Cityline Featured Blogger: Tia Lougas from Moor of Everything

Tia chronicles her adventures as she renovates her 1920s fixer-upper home.

There are so many fabulous bloggers out there, and we want to highlight them on Cityline.ca. We’ll be profiling different lifestyle bloggers from month to month — they might write about food, fashion, beauty, décor, parenting, entertaining, gardening, you get the idea! For March 2013, we’re putting the spotlight on the always inventive Moor of Everything. Run by Tia Lougas, the blog chronicles Tia and her husband Jeff’s adventures as they renovate their 1920s fixer-upper home in Waterloo, Ontario. Here’s our Q&A with Tia:

When did you start Moor of Everything and what was your inspiration behind starting the blog? How did you come up with your blog’s name?

We started Moor of Everything last spring just a few weeks after we bought our fixer-upper home in Waterloo, Ontario. We were in the midst of an especially busy week — unpacking the house, finding leaky plumbing, and dashing out of the country (Jeff was heading out to Sri Lanka for two weeks  and I was on route to Boston to present my graduate research) — so adding a blog-launch to our to-do list just seemed logical. Really though, we wanted a way to document and share our work on the house and knew a blog would be a great way to achieve that. Our name is really a nod to enjoying “more of everything” in life and to the idea of our home as the anchor for everything that we’re doing — even especially when things get hairy.

On your blog, you write a range of different types of posts, from chronicling your own home décor and reno projects, to DIYs and how-tos, and even posts on your love of some good bubbly. What do you like about posting on a range of topics, and what kind of posts do you prefer to write?

Getting to write a range of different types of posts is wonderful and reflects all of the different things we get to tackle around our house. I suppose that’s one of the great (and terrifying) things about renovating an old house; there is no end to what we get to research, work-on, and share. Some weeks we’re drilling through the foundation and other weeks we’re sprucing up the living room with new pillows. We take it as it comes, prioritize based on budgets, and really just try to go with the flow. My favourite posts are the ones with before and after shots. We spend a lot of time working on the house, bit by bit, and it’s easy to forget how much progress we’ve made overall. Chronicling all of the work with photos and write-ups is a rewarding way to celebrate that progress and hopefully inspire other DIYers too. Of course, putting up posts about my champagne tastings is a lot of fun too, if only because of the required, bubbly research.

Tell us about a post (or two!) that you’re particularly proud of and want to share with Cityline.ca readers.

Our kitchen update was a major milestone last summer. We really took our time (I took an entire week off work!) and tried to make sure our “quick fix” was done right and would last for at least a few years. We sanded, washed, primed, and painted the room, door by door. The impact that a little time, patience, and paint can have on a room is so dramatic. Our kitchen certainly isn’t perfect, but the fresh look has really helped the space to grow on us. Another fun project was our coffee table-turned-ottoman. It took me months to finish — finding supplies, sanding and staining, padding and upholstering — but now it is my favourite piece in the house.

What do you hope your readers get from visiting your blog?

We know there are a lot of homeowners out there who are dealing with walls full of dust, newspaper, and spider webs just like us. We really hope that we can inspire others to take on projects, big and small, around their own homes and maybe even encourage some new blogs, too! We’re also doing our best to share great, affordable, local (and Canadian) resources that have worked for us to hopefully ease the research process for others.

What are some other blogs that you love reading?

Ooh! Great question. There are so many amazing and inspiring bloggers out there today. I’ve been addicted to taking in blogs with my morning coffee for years, and the reading roster has been getting longer and longer. Some of my Canadian favourites include: The Sweetest Digs, Row House Nest, The Home Slice, Sweet Suite Ten, House Pretty, and (of course) Rambling Renovators. It is definitely worth adding these beautiful blogs to your must-read list.

What’s your top advice for other bloggers?

Most of us blog because we want to share something we love — with our families, friends, and random strangers procrastinating on the internet. That’s important, but I guess my real advice for other bloggers is to remember to take time to soak in all of your hard work, offline. I am always thinking about my next project, my blog to-do list, and editorial calendar, but putting down the camera/laptop and really just appreciating the improving routine of life in our home is so important. It’s why we put in all that hard work! Ultimately it’s about balance, happiness and squeezing in more of everything you love.

We want to hear from you! Do you know a blogger we should feature on Cityline.ca? Maybe it’s you! Email us at submissions@cityline.ca and include “Cityline Featured Blogger” in the subject line. And don’t forget to include a link to the blog! Look forward to hearing from you!