This summer is going to be one of the busiest of our lives, and we’re ⅓ of a way through it.

Alex’s family from Bangkok has been in town for the past couple weeks. We set up the guest room for Popo, including painting the walls in one night, cleaning and priming the wardrobe cabinets, installing our IKEA curtains, and moving Alex’s old bed into the room. We even had our very first cleaning lady stop by to help wipe down the counters, showers, and floors.

We still need to trim the curtains because they’re way too long (and I’ll use the remnants to make cloth napkins), but all my crafts will have to wait until after September.

On June 16, Ryan and Shelley got married!

This past Sunday, we took Alina to The Bazaar and went super extra by ordering the "dessert graffiti" — literally $80 worth of desserts, carefully assembled tableside on top of a mirror.

We've gradually gotten back into the routine of running, and we took our very first laps around the neighborhood!

I just finished up a super busy week at work (being on 3 pitches at once…), and Alex has a couple work trips to SF and Arizona lined up for tomorrow and next Monday. We’re also going into full planning mode for our July 14 party where we’ll celebrate with friends and family, some of whom will not be joining us in Bali. The food is ordered, the rental furniture is booked, our speech has been written, and our decorations are in progress.

Two weeks ago, we were in Bangkok and Bali... followed by a week of jet lag.

A few things on our packing list that we'll need for our wedding in September:

• Activated charcoal for healthy tummies

• UV umbrella to protect my porcelain skin

• Travel steamer for our wrinkly wedding attire (also SUPER useful for our everyday clothes)

• Dry shampoo for the long flight

• Extra adapters just in case

This week, we’re organizing and cleaning the house at full force because we have family coming over for Alex’s brother’s wedding this weekend!

After spending Saturday morning renting a U-haul to move the last of Alex’s things out of his mom’s house, we unloaded it in our garage and then mustered up the energy to paint the guest bedroom.

Then at night, Leslie and Matt came over with Rhys for a steak dinner. Since we were also dogsitting Charlie, we had a new record of 4 dogs in the house!

On Sunday, my coworkers/friends Rachel and Léna came over for lunch: homemade kalbi, kimchi fried rice, dumplings and noodles, and cheese corn.

Then we got our ears pierced! Because it will be too hot and humid to wear a necklace comfortably in Bali, I plan to wear earrings to balance out the look. It’s something I’ve been thinking about for the past 6 months, and it was the perfect time to finally get it done!

Tonight, we need to hand-wash the sofa covers and blanket (we don’t have a washer/dryer and it’s full of dog fur), put the mattress and sheets in place in the guest bedroom, and start priming the guest closets. I don’t think we’ll have time to apply a coat of paint on top of it, but we’re happy as long as the icky stains are covered up.

After going down a deep YouTube rabbit hole of minimal home tour videos and discovering Pick Up Lime’s 30 Days to Minimalism blog post, my coworkers and I decided to give it a try. I always find that the more stressed I am, the more that clutter and disarray builds up around me… which only adds to the stress and chaos. We have the incredible opportunity to essentially start with a blank slate and establish new, healthier habits.

We started with the living room and kitchen. Because we have an open layout and this is our most-used space, I knew I wanted to keep the tables and countertops as clear as possible.

Everything has its place, from the pantry to a spice drawer to cabinets dedicated to storing baking supplies. We even have a cupboard for both of our juicers (Alex and I each had one prior to dating). Loose pasta is stored in a glass, airtight container. Random seasonings are in small mason jars. We just need to pop the cabinet doors back on, and then the kitchen will be complete.

Our living room table (from Amazon) lifts up to include storage for almost all our board games. Electronics and remote controls are placed inside the TV console. The wires will soon be organized behind it, and a long power strip provides plenty of outlets.

It’s a long process, but day by day, the house is getting cleaner and our minds are getting clearer.

We’re trying not to buy any furniture until we’ve saved up more and researched exactly what we want. However, we made an exception with the living room rug because the dogs were sliding around too much on the laminate floors. We were looking for one that was white and/or gray and at least 8’ x 10’. Here were some of our favs!

Source: Wayfair

Source: West Elm

Source: Room & Board

Source: Restoration Hardware

Source: Wayfair

Source: Wayfair

Source: Wayfair

Ultimately we went with this one from Amazon because of the price and pattern. I’ll admit that the fibers feel synthetic, but it serves its purpose and the dogs love the plushness.

Source: Amazon

Over the weekend, we had our first guests over! We spent Saturday morning deep-cleaning the kitchen and organizing our pantry. It was the first time we’ve ever properly cleaned off the countertops. At night, we had a steak dinner with Arya and Sandra + wine + Atticus pies for dessert. Then we watched Deadpool 2 at the nearby Cinemark.

On Sunday, we had Sharon, Jordan, Rose, Charlie, Olivia, and Donovan over for a dumpling-making lunch party.

Our house is now starting to feel like a home, and it’s so great to finally see our friends gathering around the kitchen island with us and making themselves cozy in our living room.

We made a ton of progress this weekend. If you'll recall, I made a pretty aggressive painting schedule to keep us on track.

Our Saturday morning started with an appointment with ADT to set up security sensors around the house. It took way longer than expected (a little over 5 hours), so we got a late start with painting. Luckily, we had taped off all the corners and floors during the week at night, so once the ADT dude left, we set up the painter's plastic and got to work with the remaining daylight we had.

Alex, his mom, and Kristy helped with the living room and dining area. Months ago, we chose a Valspar paint and primer from Lowe's in Silver Dust. We're keeping the baseboards in Ultra Pure White to match the kitchen. Since the paint is quite thick and we have a lot of other things to still take care of, we're only applying a single coat and re-applying any small touch-ups after it dries (unlike the kitchen where we did two coats on the walls and two coats on the cabinets because we wanted it to withstand more wear and tear).

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Meanwhile, I was in the bedroom working on the wardrobe closets. The sooner we can get them cleaned and painted, the faster we can unpack our clothes and start getting organized. The wardrobes are in the same condition as the kitchen cabinets: worn, stained, and dirty. So just like the cabinets, we removed the doors and hinges so I could apply a coat of primer. We also had to remove the nails and staples from the bottom of the wardrobes because they used to have carpet inside. Then I painted a layer of Ultra Pure White.

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Tonight, I'll work on the upper cabinets and add a layer of clear coat to the wooden closet bar so we don't get any splinters when we hang our clothes. We're also going to start taping off the hallway so we can get that painted this week.

Everything is still super dusty so last night, we got on our hands and knees to scrub the floors. Since we have two dogs, I didn’t want to use anything with tons of chemicals. So I brought home an orange from work, saved the peels, and put it in an old Lysol wipes container. I added 1 cup of vinegar and let it sit for an hour. Then I diluted it with hot water to bring out some of the citrus oils. Most people let the orange and vinegar solution sit for two weeks before using it, but we needed something fast and this did the job flawlessly.

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We’re on our way to a fresh, clean home!

One of the first things we did when we moved in was create a DIY compost bin! I know it sounds strange, but there are so many dead leaves cluttering the backyard that I wanted to repurpose them for something useful, especially since we plan to make raised vegetable beds in the backyard. Also, compost bins are a great way to keep stuff out of landfills.

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The City of LA sells compost bins for $20 at their mulch workshops in Griffith Park. Costco also sells them in the range of $100+. Since we neither have the time nor money, we decided to DIY our own for $14. Ultimately, there are 3 basic elements for compost to thrive: moisture, oxygen, and warm temperature.

We started off by buying a big, 32 gallon trash bin from Lowe’s. I gave it a big hug, then Alex drilled holes along the bottom, sides, and top. The more holes it has, the better the materials will aerate and decompose.

Ideally, the compost bin should be filled with 50% brown materials (leaves, dirt, sawdust), and 50% green material (grass clippings, veggie scraps, tea bags, coffee grinds).

So we shoveled heaps of dead, dry, dusty leaves for our first layer. We have TONS of this. We barely made a dent in the backyard. I smooshed the leaves down with the shovel to make room for more and help shred them. After the bin was filled halfway, I brought the hose over and added water until it was moist, turning the leaves with the shovel as I went.

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The next layer were grass clippings. Again, we have tons so I put the gardening gloves on and proceeded to rip out the dying grass by the fistfuls. I know I looked crazy, and I couldn’t help but think of all the little communities I was uprooting (a la A Bug’s Life) who will now enjoy their new home in our rich compost bin. I topped it off with soil, then added a little water and kept filling until the layer was ¼ deep.

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The final ¼ of the bin was for veggie scraps. I had saved the pulp from our juicer along with eggshells and veggie stems from our dinner. Then I closed the lid, and now we wait for it to heat up and decompose. In a few weeks, I’ll use a shovel to turn the compost. The lid to our garbage can also locks, so some people prefer to put it on the ground and roll it around.

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I know there will be lots of bugs and icky things, but I’m ok with it because it will all be to help the materials break down into rich compost!

The day we’ve been looking forward to since October finally came! We moved in on Saturday and spent our first night in the house.

It was pretty surreal to sit on our couch in the same living room where we once sat with our real estate agent, talking about the potential of the house. At that time, it had disgusting yellow carpet, old windows, and that ginormous fireplace. The house was barely staged with beige couches, a small pumpkin for Halloween, a fake orchid, and two candles. You can see them in some of our old photos.

We started the day off by going to Lowe’s to pick up some items, including garden fencing, paint, rollers, and a trash can that I’ve turned into a DIY compost bin!

Then we went to Alex’s room to pack up the dogs and the suitcases we’ve been living out of for the past four weeks. The dogs were super excited to sniff our their new stomping grounds. The living room windows are the perfect height for them to poke their heads out and stare at the backyard. They were so excited to explore and sunbathe that neither of them napped all day. We set up a small fenced area for them along the patio and side of the house as a temporary dog run.

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I used the heavy duty power vacuum to clean up all the lingering dirt and debris. Then Alex’s mom helped us wipe the floors down so we could bring in our furniture and things from the garage. Everything has collected dust in the past month so we’ll be vacuuming and wiping things down again and again for a while.

I tended to some of my succulents that got neglected and sunburnt in the backyard. Then we set up our bed, TV, kitchen stools, and couch before heading to Costco for dinner. Alex’s family has a tradition of eating pizza on the first night in a new house, so we gladly kept the tradition alive. By then, we were so exhausted and decided to treat ourselves with Yogurtland right around the corner.

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It was the best night of sleep we’ve gotten all month. After all the stress and worry, it feels so good to finally be able to come home. This is probably how most people feel when they buy a house. But like I mentioned in my last post, we were so overwhelmed by all the work ahead of us that there was no time to celebrate. We were tempted to open the bottle of champagne that our real estate agent had given us along with our keys back in December, but we were (and still are) too tired. We’ll save it until we’re ready to have guests over. :)

Yesterday, we woke up to an amazing sunrise and a cup of freshly pressed carrot, spinach, and apple juice. We vacuumed, cleaned up some dead leaves, and finished applying the second coat of paint to the cabinets. We also taped and painted the wall above the backsplash.

This morning, we removed all the tape, vacuumed, and wiped everything. Tonight, we’ll start to fit the drawers back in and line them so we can unpack and organize. I’ve outlined the next few weeks so we can put the house in a good place before we leave for Thailand at the end of the month.

But now that we’re moved in, we can work on the house bit by bit, every single day!

After our final inspection just hours ago, we finally (FINALLY!!) have the all clear from our general contractor to move in tomorrow!

This is the happiest we've been throughout this entire process. When we bought the house, we were happy, but VERY nervous. We had a vision that many people couldn't imagine (even contractors we interviewed). They doubted us. They warned us that it would be a ton of work. It was. But our result is even better than we could have imagined.

We had planned to move in at the end of March to align with out apartment lease ending. When that didn't happen, we were bitter and stressed. What could we have done sooner to keep the project on track? What other costs would creep up on us? Would we have any money left in our bank account? Did we make a huge mistake??? But we forged ahead, checking in with our contractor multiple times a day for the past month. Slowly, everything that we had ripped apart started to come back together. Fresh, clean, new.

There are still a few things left for our contractor to finish next week, like installing some lights, baseboards, and the tankless water heaters. We're waiting for the city to turn on the gas too, so we can't cook and don't have any hot water at the moment.

Tomorrow, we'll wipe down the countertops and vacuum. His cleaning lady wouldn't be available until next week, so we're foregoing that and cleaning up ourselves. Plus, we have so much painting, sanding, and staining ahead of us that everything will just get dirty again anyway.

To document our renovations, I've kept a running list of all the steps we've taken from when we bought the house in December until now, which I'll post later. I've managed to condense it to a 50-step bullet point list LOL. For anyone who is renovating or interested in renovating, the one word that sums up our experience is intense. Every day was an unpredictable roller coaster of emotions and problem-solving. A kind of controlled chaos. There is no way we could have done this without guidance from Alex's mom (thank you!!!). And since Alex and I both have desk jobs, we had the flexibility of taking phone calls, squeezing in meetings, and always having tabs open to work on spreadsheets and mood boards for the house.

There will always be little details that I wish I had thought about more or done differently. But overall, we are so incredibly happy and thankful to call it our home – demolished and designed with so, so, SO much love and care.

We are very much nearing the end of renovations! Yesterday, we had the shower doors installed. Today the rest of the kitchen backsplash went in. And tomorrow, we have our final inspection with the hopes of moving in on Saturday.

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Our contractor had given us a quote for the shower doors in the guest bathroom and master bathroom. It was a little above our price point, so I contacted at least 15 other companies in the area. Ultimately, we went with Quick's Glass and Doors because they gave us a great price, communicated promptly, and turned the job around in one week.

We went with a sliding glass door in the guest bathroom and frameless shower door in the master bathroom. Again, lots of decisions were made on the spot like "What kind of door handle do you want? Square or rounded hinges? Where do you want the shower door to meet with the pony wall... flush or overlapping? Where do you want the fixed glass panels?" We made all of these decisions before the bathroom vanities went in, so I have to admit that getting into the guest shower is a little more narrow than I expected. I also know that I'm over-thinking all these little details.

We decided to only use two brackets on the edges to keep the dramatic tiles unobstructed. The glass is SUPER sparkly and clear because they added a coat of diamond seal treatment to the glass. Which reminds me, I need to buy a squeegee on Amazon now.

It feels like our never-ending project, but coat by coat, we're slowly making progress with the kitchen cabinets. Alex's mom, uncle, and friend Kristy lent us a hand as we sanded, vacuumed, and applied the first coat of Behr Ultra Pure White. We only spent 3 hours (compared to the usual 6+ hours), but we were able to cover almost all of the cabinets.

And yes, I crawled on my hands and knees again to reach the back of the cabinets. I know it looks and sounds crazy but here's a reminder of what they used to look like, complete with dirt, grime, and spiderwebs. Pictures don't do it justice.

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I didn't take too many pictures because we were busy working. But we're getting to the point where every photo is just getting better, brighter, and whiter. And now that almost all the new appliances are in, the house looks nothing like how it did when we first bought it.

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