IT'S DONE!! I've officially completed my THIRD One Room Challenge and what a journey! The ORC has been such a big part of my home and blog - HALF of my house has been transformed through the design challenge. I'm so proud and grateful to participate! I mean, look at this new bedroom I get to sleep in, now!
Read MoreOMG it's week five of the One Room Challenge! The moment we've all been waiting for - the new exterior door was installed, and boy is it a beaut. We also built a deck this week (so I didn't fall to my death out the new door) and painted the room in the prettiest hues.
Read MoreGuess what! I've decided to do a One and a Half Room Challenge with outdoor seating! The new back door will give access to the outdoors, which is such a great way to expand the size of our master. The problem is, our backyard isn't so great.
Read MoreIt's week three of the One Room Challenge! I spent this past weekend on adding a board & batten style wall treatment, so I'm here to give you the DIY tutorial of adding the simple detail to your walls!
Read MoreI can't remember if I even shared this glorious news on the blog, but I won the One Room Challenge last fall! Sophie Donelson, editor in chief of House Beautiful magazine, picked her top two favorites out of 200+ guest participants and mine was one of them! GASP! The other room transformation winner was my blogger bud, Natasha Habermann.
In case you forgot the room transformation I did, my home office won for the handpainted mural and my love for organization. You can walk through each of the seven weeks of the transformation here.
Winning was a highlight, but the prize also comes with the honor of being a featured designer in the upcoming season of the One Room Challenge! The last two times I joined in, I was a guest participant which is open to anyone with a blog (so jump in if you like rambling on the internet!). Natasha and I will be participating with a group of 18 other featured designers for the Spring ORC starting next week! Come back in exactly 7 days to see what we all have up our sleeves. A handful of blog friends are joining as guests (like Sarah, Nicole, Cathy, and Alison) and I'm already itching to see what they do, so don't play favorites - check out the featured AND guest participants!
Apartment 34 | Beginning in the Middle | Coco & Jack | The English Room | The Gold Hive | Gray Malin | Jenna Sue Design | Jojotastic | Kelly Rogers Int. | Linda Holt | Marcus Design | Michelle Gage | Natasha Habermann | The Painted House | Rambling Renovators | Sacramento Street | Shannon Claire | Sketch 42 | Stephanie Kraus | Style Me Pretty Living
Media Partner House Beautiful | TM by ORC
I promise that this time around I won't hand paint a mural for 100+ hours. I'll take it a little easier, but I'm really excited for the changes headed for another room in our house. Any guesses as to which space is earning a 6-week makeover?
I've spent the past three years trying to decide on a new layout for the back of our house. We've come up with lots of ideas, but there is ultimately always a compromise of some sort and we struggle with identifying what we want to give up on. I think we've solidified a plan, but I'm still not 100% so I want your feedback!
Below is the existing floor plan.
We have three bedrooms, one bathroom, and a nice flow between the spaces that makes the house feel airy yet not too open. The ceilings are nine feet tall so even though our house comes in at just under 1,400 square feet, it still feels perfectly spacious. I love this little abode.
The master bedroom is accessible only by walking through another bedroom, or the kitchen. It's fine right now when the guest bedroom is actually just a TV room, and access to the kitchen is very convenient for rolling out of bed straight to breakfast. But, I'd like to access the master without tripping over a sleeping house guest or a stove.
We'd like to have a second bathroom in the house, ideally in the form of an ensuite off the master bedroom.
The kitchen layout isn't the most functional. It's decently sized but with wasted space on half of the room and with the two mudrooms. These two little rooms are inefficiently used for storage, and the walls block all of the natural sunlight from the back of the house.
We want a more indoor/outdoor feel. Right now, the only backyard access is through a door that's tucked away in a mudroom. We'd like to see the kitchen and the master extend into the outdoor space.
In this new layout, we'd gain a second bathroom, a bigger closet, both the kitchen and the master the would open up to the backyard, and we'd access the master through a hallway instead of another room. YAY! The only compromise is that the guest bedroom would get significantly smaller. To remedy the small space, I'll add transom windows over the guest room and hallway doors so natural light can flow between all the spaces. We will also install pocket doors to gain as much floor space as possible.
Here are each of the floor plans side-by-side so you can see the changes.
Since it's hard to visualize a space that you've never set foot in, I put together a video walkthrough using the renderings I created to design the floorplan. Take a look at the 2-minute video below for a better idea of the house will flow.
Reducing the size of a bedroom isn't ideal, I know. But the other options I played with had much bigger compromises. We toyed with adding on into the backyard, making the master accessible from the dining room, by jogging the hallway over to not take away bedroom space, and so many more.
If you're into floor plan configurations, cycle through the ones below. The differing rendering styles are because some are mine, some are from the previous owner's plans to add on, and the others were sketched by Ross' uncle who we cornered at a family reunion to brainstorm a bunch of ideas together. He's a prison architect - yes, prisons - but in a nice rehabilitative way. I have probably 30 other drawings in a notebook, but looking at them is too exhausting. If you're a layout nerd, let me know and maybe I'll upload the rest of them.
So, tell me! Any thoughts? comments? questions? concerns? I genuinely am interested in what you have to say! I'm not an expert, and I haven't lived in a variety of houses to know how different designs function but I'm taking inspiration from house tours, blogs, online images, books, and asking all the pros I can. Please weigh in - whether you're an expert or not! If you want to sketch up an idea to send my way, here's a pdf of the current floor plan.
We're taking this project on in phases, but phase one starts soon, so speak now or forever hold your peace! Note also that the kitchen isn't fully fleshed out. The renderings are not the final layout and most certainly not the finishes you can expect in the kitchen remodel - so stay tuned for that.
Thanks in advance for your feedback!
2017 was a record year for launching the blog, doing two One Room Challenges, and sharing the renovation progress of the bathroom and kitchen. But, 2018 is going to be the year of major remodels! Here's to hoping we can tackle each of the projects outlined below.
If you missed my 2017 recap, be sure to look through it to see how far we've come already.
This will definitely be the biggest project of the year because it’s an entire gut job for a pretty big footprint - plus, it's a kitchen. I’m still in the planning stages but I’m getting oh-so-anxious about a more efficient layout and cabinets that aren’t falling apart. Our current kitchen takes up a roughly 18’x17’ space (including the two mudrooms) which we'll demo, then reconfigure to fit a bathroom and closet for the nearby master bedroom. Which brings me to item number two.
Have I mentioned we have one bathroom? We want to add an ensuite off the master bedroom. It will use some of the footprint of the existing kitchen and we’ll build it all from scratch with new plumbing and everything. We’ll do a nice sized shower, a window to the backyard, and a vanity with oodles of storage. I can’t wait!
Along with the kitchen and bathroom configuration, we’ll carve out some room for the master closet. Our current closet is quite petite. It works for our needs because we aren’t big clothes people, but considering we store suitcases and linens in another closet, and accessing 1/3 of our clothes is a struggle, we could definitely use room to spread out and get more appropriately arranged storage. We hope to create a 5’x7’ walk-in closet that will also house drawers so we can do away with the dresser in the bedroom.
Since we’re messing with the master closet and master bathroom, we might as well do the master bedroom, too, right?? The current room has mismatched Craigslist furniture that I bought when we lived in our apartment five years ago. If you recall from Instagram, we moved our bed as a test for the new layout and we ended up having weird dreams for a couple of weeks. That better not be a permanent.
When the kitchen configuration changes, the door to the backyard will move. This one small change to the layout has been the primary reason we haven’t tackled the backyard. We wouldn’t know where the kitchen door would lead, and we still don’t know if we’ll add backyard access from the master. So, we haven’t relandscaped in fear of putting a door directly in front of a shrub. Once the kitchen layout is 100% finalized, I’m going to be ready to rip off the temporary deck, haul away (or cut into pieces) the 8-person jacuzzi that we never use, and add some fresh plantings.
I’m so honored to have won the One Room Challenge along with my friend Natasha. House Beautiful magazine selected us as the top two room transformations, so we have automatically been added to the list of featured designers in the spring 2018 event! I still don’t entirely know what room I’m going to do or what my plans will be, so stay tuned!
Last year, we upgraded the front elevation of the house with some cosmetic exterior changes and a garden in the front yard. We’ve enjoyed this exterior space for awhile now but I haven’t shared it on the blog, so stay tuned for posts on how I repaired the stucco on the house and designed a low-water garden.
Did you notice that the laundry used to live in the kitchen? Last year, we hid it in a secret spot. Maybe I'll tell you where we put it.
I have a few goals for the blog itself, too!
Open an online shop: I have some cool vintage finds that I'd love to give to a new home, and I'd be happy to put my art school degree to work by selling some of my own pieces. Perhaps art prints of the mural I hand-painted?
Create videos: I published my first-ever video last year and want to keep experimenting with the medium in 2018. Click that red subscribe button to follow my YouTube channel.
Post more: This year I've posted 2-3 posts a week, and I hope to maintain that schedule if not increase to 4+ times a week.
Share the messy stuff: I plan to show more behind-the-scenes, the struggles of fixing up an old house, and the minutia of maintaining a home.
Support artists: I want to buy more original art for my home and promote the creators that inspire me.
Don't miss out on what I have coming up in the new year!
Subscribe to emails (get an email each time I post, or once a week)
Read on Bloglovin' (get all the posts, but in the app)
Admire on Instagram (see photos that never make it to the blog and watch my Stories)
Follow on Facebook (pretty much the same as Instagram and blog posts, but no Stories)
Subscribe on YouTube (I hope to do more than one video in 2018!)
Pin with me on Pinterest (see what inspires me before I implement the design in my home)
To see before and afters of each room, click here and to shop the house, click here. Fingers crossed I can accomplish everything I hope to tackle in the new year!
Welcome to the renovated bathroom! It was gutted and rebuilt two years ago, but it continues to evolve. Shall we take a look at what she looked like before we demolished everything?
And for that satisfying side-by-side, I give you this.
This is our one and only bathroom in the house and it's been serving us so well after we did a number on it. As a refresher, here are all of the posts I've written about the bathroom so far:
We gutted the whole room and the only elements that were worth saving were the door, and the medicine cabinet. They got a good cleaning and a fresh coat of white paint that was custom color matched to the white tiles.
The walls were coated in Behr's Antique Tin which is the perfect deep grey that's neither too blue nor too warm.
The console sink sits front and center in the bathroom. We opted for a console-style sink that would keep things open and airy. I waffled between a few styles before picking this leggy chrome beauty.
Since it's clear that the sink can't be used for storage, we built a spiffy cabinet at the end of the tub. Baskets hold all of our toiletries, and then more storage is accessible from inside the shower for our shampoos.
The plumbing fixtures on the sink and in the shower are all from the DXV by American Standard Randall line. They are good reminders that we're in an old house with their vintage-y vibes.
The tile is the star of the show in this bathroom. We went for a simple subway tile and a bullnose edge detail on the walls. The dark grout was a must and I couldn't be happier with how crisp and clean it looks two years later. The marble hex flooring gives just a touch of sophistication without making the space feel too precious.
I'm definitely a fan of mixed metals. We did chrome throughout with black accents. The light fixtures are both vintage brass that have earned a dark patina after years of aging. The window hinges are brass and will continue to patina over time.
The bathroom previously didn't have an air vent, so when we decided to add one, I wanted an old vent with some pizzazz. I found this wall vent at a local architectural salvage shop covered in paint and rust. After a trip to the powder coater it came back with the most glossy black finish.
Notice on the side of the toilet that you don't see the curvy shape defining the route of all of your flushed items? We went with a skirted (or concealed trapway) toilet which makes such a visual difference.
Can we talk about that window for a second? The previous bathroom had a lil' frosted glass one with an aluminum frame that was corroded and didn't open. This 45"x26" custom wood window brings in so much light and lets out all of the steam and moisture after a hot shower. The oversized window with a transom-style opening is one of my favorite features of the whole bathroom.
We opted for a cast iron tub from Kohler (as opposed to acrylic) and I love how solid it feels. There's no flex underfoot, it keeps tub water warm longer, and it's the right material for our old home. This particular tub is a favorite because of the flat apron which was hard to come by within our budget.
How about that artwork? I feel like it was painted just for this bathroom.
I really could go on and on about this space! For all of the posts about the bathroom, click here. And to shop the room, click on the product images below!
Note that a few of the pieces in our bathroom are vintage, so I linked to similar ones.
If you saw my post about the bathroom inspiration, you'll remember that it was chock full of classic vintage vibes complete with subway tile, marble, and contrast grout. Thus, that's exactly what we went with when we gutted and remodeled the bathroom two years ago.
I already knew I wanted subway tile, and even considered crackled, textured, and irregular styles before ultimately deciding on these crisp white ones from the Tile Shop (which are currently on sale). But, it's not as simple as just picking the tile. Below I'm sharing our thought process for tile design.
We did a simple running bond pattern throughout. There are actually several ways to lay a subway tile in a subway kinda way. Check out the examples here. Since we were going with a dark grout, I chose a pattern that didn't have as much movement as say the 1/3 offset.
I can't stand when tile doesn't go to the ceiling in a shower. I know, it isn't necessary. It can be a waste of money to tile 3 feet above your head where no water will splash, but I really am a sucker for fully tiled showers.
Since I was already going for lots-o-tile in the shower, we decided to surround the rest of the bathroom walls mid-way to a chair rail height. This look helps me to feel like I'm living in The Knick. The medicine cabinet determined how high we would go, since I didn't want it floating above the tile, nor drowning in it. For reference, the tile stops 50" up the wall.
We nearly did a decorative cap around the top of the chair rail, but ultimately nixed it when we didn't like how it terminated at the edges. So, we did a simple bullnose along the top edge of the same-sized tile as the field tiles. I like that this modernizes some of the other vintagey-vibes in the room. For the base, I went with a baseboard skirting that finishes off the space with just a lil' bit of detail.
Contrast was the name of the game with the wall tile, so we did a deep charcoal to make the pattern pop. Also, dark grout doesn't run the risk of looking dingy. Win!
The flooring had lots of texture in its marble veining and hexagon shape, so we went with a gray that would neutralize the pattern. We went with Delorean Gray.
For the window ledge and the niche shelves, we installed a few pieces of marble slabs. They are gorgeous and the perfect material for a solid surface to rest our toiletries atop of. Plus, they tie in to the marble floor.
There are so many details that go into laying tile and ensuring that you're forever happy with the pattern, but I opted to keep this post pretty simple. If you want the specifics, let me know!
For more on the bathroom renovation progress click here! And to get all of the sources and see the full reveal, click here.
A couple of weeks ago, our hot water heater failed. We took a few cold showers, asked for recommendations, and debated tankless or tank options for days.
Our unit was a whopping 26 years old (!) which is triple the life expectancy of today's water heaters. It lived a good life, but just had enough, I suppose. I get it, 2017 has been a rough year. It acquired a leak (maybe tears?) that dripped onto the pilot light, extinguishing the flame. We could relight the light, but the leak had already rusted out pieces of the heater and it got worse day by day.
Thus, we needed a new hot water heater. Before I get into shopping for a new one, a brief PSA. Is your heater easily accessible? Do you have experience relighting the pilot? Have you already identified which valve shuts off the gas and which shuts off the water? If not, I recommend you take a look at your unit and get comfortable with how to make adjustments in case of an emergency. Either a cold water emergency or worse - gas or water leak emergency.
And back to shopping for everyone's favorite product. The biggest, and really, the only decision we had to make was if we wanted to go with the tank or tankless option. In short, the tank is your old fashioned giant cylinder hiding in your garage, closet, or backyard. Using either gas or electricity, it keeps oodles of water constantly hot. A tankless option is a small rectangle that sits on the wall patiently waiting for you to ask for hot water. When you open the tap, it turns on and heats the water as it passes through the unit. To decide which we wanted, we broke down the differences and evaluated how they fit our needs.
Tank: These big cylinders filled with 30-60 gallons of water don't do anything for aesthetics. They can eat up valuable real estate in a garage, closet, kitchen, bathroom, etc.
Tankless: They look like what someone in 1980 would imagine a 2020 backpack would look like. Or maybe more like a hand blow dryer in public bathrooms. They're little and mount on the wall instead of sitting on the ground. It's a perfect option for replacing a tank that sat in an ideal spot for anything other than a tank of water.
Our take: Our hot water heater sits outside of our house. It faces our neighbor's driveway and lives in its own hut attached to our exterior wall. It isn't bothering anyone at all, so we had no motivation to downsize.
Tank: Since the hot water is already heated, you get that hot water pretty much as soon as you turn on the tap. If you use up all of your hot water, you have to wait until the tank reheats itself which is not a fun thing to wait for while you're in the rinse and repeat stage of your shower.
Tankless: Since the water heats up when you ask for it, the unit needs a bit of time to heat up and get up to your preferred temperature. You'd have to keep the tap open and wait until the cold water becomes hot. But, you'll never run out of hot water once it's on so you can rinse and repeat all day long.
Our take: I lack patience and don't like wasting water waiting to get to the scolding hot temperature I need. Additionally, we've never run out of water, so the tank format is already working for our needs.
Tank: Imagine keeping a giant pot of water simmering on your stove at all times day and night. But imagine that pot is the size of a stout human. That's basically what the heater is doing. Not very efficient.
Tankless: It heats water only when you need it. Super efficient.
Our take: We love efficiency - this is the primary motivation to switch to tankless.
Tank: Gas tanks need only gas. Electric need only electricity.
Tankless: Even if your water is heated with gas, you need to run electrical to it so it can power the brains of the system.
Our take: Even though the tankless unit would be more efficient in terms of its energy to heat the gas, it's just one more device drawing power off the grid. Plus, we didn't have power available to easily run to the unit.
Tank: If a tank fails, it could leave you with a disastrous flood.
Tankless: If it breaks, you'll be without water, but luckily water won't be all over your floors.
Our take: Our unit is outside. If it failed, the neighbor kids could make a slip-n-slide in their driveway, and my garden would be happy. We're super lucky - not everyone has this luxury. However, if our neighborhood's power goes out (which it does frequently in the hot summers) we would be without hot water - which I guess we wouldn't really even want in the hot summers anyway. But I've heard some folks report that turning the tankless unit back on is a real pain and not just a something that turns on when that surge of electricity comes back.
Tank: If we experience a natural disaster (like a California eathquake) I like knowing that we have 50 gallons of drinking water that can easily be accessed. If our power goes out, we’ll still have 50 gallons of hot water in the tank that would still provide us with a warm shower until it cools to the outside temperature, or until the power goes on.
Tankless: Water isn’t stored in the tankless system, so we don’t have any reserve in the event of an emergency.
Our take: I’m by no means “a prepper” but I like being prepared and find comfort in having the water available if needed.
Tank: We were quoted $1,200 for a 40 gallon tank replacement.
Tankless: We were quoted $3,500 for a new unit.
Our take: Depending on how much you value each of the above items, the extra price of tankless may be moot. Or, depending on your area and capacity needs, the prices may be more similar. However, since we didn't need the smaller size or more demand, the extra price was really just to get a more efficient unit. Getting a return on the savings is debatable.
Are you still with me? Is a post all about my logic for buying a house utility at all interesting?
We bought a tank. A boring run-of-the-mill 40-gallon tank. You probably could have guessed it, but the benefits of tankless just don't apply to us. Maybe if we go solar we can get an electric thankless unit in a few years when the tank ultimately fails. (fingers crossed for solar!)
I drew all of my information from my online research and hearing from your experiences! But, if I missed anything, please use the comments section to weigh in and share your thoughts. I'd like to see this blog serve as a resource based on your experiences as well as mine!
Isn't she pretty?
The bookcase room dividers were a big selling point when we (well, when I) first laid eyes on the house. But, somehow, I neglected them for two years. I got distracted with all of the other projects, so they sat empty for months. Then I started piling books on them. Then I loaded them with junk with no intention of styling them. Then they just sat there for months. I'm not perfect, okay??
Luckily, all of my knick knacks covered up the horrid paint job underneath. Not only was it an unfortunate brown color, but it was peeling pretty badly. This, my friends, is why you don't want to paint water-based paint over oil-based paint without some serious prepping. Otherwise, you leave a mess of refinishing for people like me (or even yourself) years later.
6-in-1 tool
Razor blade scraper
Utility knife
Sander with coarse grit papers
Respirator/dust mask and goggles
Drop cloth and optionally an old sheet
Primer
Paint of choice
Angled paintbrush
Shelf support pins
The latex paint was peeling off in sheets, so I used a combination of tools to scrape and peel it all off. Some of it came off nice and easy, whereas other spots took some serious scraping. The goal was to scrape anything that wanted to come off. Really stuck-on paint could stay.
After what felt like 99 hours of scraping, the next step was to sand everything really smooth. Any edges where the layers of paint didn't come off entirely need to be sanded down until they are slick to the touch. You'll still see the different colors, but as long as you can't feel it to the touch, then you're golden. I used the 50 grit sanding pads on my orbital sander to smooth edges and rough up the existing finish to receive new paint.
Since power sanders blow a bunch of dust around, I wanted to protect the rest of the house from the mess. Thus, a made a cocoon for myself with an old sheet to encapsulate all of the dust. Of course, I wore face protection to keep dust out of my eyes and lungs.
I'll admit that the funny looking technique wasn't the most comfortable way to work. It got pretty hot and rather dusty. But I didn't need to clean up much dust at the end of the project, so I consider it a win!
Once everything was sanded smooth and paint scraps were cleaned up, I coated the surface with my go-to primer, Zinsser 1-2-3.
That's just primer, but look at the transformative power of paint!
Next, I did a couple of coats of paint left over from the One Room Challenge. Benjamin Moore's Simply White in the satin finish is such a pretty, soft white. So much better, right?
The bookcase has small holes on the sides to mount adjustable shelves on pins. Each of them was filled with so much paint (prior to my scraping), that the pins didn't fit. After painting my own three layers of paint, which subsequently mucked it up even further, I redrilled the holes. Using a bit the size of the holes (1/4" in my case) I re-drilled each of them being sure not to make them any bigger than their original size.
The drill removed the gunk from inside of the holes, but it did pull up some of the new paint along the edges. No biggie, though.
I followed up with a mallet and the end of a screwdriver to soften the edges by hammering any rough edges produced by the drilling into the hole. This is the same technique I recommend for patching a hole in the wall after removing a nail.
For a swift cleanup, I used compressed air to blow the dust out of each of the holes while vacuuming gunk that flew out with a shopvac. I followed up with a light dabbing of paint to touch up the spots that lost some of the finish.
Finally, I pushed the shelf mount pins in, then plopped the painted shelves on them. These pins work wondrously for creating adjustable shelving options. If you're building your own shelves, or want to add more storage to an existing unit, you could easily install a strip of wood in each of the corners with equally spaced holes. Then pop the pins in, mount a shelf, and you'd have adjustable storage!
Next week, I'll share my steps for styling shelves. Maybe within the next two years I'll refinish the other matching bookcase, too!
When we bought the house, all of the kitchen cabinets were adorned with handles in the shape of twigs. All cabinets but one - the drawer under the sink had a knob in the likeness of a rooster. So stylish, so festive. While I love foliage and fowls, I decided to swap them out for new pulls. Since we were seeking stopgap solutions for a phase 1 upgrade, inexpensive options were a top priority. I know I'm not the only one that likes to be nice on the budget, so I've compiled a list of cabinet hardware pieces for under $10, just for you!
1. Peggy // 2. Paris // 3. Porcelain // 4. U-Turn // 5. Hex // 6. Leather // 7. Wooden // 8. Latch // 9. Martin // 10. Metro // 11. Cup // 12. Allison // 13. Marcel // 14. Cork // 15. Bar
When searching for budget pieces, it's easy to head straight to the big box store, but can you believe that many of those are handmade?! And all of them are under $10? And one of them is made of cork? And another with leather?
We went with #11 and #12 in nickel, but I have eyes for a few of those other pieces. Which are your favorites?
Hammocks, cookbooks, gardening, sewing, and the other things I’ve been up to on my impromptu break, and more.
Where I’ve been, shooting on film, my dream house, retro costume inspiration, energy rebates, a magic cake, textiles I don’t need but want, a lampshade DIY, my best defense against mosquitos, a new podcast, what’s killing home remodelers, best decision-making advice, overheard parenting, Little Women on acid home tour, best marble etch remover, and more.
If you like florals and color, this bathroom is for you. If you don’t, well, maybe scroll through and you’ll be converted? Or not? Either way, here’s the reveal of a bathroom addition that’s finally here - after a whole three years of construction.
My baby is two! Time’s flying… we wish we could slow down these years… I can’t believe she’s two… and all those other cliché things to say. We celebrated her second trip around the sun in our backyard with a small gathering of friends.
What I’m binge watching, the things I ordered for summertime fun, an incredible legacy, ranking films, a dozen things to say to your kids daily, design decisions, sibling bonds, and more.
I have such love for my historic house, but I’ve shamefully been neglecting the exterior paint. The tired finish was peeling and the faded colors did no justice to the architectural beauty of my 1915 craftsman bungalow. It was time for a change - a transformation that would honor the home's history while infusing it with fresh energy.
The thrill of renovating outdoor spaces is they always get better with age. We overhauled our backyard last year and the plant growth during this last trip around the sun is wild! Get ready for lots o’ photos.
We overhauled our backyard it’s my new favorite “room” at our house. Here’s what it cost to completely transform the space.
Ashley has been restoring her craftsman bungalow since early 2015. The Gold Hive chronicles the journey of DIYs, restorations, renovations, and stories.
I'm Ashley, a type-A homebody fixing up my historic home at a snail’s pace in California. I share home improvement DIYs, tips for sustainable living, and renovation stories - all while aiming to add more color and present real, lived-in spaces.
© 2024 Ashley Goldman / All Rights Reserved
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