This is me, Gretchen:

I took this picture of myself, in the bathroom mirror, and I made a funny face because it makes me feel less goofy about having my picture taken.

I kind of wanted to use this one. I showed it to Dave, and he said, “you can’t see your face in that one.”

And I was all, “I know. That’s the point. I’m shy.”

Dave shook his head. “That camera’s too big,” he said.

Anyway, this is my blog. Glad you’re here!

This is the Boxy Colonial:

A center hall colonial. Five over four and a door. One of about 4,592,343 houses with the exact same layout built in the north Atlanta suburbs during the 70’s and 80’s. And then sometime in the 90’s people decided they didn’t want boxy anymore. They wanted fancy open floorplans. Well, that might be fine for other people, but we like ROOMS. Lots and lots of square rooms. And there’s something comforting about a house where you know exactly where the bathroom’s going to be before you even go inside.

I knew I wanted to start a blog about the Boxy Colonial as soon as we bought it. And I knew exactly what I wanted to call it. And! Bonus! It is incredibly google-able. I am the only one on the internet talking about her boxy colonial, it seems.

The blog is mostly about the Boxy Colonial and the stuff we do to make it nicer. It was a foreclosure that we got a great deal on, but it had been empty and neglected for two years before we got here. It needs love, and I need a blog to motivate me to move on to the next project. So it all works out.

When I’m not working on the Boxy Colonial, I homeschool these boys:

Well, not the baby. He’s too little for school. August, Milo, and Ari, left to right. And Abe is the baby in the middle.

And then there’s Dave. I’m married to him, and he does all the stuff involving power tools because they scare me and because he’s more devoted to straight lines than I am.

We like to do stuff ourselves, although we’re learning as we go along. And we like for it to be cheap. But still pretty. Pretty is better than ugly, we like to say.

So that’s pretty much it. We do stuff, and I take too many pictures, and then I post about it.

Also, there are dogs and cats. They sneak into most of the pictures. This one is The Beagle, aka Fiesta: