ABOUT

Hi there! We’re Cathy and Garrett, not-quite-high-school-sweethearts (but we met in the 7th grade!), DIYers, and parents to the 3 coolest kids. We’ve spent the past decade renovating old homes in Washington state, bringing a fresh-meets-vintage design approach, DIYing everything we can, and making it all up as we go. We now showcase our homes and DIY successes (and failures!) here on the Grit and Polish. So glad you’re here!

Our start to renovating

We bought our first home in 2008, a fixer upper in Seattle. We had no idea what we were doing, but we renovated it over 3 months, learning as we went, buying essential tools, and asking friends and family for help. Pretty soon we translated those skills into our next property. And then the next and the next.

After a decade of nights and weekends spent renovating, Garrett and I quit our 9-5 jobs in Seattle and moved our family to an old Farmhouse in the country in eastern Washington (you can read more about that here). We now spend our days as parents, renovators, landlords, and content creators and we’re always in search of a fresh adventure and a fixer upper.

our properties

In addition to our Farmhouse, Garrett and I have kept many of the properties we’ve fixed over the years as rentals, including the Bryant House, Dexter House, and our current remodel, the tiny Poplar Cottage. We also sold the Ravenna House in 2018 and took on our first (and only!) flip project, the Porch House, for our very own pilot on HGTV in 2017. Thankfully Garrett’s parents bought the Porch House once we finished so it’s still in the family 😊

A few things about us:

We grew up together in small-town Ellensburg, WA (where our Farmhouse is located) but only started dating at high school graduation
We have three awesome kids aged 8, 6, and 4.
Yes! Cathy has gray hair. She stopped dying it in 2018 and you can read about that here.
We starred in an HGTV pilot in 2017 called ‘Master Plan’, which was a fun experience and you can read about it here.
The quest for financial independence and ‘early retirement’ have been a big part of our journey. You can read more about that here.
Cathy is a sourdough bread baker and Garrett does most of the cooking in our house.
Garrett has a PhD in biochemistry. Cathy has bachelor degrees in journalism and structural engineering.