When I first started looking into building an outdoor kitchen, I assumed it was basically just buying a nice grill and maybe a small side table to go with it. It wasn’t until I actually started planning the project that I realized how many decisions go into it,
My first set of outdoor furniture was a cheap resin patio set that looked perfectly fine in the store and lasted exactly one humid summer before it started cracking and yellowing in the sun. I replaced it with something slightly better, and that one rusted at every joint
Our backyard is barely bigger than a two-car garage, and for the first year we lived here, I genuinely believed there wasn’t much to be done with it beyond mowing the small patch of grass and calling it a day. It wasn’t until a friend with an equally
When my neighbors and I ended up renovating our backyards within the same year, purely by coincidence, we took completely different routes. They built a raised wood deck off their kitchen, while I put in a paver patio at ground level. Comparing notes over the following seasons taught
For the first two summers in our house, our backyard was basically just grass and a plastic patio set left behind by the previous owners. We kept saying we’d get around to fixing it up once we had a real budget for it, and two summers passed us
After our second child started climbing onto the counter to reach the sink, using a wobbly stack of the bathroom trash can and a stool that clearly wasn’t meant for standing on, I realized our bathroom had been designed entirely around adults, with zero thought given to how
Every time I sit down with a friend who’s about to start a bathroom renovation, the conversation eventually turns to the same question: what’s actually going to look dated in five years versus what’s worth the investment right now. It’s a fair question, since a primary bathroom renovation
When I started tracking my water bill a few years ago, I was surprised to learn just how much of it came from the bathroom, showers, the toilet, the faucet running while I brushed my teeth, all adding up in ways I’d never actually calculated. That realization sent
My guest bathroom sat untouched for almost five years after we moved in, mostly because I assumed updating it meant a full renovation I couldn’t justify for a room that got used maybe once a month when family visited. It wasn’t until a friend mentioned she’d redone her
The first time I picked tile for a bathroom renovation, I walked into the showroom, saw a beautiful marble-look porcelain, and bought it on the spot without asking a single question about slip resistance, water absorption, or how it would actually perform on a shower floor. It looked
Subscribe to my weekly newsletter. I don’t send any spam email ever!
