If you’re new here, I’m sharing how we renovated a beach house and then rented it on Airbnb. Some of the rooms in this house needed only a facelift — new paint and new furniture — but we decided to completely renovate one of the bathrooms. This process took SO long . . . it’s hard to believe how much work went into it and how many delays we experienced. Here’s what the bathroom looked like when we bought the house. The vanity and toilet were fine, and we could’ve just painted the…
This post is a bit outside the box for me, but I thought it would be fun! Over the past year or two, I’ve read some fabulous books that really stuck with me, and I’m happy to recommend them to anyone and everyone. Plus, I’d love to hear what books you’ve enjoyed — I’m always looking for the next one to read. Lately I’ve been loving historical fiction about women during the time of World War II. It’s a very specific genre, I know, but I…
If you’re new here, I’m sharing how we renovated a condo in Bethany Beach, Delaware, and turned it into an Airbnb. It was a long process and took us an entire year, but I’m happy with the results! Today I’m sharing another bedroom renovation. This bedroom is upstairs, and since we already have a bunk room for kids, we figured this room would be for adults. Here’s what it looked like when we bought the house. (The furniture conveyed with the house.) I love the lines of the ceiling and…
Welcome back! Today I’m sharing how we updated one of the bathrooms at the beach condo. This house has two bathrooms, and we did a huge, expensive overhaul on the other bathroom that took weeks and weeks of my time. (Post on that one coming soon!) So for this bathroom, we wanted to make it look better without spending a lot of money or time. Here’s what it looked like when we bought the house. The room felt dingy and uninviting. And the shower was so old fashioned! It’s one of those full-piece…
I recently read this very fun book about parties — all kinds of parties! From adults’ birthday parties to kids’ parties to wedding showers, and it got me pumped up to host people more often. The book is Celebrate Everything, and the author is Darcy Miller. Here’s a sneak peek to show you how gorgeous the book is! I first read about Darcy’s parties in an issue of Martha Stewart magazine a few years ago, and my sister and I used some of Darcy’s ideas for our parents’ anniversary party. Darcy…
When we bought our beach place, the primary bedroom was pretty yucky . . . like all the bedrooms! The mattress was horrible, and the carpet was SO stinky. And check out the old-school wallpaper border above the bed! Like the rest of the house, our first step was to get rid of almost all the furniture and paint the walls and ceilings Cloud White. Boy, that was a tough week! Then we paid a local company to pull up the carpet and replace it with LVP, and we paid our local electrician to check all the outlets, add can lighting, and…
Have you heard of Gretchen Rubin? I’m a super fan of hers — I love the way she encourages her readers and listeners to seek moments of joy in daily life. So many of her ideas and suggestions resonate deeply with me. One of my absolute favorites is her suggestion to design your summer. Many of us look forward to summer — I certainly do! — but at the end of the season I often feel like I haven’t really enjoyed it as much as I’d planned. Daily life and my to-do list…
I’m back with another room transformation from our beach house in Bethany Beach, Delaware. The house has three bedrooms and two bathrooms and is up on pilings, so there’s not an option to expand the living area. Instead, we decided to turn one of the bedrooms into a bunk room with a pair of bunk beds. We wanted a style that would work for kids or adults, and we wanted to maximize the space. When we bought the house, the room looked like this. (The house was sold furnished.) I love all the visual space, but…
We finally have our finished photos from the beach place, and I’m so excited to share each room with you! First up is one of the easiest transformations — the fireplace. As you can see in the photos below, when we bought the place, the fireplace was pretty blah. It just wasn’t my style at all. And I felt like the black metal was pretty depressing, especially when compared to the beach decor. I was itching to do something . . . anything! Once we decided on the colors for the condo, I used the couch color and the…
A few weeks ago I had the privilege of going to France with my parents and my two daughters. This was one of my mom’s dreams — she’s been talking about it since my oldest daughter was born — and I’m so glad we were able to do it! We had an absolutely lovely vacation, and I’ll remember it always. One of my favorite parts was watching my kids interact with and experience life in a different country. They loved trying to speak French and eating all the delicious food! As with…