Young House Love

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September Superlatives: Trains & Travels

October is officially here, but before we dive into another month of projects, it always helps us keep the ol’ momentum up to take an appreciative look back on all of our happenings from last month – everything from making over Granny’s bathroom and building a train board to making some tables into ottomans and celebrating our 5th blogging anniversary. And since we love to throw in something never-before-seen, we’re actually revealing the first stop on our book tour below. So here’s everything in our usual weird yearbook-superlative-style that definitely inspires us to keep plugging away (plus it makes browsing our archives a lot easier – you can read back through January of 2011 right here in just 20 posts instead of 700). Hootie hoo for September in review.

Most Surprising: Considering how much we loved the blue metal stools in our kitchen, it was surprising (even to us) when these craigslist finds wormed their way into our lives. Thankfully we’ve got a plan for the blue stools (involving our sunroom) since these swiveling guys are our new favorite things.

Stools8

Biggest / Most Gradual Transformation: Our bedroom, which has come a long way since we first moved in. But it took a while to get there, which is why we documented its evolution in this picture-filled post for ya. The lesson? Don’t despair if things aren’t done the first week, month, or even year that you move in.

DayOne Bedroom

Biggest Missed Opportunity to Make A Quad City DJs Reference: This post about building a train board for Clara (that the music-fueled Sherry somehow failed to entitle “C’mon Ride The Train”). It’s like I don’t even know her anymore…

Trains After Burger

Video Killed The Comment Section: Despite some requests for a post about how we make our videos, this lengthy post might have had ten comments in the first hour. Perhaps I overestimated how geeky our readers were. What? You don’t want to hear about my high school obsession with a camcorder?

Video Box

Creepiest Project: It’s not even Halloween yet, but we’re already decorating with dead things. At least it was a pretty dead thing: this butterfly that Sherry (and Clara) found in our yard – which found a place on our bookshelf. Update: it’s still going strong and looks the same – although we’ve been meaning to add a glass dome over it just to protect it a little more.

Butterfly1

Toughest Decision: Finally giving up on our craigslist dining room chairs and getting some deeply discounted new chairs to take their place. We love the new look, but it was kind of a bummer to not be able to make the other ones work. Ah well, live and learn.

Dining Chairs2

Biggest Oops: Breaking our camera when it fell off of a board I was sawing. That’s the bad news. The good news is that it gave us an excuse to get a new camera which also does HD video. Speaking of which…

Camera Reenactment

Oddest Couple: Me and Sherry, who shot this latest house tour video with our new camera as a two-some. I held the camera (since Sherry is Miss Shakes-A-Lot when it comes to video) and she narrated behind me. Yep, this is a fancy operation over here.

Biggest Relief: Finally being able to unveil this promo video for our book, which we shot back in March (but then had to keep our lips sealed for months). Even better, we finally got to reveal some of the secret book projects that we did back in January…

Most Burger Approved: This little ottoman upgrade in our bedroom where we repurposed some old X-based side tables to create new stools at the end of our bed (they’re our version of doggy steps so Burger can climb into bed).

X Bench 12 After Burger1

Most Likely To Require Eating Lots of Tomato Soup: This project, using the special edition Warhol Campbell’s Soup cans at Target. A little cork board to soften the metal edges, some colored pencils, and voila! Update: we did successfully consume all of the soup. Woot.

Soup After Close With Cor

Most Uplifting: Our visit to my Granny’s house in West Virginia, where we spent a work-filled weekend updating her downstairs powder room. It was a bit tiring, but we left feeling nothing but elated.

GrannyOne 0 Grannys House

Biggest 24 Hour Improvement: Granny’s bathroom, which was already looking worlds better by the end of day #2 (thanks to some paint, a new floor, and tidying up a lot of rough spots in the room).

GrannyTwo 17 Gunky Side By Side

Breakout Star: This has to go to Granny herself, who seemed to earn herself quite a few new fans when we revealed her new bathroom to her (on video). And I can’t tell you how happy it makes me that you guys saw exactly why we love her so much.

Most Academic Shopper: Sherry, who wrote this post about how she finds deals on clothes and keeps her wardrobe in check (you guys seemed to really like the idea of giving your clothing a grade, btw). Closet GPA, for the win.

Book Us In Door1

Biggest Rivalry: We did a fun little side-by-side comparison of the rooms in our first house and their counterparts in this house. And yep, we even chose winners. The final tally of wins may be closer than you’d expect…

Superlatives Office Side By Side

Littlest Updates: We made four small changes around the house – like installing another dual-flusher in the guest bathroom and creating a hidden spot for our shredder (below).

Shredder2

Longest Graphic: The images in our posts are usually less than 400 or 500 pixels tall, but we made an extreme exception when we created a graphic timeline depicting our history from 2004 as a way to kick off our 5th blogivesary. That thing clocked in at over 4100 pixels long!

Superlatives Timeline

Most Ordinary: The day we shared as our usual blogiversary “day in the life” post. It might not be everybody’s normal, but it’s a pretty regular weekday around these parts.

DayLife 5 Working Early

Biggest Conspiracy Theory: People became quite curious about the “tragic event” that robbed poor Olivia the pig of one of her ears (which we mentioned in this blogiversary post about some YHL facts and figures). The story? Clara just bent it back and forth until it snapped off. Oh the humanity.

One Eared Olivia

Most Scene-Stealing: Clara & Burger, who got their own little Blogiversary Q&A video this year, which had folks just as captivated (if not more so) than the video of me and Sherry answering personal questions that you guys asked.

Most Nostalgic: Going back through our archives and plucking out some favorites (and least favorites – like this image that won for “Worst Photo”).

First Worst Photo

Most Ambitious: Stating our goals for our next year of blogging – which we do every blogiversary, sometimes with limited success. This year we’re hoping to embrace the crazy, mix up our posting style, write shorter posts among those beefier long ones, and incorporate you guys more. Let’s see how we do…

Goal Tending Foosball

Most Graphic: This blogiversary post showing the results of our little reader survey. I had some fun making the infographics, and I believe the consensus was that Beyonce makes any chart better.

Stats Married

Most Likely To Make Pigs Fly: The first stop of our book tour (which kicks off in less than 3 weeks!) in the city of the flying pig: Cincinnati, Ohio. We’re so pumped to reveal the full 17-city list tomorrow morning!

Superlatives Cincinnati

How did September shape up for you? Did you get any major projects completed? Try your hand at a makeover for someone else? Celebrate any special anniversaries/milestones? Or just have fun photoshopping your head onto things like a foosball table?

Comments

  4. lauren! says

    O.M.G. I can. not. wait. Cincinnati is my hometown and I can’t wait to hear the date so I can plan my sick day at work and see you lovely people!! ahh :)

    Reply

  6. Beth A. says

    Those new dining room chairs are my favorite — They make the room look so much warmer.

    Can’t wait to see the book tour list — hope you’re coming close to Jackson, MS!!

    Reply

  7. Joy says

    Eeeee!! I’m sooo excited you’re stopping in Cincinnati!! I’ve been reading since around 2008 (it’s been so long, I can’t even remember how I discovered you guys!!). But finally, FINALLY I can say something good came out of living here!! ;) Haha – I moved a little over a year ago from Southern California, so it’s been nice to 1) live near a Home Goods (I first heard of this mysterious Home Goods from your blog, and there are NONE near where I’m from!), and 2) be close enough so that you’re stopping in the city where I live for your book tour!

    Reply

    • Nicole says

      I don’t know which part of SoCal you’re from, Joy, but they JUST OPENED ONE IN POINT LOMA (San Diego). I almost fainted at the wheel driving by a couple days ago!

    • Joy says

      Nicole – no way!! I’ll have to tell my mom! I’m from the North County area of San Diego so that’s not far! Especially since we looooove Point Loma Seafood…now I’m hungry and homesick!!

  8. Kathy says

    Say what?! I’m from Ohio and depending on the other locations, might have to make a trip to Cincy for that event. Can’t wait to see the list!

    Reply

  9. Cathy says

    John, I don’t have a blog and only take photos with my phone (don’t laugh) but I enjoyed your “how we make videos” post as much as any other, reading it several times. I think bloggers should resist the temptation to grade the “success” of posts by the number of comments left. Some posts naturally lend themselves to comments, and others less . . .

    Reply

  11. Tina Bland says

    I AM SO EXCITED FOR THE BOOK TOUR CITY REVEAL I CAN’T HANDLE MYSELF!!! YIPEEEEEE!! Ok caps over;) What a great month you had, I’m so happy you share it with us. You guys are such a great inspiration to get things done, even the little things! It makes such an overall difference in my house when I do the little projects, and not get overwhelmed by the big things. You guys have really helped me with that. Thanks friends!

    Reply

  16. Jessica says

    I CAN NOT BELIEVE HOW EXCITED I AM TO HEAR WHERE (and if, but I’m assuming NY would make the cut) IN NEW YORK YOU WILL BE STOPPING! I’m a pretty relaxed person when it comes to meeting my favorite writers and musicians, but I think since we read you every day, it makes seeing you guys in person so much cooler and exciting!

    Reply

  17. Ashley W says

    I was hoping your first stop would’ve been Richmond! I’m down here in Norfolk and that would’ve been so convenient! I hope you stop somewhere close by…

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      It’s all about how the dates and places hosting the events lined up. I promise we’re doing at least one event in Richmond- maybe even two if another one gets tacked on (some stuff is still TBD). More deets tomorrow!

      xo
      s

    • Rebekah says

      I think you mean the ‘tails are coming tomorrow. At least that’s what Tom Haverford would say ;) And we all know you are just as innovative as Tom and Entertainment720.

  18. rachael says

    I guess we can officially say that NEXT month is the month your book comes out, instead of saying in a couple/a few months! In fact, its almost exactly a month away, b/c todays the 2nd!!! Any chance there’s going to be any stops outside of the US border? Its reaalllllly beautiful in southern Ontario this time of year!!

    Reply

  19. Tara says

    So now I’m nervous– if you’re coming to Cincinnati, it means you might not/probably won’t come to Columbus… and I live there and Cincinnati is hard to get to. Maybe I can plan an IKEA + YHL + girlfriends trip???? *fingers crossed hubby will let me leave him with our twins for a prolonged period of time*

    Reply

  20. Kristin says

    Cincinnati! I grew up just south of there. So maybe just make a river city theme of it and hit up some nice cities on the Mississippi as well.

    Reply

  23. Christina says

    Please say you guys will be stopping somewhere local to central VA (or DC, anywhere within driving distance of Cville). I REALLY want to come meet you guys in person and get you to sign my book!! You famous people, you :-).

    Reply

  24. Karen F says

    lucky Cincinnati! Hope you get to check out the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame while you’re there! I went years ago when they had a big U2 exhibit (I’m a huge fan) and it was great.

    The hubs and I celebrated our 15 year wedding anniversary in Sept, my little girl turned 3, and my older daughter started Kindergarten. September was a big month for us, too!

    As a side note, my daughter’s class has this program called “art docent”, where a parent comes in and gives an art history lesson followed by a project for the kids to do. Since I have my B.A. in art history, I felt somewhat obligated to volunteer. I signed up for the pop art segment. I was so glad you guys had just posted about the soup cans at Target – I ran over there to grab a few – not sure how I’ll use them yet but thought they’d be a good visual for the kids :)

    Reply

  25. Emily says

    Yey Cincinnati- that’s where I live!! My mom and I have both been following your blog for a couple years- we will come meet you. Can’t wait!

    Reply

  28. Emily H. says

    Bah! I’m originally from Cincinnati and now I go to school in Wisconsin! If I miss out because I’m not home (and you don’t come anywhere close to me when I can go), I will be sooooo bummed!

    Enjoy Cincinnati, and eat Skyline Chili and Graeter’s Ice Cream!!

    Reply

  30. Beth @ BandBBuildALife.com says

    So excited to see the full tour! Though worst-case, Cincinnati would make for a fun road trip from Pittsburgh!

    ….are the Barnes & Nobles of the world properly warned about your tour? Because I’m willing to bet they’re going to be under-prepared!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha, you’re so cute! We’re actually stopping at lots of places (independent book stores and some really fun decor stores too). Can’t wait to spill the beans!

      xo
      s

  33. Laura says

    Seriously, if y’all come to Birmingham, I MIGHT get all awkward and embarass myself. I’m going to buy the book anyway (holla), but I’m pretty sure we’d be friends in real life. Is that stalker-ish? :) I only read one blog–the others don’t compare!

    Reply

  34. Lindsey says

    I’m so giddy that you guys are gonna be in Cincinnati! I didnt think we’d ever be a stop on your list! I cant wait!!!

    Reply

    • Melissa G says

      Word! Fingers super crossed that Seattle is on the list. And if you do come to Seattle, it will be just in time for the rainy season! And I’ll totally invite you over to my house to crash (which is not crash worthy at this moment) so you can give me lots of advice. Oooh I can already picture us sitting by the fire having a nice cup of tea in my empty living room. What fun we’ll have! Haha, a girl can dream right?

  38. Ryan says

    i just noticed ‘cars and trucks and things that go’ in that ‘day in the life’ photo… if i could count the hours ive spent searching for goldbug.

    Reply

    • Lisa says

      My kids LOVE that book. We also watch the old TV show on Netflix and they watch it intently and when Goldbug appears, we all scream GOLDBUG as loud as we can. Scares the husband every time! :)

  39. Gabriella @ Our Life In Action says

    Wow – that is a great way to really see what you have accomplished and stay motivated. As always, I just love all the updates…but I need to be candid and say I am in love with those red flats you are wearing (pic where u and John are standing in the doorway). I have been on the hunt ever since I saw them.

    Reply

  40. Katelyn says

    Holy crap! My jaw just dropped!!! And here I already thought I’d miss out on the book tour… “no one ever comes to Cinainnati..” Don’t worry guys, I already called my mama, we’ll be the nerds gawking in disbelief. Can’t WAIT!

    Reply

  42. Kim says

    CINCINASTY IN THE HIZZOUSE. Okay that was lame. Sorry about that. But YAY for us being your first stop. Have you ever been before? If not, be sure to try Skyline Chili and Graeter’s ice cream. And Findlay Market is fun too!

    Hope I can make it to see you guys! :)

    Reply

  43. Maureen says

    Can’t wait to see the list! 17 cities? Yikes!

    Oh and I wanted apologize for posting twice on the giveaway yesterday like a big idiot. I saw that someone had the same dog I have (which is a fairly rare breed) and got all excited and forgot myself and replied to that persons comment. Oy.

    Anywho, I really hope I get to see you guys (with my red face, stammering words and awkward social skills).

    Reply

  44. Deanna says

    I was hoping that Cincinnati would be a stop of yours, but first!! Christmas has come early!! Can’t wait for the rest of the details tomorrow!

    Reply

  45. Jenna says

    YAY! Just moved back to my home town of Cincy last year and I’m so glad I did. You guys will love the city. Can’t wait to get the book. See you at the signing!!

    Reply

  49. leslie says

    AW snap! Welcome to the ‘Nati in 3 weeks! I live right across the river in beautiful Kentucky and hope you have time to stop at Keystone for the hands down best mac n cheese of your LIFE! It’s about a 2 minute drive from downtown Cincy in Covington, KY on Greenup Street! And just throwing out the invite that you are more than welcome to come visit me and my black and white chevron tiled fireplace :)

    Reply

  50. Stephanie says

    September for me was the month of making my bedroom function like an adults room. Instead of a place unpacked boxes go to die. Now it looks like someone lives there! But there is still 2 boxes I haven’t unpacked yet. Oops!

    I guess technically I started a blog in September too, even though it was like the last day and I’ve only posted twice. Totally counts. :)

    Oh and I painted a dresser. Hey… I got more done than I thought. That was tricky.

    Reply

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