I don’t think we ever intentionally stopped posting, but with two kids underfoot (Bea arrived a few months after the last 2008 post), our priorities shifted.

We did continue our remodeling efforts, and there were dozens more “projects” in the post-blog years. The kitchen was (mostly) completed, built-ins were added to the living room, more furniture was incorporated. We hired out the roof, the siding, the paint, and the yard. My dad continued his annual trips to help us for several more years; the last official “project visit” was the two of us building the back deck.

The house has been “done” for a few years now, and we even find ourselves remodeling our remodel. I always envisioned there would be a moment when the house was finished and in pristine condition. That never happened. Our home has never been a museum. The floors we refinished now have a patina of dog scratches and dents from daily use. The concrete countertops struggle to shine. We’re certainly due for new paint throughout.

We raised our children in this house, and that’s what made it our home.

Atticus is grown up now and moved into his own apartment in 2025. I cannot believe how fast that happened. Bea is off to college in a year.

We made a few friends through our blogging. We’re still in contact with Jeanne and Aaron (who had their own House In Progress blog, and who ran the HouseBlogs aggregator site). I often wonder what happened to the regular cast of commenters we had. I learned a while back that Greg, of The Petch House, had passed. On a road-trip through California in 2019 we stopped by his house in Eureka to take photos and see it in person.

The blog was always meant to be a diary of our house. Looking back, it turned out to also be a diary of our marriage, and our family, in the years they were still being framed. I’m glad we wrote it down.