Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

Posts By John Petersik

John Petersik is one half of the duo behind the award-winning home improvement and do-it-yourself design blog, Young House Love. Together, he and his wife Sherry have renovated seven homes, published two New York Times Bestselling books, and designed products sold in Target and Home Depot. They are currently enjoying their downsized home on Florida's Gulf Coast with their two kids and their dog, Penny.

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Did We Make A Profit Selling Our First House?

Are you kidding? In this market? Of course not. We managed to sell it for around $5k more than we bought it for back in 2006 (in “the bubble”) and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that we spent more than five grand on improvements (we estimate that we spent around $35K on new bathrooms, a new kitchen, new flooring, new windows, a new roof, a new patio, a paved driveway, and upgraded details like crown molding and wider doorways). This is where a “womp-womp” sound effect would come in handy. But we’re sleeping like babies and are downright giddy about the sale of our house and the purchase of our new one.

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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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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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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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Free Annual Calendar Printable

Last year we DIYed a calendar for our kitchen complete with a favorite quote each month (you know, for a nice inside-joke vibe). You can check it out here. But last time we were waaaaay slow and didn’t finish it ’til February. So in an effort to keep that from happening again this year, we decided to complete the project before our big move distracted us (in just one week and counting!). We stuck with the same general look: colorful text on a clean white backdrop. But instead of meaningful words and funny phrases, we chose to do this one by the numbers. Sesame Street style if you will. Observe: Basically we took each month’s

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Coming Undone

In case anyone’s wondering, I’ve managed to keep up my make-the-bed-everyday-for-a-month resolution beyond October. Hootie hoo. And Burger has kept up his end of the bargain and still undoes it an hour later. Oh well. Speaking of things coming apart, we realized that this very weekend last year I was holed up in our bathroom demolishing the darned thing (inexplicably without shoes on in the beginning, which we don’t recommend). While that still takes the cake as my most physically grueling disassembly ever, this weekend kicks off another that threatens to be equally taxing on our emotions: packing up. With our move less than a week and a half away we’re starting to take things

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Closure.

You guys probably remember us mentioning “the bed & breakfast” house around the corner from us a few times. We’ve admired it for years. Not just because it has an in-ground pool, a tennis court, and a picnic area, but also because it’s just about the most charming exterior around. Here’s a pic we snapped during a snowstorm last year: In fact, when Sherry and I started our house hunt this fall, we secretly schemed about knocking on their door and begging the owner to let us buy it. But before we could muster the confidence to march up to their doorstep we learned that someone else had beaten us to the punch. The nerve.

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Fixing A Leaky Underground Oil Tank

Surprise! This was the scene at our house yesterday: Allow me to explain. We decided to test the soil around our home’s underground oil tank (we have oil heat) a few weeks back to assure any interested buyer that it’s in tip top shape. Much to our horror, it wasn’t. Soil tests came back indicating that we had a small leak. We felt like somebody punched us in the face. Here we are with our rain barrel and our compost bin along with all of our energy star appliances and our cloth diapers in an effort to be green while our oil tank has been oozing nastiness underground without our knowledge. Shudder. Luckily we learned

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Fab Freebie: Merry Maxx-mas

***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – scroll down to see who won!*** You know we love a deal. Especially around the holidays when it’s so easy to bleed money. Which is why we’re psyched to have two of our favorite discount stores, T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, here to help us kick off the whole holiday shopping scene by handing over two $50 gift cards that can be spent on gifts, festive seasonal decor, or whatever else tickles your fancy. We’ve always loved snagging cheap finds for our house at both stores – like the nailhead trimmed ottoman in our bedroom (from T.J. Maxx) and just about every pillow in our den (from Marshalls).

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