I’ve been sharing real-time renovation updates on Instagram Stories, but here’s a longer recap for anyone who prefers reading. We’re about seven weeks into our biggest renovation in over five years, and, unsurprisingly, the house is a construction zone. Walls have come down, ceilings have been opened up, and entirely new rooms have been framed. There’s been a lot of progress, a ton of dust, and still plenty to do.
If you want a visual tour, check our video update where I walk through each space and explain what’s done and what’s next. For those reading now, below is a summary of where things stand plus practical tips for living through a dusty renovation and ideas for making a smaller house feel larger and more functional.
For years two issues kept nagging at us: our son’s tiny bedroom and the poor connection between the main living area and our backyard pool. Neither felt urgent enough to force a quick fix, so we waited for the right idea. The solution that finally made sense was to finish the covered front porch into conditioned interior space. That single move allows us to create a new bedroom for our daughter, open her old room into the kitchen and sitting area, and absorb a long, awkward hallway into our son’s room—solving both problems at once. A bonus: while everything is dusty, we added an ensuite bathroom to our bedroom by running plumbing under the raised deck, which was straightforward and cost-effective.
- Enlarge our son’s small bedroom to better suit his growing needs.
- Improve access to and views of the backyard pool from the main living space.
Finishing The Porch
Turning the covered porch into interior space solved multiple issues in one move. The finished room will become our daughter’s bedroom, which frees up her old room to become part of a larger L-shaped living area that will open to the pool with large glass doors. This rearrangement also lets us expand the kitchen and add a peninsula for seating. The exterior shell of the new bedroom is complete, but the interior still needs drywall, paint, and finish work.
We also found a way to relocate electrical boxes to a fence, keeping the facade and porch cleaner and more attractive.
A Better View (And Access) To Our Pool
Previously, the pool was hidden from the downstairs living area by the laundry room and our daughter’s bedroom. By reconfiguring those areas, we created a new bright lounge that opens directly to the pool with French doors. The space will serve as a flexible hangout with room for a TV and seating—a spot the kids are already excited about—and it dramatically improves sight lines and natural light throughout the house.
Opening the wall into this lounge also frees up footprint in the kitchen for more cabinetry and a peninsula with stools. Our dining table can float in the former sitting area, increasing seating from six to eight and allowing better flow when guests visit.
This lounge will be vaulted to enhance the sense of space, and the framed openings reveal exactly where the light-blocking walls used to be—seeing those lines makes the transformation obvious.
A new laundry closet will be tucked behind a door in this corridor, housing a stacked washer and dryer recessed into adjacent closet space so it won’t feel intrusive.
A Bigger Bedroom For Our Son
The old hallway to the backyard is now part of our son’s bedroom, expanding it from about 7 feet wide to an 11-foot room with a deeper layout. We moved his entry door to gain depth and installed a much larger window, which floods the room with light. We also vaulted the ceiling slightly by including more of the roof’s peak—these changes combine to create a room that finally feels generous and functional for his hobbies and storage needs.
Fun discovery: while working here we found a small safe embedded in the foundation—an unexpected Indiana Jones moment.
Our Ensuite Bathroom
We’ve managed with a single bathroom for nearly six years, but adding an ensuite now made sense while trades were on site. The plumbing was easy to tap into beneath the raised deck, so the new bathroom is taking over a nook in the bedroom, converting an L-shaped corner into a straightforward rectangular bedroom plus an attached bath. The plan includes a floating vanity nook, a wall-to-wall zero-entry shower with tile to the ceiling, a toilet, and a sink. It won’t be large, but it will be highly functional and accessible.
We also shifted the bedroom door to accommodate built-in storage and wardrobes so the bedroom will read as seamless cabinetry once finished.
Other Renovation To-Dos
Some smaller projects are still on the list: rebuilding an outdoor shower at the rear of the house accessed from the new French doors, extending a bit of patio, final roofing touches so new materials patina to match old ones, and swapping a window to bring more light into an existing bathroom. We’re repurposing an older window from our son’s room that’s larger and less heavily frosted than the hurricane-grade replacement we received; that will bring more natural light back into the bathroom.
How Are You Handling The Mess?
Renovations are dusty and disruptive. We’re taking pragmatic steps to keep the chaos manageable while living in the house during construction:
- Drop cloths: We cover furniture, beds, and sometimes entire doorways to limit dust migration.
- Shop vac: A compact shop vac is perfect for small piles of sawdust, staples, and debris that accumulate in corners and trims.
- Vacuum-mop combo: A vacuum that also mops has been the MVP—removing fine dust and chalky haze in one pass keeps floors surprisingly clean during demo phases.
Bottom line: do what you need to maintain your sanity during a renovation. It’s temporary, and the payoff is worth it—renovations always feel challenging while underway, but the finished result has never felt like a regret for us.
Tips For Living Large In A Smaller Home
After nearly six years in a down-sized home, here are practical lessons we’ve learned:
- Keep bedrooms comfortable without making them oversized.
- Maximize sight lines and natural light in shared spaces; vault ceilings where possible to increase the sense of space.
- Furnish shared rooms for daily use rather than formal occasions so they get used and loved.
- Identify and solve sticking points that make daily life awkward—small changes can have big impact.
- Consider larger, fewer pieces of furniture to make a space feel intentional rather than piddly.
- Prioritize storage—creative built-ins and systems make small homes far more functional.
For context, our house was about 1,400 square feet before this renovation and will be roughly 1,520 square feet after finishing the porch. Moving to this smaller home was a deliberate trade-off for location: we wanted to be walkable to the beach and local restaurants in a neighborhood we love. Renovating this property was significantly more affordable than trying to buy a slightly larger house nearby, and it lets us keep the lot and the pool we enjoy.
It already feels like a luxury to have such clear views and direct access to the pool from the main entry and downstairs living area. The added upstairs shared space will give kids a place to be messy, craft, or host sleepovers while adults entertain downstairs—another way a small home can feel larger and more flexible.
Next up on the schedule: final electrical tweaks, insulation, drywall, tile, fixtures, and flooring. We’ll share another renovation update once we’ve made more progress—follow along on Instagram for real-time glimpses, and expect another blog update in a few months.
P.S. If you missed our first post about this renovation, it includes more background and photos about the planning and reasons behind these changes.
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