I learned in grade school that trying to be perfect would probably result in a caffeine-pill-fueled freakout a la Jesse Spano (yes, many of my life lessons were learned thanks to Saved By The Bell). Pretty much since then I’ve been in the camp of try-to-do-it-right-but-perfect-isn’t-possible.
So sometimes it’s weird when people mention that they think we live in this perfect world where nothing goes wrong and we never fight and life is just hunky-dory from the minute we wake up to the minute we go to bed. Unicorns and rainbows if you will. I think sharing Clara’s birth story helped a little in that regard (that day was definitely not the fairytale that we expected). But beyond dealing with some serious and scary moments like that, we’re also no strangers to everyday stresses. In other words, just like the rest of the world, stuff doesn’t always go our way. We fight, our house gets messy, we go over budget, projects take way longer than we expected, our moving truck gets stuck in the snow. We like to joke that we’re so normal it’s crazy, so chances are if you deal with it at home (dust bunnies, burned dinners, stupid arguments, spilled milk, broken china ceramic animals) it also goes down here.
But since our blog is mainly just a big diary about our home improvement projects and making our house a home, it’s hardly fitting to devote a post to our latest argument about Clara’s missed nap or the dust bunny under our TV stand (this just in: dust happens, and if you don’t see it we’re just not zoomed in enough, haha). But when things don’t work out like we hoped in the home improvement realm we always try to share those trials right along with our triumphs (the good, the bad, and the ugly all have a place here). Like this post about a ton of mistakes that we hope we don’t make again and this post about a failed recycled glass project and this one about a bummer of a string lantern attempt. We’ve even posted a super candid average day video with junk all over the place and I’ve shared my goo-related secret. Our house is not a showroom, that’s for sure.
And although we pride ourselves on being cheap-os who hunt down deals, save our pennies, and research projects within an inch of their life as we go, we still totally break obliterate the budget from time to time. Take the patio we’re currently putting in, for example. Going into it I was intensely naive. “I’m certain it’s a two day under $500 project.” Famous last words, right? Originally we were going to go for those cheap 12 x 12″ gray concrete pavers at Lowe’s and Home Depot (I think they’re around $1 a pop) so I thought we’d just need to dig out a flat spot and lay ’em down. Maybe it would come to $450 tops with some ground tamping tools and all the pavers. Then we decided we should do it right and match the fancier cobblestone pavers in our driveway, which turned out to be around $2.67 a square foot at Home Depot…
…and a whopping $3+ at Lowe’s. Our patio will be around 300 square feet, so $3 a square foot = $900 in just stone (let alone other supplies). We hoped that pricing out something local might save our budget and headed to a place nearby (Southside Builder’s Supply) and found out that they offered even higher quality cobblestone pavers than Home Depot and Lowe’s (that match our driveway and are made locally- score) for just $2 a square foot (67 cents cheaper than Orange and a dollar cheaper than Blue – which really adds up). Plus it was just fun to walk around their multi-stone sample patios to see what things would look like all laid out:
So after our local stone yard reconnaissance mission we felt pretty good about our deal seeking skillz and returned home to start digging up the side yard. And in a post about that I mentioned that the patio project would hopefully run us under 1K (I readjusted from my original $500 guess after realizing that cobblestone pavers to match our driveway would be pricier than the cheap $1 concrete square pavers that we originally planned to use). How did I get to 1K? Well, 300 square feet of stone at $2 a square foot = $600. And we figured that around $400 in gravel and sand and other materials and supplies should be about right.
More famous last words. But we’ll get to that.
First, we figured we’d do some digging before heading back over to the stone yard to place our order. Just to be sure we could get a nice level bed to place stones and not hit some unforseen craziness like a buried car or something that would make a non-returnable $600 purchase of cobblestone pavers a bad move. Remember that John had a little liriope digging party last week but we still had that brick path to remove? Well, at first it came up really easily…
… until we learned that half of it was laid on top of a huge thick slab of concrete…
… which took some pretty major sledgehammering to get through (and effectively demonstrated how NOT a two day project this was, seeing as we were already on day two without a single paver in sight).
But lo and behold, John got ‘er done. Ding dong the path is out. It took longer than we guessed and hubs was more than a little sore but it was a pretty sweet victory indeed (we worried we’d have to rent a demolition hammer for the thick concrete slab but John was a rock star with the sledgehammer).
He’ll drop in with more details about the entire digging process soon, but back to our stone order. After all that brick was up, we headed back over to the stone yard to place our order and were blown away when they worked up a grand total for us. Are you ready? $1,565. I almost dropped the baby. How could $600 worth of stone nearly triple when it came to the total cost? After I got a little color back into my cheeks I managed to stammer “ok, what can we do to get that down, because it’s waaaaaay over our budget.” Notice I was the one doing the talking stammering – John hates negotiating so it falls into the things-I-do category. Oh well, he does laundry so it’s all good. Anyway, we worked with this lady Jeri (she was great) for at least an hour to get costs down (we reduced the amount of gravel we were getting, which then allowed all of our cargo to come in one truckload- which reduced the delivery fees we were being charged and we even negotiated a discount on the stone and downgraded from the fancy top layer of sand to regular sand).
In the end we got our total down substantially, but nowhere beneath our 1K goal. We walked out of there paying $1,260 for all of the stone, gravel, sand, border edging, and stakes that we needed (well actually $1,340 but we’ll get an $80 deposit back when we return some of the bags that our shipment comes in). But that total still doesn’t include the tamping tools, landscaping fabric, and a few other supplies we still have to purchase/rent. And you might remember that we mentioned wanting to add a 6′ privacy fence along the back wall, so if you toss that expense in on top of everything else it’s fair to say that this might end up being a $1,500-2K undertaking when it’s all said and done. Which is definitely a far cry from that original stupid-me $500 budget that I tossed out in the beginning. Oops.
But there’s no use whining about it right? I mean don’t get me wrong, I whined the whole way home from that stone yard, even after we negotiated our total from nearly $1,600 to $1,260, but there’s no sense in blog-whining about it (although sometimes sew-crying can lead to blog-whining). But we did want to share our budget explosion with you guys to demonstrate that junk like this just tends to happen in the home improvement game. Not all the time, but definitely some of the time.
In the end we’re still psyched to save some major money by tackling it ourselves (hiring someone to whip up a 300 square foot patio with the same materials would run us around 5K+) and we’re sure we’ll get a ton of use out of it so it’s still well worth the time, loot, and effort. See there I go being all cheerful about something annoying that happened. Haha. More pluses: I get to see John get all dirty. Which is always my idea of a good time. And Clara can have some fun with chalk and a baby pool out there when it’s done, which is going to be priceless. We just try to keep plugging away, even when curve balls like broken budgets or broken spirits threaten to derail us. Such is the DIY way I think. You just gotta keep on keeping on or you lose momentum and might never pick up the ol’ hammer (or crowbar or shovel or paintbrush) again.
So all of this is to say, I know that I’m annoyingly enthusiastic most of the time, and John can be a pretty chipper guy too. But crap happens. We just try to make the best of it. And you’d be surprised how helpful it is to blog/blab about failures and shortcomings (the entire reason we started this blog was because John wanted to blow off some kitchen-planning steam and we thought it would be fun to keep our family in the loop about it). So I highly recommend publicly airing your dirty home improvement laundry to come to terms with it and maybe even find a few folks who can commiserate, offer some helpful advice, and encourage you along the way. Seriously, blog-venting = our Prozac. And you guys are our therapists. So thanks. You know we love a good deal, and free therapy is up there with paint sales and appliance close-outs.
Psst- Ahhh, Mother’s Day is coming. Check out this week’s BabyCenter post about how I spent the last one and how I’m guessing we’ll spend this one (aside from hopefully laying some pavers).
Kristen @ Popcorn on the Stove says
I love that Jessie Spano “I’m so excited!” episode! It’s so classic.
As far as budgets go, I know exactly what you mean. I’m in the middle of wedding planning and everything is more expensive than I originally thought. We’ve been able to cut some corners and do other things to keep costs down, but we still went over budget. Woops!
ka says
I’m so excited! I’m so excited! I’m so…so…SCARED!
best episode ever!
Jen O says
Haha, that’s awesome! Still an inside joke between me and my sister.
allison says
This was going to be my exact comment. Also an inside joke between me and my sister. I’m digging all the 90s tv love! :)
Stephanie Phillips says
Yup! We’re planning our patio now and have hit the exact road-block. Cement is expensive!!
Amanda says
My fiancé is a landscaper, thankfully! We do our landscape work for free and thankfully our land is filled with old stone walls that we use to make natural stone patios. It take a lot of effort to get those stones out of the woods, but it does save us $1,000s! I can’t wait to see your finished patio!
Katy says
LOVE the ‘Saved By the Bell’ reference! Can’t wait to see the outcome of the patio!
Jennifer says
Congratulations for figuring that out while you’re still so young — took me quite a bit longer. In fact, the posts wherein you “mess up” are some of my favorites yet! But I love that you still choose to do it right, even when it’s harder. If I’d have found the concrete slab, I’d probably have just paved right over it… Can’t wait to see the end result!
Ana Silva says
Totally agree with you. If I am going to spend the time and money to do something, I have to do it right. I have something OCD about it. Like I can’t cover something up because no one will see it. It just bothers me until I fix it. So thanks Sherry and John for “doing it right” like Mike Holmes! That’s why I love that man.
Carol N. says
Thanks for keeping it real! I always wondered if you were just the best shoppers ever since we tend to under-estimate all of the time. Right now we are waiting on an estimate for a detached garage build and we have taken our best guesses so it will be interesting to see just who is closer. Can’t wait to see the patio!
Amanda @ Our Humble A{Bowe}d says
Oh man, I loved Saved by the Bell, overly dramatic and all. Thanks for the budget breakdown, too. We just might make a new patio for ourselves this year. Not in the plan until we started complaining about our current patio and Ben restacked our firewood pile. We have a brick paver walking path that is buried under dirt and grass because it is lower than the yard. Boo to that, but yay to a new patio. Can’t wait to see what yours looks like, even if it isn’t two days from now. ;)
julie. says
Great story, thanks so much! You just described 80% of our home improvement projects. “oh, this will be easy, done in 3 days, only will cost this much” etc. then reality hits hard! I remember we once took 3 days to get our new screen door in!! (we figured an hour or two, tops!). Gotta love all those little snags that come up along the way.
Ana Silva says
Yeah, my kitchen re-tile project took way longer than expected. Of course my husband was right about the timeline and we found ourselves up till 3am to get it done. I was like no way I am going to stop now and drag this on another day! Laying tile when you have no experience can be time consuming like you won’t believe. 3 day took weeks…we do both have full time jobs/school though.
Meredith says
I LOVE SBTB!!!! I had a bad day at work and totally watched the caffeine pills episode as a reminder that life is not perfect. :) I may be able to quote entire sections of the whole thing. And dance along to the music video. Um….Anywho, thanks for the full-patio disclosure and reminding us that even the Petersiks face obstacles!
Devon @ Green House, Good Life says
FYI — Costco has had landscape fabric recently, at a really good price.
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the tip!
xo,
s
Shannon says
It’s funny. I do the negotiating (no one is going to OFFER you a discount, you have to ASK for it) and my hubby does the laundry, too! :-) Can’t wait to see the patio.
Maya says
Same in our family!
Bob says
Just a quick correction:
“for just $2 a square foot (40 cents cheaper than Orange and a dollar cheaper than Blue – which really adds up)”
Shouldn’t that be 67 cents instead of 40 cents?
Good luck with your project!
YoungHouseLove says
Yes! Off to fix that!
xo,
s
Tracey Bartula says
Just started reading your blog a couple weeks ago as I TRUCK through home improvements and redecorating our OLD house! I pretty much don’t start my day without some Young House Love anymore! Thanks so much for sharing your story! I know I have been encouraged, inspired, blessed!
Rachael@Lovely Crafty Home says
My brother and I were just quoting that episode the other day. It comes up a lot, actually LOL. Bummer about the over-budget-ness, but it will be totally worth it. Hope things go smoothly from here on out! We’re about to start a patio with hopefully enough free bricks from a friend. If we didn’t have access to those, it would have been those $1 gray ones also. I’m glad you guys were able to get a higher quality stone, even if it was over budget-you’ll be way happier with it in the end!
Nette @ This Dusty House says
I know that sticker-shock feeling! We were drooling over a beautiful dark wire scraped hardwood until we discovered it would cost $3000 for our 600 square feet, well over what we were comfortable spending on our floors.
I hope you didn’t have to compromise too much in terms of the finished product. I can’t wait to see your the finished results. We’ll be doing a little work on our backyard (mud pit) soon, so I could really use some inspiration!
Donna Huebsch says
Loved your post! It’s so true that crap happens to everyone – it’s how you respond to it that determines the outcome. Tenaciousness is definitely a good quality for the DIYer to have. Kudos to John for busting up that slab with a sledgehammer and to you for the tough negotiating at the building supply place! Good luck with the rest of the patio project!
Colleen says
Totally get that. We just want to replace our front walkway’s big cracked cement slabs with some bricks. First we can’t find ones to match like we would like, second- it’s likely going to cost us near $500 for a tiny walkway that we DIY. Really hard to stomach! Actually this thinks maybe I’ll use your FB page for suggestions on what to do!
Maya says
So have you come to like the carport, or are you still planning to close it in? It would be funny (and very imperfectly human!) if your original “dealbreaker” turned into something you like. :)
YoungHouseLove says
We don’t hate it but we’re still thinking that down the line we’ll enclose it (we think the right garage door and some other finished looking details would just bring our curb appeal to the next level). It probably won’t be done anytime soon though, haha. Big decisions like that freak us out, so we wait a looooong time so we don’t do anything rash. Haha.
xo,
s
laura says
oh lord…jessie spano. my brother and I used to record all the saved by the bells on VHS…I miss those days!
Anyway, even though you are well over your first budget, I think a patio that like you said, you will get tons of use out of, not to mention it is going to add tons of value to your home…is a good investment. So, don’t fret, this too shall pass…right!? Excited to see it all done, you guys do such awesome work!
Ashleigh says
I know your pain all too well. My husband wanted to build a paver patio at the bottom or our screened in porch. He researched the process for about six months (i.e. watched videos, researched pricing, etc.) Keep in mind, I’m the DIY person in our family. We started digging, because we knew once we started digging there was no turning back. There was a VERY deceiving slope in our backyard. SO, six months later, a retaining wall later, my hubby finished that patio, and he is SO proud of it. We saved cash by finding lots of 10% off coupons at Lowes and negotiating some lower prices too, but the project definitely did go a bit over budget, but like you said, it’s going to provide great entertainment. We even ended up adding a a fire pit with the bricks around it which finished off the patio perfectly!
Cait @ Hernando House says
Thanks for the reminder that y’all aren’t perfect! I’m pretty sure I have said (or will say) many famous last words during our bathroom nightmare.
Good luck with the patio!
Kyle says
We just bought our house, and we’ve definitely had a couple instances of “Wait, wasn’t this supposed to cost 1/3 of what we’re paying now?”
Also, it’s good to see how patio project costs can grow, since we’re considering ripping out a concrete walkway and replacing it with pavers ourselves.
ps–laying a patio yourself is surprisingly easy once you get the ground leveled, so at least there’s that to look forward to!
Kelly says
haha, your patio building experience sounds like ours.. Isn’t fun to find concrete/bricks hidden where you are trying to did up your yard?
Mary S. says
If it makes you feel any better, I recently calculated that we’ve spent $42k on our current home…and we haven’t even been in it a full year yet. THAT was depressing. Yes, sometimes budgets do fly out the window. But I’m sure the patio will be so worth it!
Ted says
Yes…*sigh*…I completely understand. And unfortunately, when you are pricing things that you are going to have someone come out to do, it’s amazing how much the costs skyrocket beyond that. While we do a lot of DIY projects, we both have black thumbs, so decide that we needed help with the landscaping and hardscaping outside. And we know that this will take some time as we are not doing this all at once. So we hired a landscaping architect to come up with a master plan for us to help us design our outdoors. While the master plan came in exactly as budgeted (we did our negotiations before we had our first meeting), the plan costs a lot more than we had hoped (expected). Well, it will be expensive and we’ll break it down into several installments that can be done at a time, but as bad as your underestimates were…when having someone else do the work for you…it’s even worse.
Love the blog and all you tell us about the “behind the scenes” stuff. Thanks.
Melissa says
My rule of thumb for any home-related project: Take the highest possible amount you think it might possibly cost. Triple that. Add 20% for contingency. You might be in the ballpark.
Sadly, this formula has proven all too accurate over the years. Sigh.
Marsha says
Thank you for sharing your imperfections!
I always forget that when my husband comes up with a price estimate for a project I usually need to double or triple it for the final cost. We are considering replacing our old deck with a smaller concrete or paver patio but I think it will have to wait at least another year. But I am very excited to see how yours turns out. Might even make me reconsider waiting.
Nik says
I love that you guys are fiercly real. Are your drawings to scale? How do you manage that? I know it is a rough sketch, but I am in the planning process for a backyard overhaul and can’t ever seem to put something on paper for my not-the-visualizing-type husband.
YoungHouseLove says
That drawing is just a guestimate (not fully to scale) but you can use graph paper for scale drawings (one square = ____ feet) or even free sites like floorplanner.com or bhg.com’s garden planning tool to do things to scale.
xo,
s
Justine says
Love your title, I wrote a blog last night to post today that was called Stencil Schmencil. Weird.
L says
That blue glove in the concrete picture totally freaked me out! It looks like someone is trying to get out of being buried alive!
Kristen says
The picture with the glove creeped me out. Like John fell down a concrete vortex that he accidentally sledge-hammered open and was desperately trying to escape and you were like, “Hold on, honey! I just need one picture for the blog!”
YoungHouseLove says
Bwahahahahaha.
xo,
s
LauraC says
Oh Kristen, I had to scroll back up and check it out; you’re totally right it’s hilarious! Thanks for the laugh!
Robyne says
LOL I thought I was the only one who noticed that…we must see things the same way :)
Brad says
When are you guys going to start a garden??!?
YoungHouseLove says
Probably later in May. That’s when a lot of farmer’s markets open here in Richmond and it’ll be after this whole patio adventure (and Clara’s birthday) so we’ll have some time to breathe (and garden, haha).
xo,
s
Donita says
Sherry, for something fun and different on the garden scene, check out my friend Jennifer’s blog. Her family grew a garden in hay bales. Her site is http://www.mycharmingkids.com. You will love her. ;-) My husband has grown potato’s in hay as well. It works great. You can google it all.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh man the link isn’t working. I’d love to check it out though!
xo,
s
Julie Ball says
Link isn’t working because it’s mckmama.com
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks!
xo
s
Lynn says
That epsiode was on the other AM. I was up earlt to nurse the baby, and made her wait until the Im SO excited scene was over…because it makes me laugh every time. (does that make me a bad mom?! :) thank you for being so open about your home improvement oopses…as well as the ‘dust bunnies’ in your life. Sometimes I read the blog and think “they ALWAYS get the best deal” or “how are all the pillows ALWAYS perfect in each room at their house?!”. But I love when you share the ‘behind the scenes’ stuff…NOONE is perfect. You guys just make it look that way. :) I Love reading the blog, and LOVE your optimism and cheerfulness. Keep up the great work!
Christine says
I am glad to hear someone else fights over naps! I can’t wait to see the patio.
denise says
I cannot wait to see the finished project! By the way, I think the average day video was my favorite post!
Denise
Extreme Personal Measures
Ellen says
Yep, this describes the majority of our home improvement projects! Originally, our tiny downstairs bathroom reno (http://www.kellyandellen.org/house/downstairs-bathroom/) was going to be done by little old me, doing it over a weekend!
Yeah, like that happened. We ended up picking up a few more things in Home Depot while we were shopping (like new flooring, which we didn’t originally think about and am so glad we changed!) and then I discovered that some things (well, most things) about this reno were way over my head. Plus, I am gifted with a home-improvement perfectionist husband, who knows that things like caulking, though time-consuming, really make the finished product shine.
Anyway, our bathroom ended up being worked on over about a month, all told. And definitely went over budget. But it was so worth it!
Also, that picture of the concrete with the glove resting on it is kind of creepy. Like John found the concrete and it was too much for him, so he perished, leaving only his glove and broom behind.
Ana Silva says
I love Saved by the Bell! hehe. It’s funny. But good stuff. I know what broken budgets can do to you. I am not one to set many very specific ones, I guess I just ball park it but I am never right. My husband is more realistic when it comes to the cost of things. Anyway, I cannot wait to see the finished product! BTW, your blog this morning made my day. I love reading your blog and when you finally posted it, I was like Yeah! Got my cup of coffee and read away.
Ana Silva says
Oh one question. How do you all get rid of the DIY trash and debris? We have had to rent a truck from Home Depot and then drive it to waste management for disposal. Any easier way? Like what will you do with all that cement slab / brick?
YoungHouseLove says
We’ve always been lucky to have a really big lot, so there’s always a wooded corner where we can dump things like rocks and broken up cement and all that stuff. It’s not exactly easy to wheel it all over there with the wheelbarrow (it takes a million trips) but it works for us. Renting a truck from HD and driving it to a waste management drop off is a super smart idea though! And hopefully it’s not too pricey since those truck rentals are around $20 an hour.
xo,
s
Melissa says
If you have planter beds, above-ground garden beds, large pots, etc., you can use some of the broken brick and cement chunks at the bottom to help fill space under the soil and help with drainage. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Oooh I love that idea!
xo,
s
Andrea says
Ha, great blog post. We are just wrapping up a full kitchen remodel (torn out cabinets, new design, new floor, new appliances, new lighting). When we started, our oh-so-optimistic (read: crazy!) realtor breezily told us we could do it (with his list of cheapie contractors) for $10K. And I believed that! About $18K later, I have fully learned the lesson “How to deal with budgets that get broken, and get broken again!” I’ve watched a lot of episodes of “I hate my kitchen” and seeing all those $25K budgets get blown has helped my ego for sure! :) I now know that $18K is pretty darn good for the kitchen we got. It does help to vent – thanks YHLers!
Reenie says
I love that y’all choose to post about the positive things …but, also like that you’re keeping it real. =)
Oh yikes…..I bet John is sore.
It will all be worth it in the end ;)
Kristen says
And of course don’t forget Liv Tyler’s similar freakout in Empire Records!
YoungHouseLove says
Best. Movie. Ever. John had never seen it so I made him watch it 100 times.
xo,
s
Lindsay says
My favorite!!
Kristin says
I need to make my husband watch that movie too! Fave lines: “What’s with today, today?” and “It’s amazing what you can learn on the internet.”
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, “what’s with today, today” has me dying over here. What a hilarious show.
xo,
s
Jules says
John the band nerd hadn’t seen Empire Records?! For Shame John!
YoungHouseLove says
I know! I corrected that right away.
xo,
s
KiTX says
I LOVE EMPIRE RECORDS! I met someone named Warren yesterday, and my first thought was “My name isn’t ******* Warren!!”
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, I ALWAYS think that when I hear that name. My friend was mentioning it for a potential baby name and I couldn’t get past it. Haha.
xo,
s
Christen says
Ha ha ha- I loved that movie!
Barbara says
This post has been a ‘sanity check’ for me. We were thinking of a similar patio but aren’t DIY’ers any more. We’re significantly older than your parents. While we’re rethinking this project, we need to find a way to funnel more money into it.
Kate says
We are in the process of buying our first home (should be just under a month until we close!) and I’m sure we’ll run into our mistakes along the way as we work on things. I have plans, but I’m not sure how we’ll make them all work!
We also want to put down a patio (the listing actually claimed there were one, but alas there is none) eventually because right now our walk out basement just walks out to grass (it’s a ranch with a finished walk out basement, so the smallish deck is a story up from the backyard).
Loren says
I’m never happy when your projects fail but I always enjoy reading your ‘our lives ain’t perfect’ posts. They are always super funny, well written, and you guys seem to roll with the punches so well.
It’s inspiring to see you DIY big projects like this (even though I won’t be a home owner for sometime so I don’t have any big projects). And personally I really enjoy hearing about the ‘hunt’ for the best deal or how you decided to solve one of the problems you ran into.
Nice job, looking forward to seeing photos of the finished patio.
Whitney says
It will all be worth it, but seeing that cash register go higher than expected always puts me into panic mode!
I love that you put the Jessie Spano video in there- I used it on my first blog post when I did a re-launch last month! One of the “pivotal” life changing episodes :)
amymargaretc says
I’m so excited… I’m so excited… I’m so, so SCARED!
the best. lesson. ever.
You’d be surprised at how often I quote this…lol.
Laura says
Thanks for breaking down the numbers. I’m eagerly awaiting the post where you guys start dealing with the gravel and sand and all the other stuff that goes under the actual pavers.
Robin @ our semi organic life says
ooohhh, cannot wait to see it done. I love when you guys keep it real. Tyra would be proud.
Jenny B says
I’m so glad you were able to BUY LOCALLY when purchasing your cobblestone pavers. Don’t get me wrong..I LURVE Target, IKEA, etc. but it’s nice to support those local businesses as much as we can:)
YoungHouseLove says
Amen. We were psyched to learn that not only was the stone yard local but the actual pavers were made right here in Richmond (we wondered if they were the same ones brought in on a truck for HD and Lowe’s but they’re homegrown).
xo,
s
Beatrice says
I like that you share failures, but you really rarely blog-whine. So many blogs are just filled with woe-is-me *&$*.
Even your failures are fun and interesting to read about!