The Best Non-Political Vote You Can Cast All Year

Okay, people. We need your help here.

My brilliant husband learned about a contest to win a Thomasville Furniture sectional sofa by posting an Instagram photo of one of their couches on the company Facebook page.

And because he is so brilliant, he took our kids on their school holiday Wednesday (while I was at work) and captured this hilarious photo of Spidey and Butterfly Girl relaxing in the Thomasville store.

Now all we need is for you to click over to the Thomasville Furniture Facebook page and vote for our photo -- you have to "like" their page first in order to vote (sorry about that). If you vote for us and we actually win, I promise to let you come hang out with Junius and Pippi on the new couch. We'll even let you choose your own costume.

Here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/Thomasville/app_364041783617057 (Note: Lots of people are having trouble with the link. Not sure what's happening, but it might not be mobile-friendly. Try going to https://www.facebook.com/Thomasville and look at the top of their feed for the link to the promotion.)

And may the odds be ever in our favor.

Guest Post: Organization for the Disorganized

When my online friend Evelyn over at Momsicle asked if she could guest blog about organization, I jumped at her offer -- then I realized she wouldn't be coming over to my house to demonstrate and I was a little disappointed (both because I could really use the help and because I'd love to meet her awesome self in person). 

So no, she will not be coming over to your house either. But she's got some great tips here and I'm looking forward to testing them out myself. Because I think we all know I could use the help. Then after you read her post here, be sure to click over to check out her lovely blog (all the way from the WEST COAST!).

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From Evelyn at Momsicle: 

I'm a disorganized mom with many neuroses coping mechanisms. My husband and I have moved with two young kids twice in 2012, so I've put my adaptive behaviors through the pants press of life a couple times--to crisp them up under high heat. If there's anything that tests your organizing skills it's dismantling your house and putting it back together.

For me, when the clutter is tamed it feels like my breathing calms down and I don't shudder every time I look around.

I shudder quite a bit, but after two moves and a lot of stress I've started to rely on a couple of tricks. Maybe you'll find something helpful, and then I'll be happy. Please share your own tips so that I can try them!

Momsicle's tips for improving the organization of a kid-filled house:

1. Label things. Labels bring the logic that lives in your head into the real world. I love labels on kids' bins, garage shelves, linen closets, really anywhere. When many people live in a house and many people come to visit, labels help everyone remember where things go. I did label the kitchen at our last house and my husband thought that went a little too far. I am in love with the removable, printable labels that 3M Post-It makes. Other brands like Avery also have them, and eBay seems to have great deals so you don't have to pay through the nose.

2. Purge. My mom's motto is "When in doubt, throw it out." Do I need ten vases? No. Do I need 8 sweatshirts? No. I probably need three or four. So we purged things in the last moves. And now I have a bin set up in the garage labeled "Goodwill." I can collect things as I come across them, rather than searching later for the things I've forgotten I wanted to give away.

3. Speaking of purging, send your old electronics to Best Buy. (Another idea from Krista.) We were keeping sooooo many old cords and defunct gadgets (not to mention a 6,000-pound stereo system from the '90s). The stuff the kids don't play with all went to Best Buy--including an old air conditioner. If it has a cord, they pretty much take it.

4. Keep some organizing bins handy to tame things that need to go in and out of the house. I have three near the front door for things that we need to discuss and take action on, things that need to be mailed, and things that need to be returned. This idea came from Krista Colvin (see below).

5. Shop at Goodwill for storage containers. I am addicted to storage bins. I haven't met one I can't find a use for, but when you search for organization advice online the first recommendation is DON'T go out and buy all kinds of bins and shelving helpers. C'mon!!! What does a disorganized girl have to live for if I can't at least get some motivational bins. They make me feel whole. But they are expensive and I shudder when paying full price for clear plastic. So head to Goodwill, and for $1-6 a pop, you're set. 

6. Visit Krista Colvin over at Organize the Whole Shebang.  She has great ideas for how to deal with the C word ("clutter"). I don't know her and she's not paying me. A friend saw her speak about family organization and when I stopped by her site I stayed and read five or six posts. That says a lot about a blog.

7. Tame your Tupperware area. You may be able to relate to having a section of your kitchen where plastic leftovers containers are having a permanent anarchy convention. Each time I thought I'd tamed the beast, this conversation would ensue... Husband: "Are you sure we have a lid for this?" Me: "Yes! Yes! Dig deeper!" So we purged all the random plastic containers and are sticking with only one brand that has interchangeable, stackable lids. Space-saving is up and fights are down.

8. Rework the layouts of your rooms to think about HOW you use a room first, then what looks best. We used to have our computer tucked away in an "office" space, but does a hair-brained parent ever sneak away to a sacred spot to work at home? Never. I'm always writing or responding to things while in the middle of feeding someone, burning cooking a meal, or supervising play time. The computer and office stuff are now next to the kitchen. Similarly the file cabinet is now near where I bring the mail in, rather than tucked away in a place where I will never bring things to file.

Friday's 5: Kitchen Remodel

Part four of an occasional series about what I'm enjoying in my "new" house one year after we started our big renovation project.

We saved the kitchen for last during the renovation, knowing that it would be the most disruptive part of a very messy process. You may recall my tips for eating when you don't have a kitchen -- and I've already shown you some of the before-and-after shots of the kitchen.

The change was dramatic and wonderful. But the more we live in our kitchen, the more I discover that it's the little things that make me love it the most. Here are five of my favorite details:

1. Drawers: In a space that used to have four small drawers and a jumble of cabinets, we now have three big-ass drawers. The top one has silverware and cooking utensils, while the middle has foil, bags and other related items. But the bottom drawer is the genius one -- contains both tupperware and my kids' plastic plates and cups so that they can serve themselves. Plus, all of our drawers (and cabinet doors) have this awesome soft-close feature, so you can just give it a push and it closes gently the rest of the way. (The only danger with that feature is that now I go around accidentally slamming the cabinets in the bathrooms and other places, but it's a price I'm willing to pay.)

2. Window wall: The kitchen window, which looks out over the backyard, is a stroke of genius recommended by our architect. It's a casement window, so it opens out on a crank instead of raising up on a sash. This is perfect over the sink for two reasons: it's super easy to open (no leaning over the sink to push a stuck sash) and there's no bar right at eye-level (where the two sashes meet) to block my view. I also love the open shelves beside the window (there are some on the other side, too) -- less bulky than cabinets and  a pretty way to display fun things. Plus it keeps the wine glasses at the ready.

3. Sliding shelves: I used to store my crockpot on the dining room table, the electric frying pan on top of the fridge and other big pots/pans so far back in a corner cabinet that I practically had to crawl inside to get them out. Now I just open the cabinet doors, slide out the shelves and select whatever I need. And we can actually eat dinner at the dining room table now.

4. Smoothie station: Because we make smoothies every morning, we keep the blender on the counter along with an excess of bananas (I usually buy 12 at a time). So we carved out this little counter area between the fridge and the pantry cabinets to have a space for making smoothies. We also store the toaster and the electric can opener in the cabinet below, so everything is close to an outlet.

5. Spice rack: When we took out the top half of the wall between the kitchen and dining room, I lost the over-the-stove cabinet where I used to keep spices, oils, etc. So when we redesigned the kitchen, there was just enough room to tuck this handy spice/oil sliding cabinet beside the stove. It keeps everything right where I need it and doesn't require having a spice rack on the counter.

What little details do you love best about your kitchen? Or what spaces would you most like to change?

Check out the rest of this series...
- Part 1: Powder Room
- Part 2: Dining Room
- Part 3: Family Room

Friday's 5: Christmas Decorations

Many of you probably kicked your Christmas tree to the curb on Monday. You Scroogey Grinches, you.

But because I have a strict no-tree-before-my-birthday policy, I'm not tired of our Christmas decorations just yet. In fact, I like to keep them up until Epiphany, although sometimes they come down a little earlier because we need to get it done over a weekend.

So in honor of the festivities still lingering around my house, here are five of my favorites from holiday decorating this year:

1. Mantel: This is the first year we've actually had a mantel in a long time, so I loved having a place to hang stockings and display my nutcracker collection. Throw in some branches trimmed from the tree and a sparkly Target wreath and it all fills in quite nicely.

2. Window: No drapes in the dining room? No problem. Just hang some of those leftover balls that wouldn't fit on the tree. They're even pretty at night, but especially fun sparkling in the sun during the day.

3. Cards: We're lucky to receive lots of cards from friends and family across the globe -- but I've never had a good way to display them all. This year I stretched string across those quick-release hooks along the empty dining room wall, covered the hooks with bows and used kid-painted clothes pins to hold the cards on. Next year, I think I'll do three rows so I don't have to cram them in so tight.

4. Napkin rings: These little gems are not only festive and useful for setting the holiday table, they also provided a craft project that distracted my kids for about 15 minutes while I was cooking on Christmas Eve morning. Just cut toilet paper tubes into thirds, cover with stickers and enjoy an instantly festive table.

5. Carolers: If you've been reading this blog for a couple of years, you know I can't take credit for these winners. My crafty neighbor one-upped herself again (see brilliance from 2010 and 2009), using my one leftover Halloween pumpkin and four of her own to create this caroling crowd that she left on my doorstep. In case you can't see their song sheets, they're singing "Silent Night" (*snort*). You can only wish you lived across the street from her, too.

So what was your favorite holiday decorating trick this season? Share your best so we can add it to our list for next year.
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Guest Room Gone Wrong

Update 12.29.11: It worked! Thanks to Molly's contest with Tempur-Pedic, we'll be getting a brand new bed!

Recently I've shared some of my favorite details from our big renovation project, along with pictures of my house. But in case you think that my home is all clean and sparkly and new without any mess or chaos, let me make a little confession.

My guest room? Total disaster.

So when Molly Gold announced a contest inviting her fans to share a video story of the worst guest room they've ever stayed in, well...

I'll let you see for yourself.

Nonna and Grandpa -- I promise we'll be ready for you by Saturday. And if it weren't for the prospect of winning a Tempur-Pedic bed (courtesy of Molly), I would never have given you that video tour.
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Friday's 5: Family Room Remodel

Part three of an occasional series about what I'm enjoying in my "new" house one year after we started our big renovation project.

The dining room isn't the only space that will feel different for the holidays this year -- the family room got a total overhaul as well. Last year we were able to get a tree in there about a week before Christmas, but the room was otherwise mostly empty given that most of our belongings were boxed up in the guest room or stashed in  a pod in our driveway.

Now we have a brand new room to enjoy (although it's still the same old furniture) -- we took out a load-bearing column that chopped up the space, installed a steel beam in the ceiling to support the second floor, added recessed lighting, replaced the floor and completely changed the focal wall of the room (as a reminder, I don't recommend tackling a project like this without consulting a good architect first). Within all those changes, here are the details that I like best about the space...

1. Bookcases: The biggest feature we added to the room is the built-in bookcases flanking the fireplace. As lifelong book nerd and former English teacher, I love having books out and available. There are still more books in boxes upstairs, but at least I've got lots out where I can see them. Plus, what you don't see are all the toys tucked away inside those cabinets.

2. Dictionary shelf: In case having lots of books isn't nerdy enough for you, I also love being able to have a big, fat dictionary open and ready. Yes, I know you can look up anything on the internet. But it's just not the same.

3. Fireplace with mantel: Our old fireplace had a crumbling brick facade and no mantel -- nothing for hanging stockings or displaying treasures. Now we have sparkly mica tile (complete with a keystone) and a gorgeous mantel that ties into the book cases on either side. IT's so pretty that we didn't want to cover it up with a big fireplace screen (and it's just gas logs anyway), so we found this funky metal design with leaves and birds -- a great bit of quirky on an otherwise traditional design.

4. Media cabinet: No, this photo doesn't look pretty. But that's exactly the point. All those cables and boxes and electronics stay hidden inside that cabinet below the TV. And thanks to some kind of magical sensor that my husband installed, the remote works through the wood cabinet doors to run the TiVo box inside.

5. Trim work: The beautiful molding around the bookcases isn't the only trim detail in the room. Our talented architect and carpenter (who also created the bookcases and mantel) added a column effect at the corners of the room, which is open to the kitchen on one end and the foyer/hall on the other end. It's a great touch that helps separate the room (and the wall colors) without taking up any real space in the floor plan.

What little details make your family room great? Or what projects are you plotting to turn the space into the room you're imagining?

Check out the rest of this series...
- Part 1: Powder Room
- Part 2: Dining Room
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Friday's 5: Dining Room Remodel

Part two of an occasional series about what I'm enjoying in my "new" house one year after we started our big renovation project.

Last year, in the midst of renovating most of our downstairs, we hosted Christmas. It wasn't fancy, given that most of our furniture was still outside in a pod in our driveway. But we made it work.

The dining room was only partially finished then, so I'm extra excited about hosting Christmas dinner in there this year. It's not a very big room and mostly square, but here's what I like best about the room...

1. Open space: Because the space was small, we opened it to the kitchen (by removing the top half of the wall) and living room (by widening the doorway and adding the pass-through openings between the columns) to give the illusion of more space. It's a less formal space that way, but it also means that we use it every day now.

2. Woodwork: The wainscoting adds interest to the room and dresses it up a little. It also breaks up the expanse of wall along the side of the house, so we could use a darker wall color above without having it overwhelm the room.

3. Display cabinets: Again, because it's a small room, we didn't want to put a lot of furniture in the space. But we desperately needed storage. So our talented carpenter built cabinets into either side of the doorway with the living room. Now we have beautiful storage/display space inside the cabinets, as well as serving and display space on top.

4. Hidden cabinet: Not as showy, but no less lovely than the display cabinetry is this little wonder tucked into some dead space on the back of the kitchen wall. Our fabulous contractor built the cabinet door right into the wainscoting, so you almost don't even see it -- but it's hiding a huge storage space that otherwise would have been wasted. (Unrelated to the dining room, that pumpkin sitting there is the one I used to make this soup.)

5. Chandelier: The piece de resistance in this room is definitely the chandelier. Originally a gift from my husband's grandparents to his parents when they were married, my mother-in-law passed it on to us a few years ago. We waited until the renovation was complete before installing the fixture. It's tough to capture with my amateur photography (which may or may not have been done with my iPhone), but the design is funky and sparkly and beautiful. Combining the fancy lighting with the rough table adds just a little touch of quirky to the room that makes me very happy.

Now all I have to do is order our Fresh Market holiday dinner, and we're ready to go!

Check out the rest of this series...
- Part 1: Powder Room
- Part 3: Family Room

Friday's 5: Powder Room Remodel

A year ago this month, we started our big renovation project. Looking back, I'm so glad we did it -- but I'm also a little amazed that we survived it all.

In celebration, I'll be sharing some of my favorite things about our "new" house over the next few Fridays. Today, we'll look at an often overlooked little room: the powder room.

Ours is tucked between the foyer and the family room near the stairs. It's small and has a low-ish ceiling -- but you can see it from the kitchen and we walk past it every time we go to the front door. So even though it's not a big space, it still needs to look great.

Here's what I like best about the room...

 1. Magazine rack: Yes, the bathroom doubles as a library -- as if you can honestly say you never read in there. Plus this way I have a storage area for all our catalogs and magazines that isn't my kitchen counter (where these things used to pile up). The brushed nickel finish matches the faucet and ties in with the floor.

2. Pedestal sink: Small enough to fit the space, but still substantial enough to have a presence. So maybe the footstool isn't so classy, but I love the rectangular bowl and squared off base of this sink.

3. Wall color: Because the rest of the downstairs walls are painted in more neutral shades, the red is fun in the tiny room. And it coordinates perfectly with my favorite cover print from The New Yorker magazine.

4. Molding details: Not just crown molding, but molding that accommodates the lower ceiling (because of plumbing from upstairs) and makes it beautiful above the doorway. Only a fabulous finish carpenter would think of such details.

5. Tile floor: We used the same tile from our new hearth, in the adjoining room -- it looks like slate, but is actually tile with tiny mica flecks that make it silvery sparkly. Not so warm on the feet, but it hides every speck of dirt and adds a little flair to a very small space. Also notice the fancy register cover.

What's your favorite touch in your powder room? Or what project are you planning to improve this small but essential room?

Check out the rest of this series...
- Part 2: Dining Room
- Part 3: Family Room

Why Yes, I Am Giving Lessons in Organization

What? Are you surprised? Thought I was too disorganized to have much to offer?

Well, you're wrong. So there.

In fact, because I occasionally nearly always have some mess here and there taking over my house, it turns out I have much to offer on the topic of organization.

Thankfully, my dear friend Julie recognized this wealth of lessons learned the hard way knowledge I have to share and invited me to guest post on her blog. So head on over to Simplify Your Life to learn more about what you should do to get organized BEFORE you start a home renovation project.

And while you're there, be sure to check out some of Julie's great tips about getting organized and staying that way. One of my favorite features is her "Ten in Ten on the Tenth."

In the meantime, I'll be over here writing a new soapbox post about Teaching Fellows and Governor's School and why they matter and how your donation to the GS Foundation can make a difference.
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Remodeling 5: Tips for Prospective Remodelers

Let me be clear up front. Today's post is not going to filled with tips about HOW TO remodel any part of your home.

This is about how to SURVIVE while someone ELSE remodels the home you are currently living in. Because I sure as hell didn't lift that steel beam up into the ceiling. And in case you're wondering, all those 2x4s are, in fact, supporting the upstairs above my family room in that photo. Yikes.

Actually, my first tip would be to NOT live in your house while it's being remodeled. Go to the beach for a couple months. Travel around Europe. Move in with your parents. Get a hotel room. Whatever it takes not to live in a half-destroyed house with two young children.

Because in real life, it's not at all like Divine Design, where Candace, Chico and HunkyCarpenterPaul make it all beautiful in 30 minutes. It's messy and chaotic and loud and exhausting in ways you cannot predict.

But if moving out is not an option (and it wasn't for us), then here are five suggestions to help you weather the insanity that is home renovation.

1. Hire people you trust. See Monday's post for my recommendations. These people are going to be in your house all day long for weeks at a time -- you can't be there every minute (and trust me, often you won't want to be there). If you can't trust them in your home while you're gone, then don't hire them. And if you don't think you can stand looking at them regularly for the next four months, don't hire them either.
2. Get organized first. In order to renovate the downstairs of our house, we had to move most of the stuff that normally lives in those rooms and stash it upstairs. This created a whole new level of chaos in all the bedrooms and the upstairs hallway. If we'd been smarter (or taken more time), we would have cleared out all the extraneous stuff first, had a big yard sale and made a few runs to Goodwill before we started boxing things up and storing them in every corner. The more you can get rid of or at least get sorted, the better you'll be during and after the reno.
3. Select materials early. Before anyone starts knocking out walls or tearing up floors, go ahead and make as many decisions as you can. Pick out your cabinets, appliances, flooring, paint colors, hardware, counters, whatever -- that way everything is ordered and waiting when your crew is ready to install. Many of the delays in our project were caused by us, not our crew, because we didn't always plan our decisions ahead.
4. Recycle the old. We filled an entire dumpster in two months with construction debris and demolition from the house. Blech. Thankfully, we also sent a lot of things -- cabinets, light fixtures, hardware -- to the Habitat ReStore. And Progress Energy paid us $50 (that's them paying us, not the other way around) to pick up our old fridge and recycle the parts. Some of our crew even took things home with them if it was something they could use. Anything you can keep out of the landfill, do it.
5. Have a Plan B place. You absolutely must have a safe place to go when you really need to get out of your house -- particularly if you have a toddler who needs a nap during the day and can't sleep through the wrecking crew lullaby. My sweet friend Ms. S gave us her house key and an open invitation to make her home our own while she was at work -- this was particularly brilliant since her daughter is close to Pippi's age, so we could borrow her crib (and now her big girl bed). On more than one occasion, we napped, cooked, ate and played at her house, even when she wasn't there.

The good news is that it will eventually end. And today, where once there was only 2x4s, a steel beam and a pile of brick rubble, we now have this (as-yet undecorated) view...

Remodeling Week:
Hire People You Trust
Eating Without a Kitchen
Things He Left Behind
Kitchen Before and After

Remodeling 5: Eating Without a Kitchen

When your kitchen looks like this, you have to rethink dinner. And breakfast and lunch, for that matter, since there's no table either -- but dinner is the most significant challenge.

With a major renovation under way, we couldn't afford to just eat out for every meal. And who really wants to drag a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old to a restaurants every night anyway?

For the second installment in Five Lists about Home Renovation Week, I share with you five survival tips for getting by without a kitchen and without breaking the bank:

1. Phone a friend: Without the kindness of friends who invited us over to eat or cook and one who even gave us open access to her kitchen (thanks, Ms. S!), we would not have made it through. I pulled lasagna from the freezer and heated it at a friend's house while the kids played. I brought pizzas to another friend's and cooked enough for all of us. It was so nice just to sit at a table in a home to eat dinner, even if it wasn't my own home.
2. Grocery dining: My grocery budget was way down for the past month since there wasn't anywhere to cook. So we decided to just eat at the grocery store instead. Harris Teeter sells tasty-fresh, custom pizzas for $7.99 on Mondays -- we just took ours upstairs and people-watched at the store while we ate dinner. 
3. Coupon/Groupon: We got a lot of use out of our CityPass coupon book and some strategic Groupon purchases so that we could get special deals at restaurants when we needed them. Somehow, a BOGO deal makes everything a little better.
4. Family night: On Tuesdays at Chick-Fil-A, kids get a free meal with the purchase of a grown-up meal. Plus we had a very generous gift card from another friend (thanks, PY!), so that made the deal even sweeter. Of course, other restaurants offer family night deals, too (like Moe's), but CFA is always the favorite at our house. I think it's the free ice cream.
5. Grilled cheese: When we just needed to have an easy meal at home, we pulled out the George Foreman cooker panini maker and fired up some grilled cheese sandwiches. Heat up some soup in the microwave, throw some fruit on the kids' plates, and it's a surprisingly well-balanced meal. Just had to get a little creative about the location (and notice, there's ALWAYS cereal):

But after too many nights of watching my kids eat dinner like this...

...I'm more than excited to be fixing dinner in this...

That sneak peek photo is courtesy of the little comment fit that Momsicle threw yesterday. More to come later this week, so stay tuned!

Remodeling Week:
Hire People You Trust
Tips for Prospective Remodelers
Things He Left Behind
Kitchen Before and After

Remodeling 5: Hire People You Trust

Last August, I warned you what happens when you give a girl some crown molding. When I wrote that post, we'd actually completed the story through the shower remodel.

The rest started in November.

And by "the rest," I mean tearing out walls, installing a 600 lb steel beam in the ceiling, adding lighting, replacing ceilings, replacing floors, gutting the kitchen, removing the fireplace facade, adding lots of bookcases and cabinets, installing new trim, and painting everything. Plus relocating all the furniture and accessories a million times to accommodate all the work.

Damn. No wonder I'm exhausted. And we didn't even do any of the construction work ourselves.

But as of March 11, 2011, I have a fully functioning, totally remodeled kitchen. Let the people say Hallelujah! Can I get an Amen?!

It's been a long road -- and even though we're not 100 percent completely finished, I thought I'd designate this week as Five Lists About Home Renovations Week.

Today's theme is The House that Lakemont Built. One of the cool things about this big fat messy project is that we got to work with people in our neighborhood.

Here are five of our neighbors who helped make this new house possible -- plus a bonus neighbor from the first round of projects:

1. Architect: Jennifer Heron Brock, JHB Architect. Jennifer spent many hours designing a plan that would be both structurally sound (important when you don't want your upstairs bedroom to land in your family room) and also incorporate all the changes to make the house live the way we want to live. Having architectural plans in place before anyone started swinging a sledge hammer gave me peace of mind that everyone working on the project would literally be on the same page.
2. Contractor: Joe Fiore, Residential Remedies. Joe practically became part of our family over the past 4+ months. From hoisting a steel beam into the ceiling (with a little help) to sweeping up at the end of the day -- and everything in between -- he made the whole project come together. Plus, he let the kids feel like they were part of the project, too, even when it would have been easier to send them out of the way.
3. Drywall: Juan Martinez, freelance. Juan made our ceilings so smooth they look like a freshly-Zambonied ice rink. You'd never know there's a layer of crappy popcorn hidden under there. He also spent a lot of time repairing all the walls after the electricians and plumbers were finished so that the paint would look perfect.
4. Carpentry: Matt Kesterson, Kesterson Finish Carpentry. Matt turned a pile of wood into the most beautiful cabinetry, shelves, trim and mantel you can imagine. The level of detail -- from the way the baseboard traces behind the toilet plumbing to the special touches along the crown molding -- is absolutely gorgeous.
5. Flooring: Jeff Armstrong, Brentwood Flooring (Cary). Jeff helped us select the perfect flooring for our house -- then made sure that the installers got everything just right. We had a not-so-great experience with hardwood installation at our last house, so it was a relief to know we were in good hands this time. And considering that the new floors cover the entire downstairs, we really had to get it right.
6. Shower: Wally Ackerson, Acclaim Builders. Wally took care of our shower problem last year after we discovered the leak. Even though it meant cutting into the kitchen ceiling (leading us into the rest of this project), he left us with a beautiful shower that makes starting the day much brighter -- which is particularly important when the whole downstairs was such a disaster.

Stay tuned this week for tips about remodeling, how to survive without a kitchen, surprising things our contractor left behind and some much-anticipated before/after photos.

Remodeling Week:
Eating Without a Kitchen
Tips for Prospective Remodelers
Things He Left Behind
Kitchen Before and After