New blog and a new house!

If things look different around here, it is not just your imagination—we have been quite busy behind the scenes! Starting with a completely revamped blog, which I designed many months ago and have been slowly working on bringing to life.

After using the same website for nearly six years, this change was well overdue. Plenty of my traffic now comes from Instagram users looking for sources and content, and there was not always a clear page to direct them to. The goal was to create an easy-to-navigate layout so you can quickly find what you are looking for. There is now a dedicated Houses + Sources page where you can find all the information for each home:

Including a Before/After tour for each home:

And instead of digging through a blog post to find links to the sources, they are clearly and neatly organized by room:

This new format also makes it very easy for me to update the photos and sources in real-time, which will happen frequently with so many projects going on at once around here.

My DIY Project library is fully up to date, with projects in reverse chronological order (these are still uploading to the site!)

We have just launched and are still working out some kinks, but I would love your feedback if you have a moment. Special thanks to WPBarista for working so hard to bring the site to life over the last couple months!

Speaking of changes… we bought another house!

Here is the deal—we have been checking the local market almost daily since moving to the area two years ago (as real estate investors, our plan has always been to accumulate properties over time). Even though our Riverside Retreat vacation rental is still undergoing renovations, that has not stopped us from looking for the next home.

We love the idea of owning vacation rentals and decided to focus our search on a neighborhood closer to the beach. Having a baby slowed us down last year, but in January we realized it was time to get more aggressive, and ended up putting in offers on three different houses. We were outbid each time, but last week a new one popped up (7 minutes from the beach) that had everything we wanted. Within a few hours of the listing hitting the MLS we were touring the home, and that evening we had an accepted offer. Our closing date is March 27th.

What can you expect to see from this new project? Well, to be honest, probably not a lot right now. Every spare second we have is dedicated to finishing the Riverside Retreat, and when that house is done, we have several projects lined up to tackle at the Heights House. We purchased this new house because it was turn-key, and we would not need to spend months and tens of thousands renovating it before getting it rented. The style is not to my taste personally, but major transformations are not in the budget or timeline.

However, we will be making a few key changes like painting the kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities, new backsplashes and counters, lighting, updating one of the bathrooms, and adding a large pergola to the backyard. We also have a living room, dining room, sunroom and four bedrooms to completely furnish (as inexpensively as possible!) Depending on how things go, I'll share a few projects and updates from time to time. At the very least, there will be a Before and After house tour with all the sources (and details on how to book a stay! ?)

Eventually, I would love to take on some bigger renovations/DIY projects and share them on the blog, but that will depend on plenty of factors including time available between renters, since the house will be available to rent all year long.

We are genuinely excited about the possibilities with this one—and slightly overwhelmed with everything on our to-do list, to be honest! As with all of our new adventures, we will find a way to make it work somehow.

And that is the big news for this week! I know some of you have not been following me for very long, so if you have questions about anything I have shared please do not hesitate to ask! I always love talking about investing and what goes on behind the scenes, beyond the renovating/decorating stuff ?

Coming up next week: our Tropical Oasis master bedroom reveal!