This is a collaborative post. All opinions are my own.

After taking a break all winter, we are gearing up to host on Airbnb again. We already have two bookings in March and those dates are coming up quiiiickly (yikes!). So we've been working hard on getting the house in shape for guests! Our list includes washing the windows, deep cleaning the appliances, scrubbing the walls, touching up paint, washing the sofa cushion covers, sealing the marble vanity tops, and things that we don't deal with on a regular basis. Plus, we're stocking up on household essentials and toiletries. My go-to for those kind of purchases? Public Goods! Have you heard of them? They carry high-quality household products at amazingly affordable prices, all with nicely designed packaging. Best of all, instead of having to lug the kids to Target, it all gets delivered right to my door.

I love that the bottles look like something you'd find in a high-end hotel. The design is so nice...simple and minimalist.

When hosting on Airbnb, you're going to provide toiletries no matter what. Going the extra mile is such an easy way to make your guests feel comfortable and cared for. For example, we always make sure to set out plenty of basics like toilet paper, so guests are never worried about running out (it's a pet peeve of mine, when places are stingy with the TP!). We also have a little basket with extra toothbrushes, floss, and tampons in case people forgot theirs. And for shampoo and conditioner, we always provide full size bottles, because I hate having to make a tiny travel bottle last for multiple days. I also look for products that are non toxic and paraben-free (and smell really good!). People actually mentioned this in our reviews last year, so I think it's worth spending a little extra on quality.

Plus to be honest, with Public Goods, springing for nicer toiletries is barely any more than the cheap stuff at the grocery store. Shampoo, conditioner, body wash, hand soap, lotion...they're all only $4.50. Dish soap (with a lovely mandarin basil scent) is only $4.25. Eco-friendly walnut scrubber sponges are $3 for a pack of 4. So to me, it's a no-brainer to spend a few extra dollars for much better products.

Oh, and it's not just toiletries that Public Goods carries! They also have towels, candles, cleaning products, essential oils, vitamins, and even food...all at amazing prices. I'm especially excited about the food because the packaging is pretty (ha!). But really, that makes it perfect for stocking an Airbnb. We always provide a little welcome basket with coffee and treats for our guests. Last year, I'd run to Trader Joe's and get a few things there. But this year, I think Public Goods will be our new go-to. They have lots of options that look yummy: chocolate bars, popcorn, sweet potato chips, trail mix, chocolate almonds, candied pecans, and so on, all in smaller packages that are perfect for gifting. They also carry essentials like olive oil and condiments. We don't provide those, but if we did I would totally get them from Public Goods as well.

I know I keep talking about how perfect their products are for Airbnb, but we also use these products for ourselves! We've been really happy with everything we've tried...and did I mention that the prices are amazing? If you're interested in trying Public Goods, you can get 15% off your first order with the code AILEENPGA!

This is a collaborative post. All opinions are my own.

Ben and I got engaged on a cold day in February (Ben purposely proposed the week before Valentine's Day) so this time of year always reminds me of those first few weeks...playing with my new and beautiful ring which felt so strange on my finger, and calling Ben my "fiancé" which felt awkward (but good!!!) on my lips. I remember announcing our engagement to our family and friends, feeling self-conscious but super excited...and a little overwhelmed when the questions started rolling in. When? Where? How many? Who? If you're newly engaged, here's my advice to you. It's important to remember that this is your wedding, no one else's. Don't feel pressure to do it in a certain way or a certain timeframe. Do it at your own pace, in your own way. Especially if you have other big life events going on, like graduating from college, finding a job, moving to a new city, or renting a new property...don't feel like you have to figure it all out at once. Take your time and let yourself enjoy and savor your engagement for a little while without the pressure of making decisions. When you're ready to jump into planning, make a list of everything you need to decide on (some of the biggies are listed below). Then do your best to stay true to what you and your fiancé really want!

The Date

The date is one of the first things to nail down, as you'll need it for everything else. Most people have a general idea of the season or month they want to get married in, but not a particular date. If that's the case, you might want to see what dates are still available for the wedding venue or photographer of your choice. This could end up making the decision for you. Another thing to consider is cost. Different times of the year and days of the week will incur different costs. A Saturday in July will be much more expensive than a Friday in November, even at the same venue. And of course, you'll want to think about what you and your loved ones already have going on. Consider things like graduations, baby due dates, other weddings, and anything else that may already be planned. If there are people you couldn't do the day without, speak to them individually to make sure they don't have any major plans that could coincide with when you want to get married. Asking them early is easy and could save sadness down the line. Once you've got the date locked down, think about sending save the dates (aim for around six months before the wedding, or even earlier). Then you can start working on your lovely unique wedding invitations.

The Budget

An important thing to figure out right away is the budget. It may not be fun to talk about money, but you can’t have a big wedding without it. Get on the same page with your fiancé as soon as possible. Going into debt is not a good way to start married life, so make sure you have a plan for saving the money you need to pay for your wedding in full. If your dreeeaaam wedding isn't feasible with your savings, then start considering less-expensive alternatives. In the long run, it'll serve you so much better to compromise on things like the dress and the food, rather than stretching yourselves financially.

The Destination

Another thing to decide as soon as possible? Where you'll be getting married. This decision might be really difficult, especially if you both grew up in different cities, and you live in yet another different city. If you're having trouble deciding, another idea is to get married abroad. A destination wedding might sound expensive, but if you were already planning on traveling for your honeymoon, you might be surprised. You could have a really special, intimate wedding in Santorini, the Amalfi Coast, Mexico, or wherever you were planning to honeymoon...that actually costs quite a bit less than a big wedding in your hometown. One thing to consider is that flights will likely be more expensive for your guests. Even if you invite the same number of people, you will probably end up with a much smaller list of "Yes" RSVPs. That could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it!

The People

This is one of the hardest parts of wedding planning. First there's narrowing down the guest list, which can cause a lot of anxiety in and of itself. Then, there's deciding on all the key roles, such as the officiant, best man, bridesmaids, ring bearer, and flower girls. Before you stress yourself out too much, remember that you don’t have to fill all these positions. It doesn’t have to be super traditional. You can have one bridesmaid, or zero, or ten...whatever fits your vision. That being said, if you already know what you want, it’s best to ask those people early in the planning process. That way, people's expectations will be clear. It's especially important to give people time to prepare if their role involves tasks to complete.

The Entertainment

Here's another area where you get to do things your way. Choose the entertainment that fits the vibe of the wedding you’re going for. Maybe that means a swing band or a singer, or maybe it means some nontraditional entertainers. Think about the theme of your wedding, then think about who you know or have connections with. If you're planning a casual outdoor wedding and you know someone who is a caricature artist, well that could be super fun! Think outside the box, and you might end up with something really memorable that costs less than the traditional wedding entertainment. 

The Photographer

Whether you're eloping, having a big 300 person wedding, or something in between, you'll want to capture your special day so you can look back on it and show your kids. To find a great photographer, ask for recommendations from friends or search on Instagram for local photographers. Read their reviews and check out their wedding portfolio, then ask your top few choices for rates and availability. Be prepared that experienced wedding photographers are not cheap. You can save money by booking a photographer who is new to the wedding industry, but you'll be taking a gamble.

Of course there are a lot of other details to plan, but if you can get these six decisions squared away early on, you'll be in good shape!

Writing always helps me to consolidate my thoughts, so since real estate has been consuming a lot of my brain space lately, and mortgage rates are so low, I decided to write down why we're even looking for an investment property to begin with, what we're hoping to find, and the doubts we have. Real estate investing is something Ben and I have been interested in for years, but we always figured we'd have to wait til we had more money. A couple years ago, I started listening to the BiggerPockets podcast and learned about the concept of house hacking, aka renting out a portion of your house to cover the mortgage. The classic and most straightforward example is to live on one side of a duplex and rent out the other half, but it can also work with getting roommates in a single family house or renting out a mother-in-law unit. The really cool thing is that the money required to get started with house hacking is significantly less than with traditional investing. Since you'll be an "owner occupant," your down payment can be as little as 3.5% on 1-4 units, instead of 20-25%. After a year, you're no longer required to live there, so you can repeat the process all over again, renting out both sides for cashflow. A lightbulb went off for me, and I saw the potential for house hacking to really change our financial position in a meaningful way. By eliminating our biggest expense (housing), we could ramp up our savings, allowing us to acquire more investment properties and build up some decent passive income in just a few years. The only problem? We had just bought a regular single-family house (with no guest house or basement to rent out), plus we had a toddler and another baby on the way. We briefly considered hosting an international student in our guest room, but we didn't feel good about having a stranger living IN our house with little kids.

Photo: Young House Love's cute duplex

We decided house hacking wasn't right for us at this life stage. I kicked myself...if only we had house hacked when we lived in Edmonds! After all, we actually lived in the basement unit of a duplex for four years!!! During that time, we were both working and would have easily been approved for a mortgage. We could have totally afforded a 3.5% down payment. We didn't have kids to worry about at the time. And darn it, any house we bought in the Seattle area in 2013 would have appreciated so much by now!!! Hindsight is 20/20.

Since we couldn't go back in time, we decided to just focus on the house we'd already bought and make it a good home for our family. We still liked so many things about it: the neighborhood, the school district, the overall layout, the amount of natural light. And I'd always heard that if you buy a house, you should live in it for at least five years to end up ahead vs. renting. So we committed to this house and worked on remodeling it, with the intention of staying here five years. But as I continued listening to podcasts and reading books about real estate investing, I couldn't give up on the idea of house hacking quite yet.

I convinced Ben to try listing our entire house on Airbnb, leaving whenever it got booked. Kind of our own version of house hacking. We opened our house for seven months last year, got nine bookings total (at an average of 3 nights each), and earned enough to cover six month's worth of our mortgage. Yep, we covered half of our mortgage last year just by leaving our house for nine weekends! That doesn't count taxes, insurance, or utilities...but still, we reduced our housing cost considerably, and our lifestyle was hardly impacted. We even had fun with the process of getting ready: putting together a welcome basket, getting nice toiletries, buying cute bedding and towels, creating a local guide with restaurant suggestions, and so forth.

But it was exhausting getting the house clean for guests. In addition to making beds and all the normal Airbnb prep, we would also clear out the fridge, take the kids' clothes out of their dressers, wipe toddler fingerprints off the windows, and generally try to make it feel like a true vacation rental instead of our personal home. As we talked about our goals and plans going forward, we agreed that it would be fun to run a dedicated Airbnb...but renting our personal home on weekends wasn't going to work much longer. Especially with three kids.

So that left us with the question of what next?? Should we give up on the idea of house hacking again, and just LIVE in our house like normal people?

Hahaha. Would I be writing this post if that was the conclusion we came to? If you know me, once I have an idea I believe in, I am like a raccoon holding a shiny object: I cannot let go. And I truly believe in the power of house hacking. So I'm still determined to find a way for us to (safely, successfully, sanely) house hack as a family. Our goal is to find a move-in ready duplex in a safe neighborhood this year. We will move into one side, and either rent out the other side on Airbnb or get a long-term tenant (this decision will likely depend on the neighborhood and the house itself).

As for our current house? Well, originally the plan was to sell it. Houses in Spokane have appreciated crazy fast over the past three years, and we have a pretty good chunk of equity that we could put towards our investing dreams. But we also like this house quite a bit. We've made updates that fit our tastes, we have great memories here (so we're emotionally attached), and our neighborhood is zoned for some of the best schools in town. We wonder, if we move, will we be priced out of this neighborhood? What if this area appreciates faster than other neighborhoods, and we miss out on that? We considered renting this house for a year while we live in a duplex, then moving back into it (just in time for Ian to enter kindergarten). The idea is tempting...but our house is definitely not what we would have purchased if we were looking for a rental. And I would be pretty sad if tenants trashed the house in that year. It would also mean that we could only purchase one investment property with the low down payment, instead of having the opportunity to repeat the process. Most importantly, we don't even know if keeping the house is an option. So most likely, we will be selling it. We've only lived here for two and a half years, but with the above-average appreciation, we'll still end up with a nice profit even after closing costs and realtor fees.

But WHY, you ask? Why go through the hassle of moving out of a house we like, into a living situation that will probably be less enjoyable? What's our end goal?

I know it seems a little crazy. But we're looking into the future. To steal a Dave Ramsey quote, the plan is to "live like no one else now, so we can live like no one else later." We have realized that a bigger house and nicer things do not make us happier. What does? More time together as a family. So we're trying to build up our savings and passive income so we can have more time together in the future. That means that for the next few houses we live in, we will not be looking for our DREAM house, but a house that will help us pursue our dreams.

Do I have doubts? Yep. As I mentioned, the real estate market in Spokane has been hot. On the one hand, that makes me think we should sell now to capture all that equity. But on the other hand, it makes me worried about jumping into a new house that might drop in value right away. Could we get stuck in a duplex? I also worry about whether this is the best idea for our kids. I believe kids are flexible and adaptable, but I also know they like stability and routine. And I do wonder if we'd later regret selling our house (already, there's no way we could get into this neighborhood for the price we paid back in 2017).

Sooo that was long and wordy! If you have any thoughts or if you've done something similar, I would love to hear from you. Also, if you're in Spokane and you're considering selling a duplex (or a house with a mother-in-law unit), we would definitely be interested!! Hey, you never know...

I posted a list of my main 2020 goals a few weeks ago, and we've already been making progress on those. I've started running again for the first time in years (it feels both amazingly good and absolutely miserable). We've talked to a lender and some realtors about our goals for an investment property. And we've decided on a destination for a family trip (Maui!!!). But what was missing from that list of goals was anything house-related. That's because this year, we just aren't focusing on house projects. We have a list of practical to-dos, like painting the laundry room, getting the garage door fixed, and replacing our closet door...but those won't make for very exciting blog posts. The last big remodeling project we have (our master bathroom) isn't a priority for us this year, financially. And I have personally felt like it's not a good use of my time and money to constantly be changing decor for different seasons or trends. That means I'm kind of struggling with what to write about on here! Since I've mostly focused on home improvement and interior design, I'm not sure if you guys are even interested in the other stuff going on in my life. Do you want to hear about planning our trip to Maui? Are you interested in our search for a rental property? Should I talk about parenting (because let's be honest, that's mainly what my life is about right now)? I'm not sure.

And then I wonder if I should continue working on our house for the sake of content and keeping this blog going. But that seems silly, since overall I actually feel pretty content with it right now. Are there still things I would change? Yes, of course! Off the top of my head, if money were unlimited...I'd remodel our master bathroom and laundry room, I'd lay a new deck and add a hot tub in the backyard, and I'd get some new furniture while I'm at it. But none of that is necessary, none of it will drastically improve our lives, and all that money and time could instead go towards an awesome trip or a rental house (both things I'd rather have). I could write about interior design trends and put together round-ups of things to shop for. But if I'm not shopping for new trendy things in my house, it feels disingenuous to encourage you guys to do that. I guess what I'm saying is that I'm in a place where I feel my house is "good enough."

It's like so many things in life. There's not a big difference in terms of joy between the BEST and GOOD. But there is a big difference in cost. You could spend a lot of money on the best bottle of wine in the store, or you could just enjoy a good bottle (are your taste buds really that refined anyways?). You could spend thousands of dollars on designer clothes...or you could spend one tenth of that on clothes from Target that still fit well and make you feel cute. You could blow a ton of money on a brand-new dream car, or you could get a used Toyota that still gets you from A to Z. You see where I'm going with this. Sometimes, it does make sense to spend the extra money on something better. But once you reach a certain point where something is good enough, I feel like it's rarely worth it to keep chasing "the best." There will always be something newer and cooler anyways. So "settling" for good enough isn't really settling. It's enjoying what you already have, being content, and realizing that good IS enough.

I'm kind of disillusioned with seeing these massive remodels, especially when the "before" was actually pretty nice. I mean, I get it (I still want to remodel our master bathroom and there's technically nothing wrong with it). But the bloggers I'm feeling inspired by lately are the ones who can work on a tight budget to create basically what they want, instead of the ones who splurge everywhere to get exactly what they want. You know what I mean?

The other day, Ben and I were reminiscing about our first year of marriage (we're coming up on 10 years!) and I realized that I was sooo happy, even in a crappy apartment with a folding table in the dining room. It's not stuff or money that makes us happy, it's people and how we spend our time. It's worth clarifying--I'm still very happy now, but I wasn't any less happy when we had less stuff.

So anyways, a long rambly post to say that we don't have very many house projects planned for 2020. We did re-open our house on Airbnb (call me crazy) and the first guests are coming in March, so that's what we're currently working on. We took a long break, with my last trimester of pregnancy and having a newborn baby, so there's quite a bit to get ready all over again. And I have to admit, I'm a little nervous to see how it goes with THREE kids this time. You interested in a post about that??