Man from Redneck Modern - Page 2

While Wimmer's handiness and design skill are a big part of the solutions offered on RedneckModern, he says Casie's training as a civil engineer is also key: "She's the one who figures out if whatever ideas I have will stand up."

Interestingly, Wimmer says, attracting Ikea fans resulted in the blog's two most popular posts. One was a project in their Eichler, the other was about a laundry cabinet he built out of Ikea storage containers at a friend's house.

"It's what happens when you get handy, and friends are moving and trying to prep a house," he says with a smile.

Wimmer says he neither seeks nor avoids product placement on the blog, but doesn't hesitate to laud a product that has served him well, such as Penetrol paint additive.

"It's fantastic for restoring plastic!" he bubbles, describing a blog entry about what to do with faded Urban chairs.

While some people have trouble deciding what is do-it-yourself and what requires an expert, Wimmer says he has no such problem.

"It's pretty easy to know when you have to call in the professionals," he says. "Anything that requires a permit, we leave to the professionals…That's the reason why contractors and professionals exist. Sometimes a checkbook is indeed the best tool for the job."

Likewise, after a few years running RedneckModern, Wimmer has grown more discriminating, and has consciously started leaving real estate-oriented topics for other modernist blogs, mostly "because I don't want to get in fights with agents."

"I've become way more picky over the last couple years about what I'm going to link back to," he admits, noting in particular that he has ceased posting available properties because he felt like he was doing the job of the listing agent. "There's a couple of somewhat bitter posts about what a realtor should be doing."

In addition, he is considering other changes to the blog's focus now that he estimates his home is "90 percent" renovated.

"One of the nice things about not having to depend on [the blog] for income is, I don't have to make these decisions soon," says Wimmer. If it was for profit, he says, "Your motivations really have to change. You have to take on some compromises."

Which is not to say he has no regrets about RedneckModern, a site he named largely for Concord's reputation as a more conservative community than most of the Bay Area.

Citing another mid-century modern blog title, he concedes sardonically, "In hindsight, I probably should have used something cooler, like FogModern."

• For more on Hunter Wimmer's blogging exploits, find him at RedneckModern.com.