Hello! If you're here from Apartment Therapy and you thought "what is this Old Town Home thing, I better check it out," let me take a moment to welcome you and introduce ourselves. We're Wendy & Alex, DIY nerds who own a very old house (over 125 years old) in a very nice area. We've been renovating our 15 foot wide house for quite a while now and started this blog a little under two years ago to share what we've learned and done along the way. We do just about everything on our home ourselves and take a tremendous amount of pride in the work we do. If you're interested in knowing more about us, check out the "First Time Here" page. If you're more interested in our house than us (who wouldn't be), check out the before pictures from our Home Inspection. Then you can see some of our various afters of projects we've completed along the way.
Vestibule
Budget Kitchen Fix
Master Bedroom and Totally Custom Closets
Custom Cherry Office Desk on an Exposed Brick Wall
Stairway Raised Panel Wainscoting and Integrated Handrail
We've also done quite a few smaller projects along the way that people have really enjoyed
Make a Headboard from a Door
Antique Chair Restoration
Wine Barrel Stave Candle Holders
Harlequin Paint Treatment
We post new blog content almost every day, Monday through Friday, and sometimes on the weekends, like today. You can see our calendar of posts on the "Calendar of Posts" page, go figure. Though we've been working on our relatively small home for quite some time, we have a ton of projects still to accomplish and can't wait to share them.
If you have any questions, either DIY renovation related, about us, about our pets, or even our neighborhood and the wonderful city of Alexandria, Virginia, feel free to send them in on the "Ask Old Town Home" page. We hope you enjoy your visit and that we see you around here quite often!
Last night at midnight, when the first round of the Apartment Therapy's Homies Awards concluded, a magical thing happened. Old Town Home, amongst 286 other Home Projects & DIY blogs (yes, we counted), was in the top six, which allowed us to advance to the finals. And yes, that means there's another round of voting.
Included in the ranks with other wildly popular, successful, and established blogs, our little blog, less than two years old, pulled in a staggering 408 votes from amazing readers like you. This was especially true in the final hours of voting last night when Alex and I nervously refreshed the page to see if we were clinging to life in the contest within the "Top 6."
There are so many reasons people open up their homes to the blogosphere, including those that are professional designers and bloggers, and whose livelihood depends on contests such as these. That's not our situation at all. We squeeze in our blogging between our two demanding day jobs, our time spent working on our home, and having fun with friends and family....because we love it!
Blogging for us is truly a hobby, and we do it because we're passionate about it. We're passionate about historic home preservation, our enthusiasm for transforming our 1880s Victorian by doing the work ourselves, and we love hearing comments, feedback, and ideas from all of you. (Here's the really long answer of why we blog.)
I can't tell you how much it means to us that so many readers would take the time to cast a vote in our favor. We're up against some really steep competition in the finals, and know our chances of winning are about as good as me winning an Olympic gold in downhill skiing. (To put that reference into perspective, I cry out of fear every time I have to ride on a chair lift.) But we're still going to give it our all, and if you'd feel so inclined to vote for us in the finals, just click on the banner below:
If you haven't already done so, we encourage you to check out all of the great blogs that made the full list. We have some new favorites as a result of this year's awards, and hope you too discover new great reads.
I'd like to extend a heartfelt thank you from the four of us at Old Town Home. On days when life seems too busy, and we feel like throwing in the towel, we'll remember how many of you have cast your vote of confidence in our journey. We're the little blog that could, and I'll repeat to myself, "I think I can, I think I can..."
