Fall is in the air here in Columbia, and so this weekend I set to work on our sorely-neglected back porch. I swept and scrubbed the dirt-coated floor and wiped down the dresser and hauled the table and chairs out to the yard to hose them off. Now that we’re keeping our windows and back door open to let in the breeze I wanted to make the porch a place where we can eat dinner or sit with a cup of tea. But I didn’t want to spend a dime. So I did what The Nester recommends and “shopped my house.” This means, rather than running out and buying stuff,…

A part of me doesn’t want to show you our master bedroom yet, because there’s so much more to do. I want it to look perfect first. But let’s face it: which of us has a room in our home that looks perfect? Right now I’m in the mode of learning to appreciate not-perfect. Also at this very moment, our back yard looks like this: Both David and I are tense from hearing 100-foot pines felled just feet from our house all day long (in case you were wondering, the garden beds were crushed by lunch time), and I personally have been terrified someone would tumble to their death in our back…

We’ve been homeowners for four months now and since our house is very clean this week I think it’s time for an updated photo tour. Without further ado, I give you our living room progress: In the beginning:   First month:   Today: We haven’t made any big changes to the living room, just filled out the space a little more. The first time we saw this house I wasn’t sure what we’d do with such a long living room (in the original house the space where we have our bookcases was the dining area), but now I love it. That extra nook is almost always filled with legos or…