Wondering how to install a wi-fi thermostat and set it up using your phone? See how we added a smart home thermostat and what features we love about our Honeywell Home T-9 Wi-Fi Thermostat. As we’ve been updating our pair of fixer-uppers, we’ve also been adding smart home features. Controlling household devices from our phones […]
How to Refinish and Restore a Wood Deck
We built our redwood deck a few years ago and the stain and sealer faded and chipped almost immediately. It was time for a new deck finish! Watch and see how to refinish and restore a wood deck using an oil finish instead of a stain and sealer. Back when we bought our Birch House […]
14 Tips for In-Ground Trampoline Installation
Ever wondered how to dig a trampoline hole? See what we learned and watch our tips for a successful in-ground trampoline installation. We love our backyards and having a great place for our kids to play and work alongside us. My kids are begging for a trampoline, so when my buddy Sam from TrampolineHoles.com was […]
IKEA Hack: DIY Over the Fridge Cabinet Organizer for Cookie Sheets and Cutting Boards
Organize the cabinet above the fridge to fit cookie sheets and cutting boards with this easy IKEA kitchen cabinet hack. These DIY over the fridge cabinet organizer dividers are removable, adjustable, and easy to customize to fit any type of cabinet. When it comes to kitchen organization, clever storage ideas abound. For our kitchen, that […]
Pro Tips for DIY Sod Installation
Wondering how to lay your own sod? Follow these Pro tips for DIY sod installation for a high-quality lawn on a do-it-yourself budget! The yard was a big selling point for our current house (and also for us buying the house next door as well!) but we had a big garden area that we just […]
Easy Inflatable Hot Tub and Swimming Pool Setup
Add a fun and relaxing above ground pool and hot tub to your backyard in just a few hours with our Intex review and tips for an easy inflatable hot tub and swimming pool setup. The backyard was a big selling point in our current homes (yes, both of them!) and we especially like to […]
How to Build Custom Star Wars DIY Cornhole Boards
Celebrate your geeky side and bring Star Wars Land to your own backyard this summer by building your own custom Star Wars DIY cornhole boards featuring our favorite droids, BB-8 and R2-D2. We love outdoor summer activities and we LOVE Disney, so we are stoked to combine the two in today’s tutorial! In case you […]
How to Build Recessed Shelves Between Studs in a Wall
Today I am going to show you how to build recessed shelves between studs in a 2×4 wall. Cassity and I chose to install these recessed shelves in our guest bathroom. Our girls share the same bathroom that is our guest bathroom and we were tired of our girls messes on the vanity counter top […]
Adding Built-In Shelves for Bathroom In-Wall Storage
We’re ready for the next step of our bathroom built-in shelves: actually adding the shelves! Subscribe to our YouTube channel here and watch this in-wall storage project unfold from our plan for the in-wall shelves to cutting the drywall, framing the opening, and finishing the drywall to a smooth texture, plus installing a pocket door […]
How to Smooth Drywall Texture for Bathroom Built-Ins
We are plugging right along on our bathroom built-in project — last week we showed you how we installed a pocket door (and why we chose a pocket door over a barn door) and this week, we’re to the next step: cutting the hole, adding framing, and patching drywall. As we adding framing and finished […]
Adding Curb Appeal: Colorful Spring Porch Update
If all the new printables and growing news weren’t a tip-off — we are READY for spring and excited for the upcoming warm weather! While we’re still working on our bathroom storage built-ins (and a few other projects, like always #remodelaholic), this week we took a couple of hours to add some curb appeal to […]
The Easy Way to Install a Pocket Door Frame in an Existing Wall
We realized after we showed you our built-in bathroom storage plans that we had a few more things to finish up before we can really get going on our wall cubbies. Namely, the pocket door that we raved about in last week’s vlog! We chose to save space by installing a pocket door frame in the […]
Planning Built-In Bathroom Storage for a Small Bathroom
We are continuing on our home organizing quest. Next up on our list is our shared family bathroom. While we do have an ensuite bathroom for our master bedroom, this bathroom is the workhorse of our house. It functions as both our general family bathroom for our two grade-school girls and as the guest bathroom […]
Organizing Baking Supplies in a Drawer – Pantry Alternative for a Small Kitchen
In our quest for the organized life, we’ve organized our entryway and our closet drawers and our coat closet and our pantry (and a spice rack or two) — so next up is our baking drawer, where we keep our pantry staple dry goods as a pantry alternative in our small kitchen. All of these […]
Build a Flip-Over 2×4 Bar Stool Step Ladder AKA Hoosier Step Stool
We’ve been hard at working making our work area in the garage at our Birch House feel more like a workshop and less like a storage unit that also houses our tools — it’s slow going, but we’re making progress! Today’s video will show you how we built this simple but smart flip-over bar stool […]
