We have the pleasure of introducing Julie Lohmeier, who shares the trials and successes in remodeling and decorating of her house at My Home Redux. She was recently named as an an expert in the field of home remodeling by American Chronicle.

Tell us about yourself - how did you get into blogging about remodeling?

I started remodeling when I was 24 and bought my first home. It was a two-bedroom peeling, plaster-falling-off-the-walls dump. The kitchen was unusable. It was all we could afford. My husband and I fixed it up and sold it 18 months later for a nice tidy profit. We were hooked. We went on to do a total of 9 houses from remodels to additions to tear down/new construction. The blog started after we redid our own home. We were like the shoemaker’s children before that - building all of these beautiful homes while ours was falling apart and needed serious updating. We lifted it up off the foundation and lifted the second story off the first to get more ceiling height. Then we added on. Except for some “old bones” everything was redone. I started the blog to discuss decorating our house and sharing the insights I had gained over 18 years.

You have shared a lot of tips and advise with your readers - what has been the most rewarding thing you’ve got out of blogging?

The most rewarding thing about blogging is the interaction with the audience. They send me emails with their dilemmas. Their trust in my opinion and experience, dare I say expertise, is truly humbling.

You’ve survived a few renovations (8?)… what were the top 5 DOs and DON’Ts you’d like to share with your audience

I did an e-book on top 10 Don’ts. For the Dos take the positive version. Here is the link to the ebook (PDF) which is available for download.

Funniest remodeling anecdote?

It’s quite hard to pick just one. Here’s an article I wrote : 10 Ways To Survive Your Building and Remodeling Project which kind of sums up the experience of remodeling your home, with a humorous twist.

Any remodeling horror story?

On one house addition, everything had to be done at least twice. Weird things too. The plumber had to use 3 fittings to hook up the ice machine for the fridge because they kept breaking. He said he’d never had to do it even twice much less three times. The glass company dropped an eight foot mirror on the front porch. One wall needed to be ripped out and redone. We were cheated by 2 different contractors on this same job. It was a nightmare. The house was on Elm St. It was unaffectionately called the “Nightmare on Elm Street”.

The project you are most proud of…

Ironically, the best decorating job I did was the nightmare house mentioned above. The most beautiful house is probably my own. The coolest feature was in a house that had a stairway from the basement to a third floor - you could see all the way down. But the projects I’m most proud of are my three children - I did houses while they were babies. We bought one house a week after my daughter (oldest) was born and sold it right before my son (second) was born - two years later. At the end, as I went to do tile and painting, my daughter said, “Please Mommy, no go to house again!” I signed closing papers for another while at the hospital with my second.

…and which one you would NOT do it again?

Drywall a basement. Taping and mudding is tricky. And we installed canned lights - so the drywall looked great, provided the recessed lights were on. With day light or lighting that was not directly down, it looked awful. I learned to hire a pro for that!

Thanks Julie for taking the time to answer the questions for our readers.