We mention to each other how unreal it is that we live in this house almost weekly. There hasn't been an ounce of buyer's remorse with this home--even with a busted pipe the week before we moved in and no central air during a 90-degree summer. We are grateful to be living here. And it's just the perfect home for us.

There are plenty of home improvement blogs. Austin and I are not doing anything new here. In fact, we are doing something that many other people have been doing much better for much longer. Open Pinterest. There are no shortages of living room decor pins and bathroom renovation reveals.

Inspiration from an online source is a great place to start no matter what camp you relate to. Here are some tips I've discovered while trying to avoid the pitfalls of a great photo and making design truly personal.

It feels like such a big project, especially for Austin's busy season and for me to be in my second trimester, but between advice from our parents and the kitchen experts at Lowe's, we can conquer it. We are sticking with stock cabinetry and will DIY them look more custom and high-end. We're trying to stay under $6000 for everything top to bottom (sans appliances).

We have been completely blown away by our backyard. The previous owner was an avid gardener and made our giant backyard into an oasis. We've been spending more and more time outside, finding out what perennials are starting to bloom.

We've woken up in our new house every day for a month and a half and it's still hard to believe that this place is ours. SO much work has been started since mid-January. Each room has been turned upside down (for better or worse) and some rooms are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's pretty gratifying.

One area that I had willfully decided I wouldn't ever be good at was photography. My mom went to UCLA for photography, some of best friends in high school, college and today are photographers. I worked in publishing with professional photographers. My husband is a professional photographer. I haven't wanted to fail at it so I figured I just shouldn't try.

I really want to create an original, inspiring space to work from. My goal with this room and the rest of the house is that I don't want to have seen it before. I want to really push and design, not just replicate what others have done.

We've been demo-ing walls and fixtures to get them ready for the plumbers and electricians to be able to just come in and do their thing. Right now there are 5 rooms in the house that are partially demo-ed -- all three bathrooms, Austin's office and the kitchen.

Things look so different here. I can't believe we've only been working on this place for a week and a half. It's so encouraging how quickly things are taking shape but not having internet yet means I haven't been great at sharing it.

What a week! A week ago today we stepped into our house with scrapers, paint rollers and power tools. We had a short time frame to get things somewhat ready for our movers to come on Friday.

We've been homeowners since Tuesday evening! As soon as we got the giant stack of paperwork signed, we went over to our house and started dancing around (me more so than Austin) in excitement.

This still feels so crazy but so exciting -- we bought a house. We close next week and we'll get start transforming it right away.

One of the best things about our home is how it's laid out. There is a lot of potential to transform the space relatively easily.

Can I be real here? Things are exhausting right now. We're under contract with a house. A house that has the perfect size yard and so much potential inside.