So one of the conditions of me contributing to this blog was that Christie had to promise not to hang over my shoulder while I write and post. And so far, she is already breaking that promise. Everybody say “Hi Christie.”
Ok she’s gone. Now I can tell you a little about myself. I grew up in Toledo, Ohio. I was the youngest child in my family. Even though my brother and sister were older, I was always considered to be the responsible one of the three. My parents always said that I couldn’t wait to be a grown up. So it makes sense that I was the first of their kids to get married and to buy a home.
Renting as opposed to owning never made much sense to me. Fortunately, Christie had the same mentality. We both worked hard straight out of college. (I work in marketing and Christie is a CPA.) We saved enough money to put down a deposit on our home and officially signed off on the three-bedroom beauty about a year ago.
It was great to kiss rent checks goodbye and to focus on our mortgage instead. We spend a lot of our evenings and weekends on house projects. Yes, I watch HGTV. Some of my guy friends make fun of me for it but I am determined to not only make our place an awesome home but to eventually sell it for more than we bought it for.
My parents have always been great at DIY. Between our lake house and the house I grew up in, they were always involved with a house project. After so many years though, they eventually ran out of things to do – like there physically isn’t an inch left in either home for additional work. So they get bored and frequently drive down to Charlotte to help Christie and I out with our house. Our big, open house is just dying for fix-me-ups so my parents are like little kids in a candy shop when they come.
One of the projects that I think made a huge difference is adding baseboards to every room in the house. It was actually pretty easy and inexpensive but it makes the rooms look so much more refined. Another cool thing we did was built our own headboard. It took like an hour and it looks like something you buy right out of the store.
Have fun reading our blog. Honestly, Christie will likely be the one doing most of the writing as I will be doing more manly stuff like watching HGTV and stenciling small flower patterns in the bathroom (You think I’m joking? Just wait until you get married.).
Write us if you have any questions or if you notice we are clearly doing something wrong. Either way, it would be good to hear from you.
