Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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How To Build A Sandbox

Building Clara a sandbox has been a project that was nearly a year in the making. Just check out this post about her first birthday party from last May (yes, our girl is a month away from being TWO). So much for “any day now.” My excuse, well, our excuse is that we couldn’t figure out where we wanted it. We debated building one on wheels that could sit in the middle of the patio when in use (and be pulled out of the way and stored at all other times), but with so much land around us it felt like we should just find a permanent spot for one instead of making an eternally-rolling-around

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Fab Freebie: The Killer Radio Star

***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – soon to see who won below!*** After a busy giveaway (and a surprising amount of NPR-heads), random.org has selected our winner as… Kathy (who says music is therapeutic to her and on a bad day, songs on the radio can always pick her up). Congrats Kathy! How excited are we to be giving away a Model One Radio this week? You probably know that our cheery yellow one is one of our favorite things that we’ve bought for our new kitchen (more on that here). Sure it’s been dubbed “the best sounding table radio ever made” by some (MSNBC in this case), but our love for it

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Clearing A Path To Our Front Door

Let’s do the path (I’m not good at math, but digging up a path, I can do). And John’s good at both. Overachiever, much? Anyway, this is just a photo from before we started working on the garden beds on either side of the porch (more on that here and here) so you can see how that clump of bushes in front of the porch was kind of weird and reversed. Don’t you think plants on either side of the porch would look nice and balanced while the path to the door and the porch should be more open and airy instead of crowded by overgrown boxwoods? It was like things were backwards. Business in

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Listy McListerson (Updated)

Psst- For everyone asking what we did for Easter and what Clara found in her basket – check out those details here on Young House Life. Brace yourself. This post is full of a whole lotta words. So feel free to skim. Or read this in one sentence intervals over the next two years. Haha. This actually came about when people asked how we organize all the stuff we have on our to-do list. We explained that we basically just have one long run-on document, and when folks kept asking us to share it (and update it as we went along), it sounded like our idea of a good time. So it’s high time that

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Adding White Built-In Bookcases Around A Window

Linn’s built-in project is such a great reminder of how upgrading your bookshelves from furniture to attached “architecture” can really give an entire room a boost. Here’s her letter: I wanted to share a before and after of custom made built-in bookcases which my husband and I constructed! Seeing how our old bookcases left much to be desired in terms of looks but also in terms of practical storage space, and not wanting to spend a fortune having someone else custom build shelves, we decided to take on the project ourselves. I have always loved the cozy look that built-in shelving provides a home, it gives it so much more character and charm in my

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How To Frost A Window With Frosting Film

This post is actually about three bathroom updates, the first of which concerns this baby – the window. Aka the anti-privacy device located conveniently above the place that we do our most private business. It’s kinda ridiculous that we haven’t done anything to it sooner, considering the window is nearly a straight shot view to the neighbor’s house. It’s not like we live right on top of each other – heck, we’re not even sure they can see much from this distance (we can’t see anything in their tiny far-away windows) but it’s still just a little odd to see this whenever we step out of the shower or whenever I’m standing up doing my

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The Peeta-siks (The Hunger Games & Hunger Names)

It’s official. Hunger Games fever has hit Casa Petersik. I actually got it first. I thought I’d take a stab at reading the book before potentially seeing the movie. I had heard it was a quick read, and boy was that right – I knocked it out in 24 hours. Sherry resisted following in my footsteps, thinking she had too much on her plate to squeeze it in. But I convinced her to try one chapter and before she knew it she was closing that book and cracking open Catching Fire (which she finished a few days later, and I’m currently in the middle of). We’re supposed to get our copy of Mockingjay next week.

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Planting A River Birch Tree

No? Me either. But it’s coming. Slowly but surely. After tackling the area to the right of the porch, next on the ol’ to-do list was: the area to the left of the porch the side lot next to our house (a giant valley full of moist soil that we want to naturalize into a pretty forest) But before we get to the planting bed next to the porch, we wanted to share this gorgeous sight courtesy of the side lot: Just kidding. Unless by gorgeous we mean just-one-reason-we-hang-our-heads-in-shame-when-neighbors-walk-by. Those are old clumps of grasses that we were told to cut back each March so it’ll grow in nice and fresh and clean this year.

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From Christmas Mantel & Halloween Mantel To Spring Mantel

Having a fireplace in the kitchen is definitely something that we think is charming (it’s the heart of the home, and even though it’s not functional, just tucking a basket of Clara’s toys or books in there and having a spot to display stuff above the mantel is our idea of a good time). Well, maybe I should say it’s my idea of a good time, since I’m pretty sure John could commit to whatever we have up there at any given time for the next ten years. I, on the other hand, like to turn surfaces like the mantel into a rotating display or sorts. Not every day or even every few weeks, but

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How To Change A Toilet

First: I apologize for subjecting you to more pictures of toilets. I’m sure you don’t read our blog for pictures of toilets. But on the other hand, I’m kind of excited to show you pictures of our new, distinctly not-almond toilet. Because, if you recall, this guy wasn’t exactly our cup of tea. We know some folks would have been just fine with Mr Almond, but a crisp white toilet makes us very happy Petersiks. Not only to brighten things up, be more true to the mid-century age of our home, and tie into our newly white-ified trim & shower curtain, but to LOOK CLEAN. I can’t explain it, but even after we scrub this

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Fab Freebie: Bada-Bing, Bada-Bloom

***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – see who won below!*** Random.org has helped us select the winner of this craft-tastic giveaway as… Sarah Spitser (who loves the Spring weather, even though in Texas it only lasts about 3 weeks). Congrats! Last winter we had a blast at the Richmond Craft Mafia’s Handmade Holiday fair (and later gave away some of our favorite finds). And when we caught wind of their Spring Bada-Bing event happening this Sunday we were all sorts of excited. So we worked with them to put together another craft-tastic, wholly-handmade, reeking-of-Richmond prize pack featuring some of the Craft Mafia’s most active members – and it totals over $350 in value! So

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Planting A Dwarf Pieris Japonica Variagated Tree

Yup, we’ve been digging. And my arms are sore. But they don’t look like Madonnas yet so it couldn’t have been that bad. We still have a ton of things to do outside, so this is one of those it’ll-take-years-things, and not a ta-da-here’s-the-after-by-the-end-of-the-post things, but it’s nice to focus on one small area at a time to keep from getting overwhelmed (last year we limbed up the magnolia, transplanted/removed a lot of the bushes, and painted the front door). And for this installment of Petersiks Vs. Wild, we tackled the sad little garden bed to the right of the front porch: If you look closely, you’ll see what looks like a rectangular brick patio

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