Who are we?
My name is L (L-Blogger to protect the innocent). My wonderful husband goes by Dr. J (and he even has a Piled Higher and Deeper degree to show for it!). We’re obsessed with all things house and DIY. We’ve just purchased our first home and when we toured this house beforehand with friends, they kind of gave us sideways glances wondering what the heck we were thinking! It was a foreclosure that could not have been more bland and builder’s grade (not to mention a little rough around the edges), but we love it and we love sharing our ideas and plans to turn this dud into a showstopper!
Our Story
We met in college and became best friends by bonding over geeky things like marching band, Alton Brown, video games, and cheesy Sci-Fi. My husband likes to say it took him five years to convince me to go out with him, but I think it just took me five years to be sure he was the one for me! I guess you could say I’m pretty darn picky! He was just as surprised as I was when I finally said ‘yes’ and we haven’t looked back since! We got married in 2007 and on our one-year anniversary, with our Mascot Mutt, Maggie in tow, we made the life-changing decision to move cross-country to Portland, Oregon from Columbus, Ohio far away from our family and friends to begin a new life. We are closer to some of the things we love, namely mountains and snow for our annual ski trips. Being a hop skip from the up-and-coming Oregon wine country and the Pacific coast isn’t such a bad thing either! It’s tough being so far away from family and friends, but we love it so much that we set up roots and purchased our first home in July of 2009 and it has been keeping us busy ever since!
The House
The house has suffered from neglect and poor builder’s choices. The home was built in 2005, but “feels” much older and without the charm and architectural flourishes that make older homes so appealing. It has endured several renters, 7 months of sitting vacant while being foreclosed, and a serious lack of love or updates. There are no shortages of projects we want to accomplish and the hardest part now is figuring out our priorities and what we want to do first! We have certainly had our ups and our downs, but we are plugging away trying to turn this builder’s grade dud of a house into a fabulous home.
Why are we blogging?
We initially started blogging to keep our family and friends informed of our progress and we’ve developed a small fan-base along the way! If you’re new here, then check out The Nickel Tour to see just a handful of some of the projects we have tackled since we moved into this house, or if you’re looking for a little more “How To” help, then check out the Tell’er How To for an easy-to-navigate resource. And if you like what you see, let us know, friend us on Facebook, and keep coming back for more! Our projects are getting bigger and bigger and you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!
It’s an adventure, we hope you’ll stay tuned for the journey!
J&L
Where have I seen you before….?
You can click on the photos for the features on each website!
