Follow along as our family travel blog also becomes a DIY blog. Turning our Italian Renaissance House into our dream Modern Industrial Home.
Life Changes
We moved!! Finally. Yay! It’s been a long selling and buying process. I like to tell everyone that this move was 7 years in the making. Honestly, it kind of was, because this was where we wanted to be before we made the move to Virginia. Thankfully, the Lord had a better plan for me than I had for myself. Could we have moved here ourselves 7 years ago? Yes, absolutely… But we chose not to take that step of our own plan and chose to follow the Lord’s leading instead. In doing so, He eventually brought us back exactly to where we wanted to be. Our season of moving to Virginia then moving back to Florida was not always an easy one. But hindsight vision is 20/20 as they say. Looking back, I can see how God orchestrated all the changes that needed to take place in order to put us in a better position as a family for when we got to where we wanted to be.
Isaiah 55:8,9,11
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts… so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
Blog Changes
You are probably wondering why I’m even talking about all this. Because it now opens up a whole new chapter for our lives as a family. In my first ever blog post, I mentioned that we were not likely going to be a full-time traveling family. That still stands true. For us, it was always home and travel. With that being said, the blog will now also reflect the sentiment of home and travel too. I was telling my cousins recently that this will be the first time I’ve lived anywhere for more than 5 years (at least that is the anticipation). So, with us getting settled into our new home, we are going to be making some changes to make it our own. As one of my favorite DIY bloggers AngelaRoseHome says “Stop pinning. Start doing.” And that’s just what we are going to do. And we want to take you along for the ride.
Family Travel Blog
With travel being somewhat on pause, Michael and I working, and the kids in school, we are focusing our attention on making this house more like home. Now, we haven’t forgotten about travel completely. But we are focusing on our travel being a little closer to home. I mean this is still a family travel blog after all! We are finding all those fun things to do with kids in Florida. So, follow us on Instagram to check it out. Like when we went…
Fun Things to Do with Kids in Florida
Now with the purchase of our new home, I’ll be adding DIY blog to the repertoire that is The Rx For Travel. I started this blog with only the idea to talk about my past travel experiences. Now, it’s a travel blog, a family travel blog, a gluten-free blog, a dairy-free blog, a Disney blog, and now a DIY blog. Who knew?
DIY Blog
With our last house, we did some renovation work. And I say “some” like it’s no big deal, but actually that “some” was still quite a lot of work, time, and money. But we learned some lessons of what to do and what not to do and there are some things we would do again and some we won’t. Now, I am not a handy person by any stretch of the imagination, but thankfully I have Michael. He is my handy man carpenter hubby here to help me with all my projects. Here are some of the updates we made in our last house.
Installed wood look tile
Installed Acacia Wood Flooring
The Before of the Living Room
The After: Installed box beams and double crown in the main living area as well as the wood look tile. Also Roman and Michael playing superhero's.
The Before of the Office: It was originally designed as a formal living area, which we turned into a functioning room including a ventilation system given that we added a door and transom.
The After: With paint, acacia wood flooring, crown molding, ventilation system, and French doors with glass transom.
The Before of the Master Bedroom
The After: With paint, crown molding on wall and tray ceiling, acacia wood flooring, and rope lighting in tray ceiling.
Before and After Interior Design
- Before: Italian Renaissance
In our search for a new home, my viewpoint was to look for homes with good layouts. Michael on the other hand was looking for turnkey ready, so he could completely skip my honey do list. 
But as the days, weeks, and months of house searching went on, the criteria became does it have what we need and can we afford it. Thankfully, in the end, we found just the right house for our family. From the photos on the listing and during our walk through, the interior style of the house struck me as Italian Renaissance. The paint colors were dark with red, brown, and grey. There were medallions above all the ornate chandeliers that were hanging. The fans and sconces on the walls matched the design of the chandeliers. And the curtains and drapes were dark and grand. Now while I can appreciate this style given my love for period piece movies, music, and all things Jane Austen, it doesn’t invoke the feeling of our daily family life and style.
Before and After Interior Design
- After: Modern Industrial Home
There are a couple of reasons why a modern industrial home really fits us. Firstly, both Michael and I can be a little extra when it comes to the cleanliness of our home. And I’m a stickler for organization. Did you know that clutter can make you feel anxious? With that in mind, I try to purposefully not have a kitchen junk drawer, or if we do make it be the smallest drawer to keep clutter to a minimum. Secondly, paint colors can affect mood. Now that we have kids, we want our home to be bright and joyful. So, we want the paint color to reflect that. Lastly, with my New York roots, a Manhattan and Brooklyn industrial style loft was always the home aspiration, so I’m finally able to take that style and make it a reality in my own home.
The End, but really The Beginning
I’m so excited for this new chapter. Home ownership is overwhelming and the reno work that we want to do to this house can seem a bit daunting. But the fun is in the journey not the destination, right? So, I want to enjoy this DIY ride. It’s funny that for being so minimalistic, we actually have so much stuff. Haha. I will be slowly starting to sell things to make room for the changes to take place. If you want anything, you can find my Poshmark closet here for mainly clothes and some small housewares and my eBay store here for mostly everything else. Happy Shopping! Thank you all.
