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He said, She said

Our weekly round-up of  the talk in blogland. 

Bob Borson of Dallas, TX writes Life of An Architect about his own house, his work and, well, the life of an architect.  He’s a pretty funny guy.  Guess which one is him in this photo.

Speaking of building houses,the  Tiny House Blog has plans, resources, and tons of photos about “living simply in small spaces.”  Here small can mean  400 – 600 square feet cabins, sheds, huts, or bungalows.  It’s cool stuff.  

On a similar blog called  The Tiny Life, this post does a good job of explaining  the Tiny House Movement and this post discusses the question of raising kids in a tiny house.   

Anyone going thrifting this weekend?  It seems to have been a good week for finding stuff.   Heirloom Farmhouse showed off her envious stash and  Jen West at Jentrified shared some of her amazing estate sales finds, too.

real

Last but not least, Real Estate Blog 360 offers up clear, easy to read articles about various real estate topics.  I like this one about about how to correctly price a home for sale and this one about the best free phone apps for house hunting. The apps list is a probably a little dated - if you’ve found any new apps we should know about, let us know!

Have a great weekend!   

by Lisa Oram

Written by editor on September 3, 2010 at 2:16 pm
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He said, She said

Hey friends, here’s this week’s report from blogland. 

I discovered an almost brand new blog called Meet My Ugly Baby, a 367 day apartment-flip project in Vancouver.  Today, and I mean TO.DAY, they get the keys and the clock starts ticking.  

Any e-Bay aficionados out there?  There’s a great story at BossyColorBlog that features gin, a pretty shade of blue, and lots of cardboard. 

Russel Wright Iroquois casual china

Thinking about fall yet?  Grass Rooted has some good tips about rakes.  She says better to check your supplies now than when your hands are blistered and the job is half done. 

Subtraction by Addition – get it?  Home additions that make a house uglier. These are bad.   At  HomeOwnerNut.

If you didn’t make it to Atlanta this week for the 2010 International Woodworking Fair (IWF), here’s a sneak preview of some  new tools on the showroom floor. 

Until next week, happy weekend!

by Lisa Oram

Written by editor on August 27, 2010 at 9:36 am
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He said, She said

It’s the middle of August, which means it’s hot where I live. I imagine it might be hot where you live, too. 

There are some things that nobody wants to do when it’s this hot -  like putting on a new roof or welding. For me, whose house is PURRRRFECT and doesn’t need those things anyway, being hot meant I didn’t want to read anything too heady or technical as I sweated my way around blogland this week.  I simply didn’t want to think too much.

Freshome - Interior Design, Decorating, FurnitureSo, I spent some time at Freshome. 

In the architecture department,  I indulged my senses with beautiful photos of gorgeous homes from around the world.  Click the View More button at the bottom of any post  and you will be treated to a stunning display. 

Here’s a picture montage of a totally different kind.  Aaron Whomsley is a handyman who runs what he calls a “light construction company” in West Chester, PA.  This week, he features a lovely kitchen renovation he’s recently completed.  Thirteen photos.  Beautiful work. I wish this guy lived near me. A good handyman is a good find.   

There are nice photos throughout the posts on Rambling Renovators, but I am especially drawn to their occasional feature called Love List.  Shouldn’t everyone have a love list? 

This blog, Brick House, is sorta the opposite of a love list.  Read the FAQs (tolerable even in heat) and then look at the pictures. 

And, one day, when the temps dropped a little, and I managed to focus on two words next to each other, I really enjoyed this post at Garden Rant.  I think they make some sense . . .  but they also could  be kinda lunatics.   What do you think?

Happy weekend!  Keep cool.

by Lisa Oram

Written by editor on August 13, 2010 at 12:26 pm
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He said, She said

I didn’t mean to, but when I shared some of my travels in blogland last week, I ended up with all “She saids” and curtains and pretty things. 

This week, I went looking to even the score, so I’ve got useless tools and gushing blood and unexpected floods.  Enjoy! 

Let’s start with Mark and Phillip. They are resurrecting a grand ol’ lady on 227 North Street.  Scroll down to the bottom of the August 4th post, and look at the photo.  That’s all I’m saying. 

Larry is an archeologist who muses about ancient Sumerian farmers while digging in the dirt around his turn-of-the-century Edwardian Foursquare.  Head back to his post on July 1  to read a Christmas-like poem he crafted about nearly decimating two of his fingers.  Funny guy.   

This guy, who calls himself LongToe, offers instructions for a good summer project:  making a stitch and glue kayak. Except that it took him 8 months to finish his, so if you want to get on the lake next summer, start it now. 

Toolmonger wrote, “Normally if I come across a tool that I can’t say anything positive about, I just don’t post it, but every once in a while something so atrocious comes along I have to share it.”  Wanna see?

Have a nice weekend! 

by Lisa Oram

Written by editor on August 6, 2010 at 10:53 am
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He said, She said

Rue De Vamp:  She said that damask fabric designs in the kitchen – think wallpaper, drapes, upholstery – is a trend that won’t last long.  What do you think? 

My Notting Hill:  She said that red is going to be next year’s color of the year.  It’s just a hunch, but keep your eyes open.  You never know.

Pearl House Interiors:   She said that large patterned drapery fabric can look so much different when it’s bunched up rather than opened wide.  I never noticed that;  it’s like a two-for-one design element.  Very cool.       

Acanthus and Acorn:   She said that choosing the right curtain rod is important.  So, if you are inspired by the previous blog, here’s the whole package. 

Glimpse of Style:  She said that grouping clocks together can be a fun design element.  My friend has a wall of clocks in her house, but I’ve never seen it anywhere else. 

HOUSEography:  She said that making a quick new centerpiece for your kitchen table can be a great pick-me-up.  

So, there you have it.  Put up some red damask curtains in your kitchen on a sturdy and stylish curtain rod, a few funky clocks in the middle of your table, and you’ll be all set.   For now, at least. 

by  Lisa Oram

Written by editor on July 30, 2010 at 10:38 am
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Newlyweds House on the Market

Remember the good old days, when Jessica Simpson’s biggest dilemmas included the pronunciation of “plata-ma-pus” and the presence of buffalo in her Buffalo wings?

Her MTV stepping stone, Newlyweds, is long gone and so is her marriage to equally perky pop star Nick Lachey. However, the Newlyweds house is still standing strong, and it’s currently up for sale.

If you have a cool $1.95 million just festering in your bank account, you could own the house that Jessica used to wax poetic in. Oh, what those walls could say… probably something along the lines of, “It’s tuna, you big dummy!”

Anyway, according to the listing, the house is even more gorgeous than Simpson’s pre-MTV self. Located in the gated community of Calabasas Park Estates, this 6,483-square-foot California spread has 5 bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms, a wine cellar, a media room, a recording studio, a game room, two walk-in closets, stainless steel appliances, a walk-in pantry, and a built-in BBQ area. Of course, there’s a pool/spa, which you can probably see from every bedroom, since each one has its own balcony.

If you don’t have the cash to drop all at once, it’s no problem. Payments should only run you about $7,777 per month.

by Rachel Cericola

Written by editor on July 27, 2010 at 11:17 am
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He said, She said

I love our blog, but I love other blogs, too.  And I spend a lot of time cruising the internet and checking out what everyone else is saying.  Thought it might be fun to share some of my finds here on FIY.  If you like this kind of post, let me know. 

Comcast, I Hate You:  This is exactly how I feel about Comcast.  Once, after many days of frustration, I looked on the Comcast website to find access to any kind of local executive or manager, and I found a PR person, and I wrote her an email, and then some high-up tech guy called me, and came to my house, and now I have his phone number.  Comcast: 0  Me:  1

Fun on the Floor:  I really like the name of this website.  I was about to sign up for a free voucher (I’m not quite sure for what), but it asked for my “postcode” which is not the same as “zipcode.”  So, I guess you have to be in England.  Maybe someone else could give it a try? 

A Constructed Life:  Funny blog.  Plus a whole house renovation.  Plus a baby.   All I can say is:  Better them than me.

Have a great weekend!

by Lisa Oram

Written by editor on July 16, 2010 at 11:32 am
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Gossip About Gardening

Some people have a green thumb. Some people, well… that thumb is rather black with scales on it. Whether you’ve got skills is irrelevant, though. If you’ve got a passion for plant life, you might want to bookmark DigtheDirt.com.

Founded by Cliff Sharples, the guy behind Shop.org and Garden.com, this new social networking site invites people to talk plants, flowers, gardening gear, and more. Input your own experiences, and share with others how certain plants react to certain environments. Photos and personal stories are welcomed and posted to each visitor’s profile.

Aside from the chatter, there’s a plant database, which features thousands of plants and can be filtered by over 100 characteristics. Want plants that are a certain height? Do you have super-dry soil? Want to plant something now that you’ll be eating later? Need to plan what you can plant for the upcoming weekend? Those are just some of the many features that can help you whittle down the perfect plants for your needs.

 

Of course, there’s also tons of how-to articles, landscape ideas, links to other blogs, and information on where to find suppliers in your area. The site also allows budding landscapers to connect with gardening professionals, to ask questions and share ideas.

by Rachel Cericola

Written by editor on May 7, 2010 at 10:10 am
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Best Home Improvement Blogs, Take 1: Charles & Hudson

The blogosphere has a long history of companies that try to help readers discover interesting content using a variety of technical tricks. Google looks at who links to whom, StumbleUpon displays pages randomly and lets people rank them, and Technorati — well, no one’s sure what they do any more. However, all of these approaches are really just ways to make the discovery of interesting stuff “scale”. And here at FixItYourself.com, we don’t particularly care about scaling, we just want to find the most interesting home improvement stories on the web.

Photo of Timothy Dahl
To that end, we have decided to start writing about some of the blogs that we think do an excellent job of covering the home improvement industry. First up is the somewhat abstractly-named Charles & Hudson, which takes its moniker from the cross streets in New York City where founder Timothy Dahl owned his first apartment. I first met Timothy via an email exchange in 2007, and have followed his blog ever since. I was therefore quite pleased when he agreed to answer a short series of questions about his blog and be profiled in the first of our series on the Best Home Improvement Blogs.

FixItYourself: Charles & Hudson has received mentions and kudos from the WashingtonPost.com, RealSimple.com, ThisOldHouse.com, BobVila.com and many others. But, for people that have never heard of you, how would you describe Charles & Hudson?

Timothy Dahl: Charles & Hudson is an online destination for DIY enthusiasts. We’re singularly obsessed with home building, home improvement and everything related to these pursuits. If you’ve got those same inklings then I’m sure you’ll find something you like.

FixItYourself: You got your start in the home improvement space while working at This Old House Online (TOH) from 2002 to 2007. TOH has spawned a long list of home improvement pros, including Bob Vila, Steve Thomas, and Norm Abrams. How did you end up at TOH, and how did your experience there affect Charles & Hudson?

Timothy Dahl: My wife and I moved to NYC to live the dream. We’re both desert rats (Las Vegas and Tucson) but wanted to experience living in New York. Laura pursued a career in fashion and eventually launched her own line, Laura Dahl/Wifebeader and I wanted to work in new media and being the web producer of the most venerable home improvement brand in the world was a dream job.

The show talent is legit. They really know their stuff inside and out and the hosts have done a great job working with them to express their knowledge from a layman’s point of view. During my tenure at This Old House, parent company Time Inc. was struggling with how to effectively communicate with their online audiences. Social media was at its early stages but we constantly received emails from readers who wanted to share their house blogs or new products that they felt the DIY community would enjoy.

Communication is a one-way street at most media behemoths and Time Inc. was no exception. Charles & Hudson was born from my motivation to interact with this community and I wanted to provide a larger platform for these folks to share their stories.

Logo for Charles & Hudson

FixItYourself: My personal favorite Charles & Hudson posts are those where you cover cool new tools. The first time I ever heard of the self-cleaning, hose-mounted paintbrush was on C & H. How do you find cool tools (and other stories) to introduce to your readers?

Timothy Dahl: I really enjoy perusing the websites of folks who visit C&H and leave comments. I often find new tools and materials they used in a project.

FixItYourself: What’s the toughest part about running a blog as a business?

Timothy Dahl: Time management. Fortunately I have experience running websites much larger than mine and understanding what is required from both edit, sales and marketing but it is always a growing and learning process. There is no time to let up…ever, if I want to meet the goals I’ve set. I do have contributors who assist me with content and bring a different point of view which is great.

FixItYourself: Have you ever published a post that you really regretted writing, or that really frustrated some of your readers? How did you respond to that?

Timothy Dahl: Honestly I’ve never published anything I’ve truly regretted, but I have posted articles that are junk and thinking back it wasn’t adding to any conversation or informing my readers. I know not every one of my posts will be gold but they should all be relevant. I’ve been called out by readers before and most often they are correct but you do have to be thick skinned to be in the blogging biz.

FixItYourself: You just got back from the 2010 Builders Show in Las Vegas, and you’ve had some time to reflect on what you saw. What trends struck you that will affect DIYers in 2010? If you could claim bragging rights for having invented one product that you saw there, what would you choose?

Timothy Dahl: There isn’t much at the builders show that’s strictly suited for DIY but we’re hoping to see more hands on products at the National Hardware Show in a couple of months. There were countless fixtures and appliances on display that an ambitious homeowner could install but most of that stuff is already in stores.

The PermaFLOW no-clog drain was impressive and will be a nice alternative to a P-trap. Wish I would’ve thought of that one.

So, there you have it, folks. Six questions with one of the most interesting home improvement bloggers, Timothy Dahl. Will our method of finding interesting content unseat Google? Absolutely. As soon as we figure out how to make it scale….

Written by admin on February 3, 2010 at 5:02 pm
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