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Wednesday, October 7, 2020

our home project lists: weekend, 6-month, long term

As the majority of you probably know, especially if you follow me on Instagram, my husband and I are new homeowners! We purchased our home right before COVID happened, and we've been super busy fixing it up ever since. I've heard from a few of you that you enjoy staying up to date on our home improvement whereabouts, so I thought I'd give you an idea of what we're working on, and what we have plans to do. Below each to-do list graphic, I go into a little more detail:


Since making these lists a couple of weeks ago, I've actually already stained and painted our bedroom dresser! I'll be writing a blog post about how we flipped our 6-drawer IKEA Tarva dresser within the next month. We love how it turned out! 

Painting our doors feels like such a daunting task, but I know it will really elevate the look of our home once they're completed. Right now, they're only primed, and look exactly like what they are: unfinished. We're just happy to be rid of the old, shabby looking wooden doors that came with the house. 

I'm not sure how Ryan manages to work from home out of our current office situation right now, because the closet situation is an absolute mess. Since we don't have any doors or shelving, nothing has a place, and we're not able to conceal it. AH. We truly need to sit down and plan out exactly how we want to build out both the office and guest room closets so we can get adequate use out of our storage space.

And then we have the guest bathroom. YIKES. The walls (and ceiling!) are the worst, shiny brown color and the tiles are simply old, outdated, and a little rough looking. Aside from small updates in the kitchen, this bathroom is really the only "big" interior work we have left to work on. Ideally, we want to revamp the entirety of the guest bathroom - get rid of the current push-in situation, do a tile surround, replace the countertops, and maybe even the tile. 

5. Ahhhh, caulking. A simple yet incredibly tedious job. I've been working on this on and off when I have a few hours open on the weekend. Crazy what a difference it makes, though! 


Our primary concern in this moment: our back porch and patio. Our current patio situation is an unfinished attempt at additional indoor square footage. We're talking insulated ceiling foam tiles, random wooden posts, and laminate "wood" wall coverings. YIKES AGAIN. I've been out to our backyard less than 10 times since moving in back in March, because it's such an eyesore. Thankfully, Ryan makes his way out there to mow the lawn. I would love to get this project going so that we can enjoy some chillier temps out on the porch during the next couple of seasons. I already have plenty of ideas brewing!

After we've seen how much new baseboards elevated the bedrooms, we would love to get rid of our current (old) 3/4 inch quarter rounds we have throughout the house and install some new boards to spruce up our living and dining areas. It's crazy how something as small as baseboards can make such a huge aesthetic difference.

Speaking of elevating our space, I think plantation shutters over our primary (and only) front-facing window would add such a beautiful touch to our home. I need to schedule someone to come out and give us a quote ASAP.


Ahhhh, the long term projects. AKA things that probably cost a lot of money, or require lots of time and research. 

As far as the kitchen goes, we actually have very minimal concerns. I'd like to get rid of the blue Formica counters and go for something a little more neutral, but our cabinets are pretty much brand new. When we first moved in, we had ideas of knocking out a couple small walls and making our kitchen/dining/living space more of an open concept, but I'm not sure that's something we'll actually end up doing. I think it's worth living in the space as is a bit longer before making any big decisions. 

We have the absolute perfect wall for a gorgeous, custom built entertainment center (think thick wooden open shelves, recess lighting, cabinets, etc.) buuuut per our contractor, it would be approximately $3k. Could we splurge and make it work right now? Maybe. But it's not something that's absolutely necessary in this moment. 

Back to our primary concern mentioned above: our outdoor space. Once the patio is complete, it would likely be in our best interest to even out our terrain, as it slopes down to a mangrove-y type of area (there is water behind our house, but it's very far back...basically it looks like woods in our backyard!). And then once that happens...I want a spool! In other words, a spa pool...err, basically a small pool. I would like a small pool. I think I only have to mention it to Ryan approximately 38,000 more times before it happens.

Our garage is organized chaos right now, but that feels like too big of a fish to fry right now. It's functional. Ultimately, I would love to spruce up the laundry area a bit, give Ryan a proper area to store his tools, and make it feel like less of a dark, boring space. I can dream, right?

To conclude: we have quite a bit on our plate. Sometimes, we make comments about how we wish we could have moved into something a little more "move in ready." But most of the time, we're pretty excited about making this space entirely our own.

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Thursday, October 1, 2020

happy fall!

Like many, I am so excited for fall! There are so many things I love about summer - optimal margarita weather, day trips to the beach, poolside shenanigans - I live for cooler weather, comfy sweaters, and cozy decor. In a perfect world, I'd live some place where I could witness a true seasonal change in a timely fashion. But if that were the case, I wouldn't live 25 minutes from the beach, so I guess the grass is always seemingly greener.

I know fall is going to look a little different for everyone this year. Fewer haunted houses, fewer Halloween parties, smaller holiday gatherings. I wonder if trick-or-treating is even going to be a thing this year. 

A friend of mine told me that, after everything we've been through this year, she plans to lean into everything holiday related, and I plan to follow suit. I've been cranking out Halloween themed Boom Cards (check out my shop if you're a fellow SLP!) since September and buying fun fall decor to get into the spirit. Here's a little list of what I want to do so that I can be more intentional about how I spend this season:


What are you looking forward to about the new season?


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