It had to go. It was dingy, dirty, and just downright gross. The carpet that lived in this house before we moved in had seen better days. It had also seen more than its share of the underside of the previous owner’s dogs. We knew we had to get rid of it as soon as possible, but as the days turned into months and even years, that day couldn’t come soon enough for me. One Saturday morning while my husband was out with his friends, I pulled out my heavy duty box cutter and started ripping up the carpet. I just couldn’t take it any more. Now I don’t recommend… Keep Reading
16 Money Secrets That Will Save Your Next Remodel
I love saving money. And I love remodeling my house. Alas those two hobbies, by definition, often seem at odds with each other. But I’ve learned a few things over the years that help me drastically cut my remodeling costs, and I thought it might be helpful to share them with you today. This is our third house that we’ve owned and remodeled, and it seems like there’s always another project on the horizon for us. Right now, we’re working on our floors (more on that soon) and we hope to hit our bathroom next. We normally work on one project at a time, whenever money becomes available, which means… Keep Reading
Chalkboard to the Rescue! Low Tech Organization Hack
I love technology as much as the next girl, but sometimes you just gotta take a step back and find something to scribble on! The month of January is all about organization, and I wanted to share with you how this serial procrastinator gets her stuff together, with the help of one of the oldest tricks in the book. ~ This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. ~ Organizing Hacks Organization hacks are probably my favorite thing of all time, and I’ve shared some of my favorites over the years. Hairband Keeper from a craft… Keep Reading
Vacation Rental Hosting: Make Your Home Work For You
Today is the last post in this Vacation Rental Hosting series, and I’m so excited to wrap everything up and look back over all we’ve talked about so far! We have learned so much through this process, mostly the hard way, and I’m hoping to save you some of the bumps along the way by sharing this series with you. If you’re thinking of turning a home into a vacation rental property on AirBNB or VRBO, this is the series for you! ~ This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks for supporting The Palette… Keep Reading
Vacation Rental Hosting: Creating the Perfect AirBNB Listing
Creating the perfect AirBNB listing for your vacation rental property is an art form. It takes a deft hand with photography, some creative juices flowing into the wording, and a few specific bits of know-how to get folks to line up (online) to book your home for their vacations. As you probably know if you’ve been researching vacation rental opportunities, there are a LOT of properties out there. How do you stand out from the crowd and earn your first bookings? Let’s dig in! First, and maybe most redundantly, you need a good clean property to rent out. I covered that in my first post of this series, on getting… Keep Reading
Vacation Rental Hosting: How to Clean your Home FAST between AirBNB Guests
Cleaning a house requires a whole list of skills, but cleaning a house quickly, from top to bottom, is a skill that in my book approaches super-hero status. And when you’re getting a whole house ready for guests in under 4 hours, you need all the super-hero-ness you can find. So I’m going to give you our secrets to how we do it with our AirBNB rental home. If you missed the last post about getting a house ready to rent as a vacation property, definitely check that one out first. But if you’re caught up, or just wondering how to clean your home fast, roll up your sleeves, grab… Keep Reading
9 Genius Cleaning Hacks from a Messy Mama
I have a confession to make. I get on my kids’ case all the time about cleaning up after themselves, but deep down inside, I’m pretty sure they get their messy tendencies from me. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love to have a clean house, but I just don’t love making it that way. I may be a homemaker, but I’m no housekeeper. In fact, I wrote a whole post about how and why I never Spring clean. It’s worth a read too, if you’re a reluctant cleaner like me. This week, I’ve been helping a friend get her house ready to sell, which includes a lot of… Keep Reading
More Peace in my Home with Onelink Safe & Sound
Thank you First Alert OneLink for sponsoring this post. Onelink Safe & Sound – Meet Your Family’s New Best Friend. #ONELINKSTORY I’m always looking for ways to make my home more peaceful, secure, and beautiful, and I just found a new way with Onelink Safe & Sound! We recently installed one in our house, and the whole family loves it, all for different reasons. Onelink Safe & Sound My new Safe & Sound gives me peace of mind with its intelligent smoke & carbon monoxide alarm with remote notifications. If something were to happen, even while I’m not at home, it would notify me on my phone. That’s in addition to… Keep Reading
Yardistry 12×14 Gazebo Installation Tips
‘Tis the season to get outside! This is the time of year it starts feeling like summer, even though officially it’s still spring. Which means it’s time to get outside before it gets too hot to enjoy it! I can’t wait to share this post with you today as part of Remodelaholic’s Get Out! Outdoor DIY Challenge. We haven’t done much to our backyard since moving in two years ago, but this summer that’s all about to change. As much as I love interior decor, I also love to get outside and enjoy the amazing Albuquerque weather as often as possible. When you get about 300 days of sunshine a… Keep Reading
What I Wish I’d Known about Double Barn Doors
Today I’m taking a break from my Flip House posts, because I’m just so excited to share this with you that I couldn’t wait. We got barn doors! Now, I know I’m not the first girl ever to put barn doors in her house, but this is something I’ve been wanting to do for years, and when we moved into this house, I knew just where I’d put them. Then it was just a matter of getting a few other priorities taken care of before we could get to this project. But it’s finally done, and they turned out even better than I imagined! First, here’s the before: These accordion… Keep Reading