Tool essentials for the DIY Dad
Growing up, my Dad was never the most handy guy. I know a fair few people who's dads are also not handy guys (which is why most of them just called in a professional, see here for more information). Not to say that he isn't capable, just that working with tools was never really a high priority on his list. He's more the phone a friend & "supervise" kinda guy. I remember always having family friends come by to fix various things around the house & bringing with them the most fascinating tools. I quickly became the one who'd hold the flashlight & learned so much along the way. I guess you could say my extended family of DIY Dads probably taught me more than I would have learned having just the one...lol! But when Father's Day came around I was never the girl you'd find in the hardware store looking for gift ideas.
Checkin in from #Workcation: First 3 days of DIY
Workcation: work·ca·tion (noun) 1. A period of vacation from normal work activities, not used for rest, recreation, or travel, but rather used to work your house: Eg. Team Dreamhouse is on workcation right now. This week Kes and I decided to take the week off to knock a huge DIY off our to-do list. We'll be installing our radiant in-floor heating system. We'll get into the full details of radiant heating in a more in-depth post in the coming weeks, but right now I just wanted to give you a quick glimpse into the fun we've been having so far...
Dreamhouse update: Construction progress report
It’s been over a month a loooong time since my last post and even longer since we’ve given you all a proper progress report on the Dreamhouse. I wish I could give you some amazing reason why like Kes & I have been off traveling and having the time of our lives. Or better yet that we’ve been keeping an epic secret & I’ve simply been too exhausted to write because I’m busy growing a human (a girl can dream right!?)...
Investing in an income suite: Q&A with HGTV’s Lisa Colalillo
If you've been following our blog you already know that we're huge HGTV fans. Remember our PARA Blog Crew submission video?? Yea....it's a problem. On any given day you can pretty much guarantee there's an episode of one of HGTV Canada's many awesome shows providing the soundtrack to our household. One show in particular that we've been enjoying in this season's lineup is Critical Listing. If you're not familiar with the show, you really should get familiar!
SPRING FEVER with the PARA Blog Crew
Well it's finally here! It's Spring Fever Reveal day & I'm pretty excited to share what Kes & I've been slaving over working on!
When I think of spring projects for the home, the first things that tend to come to mind are storage and organization. So when we were tasked with a 'spring paint projects' challenge, we wanted to find an area of the house where we could solve a problem while adding a bit of style.
Spring is (finally) in the air…
It's April!!! And after months of snow, ice and Polar Vortex temperatures, Mother Nature is finally giving us a bit of a reprive (knock on wood) from what felt like the longest. winter. ever! Oh - and let me take a minute to say thank you for the overwhelmingly positive emails, text messages & blog comments I received after my last post. It's funny how a public online meltdown always manages to provide the most reader engagement. So thanks guys for allowing me to vent. :)
Fighting the Winter funk
3 weeks.... (That's how long it's been since my last post.) I should probably start by apologizing for the radio silence of late. I'm still here. I haven't abandoned you guys. But if I'm being totally honest, anything I had posted in the last 3 weeks, you probably wouldn't have wanted to read. Or maybe you would - sometimes a public online meltdown just makes for good entertainment. Lol! I'm kidding (sort of).
Random Acts of Paint: An Elegant Family Room Makeover
If you're lucky in life, you're blessed with the kind of friendship that spans decades. Through breakups, triumphs, & crazy vacations; loves, loses, adventures & many many glasses of wine, I've been blessed to have an amazing friend by my side. Angela of Endless Possibilities Image Consulting is one of my closest friends. Friends from childhood we weren't always as close as we are now, but as we grew into womanhood together, I came to realize she's my kindred spirit of sorts. She's my person. My go to when I want to want to 'shop, share, heal, hurt, joke, or just be'. So when Kes and I came up with the idea of paying forward our PARA Blog Crew windfall by performing Random Acts of Paint, there was one person who came to mind first.
Finding ‘light’ in the kindness of strangers…
It's amazing how quickly karma can come back around. A couple of weeks ago we introduced the concept of Random Acts of Paint as a way of paying it forward. I'm a firm believer that if we all made an effort once in a while to do something nice for someone else there'd be a little more light in the world. As it happens, not more than a week later, Kes & I found ourselves on the receiving end of a random act of kindness that quite literally brought 'light' into our lives....
Vote for us in the 2014 Apartment Therapy Homies!
We hope you're all enjoying the long weekend. I know I am. There's just something awesome about heading into a Sunday evening and being hit by the realization that there's still one more day left of the weekend. It's kind of like putting on a jacket you haven't worn in a while & finding money in the pocket. I don't usually post on Sundays but today I wanted to take some time out for a little bit of exciting news!