Let me tell you the tale of a woman who started out with simple, humble plans for her children's playhouse...and yet, they quickly skyrocketed into something much larger and more substantial. Yes yes, surprise surprise—that woman is me. Kids Playhouse Ideas: Phase 1 When I first decided I wanted to build our daughters a playhouse (and when I say I we all know I mean Matt), it really started out quite simple. I showed the…
After finalizing our solid shower walls, we then had to address the shower floor tile. We wanted a tile small enough that we could have a non-slip shower floor, but big enough to have as few grout lines as possible. I don't know how to explain what I'm about to tell you—maybe I had a terrible fall as a young child—but I somehow have a fear of hydroplaning while standing on tile. Even just writing…
In our quest to make this house as low-maintenance as possible, we decided we wanted to do a solid surface shower when we remodeled our master bathroom! Solid surface = No grout lines on the walls! Talk about life goals! 🤣 Does anyone enjoy scrubbing grout lines? (I can hear all your not-raised hands.) The dream was to find a marble slab with dramatic veining to go along the back wall for a beautiful focal…
Having a courtyard wasn't on our house list, but Someone knew I would love it. Maybe it's because The Secret Garden was one of my favorites (every child's heart skips a beat at descriptions of digging in dirt, right?), or maybe it's because my beloved grandma had a courtyard we'd work in together year after year. I'm inclined to think it's the latter. Now, technically this isn't a courtyard because a courtyard is supposed to…
Today we're showing you what our backyard and pool are looking like after moving in and making some changes. Some of you already took the outside tour of what the backyard looked like while the prior owners were living here; so you'll more fully appreciate seeing how it's shaping up! BACKYARD UPDATE #1: Clearing the way for the view. It was literally Day 1 after closing and taking official possession of the house that I…
We demo'd our old master bathroom and, instead of replacing the built-in tub, decided to put in a freestanding tub. That wasn't an easy decision at the time, because we were torn. We'd seen some beautiful built-in tubs. Heck, even the whole original hotel-suite-inspiration for this bathroom had had a built-in tub. However, we decided to go freestanding and here's why: The floor area was a bit tight before, with the built-in tub. When we…
When I was a little girl, I never thought I'd grow up to be a woman with strong opinions about wainscoting in my bathroom. However, here we are. And here I am WITH—as it turns out—strong opinions when it came to choosing a wainscoting style. Who knew? It really was kind of a last-minute idea, our adding wainscoting to this bathroom, but I'm glad we're doing it. The whole space is going to look cozier…
Finito! Our exterior house painting is completed! All we did was paint, but the house looks drastically different. Although we had mockups to give us an idea of how it might turn out, we still can't believe how good it looks in person. Pictures don't do justice to just how dark and dingy it looked before. How we chose our exterior paint colors! The guys have been hard at work. You can already see how…
As per usual, finding a bathroom floor tile design that Jess approved of was no straightforward task. At first, it seemed easy enough! I liked the look of travertine, and I found this picture, so I thought, "Good to go!" source However, like so many projects, I soon realized that the bathroom I envisioned was like a magical unicorn in my mind, never to be found on Pinterest. Nice try, internet. But my answers will…
With the front yard taken care of, we moved on to the exterior paint colors decision. It wasn't a dire need (like the new roof or the insulation or the completely new HVAC system we had to put into this fixer upper before moving in, among other things!), but it soon moved its way to the top of the priority list. Not only had the stucco not been painted in 30 years, but much of…
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