New House Tour + Dog-Friendly Renovation Plans

Ah! We bought a house! Are you as excited as we are? Our search for a home was definitely not an easy ony. Just last month we announced to our online friends that our little family found our forever home. If you’ve been following us along on Instagram this summer, you’d know that we spent a lot of time, energy, and countless tears as we searched for our forever home. 

We’ve received a few requests from people wanting to see photos of our new home, so we decided to do one better and create a little series surrounding our new home and our renovation plans. Follow our series around on Instagram with the hashtag #NavysHomeTour and here, under the tag dog-friendly home.

One of the reasons we chose this home over the 30+ other homes we visited was it because of the potential. Honestly about 90% of his home is turnkey. There really isn’t much we want to change, however we do want to make a few adjustments and renovations that will make the home a bit more dog friendly for Duke and Navy.

1. REPLACE OUR CURRENT CARPET WITH A PET-FRIENDLY CARPET

I’m not the biggest fan of carpet because if you really think about it, carpets can get pretty gross. But carpets have their benefits! When we initially toured this home we knew we would need to replace the upstairs carpet. Originally I wanted to take the carpet completely, but after doing some more research we found a couple different companies that offer carpets designed for homes with pets! I know that it might sound a little silly, but seriously there are brands of (high end) carpet that have lines specifically designed for pet accidents, pet waste, and have antibacterial properties. 

2. PLACE RUGS OVER OUR HARDWOOD

Another reason why we fell in love with this home was because of the gorgeous dark hardwood floor throughout the first floor and up the stairs. While the hardwood is what helps give the home charm, hardwood is not the best for dogs. I don’t want Navy or Duke to be slipping and sliding on the hardwood and injuring themselves and potentially scratching the hardwood so we hope to lay a lot of area rugs over the hardwood.

3. INSTALL A DOGGY DOOR

I would absolutely love to install a doggy door for Duke and Navy have easy access outside. I don’t know how feasible it would be to install a doggy door in one of our doors or the home wall itself, but I did find an option to install a little door for Duke and Navy in our patio screen door. 

4. DOG-WASH STATION 

Our new home certainly has a lot of space, but not enough space to dedicate a little wash station for the pups inside the house. I mean, ideally, if we had one inside the house it would be in the mudroom but our mudroom/laundry room is pretty tight. Maybe we will explore the option of adding something to our patio. Who doesn’t love outdoor showers? 

5. REPLACE MULCH WITH SOD

The best part of owning a home? The yard! The previous owner had a super nice playset area for their kids. When we made our offer on the home we requested the playset to be removed–more area for Duke and Navy to run around in! We did not realize the owner would leave big metal stakes in the ground from the playset…it is a priority to get those removed along with the mulch from the play set and to have sod laid down for the pups. 

6. INSTALL MOTORIZED BLINDS

This sounds so incredibly bougie, I know, but the goal is to install motorized blinds or shades in our home. The south side of our home has a ton of natural light and huge windows. The home came with some pretty nice cellular shades installed in these windows. We realized that Navy and Duke can and will pull at the shade cords and scratch at the bottom of the patio door shade when they want to go outside. Three days into owning this home and our beautiful off-white shades have paw prints on them! I’d love to be able to easily open the patio shade with a simple click of a button, rather than fumble to try to get the shade up in time for Navy and Duke to run our back and tinkle. 

7. CREATE A PHOTO STUDIO / HOME OFFICE 

I know this sounds incredibly bougie but another reason why we purchased a home with a couple extra bedrooms was so that we could create an office/photo studio four our work with Navy and Duke. Zach will have his own separate office in the home since he works from home when he’s not traveling, but I really wanted my own creative space to create content and practice my photography. I know I definitely have a lot of work to do!

8. GENERAL YARD LANDSCAPING

The inside of our home is truly gorgeous, yes, but we can’t say the same for the outside.  When we moved in we quickly realized that we really have a lot of work to do around the yard. I really scraped up my side walking too close to a dead bush on the side of our house. I definitely do not want Duke or Navy to poke an eye out since they are closer to the ground and love running in and out of the bushes! We do have a landscaper coming to clean up the yard a bit, but I know our general landscaping will be something we need to stay on top of. 

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I wish I could say this relatively short list of projects was it for us but unfortunately our list keeps growing as we unpack, get settled in, and find more project inspiration on Pinterest. What are your thoughts? How can we make this home more dog-friendly for Duke and Navy? Let us know your ideas in the comments below!