Talk About a Blog Overflow

I really do love reading blogs. Every morning, first thing after I check my email, I cycle through my blogroll. It’s almost zen; I click through, scroll, open in a new tab to comment or read further, and then on to the next one. I’ll routinely get through 5-6 tabs each day, commenting, reading, linking. I’ve even started sharing posts in our very active DIY Chat when the post is interesting or something that our users could offer insight into.

For a while, I was following something like 50 blogs. I’ve since managed to pare it down to 16, and this is a much more managaeable number. (You’ll see why in a sec.)

Mostly, though, it’s one of my favorite parts of the day, and I figured I should share my favorites with you all. I should note, of course, that my all time favorite blog is, of course, this one. And I’m not biased at all, haha.

So, in no particular order:

Little House Blog — Aubrey and Lindsay (the latter of whom is the author of the blog itself) are a Canadian couple with a wee one who blog about decorating, craft projects, and DIY work they’ve done around the house. Canada, right now, is something of a hotbed of DIY activity, so searching for Canadian bloggers was pretty important to me. Lindsay’s got a great voice, takes fantastic pictures (seriously, every photo is artful) and her entries are short and sweet. The best combination of things!

Bower Power — Katie runs a blog that’s as much about what’s happening in her life as it is about her home improvement projects. Whether it’s painting her dining room or antiquing a window, Katie has a great sense of humor, a really casual writing style, and a kind of tongue-in-cheek honesty that makes me laugh as I read her entries.

Making a House a Home — Joey and Lana (the latter, again, the main proprietor of the blog) are kind of my heroes. They both work full work-weeks and still manage to find the time to DIY. It’s amazing. I’m constantly in awe. Lately, they’ve been rushing to finish their to-do list so that they can (gasp) move across country! I’m loving their kitchen renovation stories, dining room painting stories, and just….I like them. Lana is particularly active on Twitter, and she’s just such a joy to communicate with. So is Joey, lest I forget him! I love that Lana and Joey are honest when they’ve messed up a project (I believe they had to repaint their kitchen cabinets because they used the wrong kind of paint) and about how difficult or easy a project has been. I also love how much they love their power tools.

Manhattan Nest — I will totally cop to loving Manhattan Nest. Aside from having one of the coolest blog headers around, Daniel is awesome. I love his voice in his blog posts. Okay, his blog posts are profanity-filled and irreverent, but I love it. He’s also really easy to “listen” to as he builds bookshelves or reorganizes his kitchen or paints all his doors black. I love his blog posts, and he deserves a bit of a bump.

Young House Love — John and Sherry are a blogging couple (yes, John blogs too!) who have been blogging for, like four years. They’ve detailed their DIY drama and triumphs and even though I’ve only been following along since August, it feels like far longer than that. I’ve enjoyed watching them do everything from potato stamp the inside of a closet to building in a 13-foot desk. The entries are amazing, with pictures and step-by-step explanations (including products used!) as well as a little silliness along the way. Plus, Sherry will personally reply to comments and tweets, it’s amazing. (This is remarkable because entries can rack up as many as 600 comments for a particularly fun entry.) Plus, John and Sherry have been a joy to work with in the past. Great entries — and frequent ones! — along with fantastic content makes YHL possibly one of the best DIY/home reno blogs around.

So, my top five-but-unordered DIY blogs….that aren’t this one. 😀 I kind of love reading them so much. Some are better at updating than others, but all of them have great content and great people behind them. So grab a cup of coffee/tea/hot chocolate, your screenreader of choice, and settle in for some DIY goodness. Happy readings!