Once upon a time… my family and I owned a big house in the country. Nothing much to do in that house other than some landscaping. We sold that house ( in 2 days!) because we couldn’t take the long commute to work anymore.

Moved to a rental house closer to our jobs and waited until we could figure it out where we would like to buy our next home. We ended up loving the town we were living so we decided to start looking for houses around our neighborhood. One year later… this small yellow cape got listed. I could tell it needed some TLC from the outside but it wasn’t until we got to the inside that I saw the biggest challenge of my life…I am not being myself normal drama queen… everything was in really bad shape. There was no way I could make that house livable.  I mean… there was but it required money. An item we didn’t had growing in the back yard at that time. The Husband on the other hand… saw an opportunity!

“Honey, we can paint, we can clean, we can change this and with time we can make this our home!”  Wives… if you have a husband you thought the same thing I did “hummm… you mean, I can paint, I can clean and I can change this and with time I can make this a home for The Family!”. My answer was what any normal wife would say. “No. Not in a million years.” Please… the job required professionals. Not amateurs like me. Anyway… The Husband kept insisting… when I said “Look – I will make a deal. If that house has hardwood floors under that not so clean carpet, we’ll buy the house.” Next day – guess what? Hardwood floors EVERYWHERE! It was in my destiny. We bought the house. The good news about it was that somehow we could feel (and of course, the house inspector told us that later) that the house have “good bones”.

It was done. We were home owners again. Now… let me tell you something… I am a developer… so I did what I do best when I am desperate. I Google.  “remove linoleum floors yourself”, “paint kitchen cabinets yourself” and then… I saw the light… I found an entire universe of people like me. People that want or need to do things on their home by themselves. I also found designers that are willing to share tips and ideas with unknowledgeable people like me.  Little by little, I accomplished small projects here and there.. and yes – The Husband helped,  and helped a lot! I was able to transform my house that was in so much need for love into a home. A place that family and friends feel comfortable and happy. I did it all with the help of the blogsphere and the generosity of the ones that want to share their knowledge and experience.  So this is what this blog is about… I want to share too. I want to share my experience and research on the things I am trying to accomplish in my current home.

Oh yes… we made progress in the house but I still have a lot of work to do. We finished a couple of months ago what I call “Phase 1- Make It Livable”. Soon and I pray sooner than later we will get into the “Phase 2 – Make it Efficient”. Bellow you will find some pictures from Before and After of Phase 1. I will be updating this page with our progress. So far, it has become an amazing adventure!

Xoxo,