In August of 2020, Jesús and I bought our first home: a two-unit, 95-year-old property in St. Pete, FL. In the months that followed, we hustled like crazy people alongside our family to remodel the guest house so that we could rent it out before the end of the year.

On Dec. 29, 2020, we officially finished remodeling the guest house's interior, and on Dec. 31, 2020, our renters moved in - completing our goal in the last hours of the year!

Before the new tenants moved in, Jesús and I took loads of photos and are excited to reveal how the space turned out in this post!!

If you scroll to the bottom, you'll see some wild before + after comparison shots.

When we bought our property, the guest house was perhaps in the worst condition between the two homes. In the process of renovating: we built new roof structures + put on a new roof, installed central A/C, new electric, leveled floors, put in a new kitchen and bathroom, installed three windows, tiled, and added lots of little cosmetic details (like those sexy recessed lights ;)).

We did the large majority of this work ourselves, alongside experienced family members. My mom tiled, dry-walled, and worked on a large variety of other projects - she was such a daily source of support for us. My grandpa, a retired brick mason, installed new windows + doors, helped with electric + plumbing, and seriously revived the decrepit bathroom, to name a few things. My uncle, a local contractor, helped with structural challenges on the roof and poured concrete to level the slanted bedrooms + exterior entrance. In addition to all that generosity, we had countless demo-days as well, when we were joined by Jesús's parents and even my cousins. The love that was poured into this place is something we'll cherish for our lifetime.

Jesús and I feel so blessed to have such a generous family supporting us in our first renovation. We couldn't have done this without them.

While we worked, we learned so many valuable lessons as well. Here are a few that first came to mind in case you're interested:

1. Just because you can DIY something doesn't always mean that you should.

Jesús threw his back out while trying to fix a portion of the roof on the house, and although he very well could have figured it out - his back was a hard lesson in outsourcing areas that aren't your strongest suit to save time and energy that could be allocated elsewhere.

2. When your floors are un-level and imperfect, DON'T use small, rectified tile.

The tile we bought for the floors is a great, porcelain grey terrazzo tile that we found for an insane discount. However, we ran into some installation problems because the edges are rectified (perfectly straight instead of beveled). The tile is also pretty small - which, on an unlevel and imperfect floor like ours, made them SUPER hard to lay down. My mom and I fought with the tile for a solid week as we did our best to apply them level. Had they been beveled and larger, we could have saved ourselves some time + heartache.

3. Laminate countertops + under-mounted sinks don't pair well.

This lesson is exactly as it sounds. We won't ever try an under-mounted sink with a laminate/particle board countertop again because it's such a pain to finish off the edges in a polished way. They didn't turn out exactly as we would have wanted, but we're taking it as an opportunity to approach things a little differently next time.

In addition to the lessons learned, we gained so many valuable new skills that we can't wait to carry into our next projects.

Now that we officially have our first interior remodel under our belts, we cannot wait to finish the rest of this property (aka the main house/our house) + hopefully many more to come!

Cheers!

- Anna + Jesús