprinklers - so there's a lot less water waste.
Continue reading How To Install a Drip Irrigation System at Young House Love.
Pothos plants aren't just low-maintenance houseplants to own, they're also some of the easiest to propagate! Propagation is a fun way to grow new pothos from your existing pothos plants, while also helping them stay healthy, full, and looking their best. And, since it requires no special tools or skills, it's a virtually free way to grow your plant collection! We have, no joke, generated at least 12-15 free pothos plants using this method! You can even use them as gifts for friends and neighbors.
Continue reading How To Propagate A Pothos at Young House Love.
In my lifelong quest to name everyone's baby, I've posted a few lists of baby girl names and baby boy names, but what about names that defy easy categorization? Gender-neutral or unisex names are growing in popularity, and for lots of good reasons. Many see them as more inclusive, equitable, and adaptable. Some find them modern, cool, or even edgy. The rise in gender-neutral names also makes it easier for parents to use a family name or other sentimental or beloved name, regardless of their baby's gender.
Continue reading 100+ Gender Neutral Baby Names at Young House Love.
This year, we took our kids to the land of Dolly Parton, aka the Tennessee Smokies, for our recent Spring Break. It was a jam-packed week of family fun, food, and there was even a dusting of snow! There’s SOOOO much to do in this area of Tennessee – you’ve got Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park all right there. So we thought we’d hit the highlights and share our 7 favorite things that we did there. Why 7? Well, it’s smack dab in the middle of the numbers 9 to 5…
We traveled with another family, so we had 4 adults and 6 kids with us, ranging from ages 11 to 20. So all of these activities are tween and teen approved! We can’t speak specifically to younger kids like toddlers, but I think you’ll see that most of what we’ve listed below would be fun for the whole family.
Continue reading Our 7 Favorite Things To Do In Pigeon Forge & Gatlinburg at Young House Love.
I’ve shared a lot of real-time renovation updates on Instagram Stories, but here’s a quick catch-up blog post for anyone thirsty for the longer format (we know we’ll love having these posts to look back on). We’re about 7 weeks into our biggest renovation in over 5 years, and the house pretty much looks as chaotic as expected. Who remembers our mantra from 2012: “the middle makes no sense“? Over the past month and a half, walls have been busted open, ceilings have been torn out, and entirely new rooms have been framed. So… lots of progress, but lots of dust… and a lot more to do. Did I mention it’s dusty?
The easiest way to catch up is to watch the video below, where you can hear me yapping about every space, what has been done, and what’s next on the agenda.
Continue reading A Mid-Renovation Update (And Video Tour!) at Young House Love.
Planning a family spring break trip can be challenging - especially if you're looking for somewhere warm, unique, and not overrun with other spring breakers. But ever since we moved full-time to the unofficial spring break capital of the United States (aka: Florida's Emerald Coast), we've become well-practiced in finding unique spring break destinations. So here are 8 places that we have loved visiting for family vacations.
Continue reading Spring Break Destinations for Families at Young House Love.
Succulents are some of the easiest houseplants to propagate because there are several ways to do it. Today we'll show how one succulent can be turned into many (even a dozen or more!). So whether you're looking to grow your own collection or gift some plants to friends, this is a fun and easy process to try!
Continue reading How To Propagate Succulents at Young House Love.
In November of 2020, we published a post called “What’s It Like To Downsize” after living in our smaller home for 6 months. We covered a range of experiences – like the good things about moving to a smaller home (owning less stuff! saving money!) and some of its challenges, especially in the initial stages of downsizing (paring down! figuring out storage!). We still agree with everything in that post, but it had only been six months… and since it has now been over 4.5 years (!!!), we feel like we have a few more to add about the long-haul downsizing experience. Let’s get into it.
I won’t recap our entire decision to downsize (you can see the full explanation here) but the highlights are:
- We used to live in a 3,150 sq. ft. home in suburban Richmond, Virginia
- Now we live in a 1,400 sq.
Continue reading Downsizing: Almost 5 Years Later at Young House Love.
My best friend and I live in different parts of the country (we’ve been best friends for 24 years, and have only spent about 1/3 of them in the same city), so we love taking trips together. Let me tell you, the joy of packing light (only for yourself! not the whole fam!) and having a few nights of sleepovers in a fun new place and exploring so freely (just us eating dessert for breakfast if we want to!)… it’s euphoric.
And our latest trip that we enjoyed was a completely new spot for me! She grew up going to Sedona with her family, but I had never been! She didn’t have to work hard to sell me on it though – the gorgeous views, the warm temperatures, magical mystical vortexes, shops full of crystals, and this pool? Sold!
Where We Stayed In Sedona
We splurged to stay at Enchantment Resort, which is a resort that my best friend has always wanted to experience.
Continue reading A Girls Weekend In Sedona, Arizona at Young House Love.
Dyeing your clothes can sound difficult, messy, and downright scary. But guess what? It's none of those things! After all, I'm the girl who dyed her wedding dress so I could wear it again. Trust me, anyone can dye clothes at home because it's easy, straightforward, and crazy affordable.
Continue reading How To Dye Clothes at Young House Love.
Big renovations are exciting and fun, but it's no secret that they can also be really stressful - especially when it's one of those expensive, weeks-long, life-interrupting renovations like a kitchen or bathroom. Things go wrong, budgets get broken, timelines go haywire, and somehow there's always dust everywhere. EVERYWHERE. So since we've renovated 7 houses over the past 17 years, we thought it might be helpful to share our best tips for preparing for & minimizing renovation stress.
Continue reading How We Manage Renovation Stress: 5 Tips at Young House Love.
We started using a homemade window cleaner last year and immediately regretted not switching sooner. Not only is it cheaper than storebought stuff like Windex, it also cleans better and without streaks! Plus, it only takes 2 ingredients (although more can be added). So grab an empty spray bottle and come see the light with us! That's supposed to be a clean window pun, btw...
Continue reading The Easiest Homemade Window Cleaner at Young House Love.
It's safe to say that we love traditional baby names (aka classic names or old-fashioned names). We named both of our kids after our grandparents – one on J’s side and one on mine. I recently heard names like that for baby girls being called "old lady names." Not sure how I feel about that - but a timeworn and classic name just feels like it's lovely and enduring. A friend of mine recently had a baby girl and it was fun to talk about all the names they were considering for her. And since I already shared a list of 100 classic boy names, I also loved compiling this list of my favorite classic old-fashioned baby girl names.
Continue reading 100 Classic Girl Names at Young House Love.
This simple method for cleaning a stainless steel sink is quite literally my favorite household cleaning task. I am not exaggerating. It is SO easy, SO simple, and SO SO SO effective. It requires no special or harsh cleaners and will restore your sink to its original sparkle within minutes. Sherry tried this method first and we have both loved using it ever since. I even taught our kids how to do it. But honestly, it's so satisfying to do that I usually keep it to myself.
Continue reading How To Clean A Stainless Steel Sink at Young House Love.
We’ve refinished hardwood floors in 5 of the 6 homes we’ve owned. That doesn’t make us professional floor refinishers, but as homeowners and DIYers, we’ve developed expertise for what to expect, what pitfalls to look out for, and how much refinishing your hardwood floors might cost. So in this post, we’ll answer all of your hardwood floor refinishing FAQs along with some before and after photos of our various projects!
Continue reading Refinishing Hardwood Floors 101 at Young House Love.
Believe it or not, many companies have announced their 2025 Color of the Year! Since we love tracking and predicting these selections each year, we thought we’d start a post to keep track of each selection as they come out. This will be much easier to reference next year when we make our predictions instead of Googling around to find them all again. Will blue be big again like it was in 2024? Will any of our guesses even be remotely close? You can read below to follow along – and check back for updates as more COTY news rolls in.
And just like we did in our 2024 Color of the Year round-up, we’ll compare each company’s past picks. That way you can see what’s trending for 2025, as well as how their color forecasts have evolved over time. So far things are shaping up to be pretty deep, moody, and muted…
What is the 2025 Color of the Year?
Continue reading 2025 Color of the Year – Everything We Know So Far… at Young House Love.
Guessing the Color of the Year is one of our favorite pastimes. We did it for years on our podcast and now we keep up the tradition on Instagram Stories. And every time the next COTY announcement season rolls around, we like to see all of the previous picks in one easy place. So here’s a snapshot of not only every 2024 Color of the Year, but also how they compare to each company’s previous selections. Buckle up, fellow color nerds!
As more and more companies jump on the color forecasting bandwagon, we’ve decided to focus on the major paint and color companies in the post. Many brands also release yearly palettes instead of one single color. For simplicity’s sake, we’ve omitted those as well. So apologies if we’ve missed your favorite niche paint brand below.
Continue reading Every Color of the Year 2024 – All In One Place! at Young House Love.
Got little bugs buzzing around your kitchen? Congratulations, you may have fruit flies! Don’t fret. These annoying pests are pretty common but luckily, it doesn’t take a lot of money, supplies, or effort to get rid of them. In fact, you can probably find everything you need in your cabinets! We recently had a fruit fly problem in our home (the first time in over four years here – we have no idea what brought them in). So I seized the opportunity to test 7 different methods of eliminating them. Yes, there were copious notes taken and even a spreadsheet. So today I’m sharing the best fruit fly traps and how to make them.
Each homemade trap is easy to make and uses natural ingredients that we already had around the house. So let’s just call this extremely D.I.Y friendly and chemical free. You can also set the fruit flies free outside if you’d rather not let them perish.
Continue reading How To Get Rid Of Fruit Flies: 7 Tested Methods at Young House Love.
I’ll be the first to admit that South Dakota wasn’t high on my vacation bucket list. But I ended up there this summer on a dad-and-daughter trip I took with some family members: and WOW, we loved it. It was a surprising and wonderful departure from our usual family trips, so I wanted to share some highlights in case anyone else is interested in breaking out of the more typical beach or theme park vacation routine.
Growing up on the East Coast and now living in Florida, I haven’t spent much time in the upper Midwest. So these sights may be old hat for some of you. But just like our trip to the California desert earlier this year, this was a chance for us to soak up some new-to-us geography.
Why We Vacationed In South Dakota
South Dakota is home to lots of epic vistas, charming towns, and outdoor adventures.
Continue reading A Summer Trip To South Dakota at Young House Love.
A friend of mine is pregnant and it’s reminding me how exciting it was to name our own kids. We love traditional names (aka: old-fashioned names, aka classic names) and both of our children are named after our grandparents – one on John’s side and one on my side. So I had fun putting together this list of my favorite 100 classic boy names. They feel established, like they stand the test of time, and can carry special meaning if they’re already names in your family. ALSO IS THERE ANYTHING CUTER THAN BABY SUSPENDERS?!?
One interesting thing I found when I was writing this post was that many of the top ten most popular names for boys in 2024 are arguably pretty classic:
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1: Liam
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2: Noah
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3: Oliver
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4: James
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5: Elijah
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6: Mateo
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7: Theodore
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8: Henry
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9: Lucas
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10: William
But beyond that short list of the most popular boy names this year, there are so many other classic boy names to choose from.
Continue reading 100 Classic Boy Names at Young House Love.
We love any excuse to buy more plants, and you may have heard they can improve your home’s indoor air quality. But before you blow your paycheck in the name of a healthier home, let’s dive deeper into plants’ air purifying powers. We’ll share which plants we recommend and what benefits you can actually expect from them.
We’ve heard for years about how plants act as natural air filters for your home. So let’s dive a little deeper, shall we?
7 Air Purifying Plants
If you just came here for a list, our favorite air purifying houseplants are bulleted below. The best part is these are all beautiful, low-maintenance plants. Many also appear on our best low-light indoor plants list too!
- Dracaena (including Corn Plant)
- Snake Plant
- Aglaonema
- English Ivy
- Pothos
- Bamboo Palm
- Spider Plant
There are certainly more that could be included here, but we narrowed it to the ones that are most often cited by experts AND the plants that we think look best too.
Continue reading Best Air Purifying Plants at Young House Love.
Since our travel guides to Charleston with kids and Palm Springs with kids have elicited requests for more travel ideas with kids, we’re back with an overdue recap of our 3-night trip to New Orleans. We’d never been to The Big Easy before and were impressed by how family-friendly the city is. It’s not all booze, beads, and Bourbon Street! So here’s a look at where we stayed, what we did, and what we’re excited to do next time we go back – because we will definitely go back!
The four of us (well, five if you count our chihuahua!) went to NOLA for 3 nights in November of 2022. At the time, our kids were 8 and 12 years old. So unfortunately we can’t vouch for our suggestions being a good fit for toddlers or younger children. Although I’m sure ours would’ve loved the Louisiana Children’s Museum and Storyland playground back in the day!
Continue reading A Weekend In New Orleans With Kids at Young House Love.
I used to think every houseplant needed a sunny corner or bright windowsill to thrive. But it turns out many of our favorite go-to houseplants do just fine in shady corners and low-light locations. So before you write off your house as too dark to sustain plant life, check out this list of the best indoor plants for low light. You might be surprised at how many good options there are!
Our upstairs family room is the brightest room we’ve ever owned thanks to big unobstructed windows on all 4 sides. But most of our indoor plants live downstairs, where we get far less natural light. Luckily, that hasn’t stopped us from growing our collection of happy healthy houseplants.
9 Houseplants That Don’t Need A Lot Of Light
Here are our favorite low-light indoor plants. We list a lot more info on them below, but here’s a quick list to bring on your next trip to the plant store:
- Snake Plant
- ZZ Plant
- Pothos
- Heartleaf Philodendron
- English Ivy
- Aglaonema
- Cast Iron Plant
- Monstera
- Parlor Palm
Perhaps our favorite part of this list is that these aren’t ugly “consolation plants” that people begrudgingly buy for dark homes.
Continue reading Easy Low-Light Indoor Plants at Young House Love.
Wallpaper has made a big comeback as a trendy home design choice. But despite its resurgence, there are still plenty of us dealing with dingy, dated, or downright ugly old wallpaper we don’t want. In our old home, we had to remove wallpaper in so many rooms: the kitchen, the dining room, the foyer, and two different bathrooms! As we traveled from room to room removing wallpaper, we tested 4 different methods, and today we’ll share what we learned.
Removing wallpaper doesn’t require special tools or lots of money. It’s a totally doable project for any homeowner. However, it can be a tedious process that can take elbow grease and patience, depending on the size of your room and the stubbornness of your wallpaper. But having removed several rooms worth of decades-old wallpaper, we can confidently say it’s worth the effort!
You can also check out more before and afters of our once-wallpapered rooms.
Continue reading How To Remove Wallpaper: 4 Proven Methods at Young House Love.
Aglaonema, also called the Chinese Evergreen Plant, is an easy-care houseplant that lives happily in many lighting conditions – even a dark corner of our daughter’s room. There are dozens of different Aglaonema varieties, most with large tropical foliage and colors ranging from silvery-green, red, and even vibrant pink. They’re also tough to kill, so they’re a great option for forgetful plant owners or anyone looking for an easy win in the plant department. These truly have been very low maintenance for us.
We purchased our two Aglaonemas (pronounced ag-lee-oh-neem-ah) to put atop our daughter’s closet. It’s sometimes hard to distinguish different varieties, but we believe that’s an Aglaonema Silver (right) and either a Candy Cane or Princess Silver Queen (left).
Aglaonema Quick Facts
Here’s what you need to know about your Aglaonema at a glance:
- Latin name: Aglaonema is the genus under which there are 21 recognized species.
Continue reading Aglaonema Plant – Care Guide at Young House Love.
Corn plants (Dracaena fragrans) are popular low-maintenance houseplants you’ve probably seen at the nursery, home improvement store, or doctor’s office. I even had one in my college dorm room! You can recognize them by their spear-shaped leaves and woody, cane-line trunks that can grow up to 6 feet tall indoors. But did you know there are several varieties of corn plants? We didn’t! Heck, we didn’t even realize some of our smaller houseplants were in the same corn plant family!
Currently, we own two smaller varieties of corn plants, pictured above. The one on the left is a Dracaena Limelight (Dracaena fragrans ‘Limelight’) and the taller plant is a Draecanea Dorado (Dracaena fragrans ‘Dorado’). We actually have several limelights around because we love their vibrant color on shelves, tabletops, and windowsills.
Corn Plant Quick Facts
- Latin name: Dracaena fragrans
- Common names: Corn plant, cornstalk plant, false palms
- Light: Bright, indirect light but can tolerate lower-light conditions
- Watering: Keep soil moist, but not soggy.
Continue reading Corn Plant – Care Guide at Young House Love.
In all of our years of DIYing, I don’t think we’ve ever used a solid stain before. But we recently had a project that was perfectly suited for it and, well, solid stain quickly won us over. It was recommended by a professional house painter to us, specifically because he thought it would be great for our outdoor shower. And we found it easy to apply, it gave us great coverage, and we got an even-better-than-we-expected result (which is always the best kind!). So here’s a post that covers all the pros & cons and hows & whys of solid stain.
As you can see, the “canvas” for this staining project was our outdoor shower. We gave it a mini-makeover right after moving in, but we knew it may need more attention and care down the line. Honestly, we dreaded the task of stripping and restaining it – so many nooks & crannies!
Continue reading Using Solid Stain In Our Outdoor Shower at Young House Love.
The ZZ plant is another one of our favorite low-maintenance houseplants. They’re easy to care for, hard to kill, and always look full & leafy. They’ve even earned the nickname “Eternity Plant” because they’re practically indestructible! That’s why they’re a top choice for commercial spaces, doctor’s offices, and busy homes like ours. Don’t you love a house plant you can forget about?
ZZ plants are sold in a variety of sizes, meaning they’re great for shelves, tabletops, and small surfaces as well as larger statements on the floor. We have some that are over 3 feet tall with their pots!
ZZ Plant Quick Facts
Here’s what you need to know about your ZZ plant at a glance:
- Latin name: Zamioculcas zamiifolia
- Plant family: Araceae or Arums, which includes Philodendron, Alocasia, Aglaonema, Monstera, and Peace Lily
- Common names: ZZ plant, Zanzibar Gem, Zuzu plant, Emerald Palm, Eternity plant
- Native to: East Africa
- Light: Medium indirect light, but is also low-light tolerant
- Watering: Every 2-3 weeks during its growing season
- Soil: Standard potting mix as long as it drains well
- Ideal Humidity: Average household humidity, ideally 40-50%
- Ideal Temperature: 65°F to 75°F
- Cold Hardiness: USDA Zones 9b-11
What Is A ZZ Plant?
Continue reading ZZ Plant – Care Guide at Young House Love.
Star jasmine is a fast-growing and fragrant evergreen vine that not only gives you great coverage & privacy as a climbing or creeping vine, it also bursts into blooms with incredible-smelling flowers in the spring. The plant is native to Asia, but is incredibly popular in the Southeastern United States and areas of California. In warm environments like these, star jasmine is also super easy to care for and grow. Just another reason we love it!
Star jasmine can grow as a dense ground cover, but we prefer to use it as a climbing vine. This does require a trellis, pergola, stakes, or some other structure for it to grow up. Those are easy to make and we have DIY tutorials for a wire trellis on a wall as well as a freestanding privacy trellis.
Star Jasmine Quick Facts
Here’s what you need to know about star jasmine at a glance:
- Latin name: Trachelospermum jasminoides
- Plant type: Evergreen climbing vine
- Flowers: White star-shaped blooms in late spring & early summer
- Sun exposure: Full sun to part shade
- Growth rate: Fast-growing (3 to 6 feet per year)
- Mature size: Up to 20 feet
- Soil: Well-draining loamy soil.
Continue reading Star Jasmine – Plant Growing & Care Guide at Young House Love.
“Greige” is that sweet spot between gray & beige, and it’s a paint color that’s both trendy and timeless. In fact, we’ve been on the greige bandwagon for nearly 20 years – well before we’d even heard that term! But finding the perfect greige can be daunting. There are 100s of neutral paint colors that could be considered greige, so we’ve waded through dozens of expert round-ups to see what colors come up over and over again. (Yes, I made a spreadsheet. And yes, I liked it).
We weren’t surprised to see our favorite greige paint show up on this Iist, but the color that ranked #1 was a bit of a shock to us!
What Is Greige?
Greige is an umbrella term for any color that dances the line between gray and beige (gray + beige = greige).
Continue reading The Best Greige Paint Colors (According To Experts) at Young House Love.
Pothos are easily our #1 favorite houseplant and the golden pothos is by far the most popular variety. They’re loved by beginners and plant experts alike because they’re affordable, attractive, and easy to care for. They’re quick-growing plants with beautiful trailing vines that add loads of life and color to any space. We have pothos in nearly EVERY room of our house!
There are over a dozen kinds of pothos (Epipremnum aureum), most of which share similar characteristics and care instructions as the golden pothos. You can read more about other varieties we love, like the marble queen pothos and neon pothos.
Golden Pothos Quick Facts
Here’s what you need to know about your golden pothos at a glance:
- Latin name: Epipremnum aureum
- Common names: Golden pothos, devil’s ivy, devil’s vine, hunter’s rove
- Mistaken for: Neon pothos, marble queen pothos
- Light: Prefers medium, indirect light but is low-light tolerant
- Watering: Every 7-10 days during its growing season, or if the soil is dry & leaves are drooping
- Soil: Standard potting mix as long as it drains well
- Ideal Humidity: Average household humidity, ideally 50-70%
- Ideal Temperature: 65-85 degrees
- Cold Hardiness: USDA Zones 10-12
What Is A Golden Pothos?
Continue reading Golden Pothos – Plant Care Guide at Young House Love.
Our top recommendation for an easy, starter houseplant? Pothos, pothos, pothos! They’re low-stress, high-impact, and fast-growing vines that are great for both beginners and experts. The golden pothos may be the most common variety but don’t overlook its more vibrant cousin: the neon pothos. We’ve got several neon pothos in our home, and they’re beautiful and so easy! So here’s all you need to know before you get your own.
There are over a dozen varieties of pothos, most of which share similar care instructions to the neon pothos. You can read more about other pothos we love, like the golden pothos and marble queen pothos.
Neon Pothos Quick Facts
Here’s what you need to know about your neon pothos at a glance:
- Latin name: Epipremnum aureum ‘Neon’
- Common names: Neon pothos, neon devil’s ivy
- Mistaken for: Golden pothos
- Light: Prefers bright, indirect light but is low-light tolerant
- Watering: Every 7-10 days during its growing season, or if the soil is dry & leaves are drooping
- Soil: Standard potting mix as long as it drains well
- Ideal Humidity: Average household humidity, ideally 50-70%
- Ideal Temperature: 65-85 degrees
- Cold Hardiness: USDA Zones 10-12
What Is A Neon Pothos?
Continue reading Neon Pothos – Plant Care Guide at Young House Love.
Even though the marble queen isn’t the most popular pothos variety, it’s one of our personal favorites! Like all pothos plants, they’re a perfect starter houseplant because they’re resilient, low-maintenance, and fast-growing. Plus, we think it has some of prettiest leaves of all.
There are over a dozen kinds of pothos, most of which share similar characteristics and care instructions as the marble queen. You can read more about other pothos we love, like the golden pothos and neon pothos.
Marble Queen Quick Facts
Here’s what you need to know about your marble queen pothos at a glance:
- Latin name: Epipremnum aureum ‘Marble Queen’
- Common names: Marble queen pothos, marble pothos, pothos marble
- Mistaken for: Golden pothos, snow queen pothos
- Light: Prefers medium, indirect light but is low-light tolerant
- Watering: Every 7-10 days during its growing season, or if the soil is dry & leaves are drooping
- Soil: Standard potting mix as long as it drains well
- Ideal Humidity: Average household humidity, ideally 50-70%
- Ideal Temperature: 60-85 degrees
- Cold Hardiness: USDA Zones 10-12
What Is A Marble Queen Pothos?
Continue reading Marble Queen Pothos – Plant Care Guide at Young House Love.
If you’re someone who thinks you can’t keep a plant alive – this plant will prove you wrong! In fact, you’ve probably seen one at a doctor’s office, home improvement store, or hotel lobby because they’re so low maintenance. Thanks to being so easy to care for and widely liked, they’re a great option for anyone who wants a low-effort plant. So today we’ll share why serial plant-killers and seasoned plant lovers all love this spear-shaped beauty.
There are dozens of varieties of snake plants, but today we’ll mainly be talking about the most popular variety: Dracaena trifasciata ‘Laurentii.’ The Laurentii refers to the specific variant of this species seen in these photos. They’re identifiable by their stiff, sword-like leaves with bright yellow edges.
Snake Plant: Quick Facts
Here’s what you need to know about your snake plant at a glance:
- Latin name: Dracaena Trifasciata (formerly Sansevieria Trifasciata)
- Common names: Snake Plant, Mother-in-Law’s Tongue, Devil’s Tongue, Saint George’s Sword, Vipers Bowstring Hemp, Spear Plant
- Native to: West Africa
- Light: Prefers medium, indirect light
- Watering: About every 2 weeks or whenever the soil is dry
- Soil: Well-drained soil such as a cactus, palm, or succulent mix
- Ideal Humidity: Average household humidity
- Ideal Temperature: 70-90 degrees
- Cold Hardiness: USDA Zones 9-11
Benefits Of A Snake Plant
Beyond being attractive and low maintenance, snake plants are also popular houseplants for their health benefits.
Continue reading Snake Plant – Care Guide at Young House Love.
Palm Springs, California may not scream “kid-friendly destination” but we recently had THE BEST vacation there with our family (our kids are 9 and 13). So here’s a quick rundown of our favorite must-see attractions in Palm Springs as well as info about where we stayed, what we ate, and what we’re excited to check out next time. Because we definitely will be back!
Did I mention we also brought our nine-pound chihuahua with us? So most of our suggestions are dog-friendly too!
Why Vacation With Kids In Palm Springs?
We chose Palm Springs for a lot of reasons. First, our East Coast-born kids had never been to California! Of course, there are lots of options for California vacations. But we wanted to avoid the hustle of a bigger city like Los Angeles or San Francisco, and we liked the idea of introducing them to the unfamiliar desert geography.
Continue reading A Weekend In Palm Springs With Kids at Young House Love.
Our bedroom used to be a living room, so it’s taken some work to turn it into a comfortable, functional, and beautiful sleeping space (it’s truly one of our favorite rooms!). So today we’re outlining the 6 most impactful improvements we made to our bedroom, complete with some updated pictures.
bed | art | similar pillow | rug | curtains | brass rod | brass rings | similar table | chairs | ottoman | similar mirror | sconces
Our Bedroom, Before
You can check out all of the before photos of our home here, but as you can see below, it was a mostly blank canvas. Well, except for the crumbling drywall, crooked blinds, and wide doorways to the adjacent kitchen – all of which we had to address. But we loved the fireplace and the wall of french doors and pretty much immediately knew it would make for an amazing bedroom (since the house was listed as having only one bedroom when we bought it!).
Continue reading 6 Ways We Upgraded Our Bedroom at Young House Love.
Rather than take one big vacation this summer, we opted instead for a few short trips so we could experience more new places. We kicked things off with this 3-night trip to Charleston, SC, we met up my parents in the Georgia mountains in July, and then capped off the summer with a getaway to St. Petersburg, Florida. Sherry and I had only been there very briefly during this 2008 beach vacation, so we were excited to spend more time there and explore it with our kids.
So here’s a quick recap of what we did, where we ate, and why we’re excited to go back.
Where Did We Stay In St. Petersburg?
St. Petersburg is located on Florida’s Gulf Coast, across the Tampa Bay from the city of Tampa. The area has lots of great beaches, but we specifically chose St.
Continue reading Two Days In St. Petersburg Florida With Kids at Young House Love.
We’re dropping this random pop-in episode to share one of the most embarrassing tales Sherry has ever told on this podcast. Of course it had to happen in the nicest house we’ve ever been in (in front of one of Sherry’s personal heroes). We’re also listing what’s left on our to-do list, and answering the much-asked question: what’s your next big project? Plus, we break down what feels different to us about this house compared to our last one (and the varied impressions you might get about us if you walked in without us being there). Lastly, we each share some recent home-related purchases and the books & tv shows that are keeping us laughing (or biting our nails, but in a good way).
You can also find this episode on your favorite podcast listening app, like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, TuneIn Radio, Stitcher, and Spotify.
Continue reading #183: What’s Next, House Vibes, & Another Embarrassing Moment at Young House Love.
As we mentioned in our post about making a bigger backyard pool area, we’ve also made some big changes out front. Namely, we now have a legit front walkway and driveway! Break out the champagne! Release the doves! Rewatch the #Scandoval episode of Vanderpump Rules (or whatever else people like Sherry do to celebrate). I know this may seem unworthy of celebration – a driveway? cool story, bro – but when you live without one for THREE YEARS, it feels like a major win.
Why We Needed Parking & Pathways
I know most houses come with a place to park your car and some sort of path to the front door. Every other house we’ve lived in certainly did. Some even had garages! But this particular house had no such thing. The entire property, apart from the house, was just pine straw, dirt, and leaves.
Continue reading Finally! Real Walkways & A Legitimate Parking Spot For Two at Young House Love.
For nearly a year, we’ve been in the process of reimagining our pool area as a bigger, more multi-functional space.
You first saw it two years ago when we posted this behind-the-scenes of putting in a pool, along with lots of before & afters. We LOVE our pool and this area quickly became our go-to outdoor family hang-out spot. So back in Spring of 2022, we realized we could make it work even harder for us if we did one somewhat simple thing… moved one section of fencing back (thereby doubling the size!).
lounge chairs | adirondack chairs | firepit | similar table | dining chairs | nest chair | solar lights | umbrellas | pillows
It ended up being a bit more than just that, so I’ll take you through the various steps we took to maximize this yard. In short, here’s what we did:
- Moved a section of fencing
- Built a platform deck to create an outdoor dining space
- Poured concrete walkways, stairs, and retaining walls
As part of this overhaul, we also added a driveway and pathways along the front of the house too, and we’re in the process of putting all of those details and photos into another post.
Continue reading How We Doubled The Size (And Function!) Of Our Backyard Pool Area at Young House Love.
Last week our family took a last-minute, 2-day-3-night trip to Charleston, South Carolina and it was chef’s kiss. It was our first time there, and we arrived having done zero planning and no itinerary with the goal of exploring, enjoying the sights, and eating some good stuff along the way (spoiler: we achieved all three!). Honestly, it might have been our favorite weekend trip yet (tied with New Orleans). So here are all the places, activities, and meals that made our trip so great.
Why We Picked Charleston As A Spot To Visit?
Ever since we moved to Florida three years ago, our family vacations have changed a bit. We used to almost always pick places with a beach and/or pool nearby, but now that we have both at home, we find ourselves more interested in walkable cities or small towns with interesting sights, shops, parks, restaurants, and more.
Continue reading A Weekend In Charleston, SC With Kids at Young House Love.
With our kids’ summer break kicking off this weekend, we came up with a fun twist on our usual summer reading goals. We had the idea while playing “would you rather” on a family walk this morning, came home and whipped up a paper template, and an hour later Sherry mentioned it in passing on Instagram. Then Sherry’s DMs filled up with people asking her to share a copy of the bracket or tell them where we got it (we whipped it up in Photoshop), so we decided to drop two free printable options of it here in this post. I even had some fun myself, as a 41-year-old man, making this filled-out sample above (our kids put much wackier places on theirs ;)
The idea is simple: have your kids test out different reading locations and have each spot face off in a head-to-head March Madness-style bracket.
Continue reading Best Summer Reading Spot Bracket – Free Kids Printables at Young House Love.
For over a decade, one of our renovating mantras has been “the middle makes no sense.” Basically, don’t fret if your house is mid-reno, not fully furnished, or otherwise in limbo. Take your time, try something out, and just course correct as you go. See what you like and what you use. Live with something for a little while (or a long while). Take the expectation of having a finished perfect house right away and throw it in the trash (it always takes us years to get to that point!). Just keep letting spaces evolve in ways that work for your family and make you happy. And eventually, you’re very likely to end up with something you love and find extremely useful.
This particular corner of our bedroom has been a perfect example of that mantra… especially because it got very weird there in the middle (wait for it).
Continue reading Using Ikea Floating Shelves To Make Sense Of A Weird Corner In Our Bedroom at Young House Love.
When sharing some videos of our bathroom on Instagram recently, many of you noticed an easy update we added: a wooden, floating shelf in the window. It was such a simple DIY project that we did on a whim a while ago (and it was extremely affordable too!) so we wanted to show you the easy steps to make one yourself.
For reference, this is what the window looked like when we first showed you the before and afters of this space back in 2020. We’ve always used the deep windowsill for some decor and greenery, but adding the extra shelf gave us room for more things, and just generally adds some nice interest to a formerly non-descript window.
The steps for this depend somewhat on your specific window, but here’s what we used for ours:
Tools & Materials
- Cove molding or quarter round
- A wooden board or, in our case, scrap butcher block
- Saw (we used a circular saw, but a miter saw or table saw could work also)*
- Hammer & nails (or nail gun)
- Measuring tape
- Level
- Pencil
- Paintable caulk
- Paint (to match your existing trim)
*You could also get the board cut to size at Lowe’s or Home Depot, in which case you wouldn’t need a saw & could likely use a small hand saw or hack saw for the thin quarter round supports.
Continue reading Adding A Floating Shelf To A Window at Young House Love.
Any time we mention having only one bathroom it spawns a flurry of interest in our Instagram DMs about how we manage that with our four-person family.Although we’re definitely not intrepid for having this setup in any way (so many families in the US & abroad live a wonderful life in a smaller home with one bathroom), and we also have an outdoor shower that we can use almost year-round (which definitely takes the pressure off of our single indoor bathroom), there’s a surprising amount of curiosity around the topic.
So we’re here to break down why it has worked so well for our family and what we’ve done to make it extra efficient & easy to live with.
Note: Details, sources, and before & after photos can be found in this bathroom tour post.
I know some people will read this and think “I could NEVER live that way!
Continue reading 4 People + 1 Bathroom: How & Why It Works For Us at Young House Love.
Raise your hand if you remember how much closet space our bedroom had when we moved in. The answer is zero. We used dressers for a while (and borrowed the tiny closet in our son’s room for our hanging stuff) and eventually added some floor-to-ceiling Ikea Pax wardrobes to our bedroom after about 10 months, which felt like we had arrived. A bedroom closet is so nice to have. And – big news! – as of writing this post, we’ve added another Ikea wardrobe to that wall… which means we have just as much storage in our current bedroom as we had in our last house’s FANCY WALK-IN CLOSET! I know. It’s downright mind-blowing.
bed frame | nightstand | lamp | pink sheets | pillow | rug | ottoman | closet hardware
For comparison, this is our last house’s walk-in closet (it was an 8′ x 6′ room).
Continue reading How To Make An Ikea Pax Wardrobe Look Built-In (Plus A Bedroom Closet Update!) at Young House Love.
This is a meandering journey of a post, so make yourself comfortable. We mentioned in this side table post that we traded our queen-size bed for a bigger king-size one. The reason might seem obvious – because it’s bigger, duh! – but as for why we happily sailed through over 17 years together without wanting one – and then suddenly pulled an about-face last fall… well, it essentially boiled down to: “the things we do for our dog” (more on that in a second).
We also had to carefully plan how we’d squeeze the biggest bed we’ve ever owned into our smaller bedroom. And we had a big realization about larger furniture in a smaller house (it’s probably not what you think!). Plus we had some fun with photoshop.
bed frame | nightstands | lamps | pink sheets | pillow | rug | ottomans | curtains
When we told one of our friends about the change, they were stunned – neigh, SHOCKED – to hear we didn’t already have a king bed.
Continue reading Fitting A King Bed Into A Smaller Bedroom at Young House Love.
Last month’s arctic blast brought surprisingly frigid temperatures to Florida. We had three consecutive nights with temperatures in the low 20s – and an ultimate low of around 18 degrees! A lot of our outdoor plants aren’t built for that kind of freezing weather (in the 3 winters we’ve spent here we can remember one other low of about 32-degrees, but things went right back up to our more normal lows of around 45 degrees within a few hours). They’re calling our recent deep freeze a “once-in-a-century event” here in Florida. In other words: the ultimate test. So here are the steps we took to protect our plants, including a few things that worked better than others.
It should be said that there are definitely bigger things to worry about during extreme cold weather events – like protecting people, pets, and pipes. But you’ll often see plants as the 4th “P” on that list of things to check on in freezing weather.
Continue reading How We Protected Our Plants From Freezing Temperatures at Young House Love.
We thought frozen pipes were a worry we’d left behind by moving to Florida, but last month’s arctic blast sent our temperatures plummeting into the low 20s for three nights in a row (with an all-time low of 18 degrees, which they’re calling a once-in-a-century event here in Northwest, FL).
This was especially concerning because Florida homes in our area aren’t always constructed with this weather in mind. Frozen pipes are bad news because water expands when it freezes, potentially causing pipes to burst or crack, leading to leaking or flooding.
Luckily, with a few easy prevention steps we successfully kept our pipes from freezing! Which, sadly, isn’t something a lot of our neighbors can say. Many people we know had an issue with a pipe or two bursting – so we’re extremely grateful that the steps we took kept ours protected. Here are 5 things that worked for us, including a tip from a local plumber that saved our outdoor shower!
Continue reading 5 Ways We Prevented Frozen Pipes in Florida at Young House Love.
Sherry’s post a few months ago about what furniture & decor we still own after downsizing was the first time I’d looked back at photos of our previous house in a while. It was a fun walk down memory lane (how has it been 2.5 years since we moved?!). It also jogged my memory about how much “extra house” we used to have. As in, full rooms that were so under-utilized that I’d almost forgotten about them!
Don’t get me wrong: we loved that house. But, as you know, it was a much bigger house than we realized we needed (spending an entire summer in our smaller pink beach house really clarified that for us – more on that here), and we were excited & relieved to downsize to our current home in Florida. We went from 3,150 square feet in Virginia to 1,400 square feet here – which is less than half the space, for the math nerds out there.
Continue reading The Rooms We Don’t Miss After Downsizing (And The Ones We Do) at Young House Love.
Want to turn simple store-bought cabinets into custom built-ins? “Hacking” something that’s already made is so much easier than building something from scratch, and it can look really custom in the end. Built-in storage is universally helpful (especially in a smaller home – but really, anywhere), and things like the floor-to-ceiling closets in our bedroom, the desk & bookcase we added to our son’s room, and the wall-to-wall media cabinet in our family room have made such a difference. But one built-in that we’ve barely mentioned since we added and upgraded them are the Ikea Bestas flanking our fireplace:
table* | white chairs | wicker chair | ottoman | lamps | glass vase | sconces | mobile***
The good news is that it took just a few fairly easy steps to make them look a lot more custom than they look on the showroom floor in Ikea.
Continue reading Creating Custom Storage With Ikea Bestas at Young House Love.
We owned a Roomba robot vacuum almost a decade ago because it sounded so good in theory. Something that does the vacuuming for you while you sit on the couch? Sign me up. But in reality, we had SO MANY ISSUES with it. It was extremely loud, frequently got stuck, and didn’t cover many areas before the battery died. Did I mention it always got stuck? It felt like babysitting someone who was poorly vacuuming to the point that our time was better spent actually doing the vacuuming. We finally ended up selling it on Craigslist.
So imagine our surprise to now be declaring that we actually LOVE having a robot vacuum and the technology has come SO FAR. It feels lightyears ahead of the one we owned before – and it was much less expensive! In fact, we’ve owned our new robot vacuum for 8 glorious months, and it’s probably our favorite purchase of the year.
Continue reading Are Robot Vacuums Worth It? Why We Changed Our Mind. at Young House Love.
Did Christmas come early this year? Nope! But our annual gift guides did (by a smidge, at least). So, without further ado… let’s dive into the 3 categories that we cover every year, which are all here in just one post:
- Gift Ideas for Grown-Ups
- Gift Ideas for Kids
- Gift Ideas Under $12.99
It’s probably helpful to mention that nothing was sponsored/gifted in order to get into this guide. If something’s in here, we just genuinely love it (and in many cases, already own it and can vouch for it). Each list also includes some things that we plan to give a friend or family member this year, and a few things we’d love to receive (wink, wink – please consult this post, John).
Quick note: There aren’t just gifts that are under $12.99 on the last gift guide.
Continue reading 2022 Holiday Gift Guides – with ideas as low as $7! at Young House Love.
I’ll start this post with a confession: I resented our kitchen porch when we finished it last fall. Resent is a strong and, admittedly, strange word to use for a porch. But I’ll explain it later on in this post. The good news is that I no longer harbor any ill will toward it. In fact, it has become one of the spaces I’m most grateful to have in our smaller home. Especially after some functional additions that we’ve made to it over the last year since you saw it.
outdoor table | outdoor chairs | water fountain | plant hanging bracket | grill | string lights
I love this space so much, that I’m actually writing this post from it right now. Call it Method Blogging. I’m fully immersed in my character.
outdoor table | outdoor stacking chairs | water fountain | grill | string lights
A Kitchen Porch Renovation Recap
You can read a full post of this porch’s previous updates, but the quick version is: this used to be a porch off of our bedroom, which had 8 glass doors leading outside (yes, eight whole doors in one room).
Continue reading Adding Outdoor Storage To Our Kitchen Porch at Young House Love.
Walking onto the plane carrying just a duffel and a purse for 7 days in two different areas of France (and a stop in Germany!) was my goal. And here I am standing at the airport, right after John dropped me off and took this shot. Yup. Just a purse and a duffel. I did it (with space to spare!).
sneakers | jeans | black tank | black blazer | duffel | similar purse | bracelet | sunglasses
And because I’m nothing if not a minimal wardrobe hype woman (more on that here), please allow me to sensually tip your head back and shout directly into your mouth: “knowing how to maximize your options without dragging your entire closet with you is a real actual life hack.” So read on to see how you can get the most out of packing this way (it was my first trip to Europe – so I definitely didn’t want to forget anything!).
Continue reading How I Packed Light For My Weeklong Trip To France at Young House Love.
For the first time in our lives, after four decades of living on this planet, we’ve upgraded to a king sized bed! We’ll get more into whys and hows in an upcoming post (it’s both bigger and significantly lower) and we see the obvious irony of owning a bigger bed in our smaller house – but let’s just summarize it as: “the things we do for our dog.”
bed frame | lamp | pink sheets | pillow | rug | closet hardware
You’ve also probably heard this before, but sometimes the way to feel like you’re living large in a smaller space is with fewer larger furniture pieces (as opposed to a bunch of small dollhouse-scaled furnishings). There’s such a luxury to having a nice long 90″ sofa upstairs, a big 72″ table that seats up to 8 people in the kitchen, and truly, it has been glorious to have such a giant bed.
Continue reading How We Built Modern Wood Nightstands From Butcher Block at Young House Love.
You know you’ve left your mark on the world when people quote you in the pages of Time magazine or you get interviewed by Oprah. But what does it mean if one of your top google results is “young house love toilet” (true story)? And up until now, searching that term on our blog didn’t really lead you anywhere helpful (Sherry talks a lot about our favorite toilet mostly on IG Stories). So if that’s the rabbit hole that led you to our blog and you typed in those infamous words, this post will now have you and all of your toilet-related queries covered.
Our favorite toilet is the Kohler Memoirs Elongated Toilet (sometimes also called the Memoirs Stately Elongated). It has been our go-to place to go for 7 years now, ever since installing it in our last home’s powder room.
Continue reading Our Favorite Toilet (Yes, We Have A Favorite) at Young House Love.
Settle in. This post is a DEEP DIVE. One of those long detailed dissection/reflection posts that feels like the blogging days of yore. So if you love those & wanna grab a cup of coffee and go on a little journey with us – today’s the day. We’re about to dive into:
- Tips and insights we gleaned about downsizing over the last few years
- What items from our larger home came with us & worked
- WHY we think that is
- What we learned in hindsight about packing for a move
This whole post idea came to us when we were in our downstairs sitting area recently and we realized that a lot of the furniture hadn’t moved with us from our previous house in Richmond. The loveseat, the chairs, and the coffee table were all purchased after we moved here to fit precisely into this new smaller sitting area that we slowly figured out over time.
Continue reading What We Still Have 2.5 Years After Downsizing at Young House Love.
Today we’re talking about the stock market! Just kidding. Exactly as the title suggests, we’re going to show you how we earned some really useful extra storage in our new kitchen by upgrading a formerly VERY PACKED utility closet. It used to basically just have a water heater and an HVAC system in it without much room for anything else, and now there’s, say it with me… so much room for activities. Ok, not for like cartwheels, but significantly more room to store stuff than before. Like maybe 500% more. Really.
If you watched our drawer-by-drawer kitchen organization video, you already got a peek at what we have going on in there, but today we’re sharing all the angles, and explaining how we were able to take this closet from “mostly water heater” to “so much everything else.”
The Utility Closet Before
We don’t have a lot of “before” photos of this closet because it was absolutely nothing to write home about.
Continue reading How We Upgraded A Utility Closet By Adding Tons Of Functional Storage at Young House Love.
Some people are surprised to hear that we illuminate our entire pool area using nothing but solar LED landscape lights. As in: the sun provides free evening ambiance with zero effort on our part. Nothing has to be plugged in. Our electric bill feels zero impact from softly illuminating this entire area of our house. So today I wanted to share the 3 solar products we use in case you want to give your own outdoor space a literal glow-up.
hooks / wall scuppers / chair / drum stool / sconce / doorknob / white pot / lounge chairs / solar path lights
Technically we have a porch light and in-pool lights too, all of which use traditional electricity, but we almost never turn them on. Honestly, they’re a little blinding and we like a soft glow that doesn’t block out our view of the stars. Instead, day-to-day (or night-to-night?) we just rely on our solar-powered LED lighting for that oh so charming come-hither glow.
Continue reading Using Only Solar Lights To Add Backyard Ambiance at Young House Love.
It’s time once again to throw open every cabinet, drawer, and door to show you how we organized our kitchen, which we slowly renovated over the last two years (more on that slow but steady reno here). This post should be an especially fun one because you’ll see just how much we’ve improved upon the original organization of this kitchen, which we shared in this post almost two years ago. And, as usual, we made a video walk-through of the whole thing too, which also explains a few future plans involving two outdoor cabinets that we plan to add to the nearby kitchen porch. So yeah… lots to cover.
chairs | table | woven pendant | bookshelf | knife block | fruit bowl | toaster | similar plant pot
We’ll start with the video, because it’s truly the most comprehensive way to understand exactly what goes where in our new kitchen.
Continue reading How We Organized Our Small Kitchen (Hooray For Hidden Storage) at Young House Love.
Last week we vacationed in the Yucatán Peninsula region of Mexico with our two kids (ages 8 and 12) and yes, even our dog Penny came! This was our second time traveling internationally as a family, so we definitely don’t qualify as experienced world travelers or aspiring travel bloggers. But just like the last time we went abroad, we wanted to share the details for anyone who is considering something similar – especially if it’s your first time going to Mexico. So here are a bunch of answers to the most common questions we got. We’ll also cover where we went, what we ate, and how we navigated the logistics of bringing a pet with us.
Oh, and as usual, no part of this trip was sponsored. We paid for all of the flights, lodging, food, and activities ourselves (thanks in part to a lot of saved credit card points, which is our favorite way to book big trips).
Continue reading Our Trip To Mexico With Kids… And A Dog! at Young House Love.
Rugs are hard. We get it. How do you know the right size and placement? Will it look good in your room? What if looks nothing like the photos online? If you have any of those thoughts, this post is for you. We’re going to dive into an especially magical rug that goes with basically any colored sofa/wall/room, but also talk generally about rug size and placement. Plus, we’ve listed a bunch of other favorite rugs, vetted by us (we bought them all with our own money & love them – no affiliation with any of ’em).
The Magic Rug
Let’s start with the magic rug. We bought this rug many years ago for one of the duplex living rooms in Cape Charles.
I’m not sure who first dubbed (in the rust color) the “magic rug,” but it all began when we realized it looked good with essentially any room, no matter the color scheme.
Continue reading Rug Sizing Tips & The “Magic Rug” That Looks Good With Everything at Young House Love.
It may go down as our most gradual kitchen renovation ever, but almost exactly two years into living here (we hit that milestone last Saturday!), our kitchen is officially DONE! New cabinets? Check. Tiled backsplash to the ceiling? Yup. Quartz countertops and a sink that’s 3X deeper than the overmount sink of yore? Affirmative.
similar pink plant pot | wavy white fruit bowl | toaster | hardware | backsplash tile
New hidden range hood? You betcha. More functional storage in the form of additional drawers, new upper cabinets, and a generously sized pantry cabinet? Yessir. Tons of before & after photos? That’s what this post is for! Plus we’ve got a full budget breakdown for you. So in the illustrious words of Tiesto, let’s get down to business.
table | chairs | wall shelf | hardware | woven pendant | bookshelf | fruit bowl | toaster | similar plant pot | coffee table
To us (and maybe to you as well) this has felt like a very gradual transformation because we just sort of tweaked and adjusted things over the last two years in many small phases, rather than going through one mega-gut-renovation like our last house’s kitchen.
Continue reading Our Small But Mighty Kitchen Is Done! at Young House Love.
We’ve mentioned how we use our pressure washer to revive various things around the house – like outdoor furniture and even an indoor rug – but we still hear from people who fear that it’s complicated to set up or expensive to buy or hard to control… and the good news is that it’s none of those things. So this post is a comprehensive start-to-finish guide for anyone who’s finally ready to get their pressure washing feet wet (maybe even literally).
Pressure washing is an easy, affordable, and TOTALLY AWESOME way to keep your outdoor spaces looking fresh. So I’m walking you through everything from setting it up and turning it on, to where and how we use ours. It makes such an insane difference every spring, I’d even call it a DIY VIP.
We were a bit intimidated the first time we tried pressure washing nearly 10 years ago.
Continue reading A Beginner’s Guide To Pressure Washing (It’s Affordable, Simple, & So So Satisfying) at Young House Love.
You know I love writing a spare-no-details product review (like this one and this one), so when enough people pointed out that when they search the blog for info about our beloved air purifier, nothing really comes up, I thought… I shall remedy that today.
I know. I’m a hero.
I feel like I should also point out that we bought these ourselves with our own money and nobody at their company knows us from Adam.
Sherry has always suffered from bad seasonal allergies, so we were thrilled to find a home air purifier that finally gave her the allergy relief that so many companies promise. The allergy difference that it makes for Sherry is night and day. So much so that when they were packed in the pod while we were moving she was like “WHY ARE MY ALLERGIES KILLING ME?!?!” and then we were like….
Continue reading Our Favorite Allergy-Busting Home Air Purifier at Young House Love.