Arizona was where I grew up, where I thought I would live for the rest of my life...so freshly out of college I bought a home and looking back, I got incredibly lucky with it. I bought the house in 2008 as a foreclosure, which sounds like it should come with a long list of renovation horror stories. But surprisingly, it didn’t need a huge overhaul. It was completely livable from the beginning, and that made it the perfect place for me to get my feet wet with home renovation.

We have officially been in Colorado for one year, and it feels like the perfect time to look back at the home renovation projects that shaped our move from Arizona and Texas. Those earlier spaces taught us a lot about making a house feel warm, practical, and full of personality. Lessons from Arizona Arizona pushed us toward light, airy choices, durable finishes, and simple updates that handled heat and dust well. We leaned into easy-to-maintain surfaces, bright paint, and cho

The kitchen demo started out… normal I went into this kitchen tear-out with the usual mix of excitement and dread. You know the feeling: this is going to look amazing when it’s done paired with what if we open a wall and discover a portal to 1957? We had our plan, our tools, and our “let’s just get it done” energy. And then I found the black on the walls....Behind the cabinets and counter...there it was: black. Not a little shadowing. Not a smudge. Black patches across the wa

When I look at this little house, I don’t just see siding and shingles. I see the starting line of a new story. This is where the Desert Bloom Home journey begins—on a quiet street, under a bare-branched tree, with a simple front porch and a whole lot of possibility. It’s not a glossy magazine house (yet), but it’s real, it’s mine, and it’s full of potential. Inside These Walls Inside these walls are the things that matter most: A place to rest Room to create Corners just wai