https://www.facebook.com/442755982587703/

Class IV Designs, Baltimore, MD (2026)

09/19/2022

Our home renovation posts came to an abrupt halt.

This wasn’t by accident.

We knew we were flying a little close to the sun…but the truth is, circumstance demanded it.

Our posts came to an abrupt halt when we learned that our crates were not late, but rather every single crate we shipped from Germany containing every belonging we own came covered in mold. Both the exterior, and the interior.

We’ve seen it with our own eyes.

It was at this point we felt we had run as fast as we could, as hard as we could, head first into a brick wall.

To make matters more intense, we came to learn that our insurance doesn’t cover mold (to any military families reading this, this is standard insurance practice) and the company the military assigned to our belongings only carries a fraction of the liability necessary to make us whole again.

We’ve spent the last many weeks getting claims involved, contacting lawyers, and fighting to be made whole again while continuing to live out of bags and on an air mattress.

We have many more months to go before we see the belongings that can be saved, and before we see any money to which we are entitled.

Here is the truth about military life this season:

We moved during a high market. We didn’t have a choice.

We wanted to rent but there were none available. We didn’t have a choice.

We bought a house that smelled a lot like p*e. It’s what we could afford. We didn’t have a choice.

We could have stayed in a hotel, but the military only covers 10 days, regardless of circumstance. We didn’t have a choice.

We had contractors move our belongings because they had to go over an ocean. They ruined our stuff and there are very few methods available to us to hold their hand to the fire while we continue to live in an empty house. We didn’t have a choice.

This leads us to the choices we do have.

We have the choice to stay in or get out.

I’d love to tell you that this choice is an easy one, given the fact we have learned repeatedly that the people charged with supporting our service see us merely as dollar signs and nothing more.

I‘d love to throw my hands up in the air and quit, given the amount of hard things we have faced in the military in the last 12 months.

I’d love to write some snarky email reminding the people screwing us over that it’s these very moments we will reference when my husbands drops his papers and someone asks why we are getting out.

I’d love to do it all.

It’s not a wonder people quit when service takes without giving back.

It’s not a wonder why the forces are running a little thin.

It’s no wonder they leave when they have to fight the very people charged with helping them…

Let alone be the first responders to the rest of the world too…

But for the moment, we continue on.

We do so because we love our country.

Because we know most of what the military does is humanitarian work…work that him and I have both seen first hand is very, very important.

Because we believe God has called us to this life, and when it’s no longer our time to serve, we will be called away from it.

Because we know in our hearts, we are a few of the many screws that hold this country together.

Posts will resume soon, for the work has not stopped.

We’ve just needed a minute to gather ourselves in a season that has been one hell of a transition.

Thank God we were still in sledge-hammer mode when we got the news about our belongings. It was truly a saving grace.

All our love, from our house to your home.

Us.

08/23/2022

A visual representation of life in the military + a house renovation.

You all asked where we are staying. We’ve…well…photographed.

Could we straighten this up? Yeah. And normally it’s better.

But we are also nearing the start of month 5 out of suitcases in total between Germany and the US, our home goods are still nowhere to be found (trust me, we asked), and this is what reality looks like.

It looks like an air bed in the middle of an unfinished room.

It looks like clothing strewn about because I had to do laundry at a friends and now need to organize it back into a suitcase because I have nowhere clean to put it.

It looks like travel bags accessorized by the bags under my eyes.

The renovation is a continuous choice. One we choose in order to make what we could afford in this crazy market livable.

Moving in an insane housing market…less of a choice.

Still being on an air mattress, definitely not a choice.

From the start of our second month urban camping in the US of A to your home,

Us.

08/21/2022

Repeat offenders of OSHA safety over here as we begin painting.

Here goes…quite a lot actually.

I’ve never been happier to stop playing with mud.

From whatever this is to your home,

Us.

08/18/2022

You know how people say, “I prayed to the porcelain gods last night?”

Anyone know if they talk to homeowners too or is it just those sick / heavily intoxicated?

We p*e in one room.
We shower in another.
We wash our hands in the third.

If one of you talks to them, ask them to send me a working toilet, would ya?

This bathroom is now officially in our sights, after we finish demoing the kitchen. It’s the only one that works…and it doesn’t work well (and lives in my creepy basement).

Kitchen is ripped out.
I’m officially sick of insulation being literally everywhere.

Can’t stop. Won’t stop. Mostly because we can’t stop…back to day jobs in t-minus two weeks.

Send prayers, coffee, and a potty. Preferably in that order.

From our madness to your home,

Us.

08/17/2022

I woke up to Eric in a tree, so…apparently this is the sp*ed at which we are living our lives today.

Someone send coffee. I can’t keep up with this guy.

There is no way how he is doing this is OSHA approved, so I guess don’t try this at home. 🙈

From our jungle gym to your home,

Us.

08/15/2022

Sometimes you think you are making progress…

And then sometimes the ceiling gets in the way of your foot.

May your Monday be a day of walking on solid ground, in a way apparently ours is not.

As for me, I’m doing drywall again, for the 87,000th time in a row (queue the theatrics.)

Mr. Schwartz, you are 2/2 for falling through ceilings. 🙄 Let’s not make it ‘third times a charm.’

From our construction zone to your home,

Us.

(No injuries were obtained in the making of these ceiling holes.)

08/13/2022

Day 17: We’ve officially found our least favorite house job, and that is scraping rose bud (similar to popcorn) ceilings.

We’ve spent the last few days repairing and mudding drywall, and the last touch is taking ceiling texture down.

This was a job we tried to contract out, only to find that to do 1,000 square feet was roughly $6,000+. Woof.

So since that wasn’t in the budget, to the window, to the wall we went.

Here’s a rough look at where we are at.

Walls down. Texture down. Long live the open concept.

See you a little later this week for a 21 day update.

From our construction zone to your home,

Us.

08/08/2022

It’s Monday, and we have officially hired help, because our knowledge stops where the floors start.

Hardwoods are getting installed, while all of us curse the heat and humidity.

The man doing our floors is covered in tattoos and saw dust, has a cigarette in his mouth, and is singing Katy Perry’s “You’re gonna hear me roar,” at the top of his lungs. The house is dirty, the vibes are positive, and we can’t ask for much more than that.

08/07/2022

I sat in my car crying the other day.

We had just moved into the house, which is still very much a construction zone.

We called to schedule our household goods drop off to find that we won’t get our things back for a minimum of another six weeks. We started living out of suitcases in May and will likely do so until October.

I had gone into Walmart to purchase an air mattress only to find myself questioning all the synthetic crap, and wondering why every angry person had gathered in one, crowded space.

I missed my friends, was frustrated about the price of hummus, and desperately needed my washing machine as I wore my underwear inside out because I didn’t realize I was out of clean panties.

It wasn’t my favorite day.

And I leaked.

Then I came home to find the house was leaking too.

Here’s today’s testimony.

Sometimes projects don’t go as planned.

Sometimes that will drag the bad days out. (I know, we are now 36 hours in to zero water running in this house.)

Sometimes houses leak.

Sometimes people leak.

Sometimes you live with underwear inside out, and without plumbing.

Sometimes this will force you to meet your neighbors, when you smell really bad, because you need to borrow a faucet.

This is the reality of home renovation.
This is the reality of military life.
This is the reality of being human.

Cheers to better days from our beers to yours (because we have no water),

Us

08/03/2022

Our country is having a really important conversation right now about perception and roles within society.

We are here for this conversation.

And speaking from personal experience, I don’t know if I’ve ever faced as many s*xist comments as I have in the last 96 hours of demolition.

Going to the hardware store, I was asked if my husband sent me with a list. Picking out colors for the hardwoods elicited comments about my s*x having expensive taste. Heck, in one small talk conversation with a potential contractor I talked about liking camping, only to hear I looked more like a woman who likes glamping.

The perception of manual labor is still very masculine.

So why is it important to reframe this conversation?

Aside from the obvious fact that it’s just rude, reductive, and inaccurate, talk like this reflects a very real barrier created between the spaces we hold, and the things we are capable of achieving.

The world is changing. It’s become more expensive. The problems more intricately woven together. The way people can access the life they want and the things they need has changed. Consequentially, it all requires a lot more work (plus a few other things).

This means people of all walks of life are holding different spaces.

For us that’s means I kick in more with manual labor, and he kicks in more with cooking and cleaning. We’ve had to recalibrate the load.

And when he’s deployed, I carry the whole load, from the lawn to the household manual work.

If we want to change the world, our communities, and our homes for the better, that means ALL hands on deck. Even my delicate, manicured hands.

My husband does the heavy lifting. He has bigger muscles. I come up behind him. Sometimes with a drill. Sometimes with a sledge hammer. Sometimes with a broom. Sometimes with safety goggles.

This is an important part of the way we work together because it saves us money, and allows us to access more of what we need in this very expensive world, and yeah, play a little bit more.

My husband wears the combat boots.
I wear pink.
But we both wear the tool belt.

And in a changing world, understanding this in every way matters very, very much.

For us, that starts in the home.

From our house to your home,

Us.

08/02/2022

Ready to open up? So are we.

And speaking of knocking down walls, a few of you have asked how we pulled off getting a house so fast in this radical market.

The truth is we had to do this big, bold thing where we bought a house from across the ocean, site unseen. Fortunately, this isn’t our first rodeo, so we knew what questions to ask + we had a very flexible team willing to work through the unique needs of veteran home purchasing.

This isn’t the reality for most military families. Right now, there are military families across the country (and greater world) who are struggling to find housing. They are moving in this housing market because they have to, not because they want to. They are sitting on impossibly long waitlists for government houses that there aren’t enough of. They are making offers on houses they can’t win at. They are spending thousands of their own dollars to live in hotels in the interim.

They do this while continuing to serve our country.

We would love to have moved into a house ready for residents. The reality of our situation is that this is what we can afford, and we are lucky to have the knowledge and skills to do the work ourselves. Heck, we are lucky to have a roof at all.

So, while we are over here talking about ‘what’ and ‘how,’ the real question we need to be asking is ‘why.’

Our why is because we need a home that we can afford. Our why is because this for us represents financial opportunity that is otherwise limited in civil service. Our why is because we love to make the places we exist better, knocking down one wall at a time.

May the walls we knock down help people to enter rooms they haven’t previously been invited to.

That starts in the home.

From our house to your home,

Us.

08/01/2022

How much damage can two people with nothing but a suit case, a hammer, and a crowbar do?

Quite a lot actually.

And as luck would have it, there’s original hardwoods throughout the whole house. Now we just need to figure out how to attend to the Stranger Things-esque black spot happening in our living room.

As for today, we are finishing demolition on our pink powder room, evicting the squirrel that was living under the vanity, and apologizing to our neighbors for all tiles we keep throwing out the open windows.

From our family to yours,

Us.

Class IV Designs

09/19/2022

08/23/2022

08/21/2022

08/18/2022

08/17/2022

08/15/2022

08/13/2022

08/08/2022

08/07/2022

08/03/2022

08/02/2022

08/01/2022

Address

Website

Alerts

Contact The Business

Shortcuts

Share