With our big move just a few months away, we’re tackling what needs to be done to get the house ready to sell. This week we share the projects on our to-do list — some are quick and small, others more involved — including an expedited refresh of our hall bathroom. John also sets a shopping challenge for 2020 that encourages us to look locally for certain items. We dive into an old-school budgeting technique that promises savings with nothing more than pen and paper. And yes, there’s an unplanned rant about The Bachelor.
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What’s new
- If you missed our moving announcement last week, you can listen to Episode #163 or read the blog post where we added extra details and answered common FAQs.
- We mentioned our veranda project from several years ago. We finished it in 2014, so it has been nearly six years since it received a full paint refresh (aside from one painted brick wall in 2018). Some of the wood trim had weathered and flaked from exposure, but a few hours of priming and repainting made a big difference.
- Here’s what our hall bathroom looked like when we bought the house. Aside from the wood vanity, the room was a sea of cream — walls, trim, counters, and even the floors had a yellow-cream tone.
- For our second book, Lovable Livable Home, we refreshed the space by painting the walls, trim, and vanity white. Once the room was light and bright, the yellow tile read more vintage-charming than tired — after a thorough clean it felt fresh instead of worn.
- We referenced our approach to old tile in our last home’s guest bathroom, where a small budget — just $51 — made a major aesthetic difference.
- The most exciting updates have been to the counters and cabinets — they’re already looking great. We’ll share full details and a budget breakdown on the blog, but if you want earlier peeks follow us on Instagram. Our friends Teresa and Andrew’s kitchen inspired this approach: they had new custom inset cabinet doors built by a local craftsman named Billy, and the transformation was impressive.
- This is the after photo of that kitchen. The original cabinet boxes stayed in place; Billy added new inset doors, drawer boxes, and hardware, and the result looks like a high-end overhaul. That project inspired us to hire him for our hall bathroom doors.
- Billy has worked on projects for other friends as well, including a rental renovation where the same cabinet boxes were updated with new doors, drawer boxes, hardware, and paint. The before-and-after is dramatic despite keeping the original layout.
- And here’s the after. Replacing only the doors and hardware turned an ordinary kitchen into something memorable.
- Our hall bathroom is much smaller than a kitchen, but getting new inset door fronts, new drawer boxes, soft-close hardware, and professional painting and installation was under $750. That felt very worth it for a custom eight-foot double sink vanity that fits wall to wall without needing to demo the old vanity.
Can We Just Talk About Kakeibo?
- I came across an article about Kakeibo, a Japanese budgeting method, and it stuck with me. The piece describes how adopting this analog approach to tracking spending can change your relationship to money.
- The article links research on the benefits of journaling and writing things down; I found one study about how journaling supports behavior change especially interesting.
- This ties back to conversations from previous episodes about keeping schedules and planning in analog ways, including a discussion about planners and bullet journaling.
- There are Kakeibo planners and printables available for those who want a structured starting point for the method.
We’re Digging
- I’m hunting for an old photo from my high school “library parade,” but for now enjoy the photo above from one of the most delightful independent bookstores we’ve visited. We wrote a whole post about it.
- I also mentioned Indiebound as a useful resource to search for a book and locate local stores that carry it or can order it for you.
- We also shared a trailer for the series Love Is Blind, which became our next guilty-pleasure watch after The Circle.
If you’re trying to track down something we mentioned in a past episode but can’t remember which show notes to click, check our master list of everything we’ve been digging from past episodes. You can also see the books we’ve recommended on our Book Club page.
Finally, thanks to Universal Furniture for sponsoring this episode. They’re giving away a Shannon Chair to one of our listeners through April 1st; follow the sponsor’s entry instructions to participate.
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