Believe it or not, we’ve lived in our new house for over six months now. Half a year! So we thought this would be a good time to check in on some of the goals we had for moving and downsizing to see what has met and exceeded our expectations – along with detailing some of the biggest challenges we’ve encountered along the way.

This is going to be long & detailed, because it feels like there’s a lot of ground to cover, and while this rundown will be pretty specific to our situation, I think it’ll still give you a good window into the realities of downsizing that you might also encounter if you were to go for it. And yes, it includes money details. And a chart. You know I love charts.

To Recap, Why Did We Move?

We’ve got a thorough explanation of our reasons for moving from Virginia to Florida in this post from February.

Continue reading Realities Of Downsizing: The Good, The Bad, & The Unexpected at Young House Love.

Quick note: if you missed the update to last week’s post that went up a few days after it was originally published, you can catch up on that here.

When we moved in one of the subcontractors said they’d been wondering why we didn’t tear out the old cabinets and mismatched appliances and pink laminate counters and redo the kitchen before we moved in. But if you’ve followed us for a while, you know the answer. We like to live with a kitchen for a nice long time before changing the layout or doing any major upgrades like replacing the cabinets or counters (in our last house we waited three years for our big renovation). Actually living somewhere for a while to figure out what we like & find functional/useful versus trying to guess how we *think* we’re going to use a space in the early days of a new home just feels a lot less like a shot in the dark.

Continue reading Five Quick & Easy Updates To Our Kitchen at Young House Love.

We waited over 6 years to start our bathroom renovation and now, nearly 6 months later, it’s fully completed! And you know what that means – the ensuite bathroom curse that we discovered over the last month definitely seems to be in play (more on that here). All jokes aside (but really, is the curse a real thing, because it seems like it might be?!), let’s put all of this waiting to an end and get to the goods. Including a source list and a full budget breakdown at the end of this post!

tub | tub filler | tub art | shower tile | floor tile | toilet | vanity | mirror | vanity light | wall color: Behr Irish Mist

Believe it or not, the “after” photo above was taken in virtually the same spot as the “before” picture below.

Continue reading Our Bathroom: Before & Afters Plus A Budget Breakdown! at Young House Love.

This bathroom came together in such a short period of time, we almost can’t believe it ourselves (and we witnessed it with our own four eyeballs). If we hadn’t watched it fly along ourselves, while everything just seemed to line up perfectly, we probably wouldn’t have thought it was possible – especially after the longest-bathroom-reno-of-our-lives that we started way back in October. (Yes it’s still going, but next week we’ll have a full reveal & budget breakdown! FINALLY!).

Meanwhile, in less than a week, this upstairs hall bathroom went from looking the way that it has looked for years (old painted double vanity, two yellow-beige sea-shell shaped sinks, bare white walls, old seams in need of some fresh caulk around the tub, etc) to a totally fresh & updated room! We are THRILLED!

And we did it with basically zero dust/reno!

Continue reading A Surprisingly Quick And Demo Free Hall Bathroom Makeover at Young House Love.

This post is going to cover a lot of ground. Not only are we sharing before & after photos and a video tour about how we organized it all, we’re also spilling how much the whole thing cost, tossing out some closet planning tips to help you tackle an update yourself, and the details on how we made it all look built-in like a bonafide custom closet (with just $65 of wood!). First let’s get to the eyeball-related things: the before & afters. Also, please note how badly Burger wanted to be in this post. Photobombs out the wazoo.

This little room of ours has come a long way. The photo below shows how we even upgraded the entrance to the closet. See that super narrow doorway? It was 22″ wide (WHYYY?!?!?) and not centered on that wall (again…. WHYYY?!?!). For reference, John’s shoulder to shoulder measurement is 20″.

Continue reading Our Big Closet Makeover – The Budget, The Video Tour, And The Before & Afters at Young House Love.

As is the tradition, I’m always the last blogger in blogland to get a gift guide up (did I mention we just got our tree up two days ago?!), but I love searching for fun gift ideas all over the interwebs (including tons of small businesses & handmade items) and smashing them all into one big post for you guys! And this is that post, so let’s get down to business. There’s stuff for grown ups, finds for kids, and a ton of budget friendly ideas that are under $25, and even $15! Hope you find something you love for someone you love… even if that someone is you (I’m totally asking Santa for a few things on this list ;)

GIFTS FOR GROWN-UPS

Here’s what we’re loving, either firsthand stuff we’ve bought ourselves and have really enjoyed – or things we’re getting for friends & family (or hoping to find under the tree). 

• 1.

Continue reading Holiday Gift Guides For Everyone On Your List (With Stuff Under $20, and even $7!) at Young House Love.

Our annual rundown of stuff you can get cheaper than we did is here. Ha! Every year we check out the Black Friday deals (which literally start earlier every year) and we pull out stuff that we bought with our own money & really really like. And we share it here so you can snag things for 20% off, 30% off, and even over 50% off! We’ll try to update this post if more codes come out (just come back and scroll to the bottom to see all the sale links & codes in one place).

Our fully upholstered bed is marked down from $949 to $572 (40%!). Ours is the Talc color, and it’s such a step up from a metal frame and so much cleaner looking without needing a bedskirt!

Our woven blinds (we have these on every downstairs window) are marked down to start from $29.99 instead of $39.99 (19% off) .

Continue reading Stuff We Own & Love That’s On Sale Right Now at Young House Love.

We’ve gotten hundreds of questions about the financial side of running an Airbnb or other short term vacation rental. Specifically: “can you detail the expenses and fees that take a bite out of the profit? Are there hidden costs? How exactly do rental taxes work? Insurance?! ACK!“

Whether the person asking us was considering doing one themselves, or just plain curious (talking about money = interested face emoji), we’re laying it all out in the hope that it demystifies it a little bit, and is helpful to anyone who might be on the fence about whether or not this is a viable side hustle. We actually really enjoyed learning the ins & outs of this stuff – so it’s fun to share what we learned.

Obviously there are expenses like actually purchasing, renovating, and furnishing a home that you’ll be using as a vacation rental.

Continue reading The Costs Of Running A Vacation Rental (With Real Numbers) at Young House Love.