Today we’re sharing how two recent treat yourself moments in our house turned sideways on us and how it shed some light on when to splurge and when to make like Elsa and let it go. One even involves a feature in our bathroom reno that we’ve dreamed about for years, but suddenly can’t seem to justify in actual practice (although it sounds great in theory!). Also after nearly 11,000 people took our “Side Of The Bed” survey, we have some surprising insights about why people sleep where they do. Plus there’s been another Color of the Year development and we find the silver lining to a recent personal event that shook us up. What’s
Ikea Kitchen Costs – A Full Breakdown
As our bathroom reno continues (current status: more demo happened, our vanity, tub, & toilet arrived, and we have our plumber & electrician scheduled to rough things in and then we can prep & tile) we thought it would be fun to share a duplex kitchen budget breakdown. *Also, for anyone who has inquired about renting the duplex this fall, there’s an announcement about that later in the post* Obviously, there are LOTS of factors that affect how expensive a kitchen renovation will be, so let this post just be a reference point for you – not a prescription for how much a kitchen reno should cost. The average kitchen reno in 2019 was $24,047
#150: Changing Our Minds About Our House (Again)
Our home’s exterior makeover didn’t stop with painting it white last year, so today we’re catching you up on some projects we’ve completed and what’s still to come (and it involves something we’ve changed our minds about twice). We’re also reflecting on a few experiments & interviews over the past 149 episodes that truly changed the way we live in our house – and we’re issuing a challenge to help us all find some new ways to improve our household routines and daily lives. Plus, we look into why someone might buy a house they’ve never seen, located in a town they’ve never been to (!!!). The idea may be less crazy than it sounds…
#149: The Episode That Made Me A Plant Lady
We’re sharing how our bathroom reno went from zero to fifty percent (that’ll make more sense when you hear what we did) and how we gained a ton of insight about the right layout and the right size for the vanity, shower, tub, etc. Also… the houseplant struggle is real, so we asked plant expert Carmeon Hamilton everything we’ve ever wanted to know about how to keep inside greenery alive (and happy!). She shared her favorite easy plants for beginners and even laid out when to water, re-pot, and fertilize your indoor greenery (we were like: wait, we should be fertilizing?!?). Plus, we’re shouting out a super handy multipurpose tool that we loved so much
#148: How We Keep Our Lives & Projects Organized
People are always asking how we keep our projects and our household organized (“do you make lists? use an app?! help me!”) so today we’re outlining the three tools that we use every day. Some are digital, some are old school, but the most important part is that they help to keep us on the same page (sometimes literally) about our projects, purchases, and more. We’re also sharing the near completion of a long overdue outdoor update that almost sent one of us over the edge… of the roof. Also, could it be true that some people don’t have a de facto “side of the bed” every night? WHAT?! We have questions. What’s New That’s
#147: A Summer Living In A Smaller House & Smaller Town
What happens when you move into a smaller house in a smaller town for over two months? That’s what we found out this summer when we stayed at our beach house to manage the duplex rentals – AND IT WAS THE BEST SUMMER OF OUR LIVES. The smaller home and smaller town lessons that we learned really stuck with us when we returned home – and they have already inspired us to make 4 changes to our life and habits back in Richmond. So even if you aren’t planning to move or downsize, there are some things you could experiment with too. We’re also sharing why we’re fiiiiiinally starting a long-awaited renovation in our house,
5 Lessons From Our Summer As Airbnb Hosts
We talked on this week’s podcast about how our first rental season at the duplex wasn’t perfect, but it went pretty darn smoothly, all things considered (you can hear a bunch of specific stories, nerve-wracking moments, and things we learned in that episode). Over the course of this past summer, we hosted 23 families thanks to it being a duplex. Two bookings were always happening simultaneously, and the house was fully occupied with guests every night from mid-June to Labor Day. We joke that going from managing zero Airbnbs to two was kind of like going from having zero kids to having twins – it literally felt like we were plunging ourselves into the deep
#146: What It Was Really Like Renting Out The Duplex
We survived our first summer as Airbnb hosts to 23 different families over the course of the last three months – and, more importantly, so did the duplex itself! But our first rental season wasn’t without hiccups, high anxiety moments, and surprisingly frequent learning opportunities. So this week we’re taking you behind the scenes of a jam-packed few months of learning the hospitality ropes while juggling guests and (more literally) a very full jug of laundry detergent. Sherry also celebrates the end of a long “personal renovation” and we share how something simple led us to rethink our approach to cooking dinner. What’s New I know Sherry’s enduring Invisalign saga has been the topic of
The Real History Of The Pink House (There’s A Twist!)
This all started because we wanted one of those cool “Historic District” plaques on our beach house. Spoiler, we got it…and one for the duplex too! But the process turned us into amateur sleuths, history-buffs-in-training, and (more predictably) people who paint their front door a new color while they’re at it. So here’s the story, along with a mini porch update, and some tips & advice for uncovering the history of your home too. Ever since we bought our beach house three years ago (yes, three!) we’ve been jealous of admired the official “Cape Charles Historic District” plaque on our neighbor’s house (the blue one between the duplex and the pink house in the photo
DIY Shiplap Wall Plank Treatment ($31 total!)
Many moons ago we promised to share the DIY play-by-play for this shiplap-esque, paneled wall treatment because it’s ridiculously easy and GLORIOUSLY BUDGET CONSCIOUS. As in, it cost less than two boxes of my favorite light bulbs. Or dinner at Chipotle. Yes, those are my units of measure. But the point is: it was only $31! I mentioned in our backsplash post a while back that we opted for a different treatment on the stove wall in each of the duplex kitchens because it felt too chaotic to continue our patterned tile on two walls, so we chose something subtle yet wipeable AND easy to maintain (you can see the both duplex kitchen reveals here). Also cheap
Organizing Our Beach House Shed
Earlier this summer we shared how we made over our beach house backyard in one giant post that covered the entire year-long process of taking it from a gnarly jungle to compact-yet-relaxing little oasis. It’s a very small space, so we worked really hard to squeeze lots of function out of it – more on that here – and back when we shared that post, many of you asked for photos of the inside of our pink shed along with details about what we store there. So today all of your shed-poking-around dreams are about to come true. When we shared that backyard before & after fest, I confessed that the inside of the shed
How To Paint Decorative Oars For Beach House Decor
When we shared the duplex backyard makeovers last month, I promised more details about how we made the decorative oars that hang on each shed. So today I’ve got a detailed tutorial for you (including how NOT to screw up your attempts to make them outdoor friendly) along with a few other “hacks” you guys asked about. The oars actually were not part of our original plans. But after the sheds were built we nixed our plans to run electricity to them (for cost reasons – and because they really don’t need it). But the empty space where we’d planned to hang a light above the door needed… something. That something became oars after a
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- …
- 113
- Next Page »