Welcome
I have created Beach and Bark to
share our personal journey of curating our fixer upper through DIY renovations and design.
We purchased our home in July 2016. Neither of us had any experience renovating or designing. But simply had the passion to create this home into our own and wanted to do the majority ourselves.
The pros were, it had a new furnace, updated wiring,
it's two blocks to the beach and sits on a 200x74 foot private lot. However, it needed a complete overhaul inside and out.
We had to figure it out and learn how to do things ourselves
in order for our vision to become a reality on the budget we had.
Here, I share where we started and how far we have come. I share all our tips, how to's, lessons we have learned and alot of before and after's!
Hope you enjoy!
Julie Anne
Beach+Bark
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WELCOME
to
BEACH+BARK!
I am so glad you're here!
My name is Julie Nemish and I was born and raised in Ontario, Canada just east of Toronto. I have a Bachelor of Arts 4 Year Undergrad Degree and Bachelors Degree in Education. After some extensive traveling and living and teaching abroad I am now settled with my husband, our pug Charley and white cat Chilly in Southampton Ontario. A quaint beach town two hours North of Toronto located on Great Lake Huron. I have been an elementary school teacher for over ten years while also currently pursuing my Interior Design Degree with the Canadian Institute of Design.
Our journey to renovations and design began in July 2016 when we purchased our fixer upper home in Southampton, Ontario. Neither of us had any experience renovating or designing. But simply saw the potential of this home and had the passion to currate it into our own.
We wanted to do the majority ourselves in order to stay on budget. My grandparents have bought and flipped homes throughtout my life and my husband and his family had rental properties. So we had some general knowlege of the process and what renovating would entail.
However, we definitely underestimated living through it and the time it would take!
When we first did a walk through of our home it reminded me very much of the homes my grandparents had. It had the vintage character and the lived in warm and cozy feels.
The benefits of the home and why we purchased this one was because it had a new furnace, updated wiring, plumbing, it's two blocks to the beach and sits on a 200x74 foot private lot. However, it needed a complete overhaul inside and out. We knew it would not happen over night and it would take alot of our time but we wanted to make it our own. Little did we know at the time it would take us 5 (wonderful) years!
We had to figure it out and learn how to do things ourselves
in order for our vision to become a reality. We had a budget and had to make it work. Some things we did hire out for since we hadn't learned yet how to do it ourselves, ie. Drywall and some small framing. The rest was on us!
We had a five year plan when we purchased to add on an addition since we do not have a full basement, we have a tight living space and we had the property space to add on. We added on a living space, den/office and a covered front porch which was a total of about 450sq feet.
I created Beach and Bark to share our journey of renovating and designing. I thought sharing the process of DIYing our way through our fixer upper could be helpful and encouraging for others.
I have also included links in my posts to Shop Our Home, Holidays, and Seasonal favorites.
Follow for more on Instagram, pinterest and shop my LTK page.
Hope you enjoy!
On the Blog I share where we started, how far we have come and all of our Tips, How To's and Ways to Curate your own home in a minimalistic and cost conscious way to meet any budget.
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