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Hello! I'm Suzannah, a serious DIYer and mom of two little ones. Follow along with my DIY fixer upper house renovations, sewing and crafty projects, real food recipes, and de-stressing goals.
I believe you can love your home just the way it is, AND have the power to design and make big changes to make it better.
I'm also the author of DIY Wardrobe Makeovers!

11.12.2024

Back patio door replacement + tips to Paint Smarter!

This spring I had my driveway and back patio replaced with new concrete (read about that here). It was an expensive project and it had quite a few domino effects and other little things it encouraged me to get done around the backyard. One domino was this strange back patio door we’d had with a 5” or so ledge you had to step (or trip) over. I had the concrete guys cut the ledge down to the grade, but then the old door was too short! I found an antique one on Facebook, probably around the same age as my others (1937 home with all the original doors). I’ll spare you the installation saga (it took two handymen and a custom brickmold trim order to get this thing installed right…) but I also really took some steps to do the painting of the new door and trim right, and I’m sharing a few tips for smart paint purchasing, storage, and recycling in this post.

This post is sponsored by PaintCare, an organization with a ton of resources to help you paint smarter and recycle paint!
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10.10.2024

A fake Christmas tree when you grew up with real tree purists

I can’t believe how excited I am about this fake Christmas tree. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, where there are Christmas tree farms and cut tree lots everywhere and you can have the magical experience of getting your own… But as an adult having kids and a million things to do and stressful communication with my husband, I grew to really dislike and almost fear the experience. I have some really bad memories of the last few times we tried before we separated. 

Well, a couple years ago I realized, I’m a single mom now and I get to choose what works for me and my family! I am shedding the guilt and creating new magical traditions with my kids with fake trees! Without all the stress and mess! And I just got a really wonderful one.

Thanks to King of Christmas for sponsoring this post.

Realistic Pre-lit Christmas Tree

I’m really excited about this tree because it has the more bare fir look of some of the beautiful real trees, but it's fake and pre-lit. Honestly, those firs at Christmas tree yards are like $150 so I’ve never bought one even when buying real trees… But I love the look! This 7.5' Rushmore Fir Artificial Christmas Tree 750 Warm White LED Lights from King of Christmas has the slightly more bare branches, plus, my favorite feature: plastic fronds as well as the fabric ones that the cheaper trees will be exclusively. 

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9.17.2024

Basement laundry room but make it cute - reveal! And sources

A basement laundry room is not my dream situation, but I’ve finally finished renovating and now styling this one and am happy with it! It was part of the big basement renovation project that we started in early 2022 but, thanks and part two divorce and lots of other priorities in life, there were still paint, touchups and other things to do until very recently. little by little finished parts of this room and then finally got the final piece, very cool, traditional drying rack!

Old House Basement Laundry Room Reveal


The blue on the walls is a shade darker than the blue on the drywall around the rest of the basement: the laundry room walls and trim and the trim everywhere else is Sherwin-Williams 6228 Refuge, the walls in the rest of the basement are SW 6227 Meditative. It’s actually really beautiful blue color, not too dark despite this being a slightly darker space, perfect amount of muddiness. 

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9.05.2024

Charming preppy guest room/office reveal! And sources

This guest room was my most recent room makeover project last summer, finished just before our house was on the old house TV show. But then last February, I was relaxing in a hot tub in Scottsdale and scrolling Instagram, and saw an image that I just loved so much, and felt so much more true to my style than how I had been decorating the past few years! I am leaning into my preppy side. With the creative juices flowing from the relaxation state of that vacation, I became inspired to put up some blue and white wallpaper in this sun-filled guest room that I also use as my office. It’s taken quite a few months to get all the elements in place but it’s finally done and I’m so happy with it!

Classic Feminine Wallpapered Guest Room

This is a really great room because it has south and west-facing windows, so lots of light particularly in the afternoon. I love it for my office for that reason! But it’s also just beautiful as a peaceful bed to look at as I passed by in the hall. And, we’ve used it to sleep in when it’s too hot upstairs! The blue and white Rifle Paper Co. paper wallpaper was obviously the anchor, but since it is a little cleaner/fresher/preppier then I've done the past few years. It took me a lot of head-scratching to find the rest of the pieces.

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9.03.2024

Historic breakfast nook makeover reveal! And sources

I visited this house once when I was a kid. With my mom, talking to the previous owners about some neighborhood association stuff. The only thing I remember is the built-ins in the breakfast nook. When we walked through the house 25 years later, I was delighted to see that of course they are still there and just as I remember them.

But the nook itself needed some updates. I painted it a couple years ago, which was fun, but it was still a little plain. I’ve put a lot of thought into the curtains and other elements and now it’s finally done!

Tudor Revival Breakfast Nook Reveal

Welcome to this sunny room. The sun comes up on this side of the house and sunlight streams into here on clear mornings. 

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8.12.2024

My experience with home warranties

I realized this summer during the big heat wave that we had that my air conditioning was broken. I shared a little about that on Instagram and how it was OK because my home warranty would probably cover it (it did! He replaced three parts and the thermostat, and it cost me the $85 visit fee/deductible). I got some questions and figured I should share a little more about my experiences over the past 10+ years with home warranties.
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7.24.2024

Mudroom/sewing room tour!

A few years ago I renovated this pass-through room that goes from our downstairs hall to the garage as my office. Previously it had been Otto’s nursery when we lived entirely downstairs! It was definitely awkward as a nursery. It was pretty good as an office because it’s downstairs near the kitchen, etc., but the north facing windows sometimes made it feel dreary. So I moved my home office to the guest room when I updated that space, and was left with this funky room that pretty easily became a catch-all for shoes and coats and returns going out the door. So I cleaned it up, and made it functional again with some hooks and shoe shelving, and still had room for my sewing stuff on the former desk.

Mudroom/Office Reveal

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6.20.2024

Brand new concrete driveway and patio: details and cost!

When we bought this house six years ago, we knew there were a lot of things that were big ticket items we couldn’t do ourselves. We’ve done those slowly, over time--roof, gutters, and garage door in early 2020… Major basement renovation in 2022. Then got a divorce and I really slowed down on my home projects. But with summer coming up and with my life feeling pretty stable right now, I felt ready to tackle the very cracked patio and driveway that I knew were really negatively impacting the home overall and property value/future sale price. I knew this would be expensive, but I got three quotes and talked the project over with my dad and an engineer friend, and went ahead with it.
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5.31.2024

Updates to the pink bedroom (with sources)

Last fall I painted my bedroom a light peachy paint color I concocted myself out of some samples and then had color matched. I had been thinking of doing this for a couple years, but ended up actually doing it around the time my divorce was final (not intentionally a girly single woman choice, but it works!). I was bored of the white (see that version here), but it was also comfortable/I was used to it. Adding color can be scary and sometimes it takes a while to get used to it. I was really not too sure about this color at first but I’ve made a few changes around the room, and now I just love it and it feels so right!
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