A lot of readers are wondering how well our insulation projects have helped in lowering our sky high heating bills. Mid-winter is a good time to address these questions, since our bills are finally starting to show some long-term improvement. Background: We moved into our house a little over two years ago. When we showed […]

Some homeowners are organized enough to track their spending monthly; they plan out how much a specific remodeling project is going to set them back before they ever start, and they can tell you to the penny what it ended up costing. (And, of course, the latter number is always double or triple the former. […]

If you live in the Central New York area, own an old house, and are looking for some affordable goodies to spruce up your place, ReHouse is having a 20% sale today and tomorrow – and 35% off of sinks! We’ve been to ReHouse quite a few times, and it’s always worth the trip. Things […]

I won this cute little light fixture for $3.50 the other day: We’re in need of something for the bathroom ceiling, and for just about every other ceiling in the upstairs. We’ve got a grand total of 9 “plastic chandeliers” up right now. Like this: So a new (cheap) light fixture is always welcome. I […]

The photo-sharing community Flickr has got to be one of my favorite web tools EVER – second only to blogs, of course. Those of you using it need no convincing as to why it’s amazing. Those of you who aren’t… get over there and check it out! You can start with our Flickr gallery, which […]

As you’ve no doubt noticed, I am a huge fan of organizing things; clutter and chaos makes me itchy. I don’t know when the compulsion to organize began, because my mother can tell you stories about my years of teenage-bedroom-slobbery. I distinctly remember finding a glass of fungus on my bedside table during one of […]

If we ever leave this house, we’re going somewhere south. Somewhere sunny and warm, where winter means a light jacket after sunset. Not snowsuits, triple layers, and full days of shoveling. All winter we’ve been dodging bullets, revelling in our luck that all giant snowstorms seem to fall just north or south of us. About […]

After nearly three months of work (that’s 12 fun-filled weekends, plus the work we squeezed in on weekdays), the master bathroom remodel is officially done. We put the finishing touches on it this past weekend. And now, every time I walk in there, I marvel at the beauty and order we created out of total […]

Right now, I have a camera full of bathroom photos that I’m dying to share… but since I just spent forever and a day helping Teague type up the shower post, I’m not feeling energetic enough to whip out another long one today. And the bathroom “afters” certainly deserve a long one. Instead, I’ll practice […]

Note: This is Teague’s second post in 2.5 years! Let’s all make him feel welcome, and maybe he’ll come share his how-to’s (which are much more thorough than mine, since he tends to lead the process while I follow along) more often! – Mindy STEP ONE: The first step to installing our free-standing chrome fixture […]