In case you missed the news, THE PITTSBURGH PENGUINS WON THE STANLEY CUP! Prior to this year, their most recent cup win was in 2009. Nick and I were only dating a few months and still living at home with our parents for the summer, but we had a little watch party together with his friends.

Seven years later we're living together in the new house we just bought, in a city we love so dearly, with the Penguins arena just a few miles down the road. Needless to say, this win was way better. We watched the final game in Consol Energy Center with 15,000 other fans, cheering and crying as the clock counted down to 0. WE ARE THE CHAMPYINZ.


On Wednesday the Pens paraded through downtown Pittsburgh with the cup in tow for 250,000+ fans to see. This was my first time attending the parade and seeing the Stanley Cup in person, so I wanted to share some of my favorite photos from the day.


If you made it this far, thanks for reading and LET'S GO PENS!

Sarah & Nick

Last Friday I had the opportunity to attend a preview of the new Killer Heels exhibit at The Frick Museum here in Pittsburgh. This traveling exhibit showcases the art of high heeled shoes and features designers such as Chanel, Christian Louboutin, Balenciaga, Manolo Blahnik, and many, many more.


I wouldn't say I'm exactly a heels person (I love my flats dearly), but the heels in this show are works of art rather than functional footwear.The exhibit features 147 different shoes from around the world, from year 1600 to present day, and each shoe more unique and interesting than the last.


The exhibit is divided into six different sections: Revival and Reinterpretation, Rising in the East, Glamour and Fetish, Architecture, Metamorphosis, Spacewalk, and Not Your Everyday Footwear. The different sections also feature short films to accompany the shoes from that theme.


With nearly 150 shoes to choose from, it was really hard to pick favorites. The first shoe that comes to mind is the Christian Louboutin ballet slipper (pictured below.) It's the one shoe in the exhibit that I know I've seen photos of before and wasn't even sure it was real. Seeing it in person was an exciting experience - it's a shoe only a well-trained ballerina could wear.


Other favorites were all of the crazy and colorful platforms, the Marie Antoinette Louboutins, and the zip-tie bamboo heels (all pictured below.) You can see more (high-res) images of the shoes in the collection on The Frick's website, or by visiting the exhibit yourself!


Pittsburgh is the last stop on the Killer Heels nationwide tour, so you have until September 4th to see it! Exhibition admission is only $12, and well worth the money. I highly recommend attending a docent tour (Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays at 2 PM.) Walking through the exhibit with the curator was so informational and fascinating - you'll definitely want the opportunity to ask questions and learn more about each unique shoe!

Thank you to The Frick Pittsburgh for inviting me to attend this preview! If you visit, be sure to leave us a comment letting us know which shoe was your favorite and hashtag your photos with #KillerHeelsFrick!

xo, Sarah

Thank you so much for the likes, comments, tweets, virtual high fives, etc. on Friday's post. In case you missed it, WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!


We have so many things going on in our brains right now - coordinating a move, family visits, ordering appliances & furniture, planning room makeovers and renovations, plus working our full-time jobs and the excitement that is Penguins Stanley Cup hockey. It's hard to keep everything straight, but it's okay - we couldn't be happier.


There's obviously much, much more to come about our new house, but we wanted to give you the lowdown on The Surznick Ranch.

• Our house is an adorable ranch-style home built in 1950, which is perfect for the mid-century modern vibe we're going for (score!)
• Most of the rooms are a pretty blank slate - white walls and original hardwood floors. They need painted, furnished, and styled, but that's pretty much it.
• The kitchen is, for lack of a better word, a disaster. We don't like it. Our ultimate plan is to gut the entire kitchen and get all new errythang. It'll be a time-consuming and expensive project, so it's on the back burner for now (pun intended.)
• The other huge project we'll tackle in time is the basement. It's "finished" but not really. We'll need to remove the wood paneling and drop ceilings, scrape walls, paint, install new flooring... all of that good stuff.
• Lastly, we love our house and can't wait to officially move in. It has the top three things we wanted for our first home: a great location, a driveway, and a yard. The last two are almost unheard of with city living, but we got lucky.

Follow me on Snapchat this morning for a peek at our empty house and plans on what we want to accomplish! (@sawissinger)

Edit: We uploaded the Snapchat tour to YouTube so everyone could see it!



Sarah & Nick

Can you believe it?! We are HOMEOWNERS.

When we moved to Pittsburgh, we said we weren't going to move again until we bought a house. We never thought we'd be ready to purchase a home a mere three years later. It's been a process with some ups and downs, but we are so thrilled to be the owners of a cute 1950s ranch here in the city. We got the keys this morning. IT. IS. OURS.

The house is in great shape, but it needs our Surznick touch. We'll be sharing our renovation and room makeovers over the next several months (and who are we kidding - probably years.) We're so, so excited to begin this journey and share the process with you here on the Common Room.

As you can imagine, we're going to be busy bees, especially the next several months while we settle ourselves in. Starting next week we are going to start posting only two days a week instead of three (Wednesday and Friday only.) We hope that you understand and will bear with us during this exciting but crazy busy time.

Thank you for all of your support over the past two and half years. Without this blog, I probably wouldn't have started reading other DIY/design blogs and never gotten such an itch to be a homeowner. We've been dreaming of this day for such a long time and now here we are. Thank you so much.

xo, Sarah & Nick

P.S. Make sure you're following on Instagram for behind the scenes peeks at the Surznick Ranch!