We Bought A Half Finished House! Welcome to the River Valley Project - Renovating Our Dream Home.

If you've been following me on Instagram then you know that back in April, Daniel and I closed on our dream home - a half finished home on the North Shore of Kauai. I honestly can’t even believe I'm saying those words. And now I'm finally writing about it 6 months later as we get ready to start construction in January!

We moved to the sweet little town of Kilauea a little over 4 years ago, and we scored on the most amazing rental property - not only is it a great house but we live on the cutest cul-de-sac and absolutely love our neighbors. Kids ride their bikes, dogs roam freely, we wake up to the roosters crowing, and best of all we're out of the flood plane (Kauai is, after all, home to the wettest spot on earth). We had approached our (awesome) landlords a few times with a proposition to buy the house but sadly they turned us down (honestly, smart move on their part).

What We Were Looking For

At the beginning of 2024 we started very casually talking about what it would look like to buy a house or a property upon which we would build a house. While having land sounds appealing , the idea (and expense) of trying to figure out how to build a house on land without any immediately access to plumbing or electricity sounded like a long, arduous and expensive undertaking. We came to the conclusion that our dream home would be:

1. In our immediate neighborhood (we're talking like a 4 block radius)

2. On a "rim" lot - ie., the back of the house would face out on to the river valley as opposed to backing up onto another property

3. In our price point - we were aiming for something that would be a real fixer upper.

   
   

We Found It!

Fast forward to March - again, we're happy in our rental house, life is busy and buying a new home isn't really on our radar. I get a call from my good friend (and client!) Alexandra LaClergue who also happens to be an incredible real estate agent at about 4pm on a Tuesday and she's like - I'm picking you up and we're going to look at this house.

She picked me up and literally drove about a block to this house - a house we walked by daily with our dog. From the front it didn't look like much - clearly a construction site, windows boarded up. But as we walked in I was amazed. It was literally everything I had been dreaming about - a total fixer upper (the house was basically just in framing), literally 2 blocks from our existing home, and expansive views out the back of the house onto the Kilauea River Valley. In addition it had great bones - great natural light, a practical layout, high ceilings. I literally got chills as Daniel and I looked at each other and thought - this is the one.

This view was what really blew us away

High ceilings and beautiful views - the house has great bones

I fell in love with some of the existing details like this archway

Some of the bedrooms just have framing - having the walls opened up has its advantages because you have more freedom with what you can do with them without having to demo good drywall!

What's Taking You So Long?!

Permits and decisions! This home actually came with an existing building permit (albeit from the early 90s) however we have to go through the process of resubmitting that original permit, then submitting As Built Plans (ie. the house was not built to the original plans which is common with homes on Kauai where a lot of people are DIYing!) as well as our desired changes.

And while I could have just made some quick decisions and sped through the design process - I realized we were in no rush. I wanted to make choices that would stand the test of time - both in terms of aesthetics and durability! You'd assume that because this is my job, designing my own house would be easy. But that has proven to not be the case! First of all, we have a budget that will require a bit of creativity, and sometimes the MORE you know means the harder it is to make decisions. I've realized through diving into this process how great it is to have a designer approach you with 1-2 choices!

What You Can Expect!

Celebrating on our future lanai

I have big plans for this house - not only because we get to basically build our dream house (with some constraints of course) but because it will also serve as home base for my design studio. As you can imagine, living on a small island in the middle of the Pacific means we have an abundance of natural beauty but very few design showrooms! Which obviously makes my job a bit challenging. My vision is that this home will be a place where my clients and community can touch, see and experience all of my favorite brands and vendors. I will be entirely transparent that some brands have graciously offered us product at a discount -but I can promise you that given that this is our forever home - each and every brand we partner with are products that I truly stand by and love. Over the next year or so I'll be sharing all the details that go into renovating a home - the good, the bad and the ugly! This project is interesting because it sort of feels like a bit like a renovation and a bit like a new build - we have lots of freedom given that the house has a lot of open framing, but are also sticking to the basic floor plan. I am so excited to share my vision and the entire design process with you - hopefully inspiring you with some ideas and tips for your own home renovation projects!