Follow our grand design journey.

In the spring of 2022, my husband and I took a leap and purchased a rundown estate in a quiet, idyllic corner of the Puget Sound near Seattle. After years of searching—and being priced out of more desirable homes—we finally embraced a place full of potential in an area we had never explored before.

Now, this is home to our family of four young children, one big dog, and two work-from-home offices. After years of squeezing into a tiny downtown condo, it’s still surreal to live in a big house on a large lot, complete with a guest house, pool, pool house, and tennis court. But with all that charm came a daunting list of problems—the previous owners hadn’t cared for the property, and the repair costs quickly started to add up. What exactly have we gotten ourselves into?

Thankfully, I’m an architect with two decades of experience designing and detailing high-end custom homes. I can clearly envision a light-filled, beautifully remodeled home with thoughtful details inside and out. If only the reality were that simple! Our house would be perfect—if it weren’t for XYZ.

So here we are, aspiring to an ambition with plenty of frustration along the way. This journey doesn’t have a tidy before-and-after photo. Instead, it’s the messy “before” and the hopeful “what’s next?”

Oh—and did I mention the garden? Having never owned a yard before, I didn’t realize how captivating it could be. I’ve fallen in love with trying to tame our blackberry- and stinging nettle-infested yard. In our first year, I planted 153 plants, and I’m learning as I go about landscape design, native plants, and what really works in the Pacific Northwest.

Wish us luck!