Adventures in Remuddling

Today we worked on a different type of house. This is the house that Tig built.

This is my creation

Now if you’ll excuse us, we have some butternut squash soup to make and a holiday block party to attend.

We took some time off for the holidays, and then it was time to play “trading spaces” with Jona.

Continue reading “Trading Spaces” »

A quick visual tour of our New Years work trip to DC. This is the space above Jona’s kitchen.

Continue reading “Trading Spaces: A Tour of Our Handiwork” »

I used to not be able to live without a TV. Those days are long past, and we have not had a TV set up in over 9 months.

But I finally caved in and brought out our old TV from its box.

Ain’t she a beauty?

Continue reading “Finally a TV” »

I love reading about the crazy things people find - left over from the previous owners - I read with envy, such “Antiques Roadshow” material. HouseinProgress found a red Royal typewriter. While we were not recipients of such treasured items, we did manage to rapidly accumulate a record collection. To start with, Tig had a seed collection of records left over from his college days.

Continue reading “Old House Finds” »

This is the light fixture we inherited in the front hallway. It has all the qualities I do not like in a light: pull chain, brass, octagonal.

Continue reading “Another Pull Chain Light Down” »

Lighting is not something I know a lot about (neither is home renovating, but as witnessed here, I’m always willing to learn). Before buying our home, I was happy to have compact fluorescent light bulbs everywhere. Not only was it the environmentally friendly thing to do, it definitely kept our energy bill down. But a recently, we’ve made a few exceptions in rooms where ambiance was more important.

Continue reading “Champagne Taste on a Beer Budget” »

I’ve been a fan of AT for the past couple of years. Recently, I picked up Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan’s book Apartment Therapy: the Eight Week Home Cure from the library.

Continue reading “Starting the Cure” »

Over the years, I’ve become interested in natural cleaning products. Care2.com, for example, has a whole section on Healthy Home, with non-toxic cleaning recipes. When the Cure suggested looking into earth-friendly cleaning products, I was interested in integrating this into our lives.

Unfortunately, we have a few challenges on this front.

For one, we inherited a lot of toxic cleaners from the previous owners.

Continue reading “Week One - Cleaners & Boundaries” »

 Assignment - buy fresh flowers for the house.

I set myself a $10 budget per week for 8 weeks, just as a trial.  It is awfully nice to come home to a vase of flowers, especially when the weather has been awful lately.