Welcome to Suburban Jersey Dad

    This whole thing began with documenting some small projects with my daughter and, at the time, it was simple things like seed planting and worms farms. 

It was 2017, we were doing those projects mostly because we wanted a garden in the backyard (My wifes' Zucchini bread is killer!) and we had already done some work to get one going. We picked a few things we wanted to try, bought the materials and I started taking video using mostly my phone while we enjoyed the time together.

    After the first two videos were published, the garden thing was kicked into high gear when I joined a local group who was going to build a school/community garden at my kids' elementary school. The Bears Care Garden is still there and was created as an outdoor classroom to teach kids about gardening, ecosystems and the best lesson of all: hard work and seeing results. Like many of my videos, I've recorded video here and there of the Bears Cares Garden and a subsequent project some friends and I completed there with the intention of getting the video completed and out...but planning it out, gathering all of the video in one place, and then taking the time to edit is my ongoing challenge. Ill eventually get that video , like more than a few others, completed. The garden building experience there was great and watching my kids help with some of the labor to make it happen was an especially proud Dad day.

   So for the past few years I have wanted, like most YouTubers, to share what I was doing and give back to the YT Community because I had saved a ton of time, aggravation and money by DIYing things after studying up on YouTube. So I continued. 

The Rain barrel video is where I learned just how hard (and how bad) a video can be. No beard? that guy needs a beard. Truth be told - The hardest part for me with all of these videos is stopping what I am doing long enough to realize that I should probably go grab my camera. Planning on the fly and in my head doesn't always translate well to good content. Lesson learned...we will see.

   It wasn't until we started cleaning up the playground out back that the YouTube bug really bit - The Swingset video received comments and questions and the community interaction was a real pleasant surprise. That video still receives a ton of views (for us anyway) as more parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles decide that there aren't great options out there for a sturdy swingset that looks good - unless you want to spend $1,500. That interest in our video motivated me to do better videos. (I forgot to film a crucial part on that one...lol)

We have since added an Instagram account, a Locals.com account, a TikTok account and a Facebook page. Feel free to take a visit and follow. 

So with some good experiences under our belt, a terrible beardless video of me talking too close to a camera about a rain barrel,  and some more projects popping up (Pop-up camper...see what I did there) we continue to try to document our adventures in DIY and other things. I am currently updating this very website to add place holders for videos that I have yet to sit down and create - I hope it will motivate me - those evil blank spots in our website....Yuck. 

I hope you enjoy the content, post up a comment or two, or ask any questions you have... and remember to be kind - this is amateur hour. If you can click an Amazon link of ours to make a purchase, every bit helps in the pursuit of better video quality and better projects. (Oh, I just thought of a new video where I show you the camera equipment I use...its terrible. )

Take a look around and if there are any follow up videos to older projects you would like to see - let us know. 

Back to tearing out our kitchen for a DIY remodel ...yup...video coming soon. 

SJD