Blog - at home with Ashley

How to Improve your Air BNB Listing

Hi friends! The main part of this blog post will be 10 tips for how to improve your Air BNB listing. Before that, I thought I’d give an update on my Florida Air BNB.

the good news

We started renting it out at the beginning of June when we came to Utah for the summer. It was probably rented out at 90% capacity. Which was a relief because we weren’t sure how it’d do– would anyone even stay at our home in Florida during a pandemic in the summer?

Mostly we had people doing staycations and movers relocating to the area and renting our house while theirs was getting worked on. Which was great! With the no contact check in and having the house available to one family, it felt like a safe way for locals to have a break from their own home.

the bad news

And then Covid cases spiked in Florida. Which was terrible. That lead to the county our Florida house is in (Broward) making Air BNB’s illegal until August 20, so we pulled our listing. It’s been a little stressful to not have the rental income, but we obviously have to follow the law.

We’re hoping it’ll be ok to welcome back visitors after the 20th, but’ll that’ll depend on what the county says. My fingers are crossed though!

when are you back in Florida?

All of this Covid stuff has slowed down our plans to go back to Florida. The cases are much lower in Utah (especially the area we’re in), so it’s been with safety in mind that we’ve pushed our moving date from August to later in the fall.

But what is Don doing about kindergarten? If you remember, our plan was to spend the whole school year in Florida so Don could attend kindergarten. Well, our Florida school district is doing 100% online learning. Which isn’t a great fit for my son. And with it being kindergarten in a new school I had MANY thoughts on it. And I’ve obsessed about this decision for weeks.

We’re probably going to hold him back and hopefully start kindergarten next fall. In the meantime, the plan is to home preschool him. That was a massive decision and I feel 89% good about it. I’m sure, like most parents with school aged kids, it felt like picking the best of bad options. I know this is a life changing decision for him and us so I don’t take it lightly.

And now to less complicated issues- how to improve an Air BNB listing!

[Read more…]

The Playhouse Mood Board!

At the beginning of July we started building the playhouse with a few pieces of plywood. And now there’s a whole structure and we’re FINALLY at the fun part- decorating! I better get started because this’ll be a great place for Don to play once it’s complete. I thought it’d be fun to show how the interior currently looks and the playhouse mood board.

[Read more…]

Horse Inspired Girl Room

A few weeks ago, Builds by Kristen invited me to help her makeover a room for a little girl, Nora. She is 5 and recently had open heart surgery. The idea is that by redoing her room, she can have a beautiful place to heal and have some hope for the future! She loves pink and horses and so I was so excited to help design her horse inspired girl room!

I quickly said yes- a chance to design a room for a special little girl? Definitely! I’m going to show you the before photos, the inspiration, and how we got to the final space.

[Read more…]

Painted Night Stand with Wood Bead Detail

Forever ago, I saw a picture of a dresser with wood balls glued to the drawers and I put that idea in my back pocket. Then, I started redoing the guest room and decided that I could use a larger nightstand. So I headed to the thrift store and found a $10 chest that was the perfect blank slate! Here’s how to diy a painted night stand with wood bead detail.

[Read more…]

DIY Arch Wall Mural

Here’s the truth- like many of you, money is a little tight right now. It’s been a hard few months. But even if my projects aren’t all as big and exciting as I’d maybe like them to be, I still like to update my house. Lately, I’ve been looking for ways to make my guest room feel just a little bit more special. So, I decided to add a DIY arch wall mural behind the bed.

I know the world looks vastly different than it did in January and sometimes it feels like the world is burning while I paint rainbows on everything. But creating is and always has been my therapy. Dreaming up an idea and executing it then sharing it here- the process keeps me sane. I don’t know what the future holds, but until then, I’ll keep painting.

[Read more…]

Thrift Haul

On Saturdays I like to unplug and have as much fun as humanly possible. I don’t know if many of you know this, but I live in Logan Utah which is about an hour from Salt Lake where most of my friends and family live. So about once a week, we head down and pack our schedule with as much as we can and see the people we love most.

This week, one of my visits cancelled and so I decided it would be fun to thrift! I invited my sister Kate and our blogging friend Laurel. Luckily, we were all free at the same time and met up for some thrifting! Side note, I like to wear a mask and social distance as much as possible while shopping. We headed to the Murray Deseret Industries which is super big! Want to see my thrift haul?!

p.s. if you’re wondering where I normally thrift in Logan, click here.

If you’d like to see the best thrift shops across the UT, click here.

[Read more…]

DIY Compost Bin

Ok- so this is a project I’ve been wanting to do for years! And we made it in 4 hours. Tell me why again I put stuff off- lol! I guess the reason is that building a diy compost bin isn’t a pretty or glamorous project. But it’s much better than having compost piles all over our garden!

Before we moved into this house, we owned our condo for 9 years and rented in Florida for 5 months. Which meant that we didn’t have a backyard before we lived here. So when were preparing to move in and dream of all the things we could do with this place, composting was on the list!

I told three year old Don about composting and showed him a video about the environmental impacts. And he started crying- he loves the earth so much, bless his heart! If you remember, he used to be into a major phase of loving garbage trucks. Not. because he loves trash, but because he hates it 😂. So, as you can see, this was a long time in the making.

[Read more…]

50 Ways to Add Beauty to Every Day Life

I started reading a book lately called “Living a Beautiful Life” where it shares hundreds of ideas for creating special moments out of the ordinary. I am SO inspired! The idea is that by incorporating more of your senses into what would normally be chores, it helps us live a more beauty filled life! Sign me up!

I’ve fallen into the trap of only having things look pretty that people will see all the time, but now I’ve shifted my thinking. I want to be the one to enjoy my daily life! Doesn’t the idea of slowing down and finding ways to enjoy the stuff you have to do daily sound lovely?! [Read more…]

How to Build a Rainbow Privacy Fence

I have a new theory with fences- you DON’T have to build the whole thing at once. Our backyard is skinny and long and thinking about being able to afford to fence every bit- it’d never happen. Instead, I’m tackling one section at a time. The spaces we need it most, we’re doing this year. It might be a few years, but slowly I’ll get it done!

It’s been so nice to slowly close off our yard. We started with a rainbow horizontal fence then moved on to a long 40′ privacy fence and now we’re closing off another section we desperately need privacy.

Next to the playhouse is a 16′ section that looks into the neighbor’s yard and all their weeds. It’s a rental and the yard isn’t kept up so saying goodbye to this view was NOT sad-

[Read more…]

How to Paint Vinyl Furniture

Yesterday my husband said to me “Ashley, the guest room needs some spice, it isn’t quite as done as the rest of the house.” And I realized- he was right! My mind started racing- what should I change to make it look more like me? How can I pull this room more together? And then I zero’d into that sad brown bed and I thought- could I paint it? So I did! Here’s how to paint vinyl furniture.

[Read more…]

the good news

the bad news

athomewithashley