About

Why am I here with this spiffy, oddball blog?

I'm flipping a flipped house into a home and fixing all the dumb stuff a dumb flipper did.  On a budget.

You'll find DIY, home decor and interior design, home improvement whoo-ha, home repair, gardening, tips, pointers, how to's, me directing you to paint, crafts, everything really.  Smart and stupid things I do, snippets about dogs, a smattering of recipes, and ya know, homeowner joys and frustrations.

This blog (and our home) is a living sketchbook.

You'll likely find the pictures can be iffy, some embarrassing stuff happened too but hey, this is really me.

What's in it for you?   I want you to know that DIYing is absolutely achievable.  That yes, you can do it too.  Yes, you.  I'm here to encourage your creativity, inspire and motivate, to encourage your self-sufficiency, and to free you from the Jones' so you can live your personal design life to the max.  

It doesn't take tons of money.  Small budgets are the mother of grand invention.  "Good design is not a matter of cost but of thought," says architect John DeSalvo.  

Take the step with me, I've gotcha.

So who the heck is Becky?

Ugh I hate having my picture taken!

A creative kid, I grew up in the Chicago 'burbs.  After graduating from Ithaca College, I embarked on a multi-decade career in professional theater in Chicago as a prop master and scenic designer.  Do not do the math.

I earned an MFA in Interior Architecture from Columbia College Chicago, designed a few things, and am a freelance draftsperson.

Also on the resume, TV/Film as a set designer for Chicago Fire, Jupiter Ascending, two seasons of USA's Sirens, then gigs here and there like Patriot for Amazon and Showtime's The Chi pilot.  I worked on both seasons of The Exorcist for Fox Studios and the movie Widows.

My patient, forgiving, sweetheart husband Mike and I bought a flipped house in 2013 where we live with our German Shepherd, Hailey (now with Finn).

TLDR, as a friend said, I'm a Thing Maker.  Or, as Mike succinctly puts it, I create things out of nothing.

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"Hey Becky, I'm new here.  Where should I start?"

Awesome!  Welcome, thanks so much for stopping by!

Take a tour of our floor plans to get oriented here:  House Plans

You can see a running list of all the changes I've made so far here:  All the Changes

Or, you can even start from the very beginning here:  I Never Wanted to Blog.

Then!  Be sure to sign up for the newsletter to be first in the know of all the great projects!

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Update:

This blog is dedicated to Hailey in her memory and in her honor, and without whom we would not have this house.  We got it for her.  It is hard to call it "home" without her.

This blog is also dedicated to Finn in his memory and in his honor.  It's even harder to call this house a home without him.