Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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A Duplex Demo Tour (Before & After Pics + A Video!)

We finally got there guys – and not without a few notable setbacks. But that might be why it feels extra good to finally say: the duplex is officially demo’d! And today we’re going to show you around (in photos and even on video) and share some of our plans for this beast. We learned from doing the pink house that when a house has this much moisture damage, it’s best to take all of the walls down so there’s no mystery about what kind of mold/decay/structural issues are lurking back there. And considering the duplex already had several troubling spots that were blatantly obvious before demo (see the black mold spots on that side wall

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#86: How Our Life Together Almost Didn’t Happen

We’re getting personal this week, and sharing some early setbacks and hard choices that almost steered our lives in a totally different direction – no houses, no blog, even no marriage! We also dive into how some failed attempts at making over a certain area of our home led to us giving up and calling in the pros. Plus, an easy way to up your drawer organization game, and a tool that makes nearly every project easier. You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, and Spotify – or listen to it below! Then use this page to check out any links, notes, or photos we referenced. Note: If you’re reading in a feed reader, you might have

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How To Make Built-In Bunk Beds

We are so excited to share the built-in bunk beds we completed in the bunk room at our beach house are complete. It’s a small room – it’s only about 7ft wide! – but we managed to fit two XL twin mattresses in here by DIYing these custom built-in bunks. They’ve quickly become our kids’ favorite place to not only sleep, but play and hang out too! I was a little nervous about this project than, say, building a bookcase or a table. This is a bed that literally FLOATS IN THE AIR so one person can sleep ON TOP OF ANOTHER PERSON (or the occasional chihuahua). But spoiler alert: this plan is SUPER solid and

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#85: What We Got Wrong In Our Beach House Kitchen

This week I’m fessing up to a design choice that I insisted we make in our beach house kitchen, but now realize was – shall we say – misguided? Thankfully it’s not too hard to undo, so we’re explaining our change of heart, and what we’re doing to fix it. There’s also a polarizing design “trend” that we’ve been asked to weigh in on, so we’re sharing our take – and why we think it gets people so worked up (this trend literally can make people get rage-y). We’re also sharing some secrets for recreating that super cozy, uber luxurious bed you see in the pages of magazines… and why there are some bed-making tricks

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10 Home Items We’ve Had For 10+ Years

A few weeks ago, when we shared our son’s new “big boy room” not only were we feeling sentimental about no longer having a crib in our house, we noticed that we had some sentimental feelings for the daybed that we brought into his room. I know. Life is weird. But we realized it has been with us for over a decade – seeing us through a wedding, two births, two moves, and more than a few “style adjustments.” Ten years may not seem like a lot in furniture years, but we’ve only been homeowners for around 11.5 years, and much of what we collected when we moved into our first house at the ripe

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#84: Things We Can’t Agree On Lately

We don’t always see eye-to-eye on our projects and decorating decisions. In fact, we’re stuck in the midst of some pretty “active” home arguments right now. So in honor of Valentine’s Day, we’re sharing everything we love about each other all of our home-related disagreements and how we’re planning to work through them – hopefully without too many hurt feelings (although Sherry’s pretty heated about one of them already). We also cover a whole slew of updates, from the historic review board’s verdict on our duplex roof proposal to Sherry’s never-ending Invisalign saga (she might have a record-breaking case here). And most importantly, we answer one of the most common questions we get: if our

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How We Make Annual Family Photo Books

Ever since MyPublisher shut down last year, one of the most frequent questions we’ve been getting is “who are you going to use to make your family photo book now??” For months and months, we had no good answer because we only print these annual “family yearbooks” in January, once the previous year has wrapped up (you can see examples of them here). But now that 2018 is here, we’ve officially added our 2017 album to the stack and we are VERY happy with the result. We’re no experts on photo printing services by any means, but after becoming dedicated users of MyPublisher for YEARS (we purchased our first annual album from them back in 2011) we

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#83: The Loophole We Found In Our Duplex Delay

We’ve encountered a few frustrating setbacks with our beach duplex renovation, but thanks to a small technicality we were finally able to charge ahead and start demolition. Gotta love a loophole! So we’re sharing our work-around, and the surprising thing that was discovered during demo. Plus, when it comes to buying things online without touching or seeing them in person first, we’ve become much more willing to go for it these days, so we’re sharing our tips for minimizing your risk when shopping for home stuff online (including how to unlock even more reviews, and what items we haven’t had the courage to buy online yet). Plus, we make a case for rethinking your shower

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Our Son’s Bedroom Update

Our little man’s room is looking a little different these days, thanks to finally being done with the crib (our kids love a crib) and making a few other tweaks to the space while we were at it. He’ll be four this April, and he finally decided he was done with the crib earlier in January, which was bittersweet. We’ve had the same crib in our house for nearly 8 years (!!!) since our daughter used it before him for quite a while too. But it was also exciting because it meant his room was about to get some updates after basically being frozen in time for the past four years (you can read all

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#82: What It’s Really Like To Live In A Tiny House

If you’ve ever had dreams (or maybe nightmares?) of living in a tiny house, you’re not alone. Lots of people have lots of different feelings about them. So we called up a couple who have lived in an 188 square foot space for over two years, and we asked them all of your burning questions to find out the rosy (and not so rosy) parts of tiny house living. And it was FASCINATING. Plus, we’ve hit a big sentimental milestone at home, and Sherry’s finally jumping on the bandwagon of a certain decorating trend. You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, and Spotify – or listen to it below! Then use this page to check out

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How To Hang Frames Around A TV

Some say gallery walls are trending out in favor of larger scale art. Maybe. It makes sense that picture gallery walls on every wall (especially the ones with a ton of tiny frames) might feel a little less “new and fresh” these days. But I’d argue that a collection of picture frames hung together on the wall feels pretty classic if you stop and think about it. Watch Home Alone. They totally have a gallery wall going up their formal staircase in the foyer where Kevin sleds and hurls paint cans. But one spot I love for a gallery wall these days is actually around a TV. Why? Well, that big black box isn’t exactly gorgeous.

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Installing A Subway Tile Kitchen Backsplash For $200

Ever wondered if you could DIY your own a kitchen backsplash? Turns out it’s not only easy, but can also be pretty cheap too. Here’s how we added this subway tile backsplash in our aunt’s kitchen using affordable tile sheets. It took us just two half-days to complete, and rung in right at $200. Why Add A Kitchen Backsplash? One regret Sherry and I have about our first house is not doing a tile backsplash as part of our kitchen makeover. Best I can remember, we wanted an easily changeable “pop of color” in the form of good ol’ fashioned paint instead (and we spent a lot on that makeover, so it was a cost saving

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