Playing Catchup: A Quick Roundup of All the Posts About The Portland Project

If there is anything I want to do all day every day, it’s to show sneak peeks of the Portland house. We are pulling together all the posts and really dialing it in with lessons and takeaways to help you guys, especially on the stuff that I needed help with. Stay tuned for all the reveals starting in September, but in case you missed what this project is, here goes:

My brother and sister-in-law bought a junker house in probably the oldest and most beautiful neighborhood in Portland, Oregon, where I’m from. We struck a deal that I’d design it and decorate it (and market it) and when it’s done, we’d sell it. It’s a true family collaboration and working with them has been a DREAM, honestly.

So here’s a trip down memory lane, where we started and updates throughout on where we are.

Introducing Our Portland Fixer Upper

I didn’t come into the project for a couple months because I was slammed, so the first time I went up to Portland to see the home, it was already demo’d. We worked with an architect, Annie, to add on a third story and completely demo’d and renovated the entire house.

Portland Fixer Upper Construction Update and Artist/maker Call Out

My brother, seen above, is one of my favorite people in the world. I can honestly say we are the same person with absolutely nothing in common. Think about that for a sec. We both have no shame or embarassement, say too much, externally process, challenge all ideas, are super enthusiastic for fun, and need realness, frankness and honesty at all times. We are generous with our laughter and lord knows we laugh easily. WE are both led by our ‘need for fun and challenge’ and not our brains and commit to crazy big projects because they sound like fun. And we value being happy. 🙂

But due to the demand of actually renovating, we didn’t have too much time to blog about the process (YET) so there are way less posts about this house than the mountain house. I didn’t do the I Design, You Decide process here because I learned quickly that it was slowing down the mountain project exponentially (and we just didn’t have the time for that here because it needed to go on the market).

Portland Fixer Upper: Inspirations for Front Door Colors

So we worked behind the scenes and I guess I only blogged about the front door color before we actually finished it?? That’s crazy. We did a full plumbing fixture, lighting, millwork, electrical and plumbing plan at this point but just did not have the time to blog about it all. It’s all coming, we promise. (For the record, you guys REALLY liked this door color post and had A LOT to say…600 comments worth of “say” to be exact).

Portland House Sale Announcement & Event!

You saw some sneak peeks here and we put it on the market.

Portland Fixer Upper: Master Bathroom Update, Design + Sneak Peek

The house was on the market at about the point when we started revealing bathroom plan posts, beginning with the master bath. That Anne Sacks tile in the featured shot above is SO GOOD (and if you haven’t seen the plan yet, make sure to click through to see more).

The Portland House Is for Sale (listing, Sneak Peeks + Party Details)

Then the party and open house snuck up on us before we had time to even plan it. WHOOPS. This was around the same time that I tried, again, to find a director of communications, this time looking more for high level. I realized that I was just not properly telling people or the press about the projects that we were doing. The party was HUGE and I met some of the nicest people in the world. (And yes we are still hiring and haven’t started interviewing yet but we have TONS of good candidates).

Portland Project: Powder Bath Design & Update

It’s kind of nuts that we were rolling out the design plans and process for the bathrooms after they were basically under construction/already built, but it was the best we could do with our schedule for this project. This post showed a sneak peek of the powder bath and all the details about its design.

Portland Open House, Party & Thank You!!!

And then it was done! This post was mostly to thank all of you AMAZING readers and partners who showed up to this party. There were literally hundreds of you who patiently waited around to chat with me and snap photos for Instagram and OMG was it fun. Thank you thank you thank you again for taking time out of your personal lives to come by and see this baby in person and talk to me and my team who was also there.

Portland Project: Second Floor Hall Bath Design & Update

The hall bath has quickly become my favorite. I LOVE IT. This shot above is from the actual “reveal” shoot we started a few weeks back (it’s hilarious that you can see the camera in the mirror…we were so in a hurry to get those out to you guys that we overlooked that little Photoshop detail…whoops again).

We have so much to reveal to you guys. It’s like 19 rooms. And I know you are wondering if it’s still on the market and the answer is yes, for now, but some VERY serious folks circling. A new update is that I am offering to design the secret room to whatever the buyer wants it to be since we haven’t really designed that space and it has so much potential (and I want to shoot it, duh). And if the right family comes along with kids, I’ll even help design the upstairs guests rooms (currently designed more for grownups) because I selfishly want the whole house to be ‘my work’ and then we can reshoot them with a kids theme (because kids rooms are the most fun to design).

Thank you so much to the design team, the styling team, the editorial team for creating such a beautiful home. I can’t believe it’s done and I’m so excited to teach you what I learned in the process, and most importantly, show you how beautifully it turned out. Stay tuned…

Also, if you missed the big recap of all the mountain fixer’s posts, check that out here.