As you’ve no doubt noticed, there’s not much going on at the Fixer-Upper worth bragging about. I’m enjoying the much-needed break. Instead of charging ahead on renovations, we’re working on paying our remodeling bills off (I absolutely despise credit card debt) and squeezing in as much outdoor time as possible before the snow flies.

Never fear, though. While it’s boring now, it wasn’t always so – and many of our readers weren’t around for our first year of home madness. So I thought I’d share some of the fun way-back-when posts you might have missed out on.

First up: Homemade Scaffolding. It was whipped up one weekend for some chimney repairs that were desperately needed so we could secure home owners insurance. It was quite possibly the scariest contraption I’ve ever set foot on, but it worked and saved us a lot of money. I don’t know that I’d recommend this route to anyone, but in a pinch it was a real godsend!

Tackling our own chimney repairs with the help of our lovely DIY scaffolding resulted in a savings of about $1,750 (we were quoted $2,000 by a masonry worker).