Hurricane Isaias was the first major hurricane to hit our area since we moved here 6.5 years ago. We followed our county's mandatory evacuation orders and drove many hours away to an unaffected part of Florida (Ocala). As we hunkered down at an Airbnb with our friends, kids, and pets, we watched as the hurricane became a Category 3 and turned towards our area back home. Luckily, our house and most of our neighborhood sustained only minor damage, relatively speaking. A few trees down, a scratch in the painted top piece of our fence (can see the tree leaning on it below?), and a LOT of leaves and sticks to clean up.

Continue reading How We Made Our House More Hurricane Safe at Young House Love.

As a former professional product namer, I've named everything from cheeseburgers to cell phones. And you might think... she also probably wants to name my baby. Well, you'd be right. I LOVE brainstorming name ideas, researching meanings, and test-driving name pairings. I also get the sometimes daunting pressure of it all. It can be stressful, and there are tons of factors to consider, endless options to sift through, and somehow even more opinions. Hint: do not ask everyone you know for their opinions - it can make it so much harder.

Continue reading How To Choose A Baby Name at Young House Love.

For the last six years, having one bathroom worked surprisingly well for our family of four. But this year, as part of our recent renovation, we finally added another bathroom - and boy does it feel luxurious after so many years without it! Today we'll share why, where, and how we finally added a second bathroom to our smaller home. We've also got not one, but TWO video tours below. There's a quick walkthrough of the bathroom (plus a peek at the rest of the downstairs renovation). Plus a longer, no-detail-spared tour Sherry recorded for Instagram.

Continue reading Well Look Who Has A Second Bathroom at Young House Love.

It's no secret that I want to name your baby (I've loved sharing name ideas - and John and I even pitched a pet naming book before starting this blog). And the topic of celebrity baby names has always fascinated me. From whatever "off the wall" name a famous person has chosen for their offspring (Surie! Apple! Blanket!) to the way that celebrity baby names have real impacts on naming trends (if a popular celeb names her son something, that name can soar to the top of the charts). It really is intriguing to me that beyond the gossip factor, celebrity baby names introduce new names to the lexicon, boost the popularity of others, and can even steer people away from choosing a name that's in the headlines... which actually happened to us! But more on that in a minute.

Continue reading 100+ Celebrity Baby Names at Young House Love.

We've been enthusiastic podcast fans for over a decade now and have shared our latest listens in newsletters, social posts, and even on our own podcast (R.I.P.). Now we're putting all of our best podcast recommendations in one blog post! So whether you need a bingeable true crime show for a road trip, a reliable news series for your daily commute, or a fascinating deep dive to distract you during chores - we've got you covered below!

Continue reading Our All-Time Favorite Podcasts at Young House Love.

We're working on a big post about our finished renovation (which we last talked about on the blog here). But I'm dropping in to answer questions about the new flooring that we chose for our entire first floor (except for the tiled bathrooms). They've been one of the most-asked-about details of our reno on Instagram, where Sherry shared this reno as it rolled along in our Stories. So today we'll cover the what, why, and how of our new flooring. It's our first time using this particular material, and we have some thoughts.

Continue reading FAQs About Our New Floors at Young House Love.

Once again, the annual Color of the Year announcements have started rolling out VERY early. And once again, one has already come out before we could make our official guesses (it's only August of 2026!). So we quickly made our picks this morning. You can see them below in this post, and just like we've done for 2024, 2025, and 2026 - we'll update this post every time a new one is announced so you can see all the COTY selections in one convenient place.

Continue reading Every 2027 Color Of The Year (So Far!) at Young House Love.

I'm honestly a little surprised by all the interest in my photo digitization project, but we continue to field questions about how I've organized our old family photos. So here are answers to the most often-asked burning questions about exactly how we sorted, organized, and backed up our photos throughout the digitizing process. I won't claim to have ALL of the answers because there's been some trial and error along the way for me. But below are the steps I wish I'd followed from the very beginning. There's also a "rapid fire FAQ" at the end.

Continue reading How We’re Organizing Our Digitized Photos at Young House Love.