Harold's Renovation Blog: #74: The Big Fight We Had Over A Fridge

People always ask if we ever argue, especially with all the house projects we tackle together. Well, the short answer is yes. And the speed bumps we hit while installing our beach house kitchen are a perfect example of what can spark a spat. So we’re sharing what we fought about, how we solved it, and who was right all along. We’re also revealing another big change we’re making in the beach house kitchen (hint: it has to do with the island) and dispelling a myth about a commonly espoused “real estate deal killer” that might not be as scary or expensive as you think! Plus, our take on the new “it” room to have in your house and our trick for getting holiday cards done faster.

You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and TuneIn Radio – or listen to it below! Then use this page to check out any links, notes, or photos we referenced. Note: If you’re reading in a feed reader, you might have to click through to the post to see the player.

What’s New

Above is a shot of our fridge “compromise” (don’t mind the hole that needs to be patched or the missing cabinet drawer). And our full-sized fridge for the pantry will be delivered tomorrow – woot!
You can read more about our the decision to turn the breakfast nook into a pantry here (and see pictures of that cardboard mock-up and our final appliance selections).
Our new island isn’t getting installed for a week or two, but we went with a Silestone quartz in “Pearl Jasmine.” Note: we shared how we saved money on it in this week’s podcast – so if you’re shopping for quartz that could help the budget.
In that photo above you can also see one of Jeremy’s awesome wooden bowls peeking into frame. Here it is again below.
And if you missed our talk from the Bristol event (it covers 10 years of the decorating and life lessons we learned while growing our business and figuring out our style) just check out Episode #73.

Quiz

Above is a shot of our own so-called “Pajama Lounge,” which you can read more about here.
Here’s the snapshot from House Beautiful that Sarah tweeted us. Props for using the word “newfangled.”

And as promised, here’s a quick poll about the living room / family room / sweatpants suite situation in your own home. We love hearing what works for you guys:

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Oh, and here’s the post about our friends “formal” living room that we helped make over recently.

Can We Just Talk About

As a refresher, that’s what our beach house looked like earlier this year after we had to tear off a large chunk of it and have it rebuilt from the foundation up (more on that in this post).
While the poor foundation was certainly part of the issue, it had a whole host of other unrelated problems – completely rotten siding that you could stick your arm through (see below), a caved in roof, etc – that made rebuilding it the best option.
That’s now the area where all three bathrooms reside, along with the mudroom, the pantry, and the upstairs bunk room.

We’re Digging

Above are some of the Minted holiday card designs we’re loving this year (this was the design we chose this year): 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9
Again, we’ve loved ordering from them over the last few years (totally not sponsored, btw!) because of their complementary address printing. I’m also pretty dang impressed that we received our cards within 48 hours of ordering this year (and we didn’t pay for any rush printing or shipping).
And here’s the self-inking address stamper that Sherry mentioned to save even more time:

Here’s that $40 personalized page-a-day calendar from Social Print Studio that I can’t stop recommending. We’re already gathering photos to make a batch of 2018 calendars for the whole family.

And below is that photo we described of how our kids tape up their favorite “Polaroid” calendar pages to the inside of their mudroom doors. It’s fun to watch them build as the year goes by and then we start fresh again in January (adding the old set in their respective memory boxes in a little ziplock bag).

If you’re looking for something we’ve dug in a past episode, but don’t remember which show notes to click into, here’s a master list of everything we’ve been digging from all of our past episodes.

And lastly, a big thank you to Cardboard Safari for sponsoring this episode. You can get 20% off your first order with the code YHL20 at http://ift.tt/2gegl2P.