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new Airbnb open for listings!

I’m very happy to say that our renovations at Bethany Beach are finished, and the property on the Delaware shore is open for bookings! What a relief. After months of hard work and lots of miles logged in our cars, I’m so thankful that we can share this calm beach house with our guests (and…

the conservatory

We have this weird little room in the front of our house. We’ve never really known what to call it (except “the little room”), and a few years ago we began calling it “the conservatory” in a very high-brow accent. This very small room has stumped me for years. How could we use this space…

pared-down spring cleaning

Every spring, I tend to get the itch to clean and organize, and then I dive in with both feet. Half a day later, I’m staring at piles of boxes and realize I’ve created an even bigger mess in my desire to make everything perfect. Please tell me I’m not alone in this! Last week,…

Enjoying the cherry blossoms in DC

I have so much to show you design-wise, but it’s not completely ready yet. I’ve spent the last month trying to find a contractor who will finish this one last job for the beach house rental, but no luck so far. As soon as that’s ready, I’m going to flood your inboxes with photos of…

framing hack: spray paint the mat

A few weeks ago I was chatting with the guy who works in the framing department at Michaels, and I complained about how expensive it is to get things framed (despite the frequent sales at Michaels). He leaned across the counter and said in a conspiratorial whisper, “You should buy frames off the shelf and…

rebuilding the interior stairs

When we bought the beach condo, one of the worst spaces was the interior stairwell. It was dark and dingy, and the stairs were covered with blue, smelly carpet. It was depressing! And the previous owners had painted ivy down the hand rail. Under some circumstances I find that charming (we inherited a similar feature…

how to use a paint sprayer

For our beach house reno, our first task was to paint all the walls. Nothing had been painted for at least 30 years — when you removed any framed picture that was hanging on the wall, the square behind the picture was several shades lighter than the rest of the wall! Plus, the former owners…

beach house renovation for Airbnb

After we sold our rural cabin, we put the proceeds into a cute-but-tired beach house on the Delaware shore. We found an adorable house in a Key West style (elevated on pilings) and took the plunge! But the house was in terrible shape. It smelled awful, the furniture was unpleasant, and the flowery couch was…

living room reveal

We’ve been dreaming about this living room for years and working on it for about twelve months. You can follow our progress here and here and here. And, now, we’re finally finished! Here’s what the room looked like when we bought the house 6 years ago. There was a LOT of sea green! And the…

new year lists of fun

Do you make resolutions? For years, I tried . . . I’d come up with a long list of things like losing weight, eating healthier foods, working out more . . . and it never, ever stuck. Then, a couple of years ago, I heard Gretchen Rubin talking about how she makes lists for the…

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