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Answering all of your burning questions about our Renovation.

December 3, 2019

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What was the total cost? Can we see real numbers? How close have you stayed within budget?

I can’t share the total cost, because we aren’t finished yet. But I’m happy to share a few insights around this subject. Before you begin a renovation project, it’s essential to sit down and make a budget. This is true if you’re doing the work yourselves or you are hiring it out. Having a budget gives you the freedom to assign an amount of money toward the project and it also allows you to not stress every time you spend money.

For us, the budget for this project is coming from the sale of our last home, which we sold for approximately a $200K profit. Of course we put a lot of money into it over the 6 years we lived there, but because we used other saved money for the down payment on this new home, we decided to put everything we made off the sale of that house directly back into this house. Not all at once, but a large chunk of it right up front to lay the groundwork for the projects we want to do in years to come.

Before, and frequently during this project, we sat down with our contractor to go over the budget. He gave us an itemized list of labor, materials and allowances that painted a picture of where the budget was and how we have been progressing. “Allowances” are listed out for things, like a railing, that he will have one of his subcontractors make. Basically stating, I’m working in $5000 for your railing and if you stay within that, then this budget will stay on track.

Because we sold all of our furniture with our last house (that was on top of the $200K), we knew now was the time to get a lot of the big, heavy lifting projects out of the way. These are things that actually almost made us not buy this house–the former double story dining room that we put a ceiling on and walls and are making our music room is something we made a plan for the second time we walked through this home. And the space that is now going to be our large dining room used to be a hot tub room (we heard) and we had grand visions of making that usable, heated, permitted square footage in our home. Those two projects were basically the clincher projects for buying this house in the first place so we knew that investing in getting them done first thing would allow us a lot of years in the future to tweak everything else.

We purchased this house for a really great deal (our neighbor’s house is currently listed for double!), so we knew we could invest money into it without fear, but we are still very mindful of our spending. We set a budget of $120K for all of these up front projects (dining room, fireplace, some exterior work, bedroom, music room, window installation, floors, etc) and are on track so far! I will say, surprisingly, the demo has been the largest line item. Brutal!

How to decide where to splurge and where to save?

Because of the nature of our work, we do have the opportunity to work with brands for some materials (tile, windows, flooring)–and those things are not counted in our budget and do help us save. But even when our budgets were smaller we trained ourselves to save money by reusing what you can. An example of this in our current home would be we saved the two arched doors from the former sunroom to reuse–one as our front door and one to put back into the dining room. We had a door restoration specialist come and look at the one for the dining room because it was really sun damaged and wasn’t closing properly. He said it wasn’t salvageable and would be $17,000 to replace!

We didn’t have room in the budget for that so we knew there had to be another option. We called in a second opinion who said that if we didn’t mind the use of some wood filler, he thinks he can make it look great and operable.

Because we plan to be here for a good, long time, we want to choose materials that will last so we won’t have to do this again (like ever! haha) but that’s another beauty of a budget–it restricts you when you need it to and pushes you to see potential elsewhere.

What is your biggest regret so far? Do you regret doing so much so soon? 

Biggest regret so far is definitely hiring painters too early. They literally finished after demo started. I don’t even have after photos of their job because there was already tarps STAPLED into the fresh paint job. Of course this was not planned. Demo started in July (Way before it was supposed to!) and it has escalated a bit. Part of me thinks it has helped during all of this to see white walls instead of sponge painted on top of all of the other chaos but it will likely have to be painted again. In fact, the rooms that are currently being worked on have paint and primer as a very cheap item in the bid so we definitely shouldn’t have had that done. Live and learn!

Although it seems like we’re doing EVERYTHING right now, we’re actually just getting ourselves to a starting point of floors and walls in most areas. I don’t want anyone to have the false assumption that our house is going to be “done” in a few weeks when the contractors are done. Our last house took 6 years to do. We initially said this one will take 10 and it will probably take somewhere in between those two numbers if I were to guess.

How do you deal with all the dust? 

I am actually pretty certain that the majority of our family came down with pneumonia a few weeks ago (only Faye and I were spared) due, in part, to all the renovation dust. We have air purifiers going in all the bedrooms (we love this one!) and that helps. The contractors are also really good at draping off a room they are working on to minimize it. Also, remember, we don’t have a ton of furniture right now so most of the dust is just settling on the floor where we sweep it up a couple times a week.

Even then, renovation debris does wear on you. We wear shoes in the house ALWAYS. Like, even if it’s the middle of the night and you have to use the bathroom, you put on shoes because there’s staples and debris and dust everywhere. I think it’s a good expectation to set for yourself–there will be dust. It’s just a part of it.

How did you decide when to leave?

You can read more about that decision here. We decided to move out for two weeks so a few large projects could get completed that would be very difficult/cold/dangerous with three small children present. Chris and I are still working in our office and spending most of the day at the house making decisions, moving furniture around so the floors can come up and answering a lot of questions. We will be laying wood floors in the office as well, so we’ll be flexible on those days.

Flooring (what type, where, when, carpet or hardwood, dining room and bedrooms)?

I got a lot of variations of this question, especially after I shared the tile being ripped up in our entry. There are 3 different types of flooring that will be going down in the next couple weeks. Wood, carpet and tile.

We chose this beautiful, brand new flooring from Stuga for our home. It’s ideal for families and has an innovative, never before used ultra matte sheen. We looked through probably 35 floor samples from everywhere and this one was so stunning it was the clear winner for us. It’s brand new and hasn’t been used ever before so we’re excited to share lots of photos of the progress. The wood flooring will extend throughout the main floor, including the entry but excluding the dining room. We will have it laid into the breakfast nook as well, but will wait until we redo the kitchen to bring the flooring in there because there will likely be layout changes. It will also go up the stairs, down the halls, into the master bedroom and new master closet and into the playroom area.

The carpet is getting installed next week and it will be in all three girls’ rooms.

The dining room is getting the harlequin tiled floors. We’ll be using this darker tile and this Carrara Oro tile.

How to find a good contractor- recommendations- how did you find yours?

There’s no better way to find a good contractor than a recommendation. Ours, Austin Crystal, was recommended to us by dozens of people. We sat down with him and went over our plans and he gave some expert advice and also didn’t try to talk me out of my design plans. I’ve met with so many contractors–so many!–and I love working with contractors who can handle my vision and don’t try to temper it too much. But also weigh in when we need some guidance.

Biggest challenges to deal with as a family and as a married couple during the reno?

The biggest challenge we have dealt with as a family has probably been making sure our home is safe and comfortable for our girls and Willow. That has been a lot of stress. We have a 2 year old who doesn’t exactly know better all the time so keeping a watchful eye and making sure our house is safe for everyone in it has been a stressor and, of course, why we ultimately took these two weeks to stay elsewhere while the biggest portions of the house are being done.

As a couple, I would say always being on the same page has been a struggle at times. Not disagreeing per se, but there are SO many decisions to make and sometimes they have to be made RIGHT THEN without talking to the other person so you just hope you’re doing the right thing. Chris and I are accustomed to making decisions together so feeling confident in my own choice has been something that I have had to grow into during this project.

How do you deal with decision paralysis/financial anxiety?

There are more decisions to be made than I ever thought possible and some that I stew over for days. (Like our stair railings–I still don’t know!). I’ve learned that there will likely always be a better option out there, so when I find something that I like, and it’s within our budget–go for it. Luckily almost everything has a deadline and I’ve learned that once I make my choice, I get a lot more excited than staring at 6 options.

Setting a budget has allowed us not to have too much financial anxiety. Of course things have come up, so we built a cushion into our budget that is nice to have, just in case.

Where do you start with a renovation?

For us, we started with the things that would basically get us to a starting point for us to step in and make this home our own over the next several years. Defining rooms and fresh flooring are BIG decisions, but everything else we’re going to be taking slow. It’s kind of like if you walk into a house with great bones and then you start adding trim and paint and wallpaper and textiles and furnishings. We’re bringing our home up to that blank slate status so we can work on it more ourselves.

But that doesn’t mean that’s the only way. Before we started our big renovation in this house, we pinned a lot of inspiration photos, we talked through what would work best for our family in this house. We chatted about the future. We did a few budget friendly makeovers to test out a vibe. We made a budget. We mapped out spaces. For us, it was important to get the main living areas functioning how we wanted.

Estimated finish date?

I’m assuming this question is referring to when these contractors will be finished? We had a calendaring meeting with our contractor, Austin, yesterday and went over each day and what will be getting done and figured they would be finished around mid-January (knock on wood).

Update wanted. Are the ghosts still mad about the renovation?

I shared a couple months ago that we had had some paranormal activity happen in our house. It had been happening since about 2 weeks after we moved in in June and we desperately called two energy workers in September to, literally, clear the air. We haven’t had any issues with lights turning off or on, doors opening or slamming, weird noises or any other paranormal activity (besides one weird day) since. Our home feels like our own now–whew!

 

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What do you think?

  1. David says:

    Looks amazing. How high are your vaulted ceilings in the family room?

  2. Courtney says:

    Have you ever thought about moving the door to your bedroom? Moving it to the left (as you face the new deck) and having it face the new window to your dressing room (using a wider, perhaps double door) creating a sort of vestibule with an entry on the left (to the dressing room) and right (to the bedroom)? That way you could put your bed on the opposite wall facing the windows and create a lovely arrival point to the master.

  3. Jenny says:

    The paranormal stuff is so interesting. Were you able to ask the previous owners if they experienced anything similar?

  4. Connie says:

    Thank you for taking us along on this reno journey. I love your wood flooring choice but have a question. My 2000 install of prefinished engineered wood floors looked great until a glass of water was spilled. The ends of the boards were not finished letting the moisture enter the wood, swell, discolor and chip the finish. So ugly. I can have them refinished, thankfully. How will your flooring choice hold up to simple water spills? It happens!

  5. Aileen says:

    Any tips on finding inspiration photos? Whenever I go on Pinterest I find a lot of “junk” and get discouraged. Perhaps it’s my search terms? You always find amazing photos so I was just wondering, what’s your secret?

  6. Brittany D says:

    I love it most when you guys talk about yourselves, your life and your sweet family! Although I love all of the pretty rooms as well. ;) You guys are always amazing about being open and genuine, and I am here for it!! Loved this post!

  7. Sarah says:

    Thank you for sharing this post! I love the updates and adding some cost around it was a great perspective. We are getting ready to do a kitchen/ dining renovation and are going through the budgeting process now. I had somehow missed it before if you’d already mentioned that your new dining room was once a hot tub room, and it made me smile to read it today — we have the same situation over here! There is a sunken room connected to both the living room and current dining room (no doors, just open) that housed a hot tub when I first looked at the house. I feel confident saying we’re both moving in the right direction!
    On a more general note, just want to say how much I love everything you do. I always find myself so inspired by your work and have adapted several of your projects into our own home. Thank you for all of your hard work!

  8. Jamie says:

    I’ve been reading some of the comments and I just wanted to note that part of the reason it seems like you are getting so much remodel for your money is that you aren’t remodeling high cost areas of your house. The cost of remodeling may cost less in your area than other parts of the country, but you also aren’t paying to remodel your bathrooms and kitchens. I live in an area that the cost of living is similar to yours and we just did a whole house remodel. Adding on a garage was WAY cheaper than remodeling our kitchen.

  9. Can you recommend an on line floor planner? We want to do some renovations and know a floor plan is a good way to start!

  10. Angela Sewell says:

    The real numbers are greatly appreciated! We did a first floor reno that cost a similar amount and it was hard to come to terms with spending that amount of money. However—no regrets! Our house is so much more a home now and we plan to stay as long as we can make it up and down the stairs (were 40 so that’s probably going to be a while!)

  11. Kelly says:

    We just wrapped up our renovation of ripping out tile floors and installing hardwood plus a brand new kitchen and laundry room (also in the Mountain West region). I spent a year designing and planning and the actual project took about 4 months. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of a budget even if it’s a rough number. I had to completely redesign our kitchen after getting estimates or getting news that certain styles of quartz doubled in price/were hard to acquire suddenly. I’m totally happy with how it ended up design wise and more importantly I’m glad we didn’t put more money than was appropriate into this house based on our neighborhood.

  12. Haneen says:

    Question about a design choice! Love that you’re doing an arch opening to the dining room, and then mirroring that look with an arched bookcase on the other side. But, I’m curious to know- was there a specific reason you didn’t decide to just do another arched opening to the dining room? Instead of doing a bookcase? Sorry if you already answered this somewhere! This has been awesome to watch!

    • Julia says:

      The dining room doesn’t extend out as far as the living room so the exterior would have some depth so there’s not enough room for a doorway on that side. Also, we really wanted some storage in the living room

      • Haley says:

        Came here to ask this exact same question! I thought it could have been useful for flow, but makes sense!

  13. Susanna says:

    So those floors have never ever been used before?

  14. Karen says:

    Thank you for your candor, sharing budget information is so personal. I LOVE your hardwood choice! My floors have a similar finish, width, but the color has a bit more variation, and I love it. (Even though initially I had friends ask me, “what color are you going to stain it?” The Matte finish floors are wonderful with my dogs.

    It’s been fun to see the house progress, and I appreciate your non traditional choices. Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing the same pretty, but safe, designs over and over again, and it gets boring. It’s nice to see color and wood instead of whites and greys.

  15. Sara says:

    Thanks for your transparency on the costs! I think it is an important part of the process. Fingers crossed things go smoothly.

  16. B says:

    I might have missed this discussed before, but can you comment on why you’re changing out all the wood floors as opposed to refinishing?

  17. Devon says:

    I love your transparency and it’s so interesting and a little unsettling how drastically different costs on home renovations can be in different parts of the country. Our home in the Midwest is much smaller than yours and we got bids from many contractors on a full kitchen remodel, and moving our dining room to a formal living room area and then turning our old dining room into a laundry room & pantry. We moved a couple walls a little bit nothing even close to as extensive as the work you are doing and we received several bids for the same amount as your budget, which blows my mind. I would have thought your budget would have been much higher.

    • Rae says:

      As others have noted this remodel doesn’t include a kitchen or bathroom which are higher cost areas to remodel so that accounts for some cost difference. Also Julia did note in the post that they are getting windows, flooring and tile given to them (sponsored? comped? I’m sorry I truly don’t know the wording) so the 120k doesn’t include some major expensive line items and makes the total budget seem lower than it would be for most. Apologies if I misinterpreted that.

  18. Julia, this post was awesome! Thanks for sharing your real numbers — that’s why we all love you guys. I think you’re getting a great amount of work done for the price, and living in Nebraska, I think our costs would be somewhat similar to you guys (instead of east/west coast prices) so I found this super informative. :) Can’t wait to hear more and more about it!

  19. AN says:

    Thank you so much for the honesty and real life look at the process! I am currently going through an unplanned main floor renovation with a 6 month old because we had a water heater issue. Following along with your journey helps me stay sane during the process because I know that what we’re experiencing is normal. I’ve lowered my expectations from the overly glamourous/fun spin that TV puts on it. I’ve been implementing your “what makes a home” tips and staying focused on the end product. You are truly inspiring this tired mama to stay positive! Thank you so much

  20. Jacqueline says:

    Hi, Love these details! Question for you because I’m confused by these parts:
    “We set a budget of $120K for all of these up front projects (dining room, fireplace, some exterior work, bedroom, music room, window installation, floors, etc) and are on track so far!”

    “Because of the nature of our work, we do have the opportunity to work with brands for some materials (tile, windows, flooring)–and those things are not counted in our budget and do help us save.”

    Does the $120K include the floors, windows and tiles or not? As in, is it more like $500K of a renovation that you’re paying $120K for? It would actually be really helpful to understand because of how it impacts optimization of the overall project. (To be clear, I’m not begrudging you access to discounts or partnerships with vendors – it’s a fundamental aspect of your job – I’m just trying to relate your insight to what it would be like for me). Thanks!

  21. Erin Bowen says:

    Thank you so much for sharing! The transparency of how much its costing and how you are able to pay for it is not something we see in the blog/Instagram world. I am so excited to see it all- once the contractors are done (the dining room floors!), but also as your house evolves over the years. Also, I wanted to say, thank you for continuing to provide content across all spectrum’s of the budget- your $1,000 kitchen makeover, your partnerships with World Market, along with your custom work and higher end sponsors. I love that both have the Chris Loves Julia feel, and we get to ooh and ahh over both. It makes your blog feel approachable still, and I truly do love to see both!

  22. Christina says:

    I know you aren’t Catholic…duh…but I’d totally call a Priest to come bless your home with Holy Water. Those “things” aren’t to be messed with.

    On a different note, REALLY bummed that your turkey brine was AMAZING. Why?- Because I am NOT 6 feet tall, so lugging a ginormous turkey out of a bucket about killed me. And while I know you think it wasn’t many steps, for me it was. Story began like this….”Nope…not sold on all that work.” Tried a salt brine a decade ago and it was a messy let-down. Because I was still recovering from 16 days in Europe visiting our oldest two studying in Austria (where my husband and I met 25 years ago—First world problems!), I had decided to go easy with a dry rubbed turkey. My nephew from WA state and his cousin from Ecuador joined us (studying in Ohio so going home wasn’t an option). Juan declared his joy at experiencing Thanksgiving for the first time ever. That night in bed, my husband thanked me for always prioritizing food as part of a celebration and stated how grateful he was that Juan was going to eat my food. I laid there debating my defense, “Yeah, but…” I kept my mouth shut and the next morning (Wednesday) drove 40 minutes to the nearest box store selling food-grade buckets, and began the boiling. Couldn’t find Juniper Berries or the other berries or the clove pieces so I had to seriously improvise (did you know Juniper berries are used in Gin?) . I even called neighbors and relatives and the local landscaper looking for a Juniper bush! So I dumped in the Gin and the other ingredients, ground clove…threw in Cardamom b/c that was suggested since no Juniper…and some Rosemary and only brined it for 27 hours. The white meat was as jucy as the dark meat and never before have juices squirted out when you put your fork in a turkey for a bite. I kid you not, there were groans around the table. And my husband said, “That is how it must always be done.” He is right. You are right…you perfected it. So I bought another turkey and ordered all the berries and pieces from Amazon and will have Thanksgiving #2 on December 15th when my Austrians return home. So thank you. But seriously darn. I go all out and I am the only cook, so I literally spend three days in the kitchen, but it is true- that is the very best turkey ever.

  23. Liz says:

    Good stuff here! Thanks for being so open about it all. Hope the next couple weeks go by fast for you guys. And enjoy your staycation!

  24. Allison says:

    Do you have a link for the carpet you chose? I’m getting ready to recapped our house and would love to look at a “Julia-approved” option. :)

  25. Mel says:

    I dreamt last night that our (new to us one month ago) house was in total renovation and in shambles and woke up in a cold sweat. We have plans for our house but nothing like what you guys do (replacing carpet, demo-ing a bar, refinishing wood floors, painting all the walls etc) we were initially going to tackle it all immediately but the day we moved in I found out I was pregnant. As the handy/doer/work from home person who would do alot of the heavy lifting in coordinating with people and doing the actual painting we decided to put it off for now. Good luck you guys. I know this is weird but I’ve been thinking about you and how hard this time must be, Christmas time, living in a hotel. But a year from now this phase will be done, you’ll be fireside in your beautiful home and this will be a distant memory.

  26. Jenna says:

    I love hearing the reality of a renovation because i think TV has been giving us unrealistic expectations for so long. Also those floors!????????????

    • Lauren says:

      100% this. TV makes large home renovations look so easy when wrapped up in a neat bow in less than 1 hour. Coming out of one myself and still doing a lot of finish work now ourselves, it’s refreshing to witness an honest approach to the highs and lows of tackling something so huge.

  27. Tarynkay says:

    Did you consider doing the wood-look tiles again in this house? Were there cons to those so you opted not to repeat them? Or did you just want to try something new?

    • Julia says:

      We absolutely loved our wood tile in our last house but we only installed it (ourselves) in the main floor (about 1700 square feet) and that took six weeks. Installation is a lot more expensive for tile and in this house, we needed about 5000 square feet so it was more economical to do wood flooring. But also we wanted to try something new.

  28. Suzanne says:

    Wow- you guys are lucky to live in a part of the country where contracting work cost So. Much. Less. than the Boston area. I have just had three quotes to re-do a small (8 ft x 7 ft) original 3 piece 1952 bathroom- all three quotes are right around $50,000 WITHOUT materials! (and of course I have been checking around with friends for their experiences – this is simply what things cost in this area…)

    • Julia says:

      I think that was our hesitation in sharing our budget in the first place—-it is going to vary wildly depending on where you are. But we had so many questions come in, we thought it was best to share what it’s like in our neck of the woods.

    • Julie says:

      They aren’t “lucky” per say, they made a choice to live where they do and their location comes with many downsides, I’m sure.

    • Michelle says:

      Yep, chiming in because I’m dying re: her reno costs. In the Bay Area (CA), currently doing a gut remodel of our 1960s-era master bath, plus new hardwood floors and fireplace in the bedroom. By the time we’re done, it’s going to be at least 100K, and there are no gold plated toilets. It makes me want to sob.

      Makes me want to move back to my Idaho hometown!

  29. Kd says:

    Do you know what brand of windows your house has now? It seems like they are original and still in good shape, even though you are changing the style.

  30. Joanne says:

    Hi Julia – thanks for putting a label on “decision paralysis”. We recently bought a (very small) beach house and it needs renovating. For 3 weeks we have been trying to decide our priorities and after reading this I believe we have decision paralysis lol!! So would you mind terribly traveling to the east coast and hanging out w me for a week!! Haha Thanks for all the inspiration – love your style!

  31. Michael Craft says:

    Thank you so much for sharing all this!

  32. brittany says:

    I wasn’t desperate for this update for selfish reasons of having a renovation or anything …but I still found it really interesting and honest! And despite not having a lot to say about it, I feel like I should comment and say thank you because I want blogs and your content to stay around and that seemed like potentially a good way to contribute to that! So, thank you!

    P.S. To balance out the others that will balk at the cost, I found the price for ALL OF THAT a lot lower than I was expecting…hooray!

  33. Stacy says:

    Thank you for this detail and your transparency surrounding budgets and money – it’s such a personal thing to share. But it really does flesh out the picture and allow us to have better expectation as to what can be done with our own budgets. I’m loving following along with all the renovation highs and lows, I’m here for the long-haul! : )

  34. J.L. says:

    Julia, a couple more questions if I may. 1) Will you seek brand sponsorship for your master closet system or will you DIY it? I think most would love to see how custom closet companies work with clients to determine their storage needs and organizational preferences. 2) I’m curious why you decided to keep and expand the stone fireplace in your bedroom vs. scaling it down as you discussed during your initial walk through. Did the stone win out (over tile or wood paneling) because you prefer the look of it or because working with the existing fireplace was the easiest solution for now? Thanks!

    • Julia says:

      We are hoping to tackle our closet in the first quarter of 2020 and have been considering IKEA again because we loved them in our last house but are not opposed to trying another closet system either! 2. I was so pro different fireplace in our bedroom but I just came to love the character of the stone. Now that the tray ceiling is out, we are going to bring the stone up to the ceiling and add more mortar between the stone to soften it and I think it will make a huge difference.

  35. Kevin says:

    Cant wait to see the harlequin tiled floors in the dining room. It’s gonna look amazing i just feel it!

  36. Hailey says:

    Thanks for sharing all the nitty gritty details of this remodel. I love hearing all about your experience! Hoping to have more remodel projects in our future – so the insight into working with contractors, budgets, and making a ton of decisions is so helpful!

  37. Are y’all still planning to have Christmas at your house or is that not happening due to the mid January date? I love watching the progress and hope you don’t worry too much about things getting pushed back- I think that’s just the way these things go :-)

    • Julia says:

      At this point, we are planning on having Christmas at our house. Although it won’t be done, we plan on moving back in as soon as floors and windows and drywall are on. Although Chris and I have discussed Disneyland as a plan b…shhhhhh.

  38. Jeanne says:

    You all are amazing so share all this with us and bring awareness to what renovating your home while living in it, and especially with a family has been like. I just am in awe of all the changes you have done this far and so inspired daily by you! Love seeing all your visions and plans come together!

  39. Jenny says:

    Loving the progress and those floors look great! We just used the Kahrs oak concrete in our home remodel and love them. Found them from Stuga bc of your cabin floors. Question… with the oiled floors, did you find them high maintenance and switch to something less so in this home? (Our floors also have the satin oil finish and we have 2 young kiddos and a dog.)

    • Julia says:

      Not at all! Although we didn’t get to live with them very long to really test them out. (We lost the cabin to a fire just a couple months after the floors were installed.) but oiled floors were definitely not off the table. We just fell in love with these and actually didn’t find out they DIDN’T need to be oiled until after we made the decision.

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A reader recently asked me if I’m starting to fully embrace traditional style and whether we still consider our house to be a “modern Colonial” and why. It was a really great question and so timely — I had really just been thinking about my approach to this home and how my style has changed […]

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Welcome to our online community where we've posted home, DIY, style, renovations, and family since '09. Renovating our #cljmoderncottage in Idaho and headed for new adventures in Raleigh, NC. #cljfam #cljtransformations

@chrislovesjulia