Mindy and Teague from Fixer Upper decide to drink and drywall dress up for Halloween in honor of a recent article in the Wall Street Journal that ended up creating lots of reactions among members of Houseblogs.net.

Long story short:

A reporter with a very specific story already in mind interviewed a number of housebloggers while seeking real life experiences to back up her idea. Failing to find a huge number of housebloggers who drink AND demo (or drywall or paint or anything involving power tools), she wrote a story that had a negative slant and quotes housebloggers who have never mixed drinking and home improvement. (To be fair, there were a couple of non-housebloggers quoted who had mixed drinking and DIY.) Although her quotes are very carefully put into a context that makes them technically true, the title and overall tone of the article gives the impression that there are scores of DIY'ers in the world running amok with a hammer in one hand and a Harvey Wallbanger in the other.

Needless to say, this didn't go over well in a home improvement community that takes DIY pretty seriously. You can read through a summary of blog entries with their reactions here.

Instead of stories of Tom Collins' and table saws, we like to offer you several stories of how many hands are making light work in home improvement these days. This is nothing new--neighbors have been helping neighbors in and around the home for generations. But, in light of how we constantly hear how people in Western society are becoming more isolated and removed from their communities (Bowling Alone, anyone?), it's refreshing to hear from the front lines that helping others is not an antiquated pastime.

Click below for a list of some of the best blog entries about 'many hands' make light work contributed by our member housebloggers.

And, if you are signed in to Houseblogs.net, you can bookmark entries to use later for inspiration or put a certain houseblogger on your favorites list so you can build a personalized Houseblogs.net blog feed!

• The perfect light fixture;
• Where to put the furniture in a smaller space;
• How to repurpose a "mystery room";
• What to use...shellac, varnish, stain/polyurethane?;
• And someone needs a little help with their swing...their door swing.

We're proud to welcome the Charles & Hudson Blog Network to Houseblogs.net.

This month we're introducing a new partnership between Houseblogs.net and the Charles & Hudson Blog Network. The relationship will bring more expert and industry coverage to Houseblogs.net while also providing wider distribution and readership for our housebloggers.

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Visitors to Houseblogs.net will now find topical blog entries from Charles & Hudson on our home page and in the Blogs tab of our site. Content is organized in several categories of interest to DIYers and home improvement enthusiasts:

- Kitchens

- Painting

- Green Building

- Home Security

- Tools

Housebloggers also benefit from our new partnership--relevant entries submitted by our 900 independent housebloggers will now appear on all the blogs in the Charles & Hudson network.

We're excited about the many ways we can now share audiences between two of the most widely recognized sites in home improvement blogging. The Charles & Hudson team does top notch work covering topics of interest to home owners and the home improvement industry. At Houseblogs.net we're as committed as ever to creating community and an audience for housebloggers around the world.

We look forward to the possibilities created by our new partnership. We hope you do too.

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. ~Albert Camus

The harvest is here for Casa Decrepit and Sunset Cat Bungalow.

When the seasons turn, it is time to start making a seasonal maintenance To Do list before the snow flies. Bungalow '23 and 1916 Home have advice on things to do for your home AND garden before winter is here.

Now, which way to the Maß? this You Tube video should get you up to speed.

Click below for a list of some of the best blog entries about 'autumn' contributed by our member housebloggers.

John Andrews (a.k.a. Gizmodyne) from Fixin' Up the Bungalow weighs in on woodworking, houseblogging and using cartoons to tell his story. We also get a peek at his gorgeous 1910 California bungalow in Pasadena!

John Andrews is a fifth grade teacher. One look at his DIY-related cartoons and anyone could guess that he is a pretty fun teacher to have. I asked him a few questions about his house restoration and his approach to documenting the progress.

1. You have a beautiful house and you are really doing a gorgeous job on the restoration. How did you get to be such an experienced woodworker?

Thanks. The woodworking is a general extension of bungalow fever: compulsive need to micro-manage all house construction.

“Experienced” is a relative scale when it comes to something like woodworking. I am just starting out. Necessity and trial and error really describe my start though. I had a few missteps and then decided to take some classes. In fact, take classes is the best possible advice I can give anyone interested in woodworking Also, I just couldn’t and still can’t pay for things that I can build on my own.

Not obvious on the blog is how much Kristin does. She has taken many of the classes with me, allows me to buy all kinds of tools, let me keep a table saw in the living room for a year, photographs and videos me, and is supportive in all of our crazy endeavors. Having a great partner in whatever home madness is key.

I wrote more about it here.


2. What advice would you have for novice woodworkers who are experimenting on their own houses?

• Again: Take a woodworking class that emphasizes safety and general processes over project making. Too many people are injured now due to the proliferation of cheap tools.


• Start in a room that does not matter as much to take advantage of the learning curve. I started with fences, a shed, and outdoor furniture.


• Know your limits. I don’t like to strip wood so we paid someone and then stained and finished it ourselves.


• Know your house. Keep your projects to the style. For example: Don’t put white oak cabinets in a simple bungalow.

3. What are the must have woodworking tools for a beginner?

There are so many articles advising this. It really depends on what you are interested in accomplishing. Taunton.com has a great series called Getting Started in Woodworking that deals with this subject in several books. Subscribing to several magazines is a good idea as well. I like Fine Homebuilding and Fine Woodworking.

For bungalow improvement (not furniture making) I most use:

• Cordless drill. (12V is fine. The higher the voltage the heavier they are to hold).


• Miter Saw


• Finish Nail Gun and Compressor (Saves grief on smacking woodwork with hammer)


• All kinds of sanders


• Good Quiet ShopVac (Festool or Fein)


4. How did the cartoons begin? What inspired them?

I acquired a MacBook bundled with ComicLife software. I wanted to teach the students in my fifth grade how to use it, so I started playing with it and decided to start blogging with it, too. I am interested in short forms of instruction; comics are concise.

The actual content is based on our experiences. I just look through my iPhoto gallery till I see a picture that strikes me and then I improvise the text.

Now that I am getting used to it, I am planning to write several new things in comic form. I am planning several how-to comics and to write some regular blogs in comic form as well. It suits short attention spans. Currently, I am writing a truly dorky online comic over at lumberjocks.com (A great woodworking community).

5. You obviously have your hands full with just the work on the house. So what role does your online participation play in your renovation? (The blogging, the cartoons, the vlogging?)

Mostly it is to entertain myself and to track our progress. It is a bonus to connect with other home restorers. I enjoy getting notes, questions, and comments. It is another motivator.

There is not much good bungalow restoration info out there on the web in my opinion, so if I can give a good tip I am happy to do it. For example: How to Stain Douglas Fir. I can’t believe that I am the first person to shoot a video on this topic.

For more about John and Kristin's renovation adventures at Fixin' Up the Bungalow, click on the box below.


And, if you are signed in to Houseblogs.net, you can bookmark entries to use later for inspiration or put Gizmodyne on your favorites list so you can build a personalized Houseblogs.net blog feed!

The owners of Bare Hill Barn House will never be able to utter those words to their kids with a straight face. But that's okay, because THIS barn/house is exactly where they want to be.

Here is an excerpt from Ben's blog, Bare Hill Barn House, at the time that they dismantled the old barn that would become the frame of their new house:

Our barn is (was, actually) located in Sidney, ME, just outside of Augusta. The date of construction is unknown, but it is assumed to be contemporaneous with the farm house to which it belongs, which was build c.1830. This first picture makes it obvious why I refer to the Sidney barn as a "diamond in the rough"! The two lean-to sheds are later additions and mask the original profile of the earlier, central structure.

And his musings about the barn conversion:

Should barns be converted into homes?

There are barn purists out there who would argue that converting a barn into a house necessitates such significant alterations to the original barn that in effect is cease to be a barn at all. The sad truth is that MANY if not MOST barn house conversions DO result in a barn that looks a lot more like a house than a barn. The old structure has effectively ceased to exist. Instead, the owners end up with a big house with a very old (and expensive) frame...some of which they may catch a glimpse of here and there behind plaster walls, curtains, and those God-awful country-kitsch knick-knacks they hang on the walls! Sorry, apologies to those of you who have knick-knacks; I am showing my hand...

Interested in knowing more about his vision and his unusual house, I caught up with Ben over email to ask him more about his project:

1. Barn plus contemporary aesthetic...what other buildings have influenced the design decisions you have made for the Bare Hill Barn House?
   

The overall look of the barn was entirely the inspiration of our architects, Jasonoah Design Build. However, the reason we chose them was that we sensed a common design instinct. Their leanings are toward Organic Architecture, Green Building and Natural Design. My own interests were formed as an undergraduate major in the history of art and architecture. Back then I fell in love with the Organic Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright as well as the International Style masterpieces of Mies and Gropius.

In later years I have fallen under the spell of contemporary Japanese minimalism. All of these influences have echoes in the barn design. The barn’s skeleton and much of the wall sheathing is centuries-old wood. These hand-hewn timbers have a real honesty to them: they are what they are, functional, natural, and intimately linked with nature. However, many of the design details are modern and minimalist. There is no trim anywhere in the house. Interior walls are (or will be) simple white plaster over blueboard and where they meet the floor there is no baseboard. As much as possible we want to let the materials speak for themselves without added adornment.

2. Favorite parts of the house that you are attracted to as it is taking shape?

I love the juxtapositions: weathered timbers butting up against plaster walls, smooth panelized siding next to rough sawn boards, warm wood tones contrasted with industrial materials like glass, steel, and wire mesh. I am also very excited about the “drama” of the experience of approaching and entering the house. Passing under the barn board “wing”, up under the sheltered exterior stairway, into a very tightly compressed entryway and then emerging from the overhanging loft to the sight of soaring beams and a very expansive space. It has been such a thrill to take people through and see their reactions. There’s a real “wow factor” (that’s a very technical architecture term, by the way!)

3. What type of work are you doing on the project yourself? What have you contracted to do?

The way the builder’s bid was structured was to exclude any aspect of the project that I could do myself; that was really the only way we could make this possible given the restricted nature of our budget. In fact, he reduced his general contracting fee to reflect the fact that I would be assuming a good deal of these responsibilities. So, I have done or will be doing such jobs as exterior and interior paint, floors, insulation, doors,installation of all cabinets and shelves, building bathroom vanities, even contracting for all the utilities hook ups and working with surveyors and town officials. Everything else was handled by the builder.

4. What will be the experience walking into the Bare Hill Barn House that would be different for someone used to living in more traditional spaces?

Unfortunately, that “wow factor” mentioned above is not a common experience walking into most homes today (or yesterday, for that matter). I often wonder why we don’t refuse to live in homes that aren’t as unique as we are. Thoughtful, intentional design doesn’t have to be more expensive. Just look at all the exciting work that is currently being done with modern prefab and modular housing. (Don’t get me started!)

As for our house, by the time people get inside they will already be reeling from the impact of seeing the outside, so I imagine the whole experience will be rather...interesting. Some people love it, others have had the opposite reaction. I like the fact that our house is a challenge to the norm. And I like the fact that once they realize that this modern house is actually an ancient barn they seem to feel more affinity for it. They may not like the way the outside looks, but who wouldn’t want to live in a barn; they’re just such great spaces to be in.

 

For the full story on Bare Hill Barn House, click on the entries below.

And, if you are signed in to Houseblogs.net, you can bookmark entries to use later for inspiration or put Bare Hill Barn House on your favorites list so you can build a personalized Houseblogs.net blog feed!

Subway tile is a commonly used term for a traditional 2" x 6" wall tile, laid in a common brick pattern. Popular for kitchens and bathrooms, it is a classic style that can look right at home in bungalows or modern homes.

Subway tile is still manufactured and commonly used today, although the dimensions have shifted to 3" x 6" and the tile edges have become more rounded. The original subway tiles were flat all the way to the edge and had very tiny grout lines. It was easy to clean and maintain compared to other materials at the time.

The more accurate name for this type of tile today is FIELD tile. However, since field tile can be either rectangular or square, many homeowners call the rectangular shape SUBWAY tile whether it is to be used for a wall or a floor.

Why do we like subway tile? Well, aside from its nostalgic aesthetic, it tends to be a tiny bit more forgiving on slightly crooked old house walls. You set it in a brick pattern which breaks up the vertical line on purpose.

Click below for a list of some of the best blog entries about 'subway tile' contributed by our member housebloggers.

And, if you are signed in to Houseblogs.net, you can bookmark entries to use later for inspiration or put a certain houseblogger on your favorites list so you can build a personalized Houseblogs.net blog feed!

We bring you the humble bungalow.

For a variety of profiles of housebloggers with bungalows, from stucco to Craftsman, click here.

For a peak inside of the projects of bungalow-living housebloggers? Click below for a list of some of the best blog entries about 'bungalows' contributed by our member housebloggers.

And, if you are signed in to Houseblogs.net, you can bookmark entries to use later for inspiration or put a certain houseblogger on your favorites list so you can build a personalized Houseblogs.net blog feed!

Door Sixteen snagged some gorgeous Danish Modern chairs from Iron Fish Trading in Beacon, NY.

October is the month of Great Finds Friday!

Every friday, we'll be showcasing the: