Welcome to our first episode of 2020 — and we’ve got big news! This update touches on several things we care about: making life simpler, a funny table swap story with friends, a holiday gift idea for honoring family memories, a progress report on our bathroom renovation, an Instagram account that always makes us laugh, and a geography-based game that quickly became a favorite.
You can also find this episode on your favorite podcast app, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher, and Spotify.
What’s New
- We finally upgraded our podcast setup. No more recording from the “baby chair” — we now have a dedicated spot in the office. It’s still a work in progress, but this change saves us from hauling chairs, computers, and microphones into the living room every time we record. Small improvements that make podcasting less chaotic around here.
- If you want updates on the bathroom remodel or details from our Costa Rica trip that we touched on in the episode, check out the posts below for full recaps and photos:
- Bathroom reno progress over the holiday
- Costa Rica vacation recap and FAQs
- Closet before & after, budget, and video tour
- Next week we’ll share more about the bathroom renovation — including the unexpected curveballs we encountered over winter break and how we solved them.
Our Big Duplex News
- The segment in the episode goes into more detail than any short summary can, so if you want the full story you can read the full transcript or listen to the first 22 minutes of the podcast.
- We referenced a couple of previous posts during our conversation, so here they are for easy access:
- The ongoing costs of running an Airbnb
- How much the duplex kitchens cost
- The dining table pictured above is the one we sanded and refinished a few years ago. It originally came to us via a swap with our friends Ryan and Ahren around 2013. We passed along a large round table to them, and this rectangular table lived in our Richmond dining room for years — including during the photoshoot for our second book. The darker photo below shows the table before refinishing.
- The big round table has remained with Ryan and Ahren in Richmond ever since, and we were able to see it at their holiday party in December.
- Their Cape Charles home is charming — they rent it out on Airbnb — and we shared a quick peek in the episode. If you want to explore it further, you can find their listing online.
Game: Weird Town Names
- The map we used for the “Weird Town Names” game is shown above. The accompanying blog post from Estately includes many more odd and delightful town names for each state — a great resource if you want to play along or create your own version of the game.
We’re Digging
- This holiday we gave StoryWorth to my parents — a service that prompts family members with story questions over time and compiles the responses into a printed book. It arrived via an Instagram ad (yes, those do sometimes pay off), and so far it’s been a meaningful gift. We’re excited to collect my grandmother’s memories throughout the year and see them preserved in book form.
- For light-hearted Instagram content, we’re loving @InfluencersInTheWild. It’s a fun, often hilarious account that highlights some of the stranger moments in influencer culture; the post Sherry mentioned in the episode is a perfect example of their content.
If you want to revisit things we’ve recommended on past episodes, we keep a master list of everything we’ve been digging. You can also find all of our book recommendations on the Book Club page.
Finally, a thank-you to You Need A Budget (YNAB) for sponsoring this episode. They offer a free video course called “Four Rules To Less Money Stress,” and new users can get a 34-day free trial when they sign up.
Thanks for listening — we appreciate your time and support!
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