About a year ago, I decided that my family should have its own website. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I wanted to see if there were any ready-made tools out there I could use as the platform from which to start. I had my list of requirements, both in terms of functionality and technology. I knew it had to be:

• Written in ASP.NET C#
• If it requires a database, it needs to be MSSQL 2000 or 2005
• I would need the source code (so I can make it meet MY needs)
• Be inexpensive (read: free)

The Letdown

I had scoured the web about a year ago looking for .NET blogging tools and found DasBlog and BlogEngine.NET met my technical requirements. I read their respective specs, downloaded them, installed them, took a look at the source, and promptly deleted them. They didn't do exactly what I wanted to do out of the box, and since I was very green to .NET at the time, I figured I'd have to do it myself.

So, when the motivation came around again to finally build our family website, I figured I'd just build it from scratch. Not only would I be able to have the exact functionality I was looking for, but I would have the added benefit of learning ASP.NET by doing.

I built a basic blog database schema, allowing for posts, comments, tags, and so on. Even built an RSS feed. Ultimately, however, I realized that building all this functionality is more work that I have time for. I really enjoyed doing it, but I really enjoy my wife and kids, too. I don't want to be coding for hours on end, when I should really be out in the back yard throwing the ball around with Ruth and Cameron.

Back Where We Started

This led me back to BlogEngine.NET for another look. Now that I've got a better handle on .NET and what I'm actually looking at, BlogEngine.NET is actually pretty fantastic. This post isn't an in-depth review of the product. Suffice it to say that now that I (mostly) know what I'm doing in .NET, BlogEngine.NET meets nearly all my needs. I'm sure I'll make some tweaks here and there, such as making the global nav a usercontrol that grabs the items out of a config file.

What Now?

For now, I'm just using one of the downloadable themes from BlogEngine.NET's website. In the coming days (weeks?), I'll be working to give it a facelift. It will probably differ a small bit from the oringal Luebbes design, but not much.

So, until then, just keep reading. I'm sure I'll keep you intrigued.