OUR CONTENT HOME

As some of you may remember, last year's Christmas decor-spectacular was brought to you by the lovely Monica Mangin of East Coast Creative and Lowe's. We were the recipients of a Holiday Makeover, and Monica and her team came to Content. in October (just days after Halloween) and decked our halls with a ton of Christmas cheer. You can check out Monica's recap of the Makeover here .

Our friends Veronica + Shawn are the hostesses with the mostesses when it comes to Friendsgiving.  In fact, 2016 will be their 4th Annual. We love Friendgiving! Carving out (pun intended) time with friends, laughing, eating + simply enjoying each others company are the makings of the perfect evening.

Take a quick look at an advertisement, and chances are you'll see a strategically placed buzzword like, "state-of-the-art", "craft", "limited edition", "artisinal or "small batch". Basically, these words evoke exclusivity and, when effective, tap into some deep seeded need to feel or appear "in the know", so we are more inclined to buy. These types of buzz words are different than, say "organic" or "fair trade" which (if being adhered to properly) follow an industry practice which is measurable and standardized.

During the initial design stages of the guest bathrooms, we decided to use our master bathroom as an inspiration. We continue to be pleased with the master bathroom renovation, and knew that repeating the vanity and countertop design would bring continuity throughout the house. However, we were looking to scale the cost of the vanity down a bit, and instead of using bluestone as the vanity top again, decided to use poured concrete.

Halloween is one of those commercial holidays that you either love or hate. I happen to love Halloween! It's silly and innocent, and makes people smile. It's also a great excuse to eat copious amounts of mini candy bars that don't make you feel as guilty as eating a full sized bar. Win! This year, I decided to re purpose my Halloween decor, and not buy anything new. Don't get me wrong, with almost 10 years of Halloween party hosting on my resume, I had plenty to work with.

Taking a look back, and realize I never gave you a full look at the before and after of our Master Bathroom. So, here is the entire run down including all the before and after shots, which I know you all enjoy so much! And, UPDATE: You can now see this before + after featured on Apartment Therapy!

Renovating any room of the house can be pretty annoying. Dust, construction debris, hazardous equipment. But the renovation of a bathroom quite literally messes with basic human needs, and that my friends is no fun... John's sister Kristen is currently undergoing a bathroom renovation which has me excited to see her (my FIL Dave's) progress but nervous how even a minor setback could effect her. Knowing my father-in-law though, I'm certain they're right on schedule. Unlike Content. renovations that seem to have a mind of their own. Nonetheless, the ensuite bathroom of guest room #2 is finished!

We still don't have official names for our guest rooms. But, more often than not, guest room #2 is referred to as "Nate's Room" because our friend Nate is the first person to brave an air mattress overnight in there, way before we ever imagined rehabbing #westsideguestside. UPDATE: You can now see this before + after renovation featured on Apartment Therapy!

(Insert Wayne's World flashback squiggly lines....) The year is 2006 and I, 25 year old Courtney, am looking through the lens of life with wide, bright-eyes. I'm single, living on my own in an adorable garden apartment, solo traveling quite a bit and though happy, confused and eagerly searching for some higher meaning and purpose.

What is the longest amount of time that you have spent on a project? I ask, because usually, I'm pretty goal oriented, and can estimate the length of time a particular project will take from concept to completion. Well, not so much with this project... Exactly one-million days ago (alright, maybe not quit that long), I began the process of stripping paint from two, old doors.

We've officially started the renovation of the west side of Content! I'm affectionately referring to this new phase as - "west side, guest side" because the majority of additional square footage, on the west side of the house, will be dedicated to welcoming others.

After a long holiday weekend, I get back on the train to the city + feel completely defeated. With some dismay, I look at my lofty, preweekend written "to-do" list, and quickly remember all the things I'd dreamt of completing. Can you relate?

What would provoke you to frantically call (not text or email) a friend or family member in the middle of the workday? An emergency, I imagine. But, this particular midday conversations with John, back in March, went something like, "I found old bricks, for free, on Craigslist. They're really old. We need to go get them!"  Ok.....  I didn't know we were in the market for "free, old bricks". 

The front porch is nearly complete! Now that the weather has been cooperating, even just a little, we have been SO busy! We are just about ready for the painters. Do you feel like I've been claiming that for 3-months already? It's probably because I have been...  But seriously this time, all of the major renovation projects have been completed, and the painters are lined up. Now, we just have to wait for the weather to cooperate, even more. Not only is painting in the blistering cold miserable its also not effective. Did you know paints have a temperature rating? Who knew. It might be April, but until my weather app says it's over 50 degrees were out of luck. John's parents, in CT, just had snow last weekend... But, like I said, we've been plenty busy regardless! Here's the latest run down of completed front porch projects, best told through our Instagram account, to prove were nearly done. Side note, are you following us? If not, jump on the In...

Welcome back! Here's the final installment of the History of Content. If you need to back up, make sure to check out the History of Content Part 1 + Part 2 first. Truth be told there is so much more, detailed information about this story. Maybe I'll write a book one day. But in the meantime, here's Part 3.

The actual History of Content.: In her lifetime, Lucy Wilson, the former owner of Content., had indeed filled the house, to the brim, with priceless antiques as well as mindless junk. In the end, she had developed dementia, was unable to live alone and was moved out of Content. for the remaining few years of her life.

We're excited to kick off a 3-part series on the History of Content. There is SO MUCH to report, we're breaking it up a bit. We're also excited to announce our collaboration with Framebridge, who will be assisting us in displaying some of our newly acquired, Content artifacts.

We're in this for the long haul, guys! This porch project will consume about 100 hours of labor. No seriously, that's an actual estimation. So far, we are about half the way there. But, this past weekend we made some serious progress, specifically in the form of balustrades. A what? People, this is a learning environment. Balustrades are the entire handrail unit. (I just learned that, like 10 minutes before posting this).  We took a minor step back to assess some of the historical photographs we received from Content's previous owners (Side note: Stay tuned for a FUN collaboration which will be part of a 3-post series on the historical information we now have!) In the old pictures, you can distinctly see a large, center staircase on the porch. As we had planned, before seeing old photos, to bring this feature back, we were pleased to be on an accurate architectural path.  The current set of stairs, which sits to the west side of the porch, are brick ...

This was a great, long weekend! Historically, John + I would have been hauled up with friends in a rented, Poconos lake house for President's weekend. But, money and priorities have been Content-based these last couple years, so we made the best of it, and had a few friends over for a Poconos inspired day complimented by fire side chats, flannel, day drinking, grilled cheese and, of course, board games. Dan, with way too many Uno cards... Hadley + Jack were this years newest addition to our Poconos inspired weekend. Aside from the fun, John has continued to make awesome progress on the front porch. All of the patch work to the decking is complete, and the extra length has been trimmed. Its back to looking like a proper porch again! Hallelujah! All the deck patching is complete! I spent all of 5 seconds standing outside, imagining the porch splendor (come Spring) when the weather is warm again. For a brief (chilly) moment, we stood ima...

Snow Storm Jonas which started on Friday, January 22, 2016 and extended through that weekend, was the first snow John + I have experienced while residing at Content.  I think we went about preparing like most others; stocking up on hearty meals, snacks to enjoy during countless hours of movie watching, and a couple extra bottles of wine (just in case). But, we also had some trepidation. The forecast was not only calling for a ton of snow and high winds, but with the full moon and high tides, flooding was expected. So, we also planned for loosing power. Content has 10 fireplaces, but only 1 is safe to use. The rest are currently stuffed with insulation. Before the snow storm, we prepped for loosing power + stocked this fireplace with the wood we demoed from the front porch. Sadly, John's "Eagle Scout" training was in full effect, and he wouldn't let me burn any of it. Thanks to John, you won't be seeing any adorable photos of our feet, perfectl...