Young House Love turned ten this fall, so we’re pausing to look back at a decade of renovating homes, building a business, and learning—often the hard way—while doing it all in public on the internet. In this episode we reflect on the moments that shaped our work and our lives. Some of those turning points were exciting, others felt awful at the time, but each one played a part in getting us to where we are today.
You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and TuneIn Radio — or listen to the embedded player on this page. Use the post to follow along with the slides and photos we mention. If you’re reading this in a feed reader, you may need to click through to the post to see the player.
Presentation Slides
- Below are slides from our recent presentation in Bristol, VA. The audio provides the full context—30 minutes covering ten years of projects, partnerships, mistakes, and wins.
Here’s how the site looked in the early days. Our blog design and coding skills have come a long way in ten years.
- One slide highlights paint color mistakes from our first house. We’ve learned a lot about undertones and how light affects color choices—advice that has helped us make better decisions on later projects.
Another slide shows our first month earning money from Google AdSense. It wasn’t much—$10.59—but every little bit helped in those early days and it still makes us smile.
- We also shared magazine features and behind-the-scenes moments from early shoots. Those opportunities helped grow our audience and gave us invaluable editorial experience.
- The slide set includes images from making our first book. Putting a book together taught us new skills in planning, photography, and storytelling.
- We shared glimpses of our second house and how we transformed its rooms. Tours and photo galleries document the changes and the lessons learned along the way.
- Another memorable slide features our appearance on television and the quirky behind-the-scenes moments that come with shoots—like odd lighting that turns photos vampire-like.
- We also walked through the evolution of our lighting collection and the product collaborations that grew from our aesthetic and audience feedback.
- We shared a peek at our showhouse and the design choices that made it special—details you can view in the full tour.
- The slides also cover our second book, including images from the book tour and the many small moments that made the process rewarding.
We showed photos from a beach house project, including demo shots and the “before” images that captured how it looked the day we bought it. Renovating a beach house brought its own set of challenges and triumphs.
The final slide offered a sneak peek at our duplex project and what’s next on the horizon. If you want the full story and details, listen to the episode for the scoop.
Happy Thanksgiving! We’re grateful to everyone who’s followed along over the years. A special thanks to Modsy for sponsoring this episode and for helping reimagine one of our awkward bonus rooms into a calm master suite. Thanks for listening and for being part of this journey.
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