I’ve shared many real-time renovation updates on Instagram Stories, but here’s a longer catch-up post for anyone who prefers reading. We’re about seven weeks into our biggest renovation in over five years, and it’s delightfully chaotic. Walls are open, ceilings are being reworked, and new rooms are framed. There’s been a lot of progress — and a lot of dust.
The easiest way to catch up is the video below, where I walk through each space, explain what’s finished, and outline what’s next. If you can’t watch with sound, the rest of this post summarizes the key updates and shares practical tips for dealing with dust and optimizing a smaller home during a renovation.
Note: You can also watch this on YouTube
Two issues nagged at us over the last five years and felt important enough to tackle together: expanding our son’s small bedroom and improving access to and sightlines of our backyard pool. We wanted solutions that didn’t require moving the kitchen, interrupting bathroom access for long stretches, or running plumbing up into a difficult spot. After many iterations, we realized finishing the covered front porch into conditioned space solved both problems and unlocked several additional benefits — and the estimate came in under expectations, which was a pleasant surprise.
- Enlarge our son’s small room
- Open better access to and views of our backyard pool area
We also added a bonus: an ensuite bathroom off our bedroom, since plumbing access under the raised deck made it an easy add while the crews were in-house.
Finishing The Porch
Converting the covered front porch into an interior bedroom solved multiple issues at once. Turning it into our daughter’s bedroom freed up her old room to open into the adjacent kitchen and sitting area, creating an L-shaped common space that flows to the pool through large glass doors. At the same time, the former hallway to the pool could be absorbed into our son’s room to make it wider and deeper.
Outside, the new bedroom shell is complete, though the interior still needs finish work and paint. We also solved an eyesore by relocating the exterior electrical boxes to a fence, which hides them from the curb and porch approach.
A Better View (And Access) To Our Pool
Previously the laundry room and our daughter’s bedroom blocked sightlines to the pool from the main living area. By reconfiguring those spaces, we created a bright new lounge that opens directly to the pool. The space brings daylight and an indoor-outdoor connection that completely transforms how the house feels. It’s now a sunny hangout spot with room for a TV — a much-requested upgrade by the kids — and an entertaining-friendly layout for adults.
With the sitting area moved into this new lounge, the kitchen gains extra cabinets and a peninsula with stools, and the dining table can float in a more spacious spot to seat eight instead of six. Vaulted ceilings in the lounge and daughter’s bedroom further amplify the sense of space. You can see the framing on the floor in the photo below that shows where those light-blocking walls used to be.
The new laundry closet will be tucked into a wall that recesses into our daughter’s room so it won’t disrupt her layout. If this is hard to visualize, the video walk-through helps illustrate how the pieces fit together.
A Bigger Bedroom For Our Son
By folding the old pool hallway into his space, our son’s room expanded from about 7′ wide to roughly 11′ and gained depth by moving the entry door back. We added a window roughly twice the size of the old one and vaulted the ceiling higher, which makes a dramatic difference. He’s thrilled to have the extra space for crafts and projects. We also found a secret safe in the foundation during demo — a fun discovery we shared on Instagram.
Our Ensuite Bathroom
We decided to add a compact ensuite off our bedroom while plumbing was easily accessible under the raised deck. The new bathroom occupies a former nook where floating shelves once lived and converts an awkward L-shaped bedroom into a clean rectangle with a proper attached bath. The plan includes a floating vanity nook, a wall-to-wall zero-entry shower tiled to the ceiling, a sink, and a toilet. The footprint is modest but highly functional.
Repositioning the bedroom door allowed us to use the former doorway wall as the vanity focal point and plan built-ins and wardrobe placement so the bedroom will look seamless once finished.
Other Renovation To-Dos
Smaller items include rebuilding an outdoor shower by the new french doors and extending the patio slightly. We’re also swapping and reusing some windows: a larger, lighter window from the son’s old room will become the bathroom window to replace a darker, overly textured factory-frosted glazed unit. Reusing that window brings more light and better proportion to the space.
How Are You Handling The Mess?
Renovations are inevitably dusty. We’re managing the chaos while living in the house by using these practical tools:
- Drop cloths to protect sofas, beds, and to tape off doorways.
- Small shop vac for quick pickups of sawdust, staples, and debris; our contractor vacuums and sweeps daily, which helps a lot.
- Wet-vac vacuum mop (a Tineco-style unit) that vacuums and mops in one pass — invaluable for removing the fine, chalky dust that remains after sweeping.
My advice: do what you need to stay sane. This remodel hasn’t taken away our kitchen or main bathroom for long stretches, which makes living through it easier. Renovations can be messy and maddening in the moment, but we’ve never regretted any of the changes once they were complete.
Tips For Living Large In A Smaller Home
After nearly six years in this smaller house, these strategies have helped us make the most of the space:
- Keep bedrooms comfortably sized — not too small, not overly large.
- Maximize sightlines and daylight through shared spaces; vault ceilings when possible to create airiness.
- Furnish rooms for frequent use, not just special occasions (turn underused formal spaces into functional rooms).
- Identify and fix sticking points that limit daily life — our reno solved two major ones and several smaller frustrations.
- Consider larger furniture pieces that make rooms feel substantial rather than tiny.
- Prioritize smart storage solutions — built-ins, tankless water heaters, and creative cabinetry can dramatically improve functionality.
For context, the house was about 1,400 square feet before this project and will be approximately 1,520 square feet after finishing the porch. We chose location and the lot over more square footage — the neighborhood’s walkability and the pool made that decision worthwhile. Renovating in place is also far more cost-effective than selling and buying up in this market.
We love how the new layout floods the house with views of the pool and gives us a bonus upstairs shared space where kids can craft, play, and host sleepovers while adults entertain downstairs. Two distinct common areas, separated vertically, make a small home feel larger and more flexible.
Next steps: final electrical tweaks, insulation, drywall, tile, fixtures, and flooring. We’ll post another update as work progresses — follow along on Instagram for real-time snippets, and we’ll return here with more photos and details soon.
P.S. If you missed our first post about this reno, it has more background and images about the project.
*This post contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.