Back in 2003, I bought my first house. It was a hundred year old fixer-upper. It had shag carpet, a full wall of decorative mirror and a kitchen that hadn't been updated since the 1960s. The whole house needed to be renovated.
I was 24 and I didn't know what I was in for.When I bought that house the only thing I knew how to do was paint (turns out, I didn't know how to do that either). I thought I could throw some spackle on the walls, run a few wires and in a month or two, I'd be completely done remodeling. Ha.
I wasted a lot of time and money but eventually, I learned how to do it the right way.
Over the course of the next few years, I demolished most of the interior of this first house. I ripped out the plaster, the plumbling and the electrical. It was gutted down to the studs. Even the brick wall between the dining room and the kitchen was eventually removed.
I started to learn the home improvement and DIY ropes little by little. First it was window, door and baseboard molding. Then it was small wiring and plumbing projects. Gaining confidence, I was able to finish a portion of the basement and take on more challenging projects.
Eventually, I started to help out my friends and family with their home remodels. Most weekends, my Jeep was packed with tile saws, a few nail guns, a shop vac, and a miter saw.I got used to being covered in drywall and plaster dust.
In 2008, I took on my most ambitious project yet: building my own kitchen cabinets.
After I had gutted the kitchen, I wanted to add some white shaker cabinets with inset doors for a more custom look. The only problem was cabinets are expensive and custom cabinets are extremely expensive. So I looked into the process, learned what I needed to and got started building.
The cabinets came out exactly how I hoped they would.A couple years later we were able to sell that first house very quickly.
In 2011, after a year in our new home, Lisa and I started to blog about our home improvement projects. No longer working on projects we HAD to do because of the age of our first home, we could focus our projects on upgrades we wanted to.
Since we started blogging in 2011, we've written more than 400 blog posts and 30+ videos on every type of home improvement project you could imagine. We specialize in cabinet building, built-ins and custom carpentry.
I started this website as a resource to help people like you.
If you want to learn more about home improvement, adding value to your house and become a more skilled homeowner, you've come to the right place.
In addition to blog posts and tutorials, I've also put together free woodworking plans, calculators and some in-depth training on cabinet building to help you achieve your home improvement goals.
To get started today, just click the red button.
