Ekk...Were Launching (AKA our first post) and more about us

Writing on the Wall

When I was three my mother found me crawling up a 2x12 plank to my father on the second floor of the house he was framing in. Even though she was petrified of heights and I was her baby, she didn't scream. Mom calmly told my Dad to turn around and call me to him (he had assured her he was watching me). I crawled right up to him and he picked me up. I'm sure she didn't bring me to a job site for a long time after that one.

Building stuff, remodeling, was just what we did in our family. Our own cutting boards, doll houses, you name it we did it ourselves. This was back before they called it "DIYing" and it was the cool thing to do. So when I ended up getting my degree in construction science and then a career in interior design, it wasn't a huge surprise to anyone.

Meanwhile, Mitch was building and rebuilding car engines in his fathers garage, eventually building (and subsequently crashing) his Camaro.

While we both were being brought up to DIY our way through this life, it wasn't until we met that our passion to create things really came to light.  So our love at first sight started with two German Shepherds, a 800 sf house we needed to remodel, and we haven't slow down after that.

The Whirlwind we call life

If you haven't been over to our Meet the Giants page yet you might not know that we are some tall people. Mitch and I stand at 6'5" and 6' respectfully, and we were both tall lanky kids who were teased for our heights. Before we met, neither of us had really dated others as tall as one another, but it was clear after we met that we had been made for one another.

We bought our small house here in Western Ma. in 2010, a year after we had met, and got married the year after that. We added three dogs to our pack, and starting breeding two of the German Shepherds in one of the odd front porches of our house.

We decided to get our very own 67' Chevy Bel Air Wagon car shortly after that.

I left my interior design position to start my own business and just as we got everything set up for a home office in our second bedroom, we found out that we were expecting.

So we're the neighbors on the block that always seem to have a few more projects going on, tons of things we still haven't finished, and its always entertaining to hear what we're up to next.

An Idea is Born

I can't peg exactly when the blog idea came about, but we started talking seriously about it once I got pregnant. We didn't have time to build up a good client base with the interior design business and it just didn't seem viable. If I went back to work the money would just go into the new babies childcare. That didn't seem to be the right thing for our family. We've been the types who are always working on something new and different, so the idea of staying at home and only raising our children didn't sit well with me either. (Silly naive me, staying at home and rising kids is two full time jobs as it is!)

So when our friends and family kept coming over and saying "show us what you've been working on lately" or other such remarks, it seemed maybe people would want to read our blog (jury is still out on that one). Hopefully we could inspire, insight, and help others with our journey.

Here are just a few of our projects completed in the past 6 years.

Left to right: our live edge dining room table, the repurposed window frame headboard, eclectic jewelry hanger, outdoor rolling cart, and our exterior porch remodel.

Right after our daughter Haverly was born, we were going to start remodeling our front porches and make them into a front entryway and small home office. It seemed the best time to start the blog as well, so I went to work learning and taking classes. (Byregina.com was the biggest help ever). At the same time I was working with our long time friend and General Contractor to draft the plans for the remodel. Then, get them approved by the building department and finally pull permits.

Best intentions at launching but...

Needless to say , the blog didn't get up and running and had to be back burnered. My mother and her Weimaraner moved in for a bit. Which meant we now had five dogs and three adults in a two bedroom, one bath house.

We had Haverly, and started demo and construction two weeks after she was born. Mitch then got a promotion to Sergeant, with a huge workload and extra time needed at the department. All the while Haverly had colic.

It was our normal crazy paced mess in this household, and we couldn't have been more thankful my mom moved in for a few months. We played pass the crying baby for two months, sounds fun right?

So here we are almost two years later, finally launching this blog that we hope you will continue to follow along with us. We would like to use this space to grow and learn in our adventures, impart any wisdoms (fails or wins), and spread some inspiration.

Our Motto

After years of this fast paced, diy lifestyle we have come to one conclusion. Perfection is overrated.

The key to us having a happy life and home is to embrace the imperfections. That lanky tall kid that everyone made fun of. The crazy couple who would move in with one another weeks after meeting. Who owns four dogs in an 800 sf home, and then breeds them, anyways?

Less Perfection = Loving Life and Home

Thats why at the bottom of most of our posts you will find a section that gives a little reality check. What went wrong, what we would do differently, or just how imperfect life is. Although we want to spread inspiration, we also want to contribute to this big world wide web in a way that honors real life.

In our real life the house is usually a mess, the dogs break things, the laundry is never really all done, we can't find our shoes because Haverly hid them, on and on. Thats what makes life interesting, the imperfections.

There is so much more we have done and that I wanted to put in this "first" post. I fear you won't ever come back if I continue to ramble on about us.

Follow along with us on this journey to wrap up old projects and  finish our spaces. we will be living this messy imperfect life and trying to inspire along the way.

Anybody else just launching a blog? We'd love to read along with yours!