DIY home renovations are labors of love, and this Valentine's Day/ President's day, my husband really took it up an extra notch helping me pull my office together to a point where I could move back in and set up shop.

We had been living with vestiges of whatever logic drove the last owners to panel the middle bedroom on our second floor with knotty pine, carpet the floor mauve, install pink outlet receptacles, and put acoustic tile on the ceiling.

The room is meant to be a shared office for me and my husband, but I couldn't stay in the room longer than five minutes the way it was and was working in our guest bedroom/ upstairs family room, which is slightly more benign.

I am thrilled to have moved my project samples off the bed, get my printer off the bedside table, and have a giant work-surface rather than 3 random ones of different heights and sizes.

So while we didn't get to full install mode, and there is still so.much.still.to.do, I celebrate our small victories; because doing the happy dance is just so much fun. The killer black leather chairs we scored at a steal are the icing on the cake.

Check out the before and afters (which I'm calling afters even though they're more like 'durings'). More soon (I hope!).