Flipping a 1960s Gem: Breathing New Life into a Family Home

The Greenwood House, a charming 1960s rancher, is poised for modernization while retaining its historical essence. It features three bedrooms, outdated systems, and compartmentalized spaces. Renovations aim to create a stylish and functional family home, including a primary suite, open living area, mudroom, and safety upgrades, preserving its legacy.

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The Kitchen Remodeling Journey: All the Countertop Choices

The post discusses 35 kitchen countertop options, detailing their pros, cons, and price ranges. The author highlights a preference for Bianco Rhino marble, while noting durability concerns. Recommendations include seeking guidance from knowledgeable friends and involving family in the selection process to find the best countertop for one’s kitchen.

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Brown Wooden Floor

The Kitchen Remodeling Journey: All the Flooring Choices

When we picked out the flooring for our kitchen remodel, we faced so many choices. There are a variety of factors that come into play such as looks, price, durability, and what type of flooring works best for your space.   Know your Style  It may help to use a designer at this stage. Do you prefer the look and feel of hardwood?  Do you like the feel of carpet underneath your feet?  Or do you prefer the straight lines and balance of a good tile? Also, it’s important to take into account your furniture and other accessories so that you

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The Kitchen Remodeling Journey: Fixtures and Finishes

For me, the fun part of a kitchen remodel – or any remodel for that matter – is picking out the pretty stuff. The hardware, the lighting, the countertops. The stuff that makes the space unique. So I enjoyed the process of picking out the details and letting Drew handle the details of how to make it all work! Our designer, Erin, was really helpful in sourcing the details and getting discounts that we wouldn’t have been able to get ourselves. So when you look out what we picked out below, remember the prices you see aren’t what we paid!

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Great Antique Finds Across the State of Alabama

For our kitchen, we knew we wanted to mix old and new elements to create a distinct look. One of the ways we brought in the old was in our pantry doors.  We love finding off the beaten path places. Through recommendations from friends, we found two great places to source old elements at each end of Alabama.  The first is Charles Phillips Antiques in Theodore just outside of Mobile.  Eight warehouses make for fun browsing underneath the live oaks.  We found the doors for our pantry here while the kids enjoyed playing hide and seek throughout the property.  Charles

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The Kitchen Remodeling Journey – Step 4: Find a good cabinet contractor

Finding a reliable home construction and remodeling contractor can be challenging. However, a highly recommended cabinet maker, John Marc Cabinets, provides essential services, including understanding design preferences, accurate measurements, and effective communication. They adapt to changes and maintain timelines, contributing to a successful kitchen renovation process. Recommendations for contractors are encouraged.

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Where to Stay on the Beach in Costa Rica

The thought of a trip to Costa Rica usually involves some vision of a beach. While there are great things to do and see inland, great options on the coast abound. As you can see from this map of Marriott Bonvoy Properties, the majority of options are on the Pacific coast, regardless of whether they are owned by Marriott or not. The Caribbean coast of the country is less developed and harder to get to. On the Pacific Coast, the majority of options are in Guanacaste Province on the Northern peninsula of the country. We’ve stayed in two different Marriott owned

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The Kitchen Remodeling Journey – Step 3: Pick your Appliances

Appliances need to be selected before getting started on any remodel because their size will dictate all other decisions. As I mentioned in Step 1 of our kitchen remodel journey, seeking inspiration by looking at other kitchens helped us realize that we needed more fridge space than we had originally designed for. We were able to resize cabinet space to accommodate the fridge we selected before getting the cabinetry contractor involved because we knew the exact dimensions of the fridge we wanted. We also decided to get both a beverage cooler and an ice maker and had to reconfigure some

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rendering of remodeled kitchen island

The Kitchen Remodeling Journey – Step 2: Get a Designer. It’s worth it!

We have been so thrilled to be working with Erin Cossey (@e_c_interriors) on the remodel of our kitchen. She has worked with several people we know and has helped us with everything from the overall design of the space, recommending contractors, thinking through steps in the process and getting us great discounts on fixtures and finishes.  A good designer will do 6 things:  Listen to how you live and understand what your must haves are. For us, our must haves were a double oven with stove top, appliance garages with space for several appliances and a tv, a larger window

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What to Do in La Fortuna, Costa Rica

Situated in the heart of North Central Costa Rica is La Fortuna, home of the Arenal Volcano and the National Park that surrounds it.  In this area, you have the opportunity to visit the best that Costa Rica has to offer (except, well, a beach).  If you are considering a trip to Costa Rica, we highly recommend spending some time in this area. While there make sure you: We didn’t have time to visit all of the attractions while there. There is so much to do and see in one of the most unique places we’ve been to by far

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