Cailo's Profile

For two years, we were the only renters in an otherwise-owner-occupied building. We were heartbroken when our landlord wanted to move back in -- the condo itself was small and generic, but the community in that building was AMAZING. Of the 10 units, about 6 regularly socialized -- impromptu pancake brunches on Sunday mornings, evenings around the fire pit in the backyard, a community garden we created in the front yard, and on and on. It reminded me of the cooperative living of my grad school days, yet we all had our own, private spaces to which we could retreat when needed. Our landlord moving back meant we finally bought our first house, which was very exciting, but we've always been a little heartbroken about leaving behind our neighbors.

As a fellow displaced Texan (just up the road in Wisconsin!), I was excited to see this tour! What we see of this home is awfully lovely -- but I agree with many of the comments that it's too bad we don't see more full room shots.

Of the 38 photos, fewer than 10 would qualify (IMHO) as room shots. Lots of interesting vignettes, but my preference is too see how a person has used their whole space, including furniture layout and creative uses of unique/small spaces. I would have loved more (full room) views of the living room, in particular!

My husband doesn't like going on neighborhood walks with me, because I spend so much time glancing into other people's windows to spy on their furniture placement, paint colors, etc., that he finds it a bit embarrassing. :-)

And, to echo the person who suggested asking for a peek inside -- I once was invited to check out the inside of a home featured as an AT house tour, via asking about it in the comments section (the homeowner is a wonderful person, and we've since gotten together to do craft projects). So yes, it certainly never hurts to ask!

Wow! Stunning. I agree -- a house tour would be wonderful!

Many lovely things here, but my favorite space is the small porch area -- so lush and inviting! We're in the process of a DIY update to our very sad front and back porches, and this is exactly the vibe I hope to create. Thanks for sharing.

They clearly give credit to Young House Love for the idea. I don't think that makes them a "wannabe" at all.

I thought the "before" had charm, but in looking at their home, the "after" really works well in their space, given their wall colors and the fact they use this in their dining room. I think this is a great example of repurposing something old/unused in way that a) meets your needs, b) does so on a budget, and c) is something the rest of us could try ourselves, without expensive equipment or highly refined skills. Great job!!

We might be in the minority, in that both my husband and I were very uncomfortable with the idea of a registry. We had so many people traveling from out of state, and we felt the amount of time and money they spent in getting here was a gift in itself -- so our wedding was very explicitly "gift optional".

I almost never buy off of registries when I know the person really well, so for our guests who wanted to give a gift, we encouraged hand-made or second-hand or uniquely local items, and we received so many creative and personal items that we never would have thought to register for. We also suggested that people donate to the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in lieu of gifts, and were happy that several people did!

We did end up having a small registry for people who didn't know us well (friends of parents, distant aunts and uncles), but the vast majority of guests who gave gifts didn't use it, which was fine by us.

Some we got at the thrift store. But we also just looked in our car and realized we had doubles of a lot of city and state maps that we didn't need. And somehow we'd accumulated three road atlases. We kept the most recent varieties and turned the rest into craft supplies. Freecycle and Craigslist might be good places to check, too.

@cynthiavanderlouw -- we're avid readers and have a fairly substantial collection of books, yet we organize them by color, too. We just break them up by genre, so that all nonfiction books are in one set of bookcases, etc., and then arrange by color accordingly. It allows us to keep a lot of books in our smallish living room without the bookshelves looking like a distracting jumble. This certainly wouldn't work for everyone -- but even with a large collection of books, it's possible!