Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

Archives for December 2010

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Our Last Day In Our First House

We promised pics of the old house all vacant and ready for the new owners so here they are (brought to you thanks to sitting in a booth at Panera to get WiFi since we can’t get that stuff hooked up at our new house until tomorrow). As for yesterday, we hoped to share more updates and info for you guys, but as anyone who has ever tried to coordinate a “domino” closing (when one person closes on your house, you wait for the funds to come through and attempt to close on a second house in the same day) knows, there’s usually nothing easy about it. The buyers of our house had an unexpected

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Please Stand By

We’ve got some serious moving in progress going on. We’re not sure when we’ll be able to check in again (heck, we’re not even sure what time we’re closing this afternoon- assuming it doesn’t get bumped to Tuesday) but we’ll stop in with more pics and info as soon as we can. Until then cross your fingers that my ceramic animal menagerie makes it to the new house in one piece and that we actually get to move in this afternoon as planned. We do plan to post some empty house pics of our first home (we figure you guys need closure just as much as we do) and of course share pics and even

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Using Up Everything In The Fridge Before Moving

Remember when we mentioned that we were on a grocery shopping hiatus? The idea was to make a concerted effort to eat as much as possible that we already had in the fridge and the freezer so we didn’t have to worry about keeping things cold for the 6-ish hour delay between being out of our house and getting to move into our new one (which will hopefully still happen Monday afternoon assuming the bank stays on schedule with the transfer). Here’s what the fridge looked like just two weeks ago when we started: And here’s what the fridge looks like now that it’s truck-loading day (after two weeks of eating some pretty “creative” meals

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Moving Lists & Tips

We’re about 90% packed, which is a good thing with moving day looming around the corner (we’re packing the truck on Sunday and officially moving on Monday afternoon if all goes well and our closing doesn’t get bumped to Tuesday). Cross your fingers for us! Here’s how we’re doing on our little to do list that we shared on Wednesday: remove every single item from the wall and patch/paint every nail hole in the house (this was actually about 500 times easier than I expected- just remove all the nails at once, spackle everything at once, and then paint room by room. It’s a lot faster than doing those three things in each room before

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Leaving A Note For The Future Owners

We made a little time capsule to leave behind and it was actually a lot of fun more fun than packing. Our big hope is that someone finds it at least a few decades from now (when there are flying cars and precogs) since it would be kind of a womp-womp moment if the new owners discover it as soon as they move in on Monday. Which is why we hid it very very well. So well that it may never be found. Of course we can’t reveal its location because that could ruin the surprise, but consider it to be something along the lines of “inside the walls” trickery. No “taped under the sink”

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How To Make “Baby’s First Christmas” Silhouette Ornaments

Back when we admitted to putting up our Christmas tree before Thanksgiving (oh the shame) a bunch of you asked if Clara was getting a special “First Christmas” ornament. Well, we finally got around to DIYing one right before moving boxes took over our house (at which point we got so caught up in packing that we neglected to write this post, which is why it’s getting posted about a week after our tree came down). Oops. Anyway we decided to make something silver so it would have a good chance of matching our tree for years to come (we tend to use some element of silver since we have so many silver ornaments and

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A Packing To-Do List

Look how spiffy our house is looking these days: With less than 5 days until the big move, we’ve learned that packing is no joke. But we’ve got our eye on the prize (our exciting new digs) so we’re trying to keep our spirits up, stay hydrated, and play some good music for dancing as we go (the dancing is for Clara- gotta keep the baby entertained or packing progress can screech to a halt). Oh and we got many of our “secondhand boxes” as we’re lovingly calling them by trolling craigslist and freecycle (and even driving to a local reader’s house when she offered some up to us on Facebook). But admittedly we did

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Everyone Loves A Freebie…

Ain’t free stuff awesome? If it weren’t, why would Oprah’s audiences blow a gasket on national TV every year when she says “Faaaay-vo-rit thiiiiiings!” But enough about Ms. Winfrey (Sherry’s perma-smiling over here, because Oprah’s her jam). We’re bringing up freebies because we’re making a swag related declaration. Moving forward, we’re just saying no. We’ll still offer up free house stuff to you guys in the form of our weekly giveaways, but we’re not going to accept products or services for our casa at any special “blogger discount” or for free – even if we genuinely love them. We have absolutely nothing against other bloggers who do (it’s definitely an obvious perk of the job)

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A Beautiful Front Porch Makeover

When Stacie told us she was redoing the front of her amazingly glorious home in Richmond’s Historic Fan district, we knew she wouldn’t disappoint. I mean, she totally wowed us with her style here and here, so we were prepared to wet ourselves a little when we saw her exterior upgrade. Good thing we were prepared, because her overhaul was nothing short of insane. And like any sweet homeowner she wants to shout out her restoration guy for his commitment to keeping things historic and cutting no corners (his name is Eric Schmoldt at Advantage Construction, whose house we actually crashed here – small world). Hats off to Eric and Stacie. Between her vision and

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Fab Freebie: Gifts In Bloom

***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – scroll down to see who won (and check out a special discount!)*** It’s the season of giving, aka: the season of gifting. Which is why this week’s giveaway from GiftTree.com should come in handy. Fresh blooms always make a room feel more festive and inviting, especially around the holidays. And GiftTree has a great selection of florals with some holiday flair: And no worries if you’re having trouble deciding whether to send a bouquet to your loved one or just to yourself. The $100 gift card that’s up for grabs means you can actually do both. Here are all the dirty deets: PRIZE: An $100 gift card

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