So, if you follow me on instagram, I’ve mentioned that we are working on a really fun project. We are renovating a small apartment attached to our garage and making it into a really cool Guest House. It is just a one room studio with bathroom and a good sized closet. But, it’s going to be a really comfortable, stylish little guest house for our friends and family and also hopefully a little extra income as we will be listing it on Airbnb. I’ve partnered with one of my favorite companies, AllModern, to give this space a top notch look. I’m so excited about the details in this space – the lighting, furniture, fixtures, tile and accessories are OFF-THE-HOOK! (Stay tuned, I’ll be sharing the design plan with you very soon.) You guys, I think I might move out there when it’s finished. I’ll take Lonnie, but I think we’ll leave the kids in the main house (tee hee).

So, this has been a little bit of a “can of worms” situation, kind of like any old house renovation is. You get started thinking that this should be a totally doable project, and then after repairing termite damage to most of the floor joists and running all new water and plumbing lines, you are so deep into it that there is no turning back. I’m lucky to have a family that is very handy. My dad and brother Joash, who both helped us with our last house renovation, are the kind of experts that you need to know. Joash has actually been living with us for the last month and half and tirelessly repairing, replacing and rebuilding the space. We’ve loved having him around and he’s also very handy at picking up and dropping off 3 kids to 3 different schools (just saying). We will really never be able to repay him for all he has done. This is way over our DIY skill set. He’s done an amazing amount of structural work to this little space, and while it still looks very unfinished, we now know that it has a solid foundation and sturdy walls.

The bathroom plumbing had all been cut off, cement poured down, or removed many many years ago. So we hired a plumber to run new lines from the main house and install a new hot water heater. This was a pretty big chunk of change, but this much plumbing was definitely more then we could handle on our own.

This has been a big project, but I think it’s going to have a big pay off when we have a beautiful Guest House to welcome guests to. I hope you’ll follow along on the progress. (This is the messiest part of the process, pretty pictures to come.)