We are Ryan and Tiffany.
Back in the Fall of 2011, when we were first married, we had no idea ‘fixing’ would be our story.
Or such a big part of our story.
In 2015, our sweet, mechanically-inclined son was born and our feisty little girl came along in 2017.
Since 2012, we have lived in and fixed a two-family and a single family home, been landlords of Fixer #1 for 6 years, sold that house without help of a realtor, and sold the single family with a realtor.
Currently we are in the middle of our next adventure – living in and fixing a 2800+ sq foot Victorian Farmhouse style home in the mountains of Western/Central NY, built before 1875.
Ryan
Husband.
Daddy to two crazy littles.
Full-time Senior Systems Engineer at a tech company in Western/Central NY.
Lover of technology, bacon, toys that have remote controls, fast cars, movies, Milwaukee tools, cowboy boots, jeans and funny t-shirts.
He spent a summer building a luxury home with his contractor uncle and got lots of experience with carpentry, electrical, plumbing and roofing.
Oh and chasing the kids around the house, throwing them on the couch and racing to hide so they can chase after, find him and do it all over again.
Proficient (or really good) at:
- all things IT (information technology – i.e. he fixes all our computer, network, software, hardware, and internet issues, including all of the back-end blog related issues)
- carpentry
- demolition / moving walls / deciding if a wall CAN be moved
- electrical
- plumbing
- car work (including rebuilding transmissions, welding frames back together, and all the ‘normal’ stuff most people spend a fortune on, like brakes, oil changes, wheel bearings, tie rods, fuel lines, U-joints, etc.)
- cooking – he is arguably more ‘gourmet’ than his wife
- video games – though he’s only played maybe a half-dozen times in the last 7 years, obviously
- reworking floor-plans in his head then putting it down on paper
- going through life with one functional feeling (ha, his words)
- listening to his wife’s ideas and then figuring out how to make them happen in the real world
Tiffany
Wife.
Full-time mama to two crazy littles.
Lover of her happy babies, blogging, interior design, shopping at Hobby Lobby, Home Goods and At Home, organic real food (yet the occasional Uno’s Chicago style pizza), and working with her hubby to make their visions come to life.
Proficient at:
- cleaning and making a largely gutted house livable for two babies and a husband (though it is certainly not a hobby)
- feeling guilty (what mom isn’t?)
- folding laundry (there absolutely IS a right way to fold that towel)
- picking the wrong paint colors (what can I say, the tiny swatch looks not even a little bit like a whole wall of it!)
- impatiently waiting for things to change, then missing the thing that changed
- making real food taste like good food, even in the midst of kitchen renos
- converting ‘junk food’ recipes to be real food
- finding huge ways to save money on home renovations
- learning how to make a house a home
Several preferences that have stayed the same for me over the years:
- The bedrooms should be on the same floor – even though I wasn’t a mama at the time, I knew when we had children I wanted us all to sleep on the same floor
- I adore the Contemporary Craftsman and Modern Farmhouse architectural styles
- Farmhouse style is a favorite, but I also love COLOR. Plain white everything with wood accents and a green plant here or there just doesn’t do it for me
- I love open living spaces, but also traditional separation, for example:
- Rooms that should be walled off = bedrooms, bathrooms, offices, laundry, mud rooms
- Rooms that should NOT be walled off = kitchens, dining rooms, living, family rooms, foyers
Little Man
Happy little guy of 5 years.
Big brother.
Massive ball of energy.
Loves:
- Dinosaurs
- Transformers / Rescue Bots
- Police cars & Policemen
- Trains
- All things with wheels
- All things that make loud noises
- Just about all other things little boys love
Says he’s Heatwave. Or Optimus Prime. Or a dinosaur. It depends on the moment.
Can’t wait till he’s “big and strong” like Daddy.
Latched on to the name “Fixer Family”, took one of his play hammers and started ‘fixing’ (banging on) things around the house.
Baby Girl
Sweet, feisty little girl of 4 years.
Little sister.
Fear-less. Completely without fear.
Loves:
- All things Daniel Tiger
- Hu Chocolate (organic and sweetened with coconut sugar – great potty training treats!)
- Fruits and veggies – cooked, raw, plain or with dip
- Chasing her brother and doing every single thing he does since she was 6 months old
Also latched on to the name idea of “Fixer Family”, took another of brother’s play hammers and ‘fixed’ things along side of him.
Some Fun Facts about us:
- There has been a bird in each of the first THREE bathroom projects – 1 in each bathroom project in Fixer #1, and a HUGE one in Fixer #2 where I ended up calling my father in law in tears – I was so close to giving up on bath renos
- Overall, we have fixed/renovated/gutted:
- 5 kitchens – 2 minor renos (flooring, stove, cabinet refacing, counters), 3 major (complete tear out down to the studs, new drywall, paint, windows, cabinets, counters, backsplash, appliances, lighting, etc.)
- 7 bathrooms
- 4 dining rooms
- 3 living rooms
- 3 laundry areas – these were major projects creating spaces where there was no laundry before
- We’ve put down 12+ different kinds/brands of flooring
- Our absolute favorite flooring is restored real hardwood (see our Grand Entry in Fixer #3)
- When Ryan switched jobs to a company that has a better work/life balance in November of 2018, he had to drive 4 hours+ every day just to get home
- His job is what brought us to Fixer #3 and we moved about an hour and a half away from the area I called home for the last 8.5 years and Ryan called home for his entire life
- Building our dream house on a couple dozen acres some day is the plan, but not until we’ve fixed at least this fixer
We are sooooo excited that you’re here! We’d love to get to know you a little better, so feel free to share your experiences in the comments and meet us on social media!