DIY Home Renovators / @thegritandpolish
Cathy & Garrett Poshusta
Renovating in Denim
Carhartt works with Cotton’s Blue Jeans Go Green™ program to make closing the loop simple for Cathy and Garrett.
They bring in their worn, hardworking denim and walk out with something built for the next project, because nothing good should ever go to waste.
Recycle with CarharttHome renovators with heart, Cathy & Garrett Poshusta do everything together. They’ve been doing it that way since they bought their first Seattle fixer-upper in 2008 with no renovation experience, a table saw, and a nail gun. It soon became more than a project for them. It became a calling and a platform, “The Grit & Polish” blog where they share their story, renovation advice, and more.
Now, after numerous projects across the city and the countryside, they’re working on their “perfect for this phase of life” project, which they’ve coined “The Hill House.” It’s a charming home in small town Washington where they spend their days, “tackling DIY renovations, embracing a slower lifestyle, and wrangling our kids.”
We gravitate towards heritage, tradition, and authenticity in our homes and our clothes.
As they’re both from the Pacific Northwest, their style is inspired by their work. Practical, purposeful, and enduring. For Garrett, that means a cotton flannel shirt with a sturdy, authentic pair of jeans. “The denim’s gotta survive the job site.” Cathy mostly keeps it casual with a cotton t-shirt and jeans, gravitating toward a humble sensibility and natural materials. “Denim has a heritage and tradition of coming from a hard-working background that feels genuine to me.”
Both trust denim to do double duty. It’s gritty enough for the job site, and polished enough for a night out with the family. It turns out that their handle, “The Grit & Polish,” applies to their denim, too.
“Our hope is that after we’re done, our homes can last another 100 years.” Cathy and Garrett approach their days, and their fashion, with a slow living mindset. Walking the kids to school, renovating homes, and keeping a curated set of quality pieces in their wardrobe. As a couple who has spent years giving homes a second life, they were thrilled to learn that the Blue Jeans Go Green™ program does the same with denim.
Any time there’s a way to reuse something, to give a second life to something, we absolutely love doing that.
For them, the idea of recycling denim into something useful is a natural extension of their work. Especially when it’s recycled into building insulation, which shares the same natural properties as the materials they rely on, because it’s made from cotton. For a couple who have spent years choosing original plaster over drywall and salvaged wood over new, insulation made from repurposed denim fits right in.
They trust Carhartt for denim that thrives on the job. It’s a brand that’s as rooted in honest work and lasting quality as they are. When their denim is worn out, they can bring it to a Carhartt store to recycle it through Cotton’s Blue Jeans Go Green™ program, transforming their old denim into something new, much like the homes they’ve spent their lives restoring. In fact, that denim may find its way back into the walls of a future project, continuing its story in the homes they bring back to life. As they say, “Natural materials, like homes with good bones, find a way to last.”
