Fan of Friday: Week of 2/3/2012

In this, the first week of my year of awesome, I found this blog: Young House Love. I think I may have finally found the home improvement blog I've been looking for!

It's run by this couple, Sherry and John, who live in Virginia with their toddler daughter and chihuahua. Since I found it, I've been reading it non-stop. I'm not kidding, I swear I've been reading it for days. DAYS! Which I can do because they've been blogging like twice a day for four years so there are thousands of posts and ideas to be inspired by.

Ok, here's why I like it:

1. They are real people. They live in their home and have lives. They understand that most times breakables down low and decorative candles on the stairs is a bad idea. They show the beautiful pictures of their projects, but they also show the parts of their house that are a disaster. They show you when the spackle falls off the ceiling onto their face and show you the new wall color once they've realized that the color they previously painted just wasn't right. They aren't afraid to make mistakes and own up to them, which is like 65% of how I decorate anyway.
2. They work on a budget. Online sales, Craigslist, Target, and thrift stores seem to be their bread and butter. It's amazing the talent they have to transform things. Just because something is cheap and imperfect doesn't mean you can't make it cheap and almost exactly what you need.
3. They admit that they screw things up and that some tutorials just don't work. If you're on Pinterest, I'm sure you've seen those pins claiming to be able to cleanly break a bottle using yarn and fire? Well, they tried it and utterly failed. It's just as helpful to know what doesn't work as what does work.
4. They show progress in real time. They recently posted about tiling their backsplash and it took them days. And I liked it that way. These things take time when you do them yourself, especially in the naps of their daughter. It's nice to see how long these things actually take, to see where they stop for the day, and to see the amount of detail they document.
5. They have a million ideas. I know I already mentioned this, but they have been posting forever, so if you're interested to try something, odds are, they have and can tell what to do and what not to do.  They're also in their second house, so between the two houses, they have probably tried what you want to try.
6. They do realistic projects. I know this is probably a combination of #1 and #2, but they focus on projects that almost anyone could do with a little bit of guidance and a little bit of money. That's what I need! Not some interior
7. They live in a real house in a real city. I get so tired of these crazy people doing crazy things to their lofts in New York City. It's refreshing to see something so normal and familiar develop. 

So if you're planning on spending your weekend working on your home, like me, I highly suggest taking a look at it. And hopefully, I'll post some pictures of what we've been working on soon!