I've discovered Facebook...

...and of course being the internet addict that I am I am using it constantly. Well, not constantly, but way more than before I had a profile and signed up. :o)

And I'm devising the ways this fascinating new-to-me-tool can be used.

Of course, faithful houseblogger that I am, I searched for a houseblogger group and there wasn't one. So I made one. And I am the only member right now, so sad.

And of course, the next thought that popped into my head? Let's use it to plan Woodstick 2010!!**

If you're on Facebook, why don't you join me? Come on... it'll be fun! I already consider so many of you friends online so feel free to ping me on there if you like.

**"Woodstick" is houseblogger talk for a huge gathering of housebloggers, which has been talked about, but not yet come to fruition.

Who says a little hard work doesn't pay off?

Today, we were featured in a special issue of the Chicago Reader, the leading arts & culture weekly publication in Chicago. The feature is called "The Nest" (Written by Laura Molzahn/Photography by Leslie Schwartz).

I must say we are in some pretty good company. Our section of the feature was called (not surprisingly) "The Bloggers". All the profiles were great. Of course I was super impressed with the one called "The Restorer".

Working on your house is by nature somewhat solitary work, so it's kind of neat to get recognition from "the world at large". Unless of course, you have a bunch of friends as crazy as you are who don't own their own home and really want practice. I don't know anyone like that.

Or then, you could have one of those renovation "parties..." Somehow I think the quality of the work might suffer while drinking alot of beer.

If you are coming to our site from the Reader article, welcome. Feel free to stay while and come back. We still have plenty of work to do!

If you are new to the phenomenon of houseblogging, I have to tell you, you've just hit the motherload. There are houseblogs of all kinds : Victorian, Craftman, Bungalows and then some. There are purists and there are the the tried and true. From the quirky to the romantic.

Perhaps you'll find kindred spirits as I have. Or maybe you'll just enjoy the stories. I myself find keeping up with people's lives over the years fascinating. And I know I'm not alone.

Don't be jealous

You too can buy your very own artwork from the Devil Queen!

I'm an admirer of both his blog and art work and now I have a little piece of the Devil Queen that will reside right here in the 2-flat.

Kind of nice to support a fellow houseblogger too.

Press Coverage for Houseblogs

Looks like Chicago 2-flat and some other houseblog friends have gotten some coverage on the Dallas NBC station online. The article is called "Don't Do It Alone: Home Renovation Blogs" and Kristin from 1902 Victorian and Mindy from Fixer Upper were quoted as well as myself.

I found it when I was looking at my site stats and "came from" links. The article has links to Houseblogs, House in Progress and the above mentioned blogs.

It's always kind of jarring to find your name and self quoted when you're not exactly expecting it. I was interviewed for it, but I didn't know exactly what it was for or when it would be published. Now I know.

I mentioned the fact that we as a group tend to make jokes about "stripping".

This is something that seems to be universally funny when I bring it up. Especially when I tell people about the fact that google searches for "woman stripping" bring up my post about stripping wood work. There have been times when my site is the number one return for this keyword search. To think a renovation blog beating out a porn site. Now that's something.