And so, here it goes… WELCOME to Dear Home! A blog about DIY’s design, family and a whole bunch of trial and errors. We are a family team of design and project addicts. I am Jamie, the Mom, photographer, interior stylist and a shopaholic. It’s true, and I have no shame about it! I have a passion for pattern, color and natural light. I will wallpaper anything I can get my hands on and have a storage space in my house dedicated to my ridiculous collection of throw pillows and blankets. And while I love to collect beautiful creations from around the globe, I live for local artists & shops and finding unique treasures among them.
Jeff is the handyman. He loves his projects and loves his tools even more! Honestly, without him, we would not get anything done. He is the definition of a go-getter! On the days I would rather be lazy on the couch watching a movie or HGTV Jeff’s ambition kicks in and we end up doing an entire weekends worth of projects in a day. He is the best possible opposite that I could ask for! We’re best together when we’re working together.
Our two little guys are always included in our shenanigans. They draw floorplans with crayons and help pick paint colors. They try to be involved in as much as they can.
So how did we get started in all of this design madness? We bought our first house at the end of 2010. I was the Creative Director for an Event Management company in Chicago, working from home and expecting our first little man. Jeff just started a new job as the Environmental and Safety Director of a cabinet company and up until this point, had very little experience with power tools. The day after we got the keys, we started tearing down walls. We were hooked from there and spent the next 6 years renovating every inch of our first home!
A few short months after we finished renovating our ranch style fixer upper, we began a huge project restoring a 5,000 sq ft, 160(ish) year old house. This was a bigger project than we could’ve ever imagined but only fed into our love of projects. More on that later, but as our Sister Hill project was coming to an end, we were already dreaming of our next venture. That is how the 3 year process of our dream home began! And so, here we go! Follow along to watch as we built and designed our home from a simple drawing on scratch paper to dear HoME.
Cheers, Jamie
